Colin J Davies & Eloise Govier Exhibition
COLIN J DAVIES
Colin Davies is a professional artist based in South Wales. After spending over thirty years in education, he traded life as a headteacher to fulfil a lifelong dream to be a full-time painter. Since beginning his professional, artistic journey in 2019, his atmospheric representations of the rugged beauty of the Welsh coastline and countryside have exhibited in galleries across the country and continue to be a popular choice for collectors both throughout the UK and internationally. Inspired by the beautiful coastline and mountains surrounding his home, Colin’s work often depicts the power and vitality of the ocean surrounding the Gower Peninsular. “I can sit for hours, just listening and watching the waves churning in a wind-blown frenzy. I strive to paint the noise and communicate the drama of the powerful presence of unstoppable, grabbing water cascading inland with pounding fury. Equally, I love the time spent walking across the mountains of Bannau Brycheiniog, where the changing light of ethereal skies over wind-swept moorland provides inspiration for much of my recent work.” Using oil and acrylic paints, Colin’s expressive, semi-abstract style is created with the generous application of paint using a palette knife, often finished with brushed detail. Skilful use of colour and textural contrast creates the mood, often providing an impression of movement but at times capturing an alternative, calming atmosphere evident in many of his paintings..
ELOISE GOVIER
Eloise Govier was raised in Cenarth, Ceredigion. After graduating from the University of St Andrews with both an MA and MLitt in Art History (2004, 2005), she travelled to Florence (via Paris) where she attended a life drawing class at the renowned Charles Cecil Art Atelier. Shortly afterwards, in 2006, she travelled to Mitte, Berlin – the heart of the contemporary art scene in Europe – where she lived in an art studio. In 2008, Eloise began her professional practice as an artist and has exhibited both nationally and internationally; her work has been displayed in galleries in Kyoto, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, London and beyond. She has also received acclaim outside of the traditional boundaries of art; her art has been showcased at the London Morgan showroom, a UNESCO Protected Modernist Housing Estate in Berlin, the Welsh Assembly, and at the AT-Bristol Science Center where her work was also projected from the BBC Big screen. She has been featured or interviewed by numerous magazines and newspapers. Her work has been filmed by the BBC and S4C and she has been described as being “one of the most dynamic artists to emerge from Britain” (Sarah Jane Absalom) as “heir apparent to Sir Kyffin’s legacy” (Robin Turner, Western Mail) and “a name to remember” (Paul Martin, BBC). In 2018, Eloise was awarded a Doctorate from the University of Wales (Archaeology) and became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Eloise paints with oils, creating highly distinctive, colourful paintings rich in texture and movement. Through emotive palette knife work that often carves into the paint, she forms great swathes of slick oil on canvas, communicating feelings of “urgency and immediacy” in the folds and ripples of medium. Whilst Eloise recognises that her work is indebted to the Expressionist movement, the stylistic quality of her work increasingly favours Fauvism and, at times, ventures into abstraction. Popular themes in her work include landscapes (particularly the Welsh landscape near her studio in Cenarth, Ceredigion). Her highly sought after paintings capture the beauty, dynamism and complex nature of life.
