Colin Heavingham is an uncompromising painter choosing
to express with metaphysical images that are resonant with
expectation and unfulfilled energy.

Heavingham’s recent paintings are less to do with romantic
washes of atmospheric colour – reminisent of both Turner and
Hitchens:  images that drew their viewers into a reverie of
Friedrichian contemplation, to more abstracted, spontaneous
layerings of colour and text.  Fiercer, more Freudian.
There are deep charcoal vignettes that have forms in common
with De Chirico, although darker and more urgent.

These are images that have a raw visceral immediacy, and are
very much painterly in execution – giving rich texture to the
canvas and enigma to the subject.

Colin Heavingham was born in 1948.  He attended Braintree
School of Art and later in 1969 became a sculptor’s assistant
for Peter Fagin.  In Seventies London he was variously an art
gallery assistant, painting reliner, picture framer and gilder.

Most recently he has described himself as gallery owner,
painter, artist and filmmaker.

Bruce Rae’s art emerges from a solid understanding of vintage photographic technique.  He uses a wooden field camera, similar to those used in the 19^th Century, and period printing techniques. Rae’s dense prints, have a quality that is not reproducible by any digital means, these prints have a deep tonal luminosity.

Bruce Rae has exhibited widely including at Side Gallery, Michael Hoppen Gallery, Peter Fetterman Gallery, and most recently at Lucy Bell Gallery in St Leonards.  His work is held in important collections such as The National Portrait Gallery, Bibliotechque Nationale, Texaco Collection of British Art, Arden and Anstruther and Citibank.

“My practice came out of skills taught to me at the Birmingham School of Photography in the 1960’s.  The manipulation of perspective, the range of tonalities and the full spectrum of visual feasts leave the digital world in the dark to which I wish it would return”.

“I began making photographic portraits whilst a student at the Royal College of Art. The late sixties and seventies of the last century was the age of the printed magazine. The ambitions of the department of photography students were primarily aimed at the media, from the colour sups to petticoat magazine. The first portrait I made was of David Hockney, whose negative I sadly lost. Fame was the spur, and a lot of us became scalp hunters. We learnt our craft/trade on the hoof learnt the sacred priorities of the deadline and how to reconcile our prints to photomechanical reproduction and the designers grid. We were cheeky upstarts and did get a taste for glamour. We also learnt the power of the portrait and as well as selling mags several of us realized the potency of Berenice Abbot’s idea of showing the world to itself. It was the age of “The family of man” exhibition put on by the museum of modern art in America, an attempt to heal some of the pain of a fragmented century. Side Gallery on Tyneside gave me the opportunity to put my portraits into a structured context which was a reply to the market economics of the eighties and the visions of Thatcherism. I have for the past two years been drawn back to making portraits and again realizing their vicarious power”.

Bruce Rae

9^th February – 21^st February

Catalogues are now available for download (pdf documents)

Large images or List style (better for printing at home)
As an alternative to the annual auction, Hastings Arts Forum
will now be running a two week show during the same period
in February in order to raise funds.  Like the auction, we will
be asking members to donate art work for sale but unlike the
auction there will be no event at which the work is auctioned
off.  Instead, the 2016 fundraising show will be an open show,
with all work donated on display in the gallery for two weeks
with a minimum price of £50.  Whilst the show is up, visitors
will be able to place bids of above £50.  At the end of the two
weeks each item will be sold to the person with the highest bid.

To encourage member artists to donate good work which will
attract a higher selling price, the normal Hastings Arts Forum
commission rate will be reversed, so effectively the gallery will
take 70% and the artist will receive 30% of the highest bid.
(Should you be willing to donate the total selling price we
would be very grateful).

Additionally, you will be able to Gift Aid your donation
when you deliver your artwork to us.

Highest bids will be announced on Monday the 22nd February

The Exhibition is now open.

Please come to the Open View on 12 February 6.30 – 8.30pm