The Mosaic Path

Curated by guest artist, Linda Ingham, this yearly exhibition is inspired by the ecological term for the combination of environments – ‘mosaic’ – inherent from location to location. A Mosaic Path is an investigation of landscape and place through the eyes of four artists considering such subjects today.

Close observation of storeys and stories of places conserved, disturbed, reimagined, string across Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire. The artists research and form a visual metaphorical path. The selected artists’ works are gathered within this exhibition to offer us an exploration of the land in this current climate crisis. A land that speaks of the present, past, and future.

Adele Howitt, Studio Eleven Director: “Rising from the rubble or waste aggregates in ‘brown field’ sites, the mosaic path is the proliferation of plants that are thriving in adverse conditions. This low fertile environment provides the potential for a diverse mosaic of planting which can be very beneficial for wildlife. There is enormous scope to promote this approach at all scales to create climate change for people and wildlife.”

The Artists

Linda Ingham

Linda Ingham’s process-led practice grows out of her interest in landscape and place. Life as a gardener, allotment-holder, and a love of walking complement her work, and she regularly works with the Wildlife Trusts and RSPB to document portions of reserves along the east coast.

Botanical beauty and the folk histories of plants we often overlook on a daily basis was where this began some years ago for her, but PLACE is always important and though plants perhaps star within Ingham’s compositions, location is always a major consideration in each series or composition.

Linda Ingham has her studio at The Ropewalk in North Lincolnshire and achieved her MA Fine Art from Lincoln University in 2007. Exhibiting nationally and internationally her works are represented in collections in Britain, China and the USA. She is a member of the curated group, Contemporary British Painting.

Richard Hatfield

The colours, scale and nature of the landscape provide a constant source for Richard’s image making. The paintings are the amalgamation of the remembered, the fleetingly observed and the emblematic motifs imprinted on the retina.  The paintings are constructed using layer upon layer of thin colour that produce an intensity of pigment or create ambiguous veils of paint that vaguely describe the subject. Often painted over a coarse textured ground, layers of paint are added and subsequently removed generating a rich patination of surface. Richard is one of the Directors of the Ropewalk in Barton.

Helen Thomas

Helen Thomas is a contemporary British painter based in Wakefield, England. She graduated from Falmouth School of Art (BA Fine Art) and completed a year of postgraduate study with Turps Art School.  Helen works with drawing and painting, on-site and in the studio, to consider humanity’s relationships with plants.  Solo exhibitions: Habitat, Mura Ma, Stockport, 2024. Helen’s Arts Council England Funded project ‘Dandelions and Double Yellows’ culminated in a solo exhibition at Wakefield Cathedral as part of the Festival of The Earth in 2021.  Group exhibitions include Planting Ideas, St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery, Hampshire, 2024; Precious Little, Mura Ma, Stockport, 2023; Babble, Ilkeston Contemporary, Derbyshire, 2023; Entwined: Plants in Contemporary Painting, Huddersfield Art Gallery, 2022 and 20-21 Visual Arts, Scunthorpe 2023; Conversations with Nature, The Art House, Wakefield, 2022 and Jerwood Drawing Prize 2016.

Steve Gresham

Steve Gresham graduated with a degree in Fine Art from the University of Nottingham in 2014. His mixed media work focuses on two landscapes of particular interest to him: the Lincolnshire coast and the Humber estuary and, as seen in these pieces, Assynt in the north west of Scotland. As well as exhibiting work in The Tarpey Gallery at Castle Donington, various Summer Exhibitions at the Djanogly Gallery at the University of Nottingham in which he was shortlisted for the Cedric Ford Art Prize, the Ropewalk Gallery at Barton on Humber and the Open Exhibition at The Ferens Art Gallery in Hull, he has had solo exhibitions at The Old Lock Up Gallery in Cromford, Bromley House Subscription Library in Nottingham, and The Old Coach House in Louth.

Katie Braida

Katie makes sculptural vessels and forms using a variety of hand building techniques.  Working with soft clay, coils and slabs, she allows the material to move and suggest direction for development.  Creating forms leads to the exploration of the surface.  Katie creates texture and pattern based on the rhythms and patterns within the environment.  Colour is applied to the subtlety textured surfaces, generating a depth of colour but retaining a softness and tactile quality that invites interaction.