Garden to the Sea: Brian Cocker Ceramics & Ian Axtell Expressionist Floral Ptgs

Garden to the Sea

Brian Cocker

My late wife, Patti, was a potter for many years. When I retired, we decided that we would establish The Potters Shed at our home in Inglewood, and work together to make pottery. We mainly made garden art, and I developed a line of boats and caravans, purely for nostalgia. I have continued with these pottery lines on my own and find creating with clay both relaxing and stimulating. I hope that you enjoy the exhibition, Garden to the Sea.

Ian Axtell

I work with acrylic paint as it has exceptional properties allowing me, for example, to : layer, scrape, glaze, blend and mix reactive paints on the canvas. These continually evolving materials provide many opportunities to research new paint application techniques.

My present work is, I think best described as abstract-impressionism and appears to benefit from the availability of the modern acrylics.The environment that we all share is my main inspiration so decisions on themes, techniques etc. are relatively straightforward. The most difficult part of my process is to promote the essence of the subject whilst including figurative content on the canvas.

I endeavour to create domains of colour and texture which I hope will free the eye to explore the layers within and discover something meaningful for the viewer.I paint because something drives me to create. In part it is definitely the use of colour. It is also the belief in the work and on occasions, the making of a painting that is a product of my intuitive self-expression.

Ian Axtell

B.A., Grad. Dip FA