GRANT MILNE

KOMAL SAXENA 

Miguel E, Face2 - What could be a more current topic nowadays than the one chosen for Artist Talk Magazine Issue 18 - “People & Places”. The World lives in an Era where People travel all the time meeting other People and other Places. An Era where, even not traveling, with a mere touch of a screen People permanently meet other People and other Places not leaving their own Place. An Era where People and Places were never so close... and so distant at the same time. “Face2” tries to symbolize this Era. Symbolizes the anonymous People in their endless search to meet new People and new Places. “Face2” was painted in Portugal and attended exhibitions in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Poland… also meeting new “People and Places”... 

Ava Chiba, GREAT MOTHER EARTH - I know a magical place full of wonder and cosmic harmony. A place that allows me to be wide as the sky and full of joy. It is a place to which I belong and with which I feel completely connected ... is that the past or is that the future? I have tried to capture my glimpses of a perfect planet in a series of Mother Earth images, to show her infinite and pure charm and to remind us of the lost paradise we were originally meant to create - expressing her beauty and grace in flowers and ocean-like watery patterns and using them like a kind of language she herself has created.

Paolozzi, Untitled IV - I was just playing with the paletteknife and the paints, mixing them with beeswax and putting them on paper, and then a face appeared, which slowly took shape.

Okaasan, LADY SAKURA - Lady Sakura closes her eyes, she dreams of another life. Being a woman in Japan is not that simple… I’ve been lucky enough to travel to Tokyo, where I found inspiration for some of my work. I met wonderful people there, carrying proudly an outstanding culture: it was like time traveling, to the past as to the future. But a closer look at daily life in Japan shows that’s it’s far beyond a cliché for tourists, and that the weight of many social codes can sometimes be overwhelming. However, crossing the path of a Maiko in the futuristic neighborhoods of the city was priceless…

João Góis

João Góis

Evelyn Espinoza, Portrait Of Korea - The Portrait Of series celebrate the objects and subjects I found unique to my time spent in that place. I use the person as a frame to hold the collage of images together. I weave layers of people and landscapes, culture and colors, animals and details to build up a rich tapestry of the journey I took through this land. The portrait serves as a window into the country. It’s a momentary focal point before the eye takes a wander through the vivid narrative of the culture shared.

Dariusz Dencikowski, WOMEN’s EMOTIONS (Triptych - 3 PARTs) - WOMEN’s EMOTIONS (3-part triptych) - in an abstract style it does not portray 3 Geishas as everyone can think, but various emotions of women. Each figure of a woman has different emotions, each one is different and unique.

Oceane Hall, A Moment in Time - This oil painting depicts the simple joys of life. The beautiful realization that every living soul has a life as complex and vivid as yours. And yet all come together in these simple moments. The ones where we share our culture, time, and happiness. 

Roger Rowley, Untitled, 2021 - Using the human form as a motif, my work explores the concept of ephemerality through presence of absence, memories (that are often distorted) and identity. Untitled (2021) portrays a period of self-reflection and exploration of liminal identity post retirement, compounded by being locked down during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was produced with charcoal powder and reductive drawing techniques using putty rubber and dry paint brushes. A fixative was applied to build layers to create depth and subtle variations of tone. It deploys a language of blurred and delineated marks to convey a sense ambiguity between the past and present, where memory links moments in a fluid and enduring chain of self-identities.

Hanna Ihsan, The Old Bailey, London - Hanna Ihsan is a lawyer and a self taught artist. She moved to the UK from Bangladesh at the age of 10 and grew up in inner city Birmingham. She took a traditional career over art because it offered a structured career path, which was important for someone living in a council estate and a low income home. After years, during the COVID pandemic and lockdown, she rediscovered her passion for art and has not stopped since. Hanna works with watercolours and loves to paint places and architecture. 

Hanna Ihsan, Carlton hill, Edinburgh / 

Hanna Ihsan, Mosque, Russia

Lamees Farooq, The Masjid - Every person has a specific place he or she holds special. I wanted to share a place where I find comfort. Our Community Mosque, which is significant in Islam because it is where Muslims kneel themselves before their Creator, pray to Him, and seek for guidance. Muslims regularly pray at mosques; a place they can find inner peace and sacredness. This mosque is one of the most famous ones in Dubai. The Jumeirah Mosque is one of Dubai’s most treasured architectural gem. Living nearby, I have grown up seeing this mosque almost every day. With Covid restrictions, prayers at the mosque were initially halted and now restricted. It has made us search within ourselves to find comfort in prayers at home.

Peyton, The Artist, Memory Lane - Memory Lane is a 5’ x 8’ painting on canvas composed of oil, acrylic, spray paint, pigments, and 23k gold foil sourced from Venice, Italy. The intention behind this painting was to highlight Los Angeles, California’s most legendary, historical Black landmarks while recreating the nostalgic atmosphere of the city’s regal Black community during the 1940s and 1960s; aka the Golden Ages of Los Angeles. The overall tone exudes financial wealth, cultural pride, unity, and power all depicted through classic cars, proud afros, well-tailored apparel, and harmonious energy. The culmination of these unique styles, characteristics, and mindsets are strategically brought together in what Peyton calls, “Memory Lane.” 

Kristin Ducharme, Portrait of a House - Was created after visiting my extended family this past Thanksgiving. One afternoon I drove my kids to see my grandparents home in Massachusetts. My memories of this house from childhood are like polaroid snapshots; crystal globe doorknobs, hard candy dishes on every table, red carpeted stairs curling their way up to the second floor, linoleum kitchen floors, a light pull in the shape of a traffic light, cigarettes and ashtrays, and visits to the local diner for grilled cheeses and ice cream sundaes. My grandparents haven’t been with us for many years now, and much time has passed, we are all grown now. And though there are new occupants inside the house, the colors are the same as the memories imprinted.

Sheila Romard, Vancouver 7 am - Capturing the early morning atmosphere, as I walked along Canada Place in Vancouver. The light and reflections completely inspired me - oil on canvas

Sumaira Isaacs, The Pandemic Love - My painting is an ode to the bizarre pandemic (covid 19), chronicling the loves and lives of many others, separated couples, and families.  As result, of experiencing firsthand almost a year-long separation from my husband, reunited only recently.  Living apart in two worlds, trying to deal with ‘new-normal’ – as family, friends try to reassure -hold you together. The upheaval of the virus acts as a backdrop, a constant reminder of the fragility of the world we live in: Apart. It’s erratic strokes, documents and captures the chaotic feeds, that constitute long-distance intimacy in the digital era: video calls, text chats, emojis, filters  photos by the thousands, as we move from one season to another, picking on silver linings.

Kristianna Gasparjan, Recognize Artsakh - Have you been to a place where you feel a divine presence? Where you are connected to your ancestors just by touching the ground? Where you feel a love for land that runs deep? A love that doesn’t understand time, distance or borders. A land that knows ethnic cleaning, colonial settlers and genocide all too well. Can they give away land that is not theirs to give? Exploitation of land and hatred for the indigenous is how to spot the oppressor. It’s clear what they’re most afraid of: Truth. From the Armenian castle hidden in Lake Van, to the Amaras monastery to Tatik and Papik – they cannot unwrite what has already been written.

Olga Goldina Hirsch, The Winter City - The subject “city” is very personal to me. This is my space in my drawings and it has my thoughts, my memory, my imagination, my story, my philosophy and my personality. This is why I repeat the image of my native city Moscow and its citizens again and again, my favourite wintertime, the first snow, dark windows, and my long term own experience with making ‘white on white’. My city is subjective, full of colours and childhood memories, symbolic and where the “mind goes away”.

Lee Joon-young, Sound of hope Garden of language - We open the box of pain in our hearts because of scars that cannot be seen with the naked eye and start to pile up one by one. People who do not even have the strength to endure pain end up avoiding everything and forgetting to comfort themselves. Seeing the color that expresses himself, he begins to walk endlessly between the remaining hopes like a small flame. He began to feel his heart beating more and more, and he finally reached their sanctuary. I didn’t even think that the place I met for the first time was unfamiliar. Because it was a happiness I couldn’t feel in reality.

Claire Maen, Discussion With A View (Film Captured Photography) - In this Rolleiflex series made on Twin Peaks, in San Francisco, I did not photograph the place, but the relation people had with the place. Train of thoughts flying over the San Francisco bay. Selfies. Conversations with a view. I was especially intrigued by this group of young men gathering over the city, away from screens. Has the view changed the nature of their conversation? As a French photographer living in California, I try to capture the poetic beauty of post-industrial, commercial, and natural landscapes with my 1951 Rolleiflex film camera. Despite our world turning digital, I believe in the power and beauty of film photography, and its delicate colors.

Brian Mark, Ecoscape 

Catarina Diaz, Fire - The work “Fire” is a statement of an empowered woman who challenges us with a glance over her shoulder, presenting herself in a golden “dress-armour” covering her prominent breasts. She wears bold make-up that contrasts with her dark, glowing skin tone. Her accessories are natural: a vibrant bluebird hanging from her ear to her shoulder like a long earring. The conventional hat gives way to a sumptuous lifelike ‘crown’ of petals. Everything in this woman is an affirmation. It is an internal and true fire that will not give space nor time to constructed masks. Only to the essence.

Cecilia “Cicci” Grensner, Be the very best of you - just bloom - Cicci wants to share her art from her heart always. This painting come out  after having a hard time. And want to tell - even if the world and other people do you wrong  just be your very best, just go out bloom anyway. Cicci lives on an island outside Gothenburg, Sweden called Hönö. She start painting 2014. Her studio ART from HEart is placed in Hönö klåva harbour with a beautiful inspiring view over sea and neighbor Islands. Cicci has also having small art classes this autumn with Boys and Girls with downs syndrome and other people with some other functional variations which give them and her so much fun and happiness together.

Stephanie Ruppe, Pearl with the Dandelion - I enjoy painting Pearl since her adventurous spirit is often captured outside discovering in the meadows or carrying around her small farm animals. Stephanie Ruppe is a versatile and gifted impressionist artist and her preferred mediums are oil and watercolor. She paints from the heart, with a joyful and passionate approach to her work. Her style has been formed through years of experience and observations; capturing a truly expressive, engaging and inviting depiction of her various subjects. Stephanie‘s connection to Southern California and summertime are common themes in her artwork. Her paintings invoke a nostalgic, uplifting and warm feeling, including the exuberance of youth.

Irene O Neill, Fantasy Barbers - This work was painted in response to gender and gender identity and the title Fantasy Barbers suggests the barbers is a fantasy world. In this space depicted it is a male world. Painted from a collage which I constructed from found and own photography. The research for this painting comprised of visiting barbershops and looking at the historical world of this world of male beauty and grooming. There is a lot of pressure on us all today to look good, to look young and we always have photoshop to improve the illusion of beauty if reality fails us. 

Astrid Vlasman, Girl on a chair - We see a young girl sitting on a chair. She has her legs up in a strange way and is looking intently at her cell phone. She is not aware of her surroundings. I made this work after an example of a photo I took a few years ago of my adolescent daughter. It’s a typical attitude of hers. the chair and the lamp have also been applied to reality. This work also contains old children’s drawings by my daughter Geeke Bolhuis.The whole is made of used and ripped paper, like all my work. It are my paper paintings.

Beata Dencikowska, Harmony - “Harmony” is a painting from the “Symphony” series, containing 14 paintings in the same technique and colors, made with acrylic paints. This series presents 14 of our greatest artists of all time, who have had or have a significant impact on my artistic development from the early years of my childhood. In this picture, some see Ludwig van Beethoven, others Elton John, others John Lennon, or others Elvis Presley. And who has been painted by me - I leave to the artistic sensitivity of each person to choose from.

Miya Turnbull, Self-Portrait  - My masks are three-dimensional self-portraits - a combination of photography, sculpture and collage. This mask is made of individual split half-mask components that I can open and close while wearing, to reveal different parts of my face as well as different patterns. All my masks are self-portrait based; I make variation after variation to explore different facets of my identity and to examine the liminal space between public vs private and beauty vs grotesque. This mask represents all the layers and ‘selves’ that make up our complex identities, what we present to the world and what we hide. 

Ava Chiba, Amelie - The artwork “Amelie” is more than a portrait. It’s a sacred language and activation code for personality. Not trying to show the obvious and feeding the mind with information I am doing portraits in a kind of language based on floral formations, geometric pattern and color codes. My artworks are grounded on subtile perception and remote viewing. “Amelie” for example is a strong personality with a delicate and sensitive nature, but based on natural power and authority. Being nurtured by the forces of love and nature, she has the potential to develop a new state of consciousness in this life: full of grace, transcendence and compassion.

Jemima Murphy, Lovers Haven (oil on canvas, 150x120cm) - Lovers Haven addresses strength, positivity and happiness in the unknown; it portrays romantic secrecies in an enchanted world. The dream-like view captured here shifts the focus from the natural to the personal. While ‘Lovers Haven’ demonstrates a wildness of positivity and mystery, there is also an element of hidden heartache that only belongs to one’s own memories. The activity here expresses a story with clarity belonging only to Jemima’s mind; it provides a host of clues for understanding her personal circumstance and mood, the turn of events that may have preceded it, alongside any future events that are unknown.

Maria Lopes, Whisper - Hellen Frankenthaler said, “There are no rules. That is how art is born, how breakthroughs happen.”. These words kept humming in my head like a whisper. By then, I just had a Thanksgiving dinner with 25 people, 15 nationalities, celebrating different cultures, and simply being thankful. This brought to life the topic of differences and their importance in our lives, nature and art. With this work I want to express differences/diversity by color, shapes, value and texture, through the lens of my surrounding nature, the National Park of Sintra/Cascais. Differences make us grow and thrive spirituality. 

Adrianne Font’aura, pied-à-terre - This work belongs to a series called “nowhere is somewhere”. My watercolours are about those places found when we are lost and lost when and if we look for them. Places we capture as a glimpse from our childhood’s memory as we get older and life gets too fast, too complex, too fragile and everything seems to fade. Except that. That one place long time gone and yet the only place we can find shelter and comfort. Home.

Teresa Selbee Baker, Remember - This piece is made of many layers, it begins with old photographs from my childhood rephotographed and digitally arranged. The collages are then projected onto an Eight foot tree swing sculpture I built, based on a loved place from when I was a child, then photographed with 35mm film. The building of layers in this piece forms the idea of moments and flashes of time, coming together creating our version of history. This photograph is part of a series studying the differences in memory. The study of memories and dreams influence all of my work. ‘Remember’ looks at what we store as memories versus what we “capture” as memories.

Kavita Chachcha, Let’s get some Lunch! - Lunch time in the Central Business District area was such an everyday ritual for the working crowd. WFH has changed how the restaurant business operates. This Composite artwork depicts a woman in red drape sprinting through an empty passage surrounded by tables & menu cards - one afternoon where normally one needs to wait for a place to sit down.

Rachel Favelle, Lavender Thistles, Oil on Linen 30 x 40 inches - My work is a celebration of Australia’s diverse flora and fauna, a pertinent subject in light of the 2019 bushfires. While I seek to capture a unique portrait of Australia, the lace that adorn the native animals in my work and invasive flora reflect a deeper metaphor about colonisation. There becomes a disparity between residing in a country and appreciating the unique natural qualities that this land possesses. While the Musk Thistle appears beautiful with its vibrant colour, it has become a serious invasive weed, a threat to protected plant communities. The plant is a metaphor for the effect of human interference in nature.

Christine Weber-Nolte, California Dreamin‘ - A place where I always want to be - on a sailing boat upon the ocean. After a commission work with sailing boats I decided to work again with them. The ocean is all I need to feel warm and safe, although it can be adventurous. In my work it was my intention to have all together: the wind, the adventure of the ocean,  the boats and a warm feeling. So I took these shades of red, certainly my favorite color, to show all the beauty and the excitement of sailing. A dream I have since ever.  In Buddhism one has the idea, that being reborn as a precious human life is rarer then a blind  seaturtle surfacing it’s head every hundred years would come out through a yoke. This is also my fascination of the almighty ocean. 

Nina Baxter, Can We Bridge This Chasm? (Parts I) + (Parts II) - “In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse” – From ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot. This diptych invites the viewer to construct their own narrative around these two lovers. Does any space left between the two faces, two bodies, feel like a huge abyss needing to be filled by constant skin on skin contact? Is there an emotional gulf between these two people? A disconnect or rift they’re trying to repair through physical touch? The accompanying quote by T.S Eliot emphasises the potential split-second difference in time between these two moments, and the enormous possibility for change held in that same instant. 

Nina Baxter, Can We Bridge This Chasm? (Parts I) + (Parts II) - “In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse” – From ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot. This diptych invites the viewer to construct their own narrative around these two lovers. Does any space left between the two faces, two bodies, feel like a huge abyss needing to be filled by constant skin on skin contact? Is there an emotional gulf between these two people? A disconnect or rift they’re trying to repair through physical touch? The accompanying quote by T.S Eliot emphasises the potential split-second difference in time between these two moments, and the enormous possibility for change held in that same instant. 

Jael Roznicki, Life Lessons - “Life Lessons” is from my quarantine series, May of 2020. This was created from the patchwork of memories and emotions that life brings. My father was suddenly ill with heart failure and grateful survived, but I was face to face with the memories and Emotions of a lifetime all combined. Reflecting on how we are not static beings and how our lives are not all simple and in the lines and still seeing beauty in the patchwork of the whole. Not all aspects of life are good or even enjoyable but it all forms an individual, spirit and soul. That is what inspired this work. You will see the red heart at the Center and the lines that to me, bind it to those in our family. 

Lena Silva, ‘SAUDADE’ (Portuguese word, translated - a feeling of missing ...)  - ‘Her hands held me in the gentlest way from my first breath. Her hands held me close to her with the greatest love as I took my first steps. Her hands brushed my hair and comforted me when I lost my balance or got hurt.’ My work is a sentimental, profound memory of a place I felt the safest growing up and becoming a woman I am today. That place, that person is - my MOTHER’s heart and hands. In a chaotic society where so much is taking place, where fast decisions are to be made, life is changing dramatically and human freedom is becoming farfetched. Missing places, people we love, be it physical or spiritual, is becoming the ‘air’ we need to breathe and stay alive.

Émilie Gosselin, Boreal - As far as I can remember I have loved the arts and colors, I am a Franco-Canadian artist who stands out for her custom-made creations according to the tastes and decor of her clients. I started my artistic activities more seriously in March 2020 with the arrival of the pandemic. “Boréal is colorful, vibrant and sparkling, with gold leaf and lots of texture. She knows how to release heat into the room. The artist also loves incorporating epoxy resin into her artwork, she finds it adds depth to the product. She creates contemporary abstract but occasionally makes figurative.

Christoffer Nilsson (pen name Mr Fraxley), Overdrive: Psychosis - This piece represents my recent psychosis where I crashed through my own cognitive wall after getting wrongly medicated and ended up in both a new physical place in form of a psych ward but also a new cognitive place of mind. I’ve feared psychosis all my life but this space that used to be my greatest fear has now helped me overcome my fear of my own mind and turned it into a place of inspiration rather than anxiety and depression.

Nicola Barth, Lilli Adam Nin - When everything is loose and in constant movement, everything reacts with everything else, everything finds itself constantly in a process, there is nothing really finished, and when time and space are only fixed ideas, then deception and change are confusion and chance. This thoughts can sometimes make you dizzy. I paint against the dizziness, because “being one with” (resonate) is a way to resist the chaos. This thoughts, the fast pace in our society and the rapid digital progress demands a stop, a standstill, a contemplation to get behind. I remain to stopp and make visible. My analog answer is painting/making art.”

Marion Gunesch, ‘ Where I belong - Where I belong‘ I feel connected, there I can relax and enjoy my peace of mind, there I find the pure beauty of nature. This place is not ordered and structured, but it is beautiful in a natural way. My artwork is also a result of a dynamic painting process free from any constraints, by following my inner intuition. I have found my form of expression in abstract painting and create my bold abstractions mainly with acrylics and pastels on canvas or paper. These means are ideal for my spontaneous painting style.

Hung-Ju Kan, Density Versus Emptiness-21-14 - Taiwanese artist Kan Hung-Ju. Kan embarks on a journey to retrieve personal memories and bring them to the surface in the context of relocation. In an effort to recall and cope with a major life transition, the artist questions how immigration affects the content of autobiographical memory. The painting featured in Density Versus Emptiness-21-14 is inhabited by the souvenir of personal experiences and traces of specific objects—the wallpaper of the artist’s first room and the fabric of his grandmother’s dress, among other domestic items embellished by floral motifs—often revisited with the arrival of a new season in the Northeast of US, Kan’s home for the last three years. 

Frank Boyce, King for a Day - This piece is a meditation on the illusory nature of power and includes the words of the Elizabethan poet and spy Christopher Marlowe ‘ What are kings when regiment is gone but perfect shadows on a sunny day’ carved into the surface. In the era of the return of strongman politics and posturing a reminder that nothing lasts forever and promises are made by those in power  that cannot be kept. It is said that we get the politicians we deserve. If so we might need a rethink..... and an election.

Eilis de Faoite, L’idiot Fait Un Vœu - L’idiot is the artist and not the artist. She is all women and no woman, all people and no person. She speaks of the many masks that we wear, as humans and the roles we assume to save face, to be liked, to conform and to be accepted. She is a construct of the shame and judgement that forms us from birth and sometimes before that. L’idiot is both everybody’s fool and nobody’s fool.

Kay Tur, Bad Angel - “Bad Angel” is an oil painting with dimensions of 120*100cm. This piece challenges the socially accepted and conventional notion of “good” and “bad”. What seems to be good is really good? What seems to be bad is really bad? 

Elysia Gilman, Post - Theatre Bustle, Elysia Gilman is a 21 year-old artist from North Wales who seeks to  capture moments in time with her oil paintings. She is most inspired by the impressionists, so capturing light  and movement with confident brushstrokes play an important role in her work. Alongside her artwork of  sporting and figurative scenes, Elysia was inspired to create a series of work around The Savoy Hotel after  watching a documentary on television. With this piece, Elysia wanted to capture the vivid city life as people  exited The Savoy Theatre. Working freehand with oil paints from a black and white photograph, she chose to  add the green text to highlight one of London’s most iconic hotels.