STEPHEN HORNSBY-SMITH'S EXHIBITION IN CHICHESTER, JUNE 2018

"Crucifixion"

​Friday 15th June was a perfect day to be out and about – the sun shone and the temperature hovered around 20° for most of the day.  I set out for the coast and had an agreeable walk along the Bognor Regis sea front.  But the sea air was not the main purpose of my outing – the real reason for visiting West Sussex lay at my next stop, in Chichester, where Stephen Hornsby-Smith’s latest exhibition ‘To Lock Horns’ was taking place.

​Unfortunately, Stephen was not there on the day I had chosen to visit, and yet as soon as I entered the Oxmarket Gallery his presence was all around, in his paintings, painted sculptures and his introductory note, which I found first.  Amongst his words, which can be as intense as his painting style, Stephen had written:

Authenticity
From paint to brush to human hand we leave our fingerprint on our idiosyncratic work.

​Then there was a wealth of Stephen’s work to contemplate: idiosyncratic it is, with that vivid fingerprint in each exhibit.  In the recurring themes of Wildlife, Cityscape, Aggression and Religion there is a series of contrasts: colours both striking and subdued; brutality and tranquillity; deceptive simplicity and layers of detail; the superficial and the underlying meaning; the humorous and the deadly serious; the mundane and the divine.

Stephen’s written introduction referred tongue-in-cheek to his painted sculptures/assemblages as “Pretentious bullshit!”.  All I can say in response is that confronted with a painted Buddha sitting atop the keyboard of a laptop computer with a brightly painted screen (entitled “Is this the new meditation?” if I recall) I found myself smiling and even laughing out loud!  This three-dimensional art also features many animals, and Stephen’s description of this branch of his work is worth consulting, both for the technical detail and the underlying message: http://www.stephenhornsby-smith.com/3-dimensional.

It is quite beyond me to offer a critical appreciation of art or any sort: Stephen’s work may not be everyone’s ‘cup of tea’ but it is my ‘cup of coffee’ - you have to know me to appreciate the accolade!  I find it absorbing and was amazed to discover that more than an hour had passed as I made my way from canvas to print to 3-D piece on my slow progression around the gallery.

I took only one photograph – the arresting and chilling “Crucifixion”, painted on five canvases and shown above – but Stephen’s web site is generously illustrated…

www.stephenhornsby-smith.com/

Other articles about Stephen's work in Parish InPrint:

https://www.cpg.church/blog/art-exhibition-by-stephen-p-hornsby-smith-painter-cranleigh-arts-centre-2-26-october-2013​

www.cpg.church/blog/a-chat-with-artist-stephen-hornsby-smith

NF