May Chong

BA (Hons) Graphic Arts
PGCE in secondart art and design
MA Artist Teacher

May Chong is an artist specialising in illustrations in Liverpool. Having graduated with a Graphic Arts degree at John Moores University and completing a fashion course, May’s work is a combination of different areas of art and design. May is a member of SOUP.

May has exhibited in a number of exhibitions in Merseyside as part of SOUP and also with other artists.May’s work is mainly illustrations in black and white and also in colour based on children’s books, architecture and wildlife theme using pen and ink.

She likes exploring the fantasy/fairy-tale side to children’s book illustrations, the beauty of wildlife and nature and the history of architecture.

May has taught art and design, graphics and fashion in secondary schools in Liverpool and Knowsley and is currently studying a MA in Artist Teacher at John Moores University.

2010:
• Bags and Baggage, Liverpool Academy of Arts
• Short Spring Open, Egg Café
• Headspace 5th Birthday, Egg Café Biennial 2010:
• Twenty Ten, Egg Café Liverpool
• The Six Rooms Gallery, Group 2
• A sense of place, Blackburne House
• Soup is Touched, Tate Liverpool
• Christmas open, Liverpool Academy of Arts
• Winter Blues 5, Egg Café

2011:
• Twinned at CUC, Liverpool
• Twinned at Egg Cafe, Liverpool
• Valentines Open, Liverpool Academy of Arts
• Mad about landscape and Wildlife, The Gallery at Clayton Square
• Easter at the Egg, Egg Cafe, Liverpool
• Short Spring Open, Egg Cafe, Liverpool
• Jazzcakes 100 postcard exhibition, Royal Standard, Liverpool
• Liverpool Open, Editions Gallery, Liverpool
• Images from my travels, Blackburne House, Liverpool (Solo Exhibition)

cammdesign

CRAIG MATTHEWS
1970-73    Liverpool College of Art    Faculty of Industrial Design,
Dept of Product Design, Dip DES.  Product Design (ENG)
MARY MATTHEWS
1972     Wallasey College of Art    Pre Diploma
1974 – 77    Alsager College of Education    Dip Ed.  Art and Environmental Education.

Our workshop, which is located at The Odyssey Centre, Birkenhead, has dedicated fabrication and model making facilities and benefits from an associated design studio.  The workshop location provides excellent transport links to the local motorway network.

Our philosophy is to design and produce highly creative works using quality materials, fabricated to the highest standards. Projects are normally preceded by a period of consultation which provides an opportunity to ensure that local opinion is understood, proposed themes are relevant, potential controversy is avoided and that a sense of local ownership in the work is engendered.

Cammdesign have completed consultation with the many groups including the general public, community and interest groups, the commercial sector, residents and trade associations and are also experienced in preparing and delivering workshops to children and youth groups.

Equally, we are experienced in liaising with design teams, planning officers, access officers, steering groups and environmental services in order to resolve practical issues including project management and Public Health and Safety.  Maintenance of close working links with a range of design/construction professionals is essential in order to coordinate the crossover of interests between their work and ours.

Public art must be creative, dynamic, popular, relevant to its site, safe and completed on time and to budget. It must also offer the commissioner finished art work that has simple and cost effective future maintenance implications.

Gary Waldrom

John Bernard

I have harnessed and developed my Artistic skills since being in the UK. My work is an expression of my memories, hopes, visions, life experience and perceptions. What started as a past time and channel to communicate my inner feelings, has now become a Business Venture. As a former member of Sola Arts, a charitable Arts enterprise in Liverpool, I have exhibited various art pieces (for viewing only) at a broad range of galleries across the region. In Apr 2011 I have started up as a self employed Artist in Liverpool. My Business name is John Bernard – Artist. I recently secured a start up grant from Liverpool Vision and Elect provided some Business advice.

My Style & Technical Competency – My style is the use of strong colours, exaggerated images, often with a focal point to the art piece, underpinned by a message or moral, which can be subtle or acute.
I have developed my skills in a non-academic way. Rather, harnessed and developed the raw talent that I found I had, when I began to paint and draw as a way to communicate my inner feelings and emotions. This led me to Sola Arts where I was encouraged to explore this form of self expressive & visual communication. I then had the chance to utilise various tools, techniques and materials. This further enhanced my competence.

The Concept & emotive quality – My work is all based around my thoughts, feelings, life experiences, memories and opinions. This quality allows me to produce work that is colourful, meaningful, highly emotive, each with a different message underpinned by the common thread of hoping and searching for peace. My work depicts a range of situations, places, feelings, actions and scenes, all that can motivate the viewer to either question or comment on the images.

My work is not based on life drawings; instead they have almost a dream-like vision presence that in some instances symbolises the rights and wrongs in the world from my perspective.

Artists theme their work and produce an image that is beautiful to view in most cases. In order for my work to be marketable, it must have enough balance to give a message, with a degree left for the viewer to be able to relate to something within it, to them. The art piece then becomes their ownership.

Themes of my First Offerings:
In my work, there is a direct, un-muddled message on each canvas that transcends religion, belief and culture.
Each piece is a carefully crafted and beautifully coloured expression of inspiration captured and presented for the viewer. I have grouped the images into congruent themes as follows:
Hope
The message of hope is as old as civilisation on the African continent; an embedded will to survive and prosper. This shows in each piece of artwork.
Peace
Suffering is natural and human, peace is something that gives us respite from the struggles we encounter in our busy lives and society. These pieces will help you to relax and forget about the struggle.
Contemplative
These pieces allow you to invoke, at will, your thoughts and assumptions of the world around you. Some challenging your life’s perceptions and ideology, others providing a backdrop to some of the key issues plaguing mankind in the past, present and future.

Richard Robinson

Ceramics

All work is hand thrown using Earthstone stoneware clay. Fired in gas and electric kilns to 1280/1300 C.

Painting / Drawing / Animation

I am currently residing in Liverpool where I continue to draw, paint and animate.

Patrick M Higgins

Projects:
Currently I am building a collection of limited edition prints of Liverpool and the North West ”….something beyond the more traditional views but accessible and relevant today” in part for the Freshwater Gallery. I am simultaneously on a commission to produce current images of Cardigan, West Wales.

Future:
Bluecoat Bookshop,Chester in September 2011

John Whitelaw

Digital painting