Miranda Creswell’s paintings and drawings are all about line.

Born and brought up in west Dorset, Miranda now lives in Oxford where she exhibits with Modern Art Oxford. For Sladers Yard, in the landscape of her childhood, Miranda is painting figures within landscapes. Not just Dorset but Scottish islands, vistas of beauty and, perhaps, of longing. The line plays a crucial part with a wash of wonderful colour. In a radiant landscape, the human eye is drawn to a tiny figure, revealing perhaps our hunter/gatherer heritage and providing a focus. The figure within a landscape has been the subject of art and literature for centuries and yet again it provides a rich vein to explore.

Miranda has recently completed a residency at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre. A great part of her work is based on drawing, and looking at drawing of all kinds. She is intrigued by the power of a simple dense black line.
As part of an on-going series, People at Work, she drew the staff of the hospital by depicting gestures. Devoid of tools, background or setting, the values and levels of different employment change. Gestures seen in paintings from previous centuries reappear in the modern workplace; movements are repeated across time and employment; the surgeon is dancing, the technician is a blacksmith, the radiologist dreams. Evident in her drawing is her study of Michelangelo's work. 'I am trying above all to paint the beauty and strangeness of the human being.'
Her next project is a study of handwriting and its relationship with drawing in small children, university members and university archives at the Harris Manchester College of Oxford University.

Petter Southall's showroom with Philosophy - Julian Bailey, Derek Nice and Petter Southall - West Bay - Beatitudes featuring Cheryl Campbell - Miranda Creswell's paintings and drawings - West Bay - Beatitudes by David Inshaw - Alfred Stockham, Miranda Creswell and Petter Southall - Out to Sea - Bailey Nice and Southall - The Need to Dream - Vanessa Gardiner - Tim Nicholson - Sladers Yard Christmas Show - Robin Rae