Artist’s links:

Maibritt Ulvedal Bjelke on Instagram and Facebook

Artist’s biography:

Maibritt Ulvedal Bjelke was born in Copenhagen in 1967. She arrived at the Paris Ecole des Beaux-Arts from Denmark in the late eighties, where she studied painting until 1993. She lived and worked in Paris from 1986 until 2011 and is currently based in St. Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex.

Over the years, Maibritt Ulvedal Bjelke has participated in a number of artists’ residencies around the world, including The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Connecticut (2007), The Mark Rothko Art Centre in Latvia (2009) and in June this year she is invited to The Marc Chagall Painting Symposium in Belarus.

She has exhibited regularly throughout Europe since the early nineties. Recent solo exhibitions include Colour Galore with Maria Lund in Paris (2018), as well as exhibitions at Galerie Pugliese Levi, Berlin (2017, 2018), This way Up at Lucy Bell Fine Arts, St. Leonards-on-Sea (2014), Aspectus at Galleri Weinberger, Copenhagen (2012) and Twist &Tease at Galerie Maria Lund in Paris (2011).

Recent group shows include: Almost Nothing (2019) at Galerie Pugliese Levi, Berlin and Here comes the Sun at Galerie Maria Lund, Paris (2015).

Her work is included in many private and corporate collections in Europe, North America and Asia, including Cerrutti Milan, Giorgio Armani France, The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, as well as being present in the collection of Mark Rothko Art Centre in Latvia.

In the summer of 2019, Maibritt Ulvedal Bjelke presented a solo exhibition, Chromatic Matters, at the Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre in Latvia. The show was her first solo exhibition in a Museum and showcased recent collage-paintings from 2016-19 in relation to, and in dialogue with, selected early works on poster paper from the late nineties. Most recently in 2020 she presented Phantasia, her 3^rd solo show at Galerie Pugliese Levi in Berlin.

Mark Pulsford’s series Paintings by Moonlight reflect his lifelong study of our visual responses, in this case, the open form of illusionism called pareildolia, the ‘tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern’.  These flickering, shimmering paintings depict the experience of things seen and unseen on moonlit nights as the artist’s eyes fully adjust to near-darkness.

Pulsford’s approach to mark-making and the importance for him of direct experience can be seen in his series of studies, In the Presence of Tintoretto, the result of more than a hundred hours in the Scuola Grade di San Rocco, Venice, making images in response to the 16th-century master.

Born into a family of artists in Edinburgh, Pulsford’s father was the artist and educationist Charles Pulsford (1912-1989) and his mother the stained-glass designer Bronwen Gordon (b.1922-2014); his brother is the painter, Benedict Pulsford. After attending Edinburgh College of Art, Mark Pulsford studied at Sittingbourne College in Kent under Carole Robb and Rose Wylie. His own teaching career has encompassed secondary schools, the Kent Institute of Art & Design, and London Metropolitan University; he is also a founding faculty member of the Rome Art Program. He lives and works in St Leonards-on-Sea with his wife, Sarah Jane Morris, singer-songwriter and band leader.

Mark Pulsford’s website

Artist’s Website: siobhanstanley.co.uk

Artist’s links:

Artist’s biography:

Siobhan Stanley is an emerging artist. She was born in Dublin, spent many years in London and is now based in St Leonards on Sea in East Sussex.

From the age of 10 she trained at The Royal Ballet School and gained a place in Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet where she danced professionally as a soloist for 15 years. Before her best years were behind her, she was keen to explore the contemporary dance scene in London and when the time was right, somewhat gleefully hung up her point shoes and joined Rambert Dance Company. Siobhan danced with RDC for 4 years until making her final break with dance in order to pursue an acting career. She enjoyed 8 years working in theatre, film and TV.

Siobhan spent time in between acting jobs working for Saatchi and Saatchi where she accepted the offer of a permanent position within their new business team. She worked for 11 years until establishing her own training and coaching business. It was running her own business that gave her the time and freedom to follow the awakening of a deep desire to explore art and most specifically, painting. Since 2011 Siobhan has immersed herself in the study of classical painting, spending time in Florence at both The Florence Academy of Art and Charles Cecil Studios, with further studies at The London Atelier of Representational Art and London Fine Art Studios. Her art education has been an ongoing blend of both formal and self-taught.

The focus of much of her current output is history, gender and power. Adopting the classical traditions of representational painting, she positions her contemporary themes and human subjects within historical settings. A recent body of work collectively entitled ‘Communion’ is an exploration of the often unarticulated boundary that separates the ‘invited’ from the ‘uninvited’. She references and subverts the formally established representations of power and wealth within Elizabethan England by depicting a significant but rarely recorded group within that culture.

Concurrently she is working on a series of small still lifes exploring a witty marriage between the food paintings of the Dutch Golden Age and the farcical pretentions of modern menus.

Art Education:

Charles Cecil Studios | Florence | 2015 – 2016

London Fine Art Studio | 2014 – 2015

London Atelier of Representational Art | 2011 – 2013

Florence Academy of Art – Summer School | 2012

Exhibitions:

A Wave of Dreams | St Leonards-on-Sea | 2019

BlackShed Gallery | Robertsbridge, East Sussex |2018

Leighton House | London | 2016