Artists Steve and Sue to exhibit in Thornton

‘To Everything A Season’ explores how the artists observed and responded to changes across the landscape as nature painted new layers over those that have faded throughout the seasons. Sue is very much a warm weather person and captures, through her paintings and applique work, the energy of spring and summer with confident brushwork and jewel-like textiles. Steven chooses to focus on the objects and features set in the hues and tones of autumn and winter, capturing the heathlands and relics set in his local nature reserve alongside watercolours from his time at Himley Hall in the West Midlands.

Steven Spencer exhibiting his work in Halifax Minster

Sue Sands with her work in Halifax Minster

It’s nearly two years since Bradford artist Steven Spencer and Worth Valley artist Sue Sands first met and expressed an interest to exhibit their work together. Exhibitions and the venues that host them are important spaces for creatives, giving them the chance to interact and exchange ideas.

The lockdowns of 2020/21 impacted the freedoms of everyone, but for artists, it was a challenging period and plans for exhibitions were put on hold.

Sue and Steve kept in touch through social media and realised they shared many common aims, leading to them forming the Beck Art Group in May 2021 holding their first group exhibition ‘The Things That Make Us’ at Trapezium, Bradford in the August of the same year.

For former Telegraph & Argus Editorial Artist, Steven, lockdown gave him the opportunity to re-connect with the landscape around South Bradford. Raw Nook Nature Reserve in particular. Once the site of the old Low Moor Station, the area is now totally re-wilded as nature has once again reclaimed and healed the wounds of industrialisation.

Sue, with her love of impressionism and colour, learned to see formations of pattern, light and shade that attracted her gaze, refining her compositions and bringing nature to the fore, capturing the vibrancy of the tangled chaos of nature in the hedgerows, lanes and gardens, ever on the lookout for new subjects and inspiration.

No Parking by Sue Sands

Old Railway Fence, Raw Nook by Steven Spencer (Image: submitted)

Steven and Sue have been working with South Square Centre’s Arts and Heritage Coordinator Chloe Moreton for the past few months, planning the exhibition and the artists are thrilled to be part of the Thornton art centre’s 40th-anniversary celebrations.

‘To Everything A Season’ opens on Friday October 7, 2022 and runs until the end of November. There will be a preview on Friday, October 7 from 5 pm to 8 pm where everyone is welcome to meet the artists.