West Bay - Beatitudes by David Inshaw

Sladers Yard is very proud to show the complete collection of iconic paintings of West Bay by one of this country’s leading artists. David Inshaw is known for the powerful intensity of his English landscapes, peopled by figures who are every inch flesh and blood. This is a mature artist at the height of his powers bringing together the themes and recurring images of a lifetime in a series of large paintings which he has been working on since the late nineties and an accompanying collection of 13 jewel-like small new works painted specially for the Sladers Yard exhibition.

Since the millennium David Inshaw has returned to West Bay with an almost obsessive fascination. The West Bay cliffs open out again and again in different lights, moods and weathers, almost like Time itself, crumbling but always golden. Sometimes they are the subject and sometimes the backdrop to mysterious gatherings of figures and animals. Inshaw’s title – beatitudes - perhaps gives us a clue. Are these are the heavenly happinesses or those the artist blesses? Inshaw’s women are absolutely real. Busy in their own minds, heavy with character and well endowed, they are observed with an empathetic but unswerving eye reminiscent of Stanley Spencer (whose Beatitudes of Love are brought to mind by the exhibition title).

Inshaw has turned sixty during the painting of these pictures and, Prospero-like, he has removed his subjects to the sea’s edge where powerful forces are at work. He combines the elemental, awesome and brooding with the playful, sensual and explosive to create highly charged moments, still points. His images, the (mainly female) figures, the hovering helicopter, the leaping cat are juxtaposed in disorienting almost surreal combinations, symbolic it seems of elements of the artist’s mind and life. The scrotum-like rucksack appears and reappears. A favourite cartoon, Felix the cat, naughtily admires the ladies. Here are the red hut and smoking bonfires of earlier paintings, together with a beautiful moon, all painted with the electric intensity of dream and of revelation.

Born in 1943, David Inshaw first caught the public imagination in 1972 with his painting The Badminton Game. Acquired by Tate Britain it was used as the public image for their ’ÄòArt in the Garden’ exhibition. Another of his best known paintings is The Cricket Game set in Little Bredy, West Dorset. His work is in public collections including the Tate, the City of Bristol Art Gallery and Museum, the British Council and the Arts Council of Great Britain and in private collections all over the world. He lives and works in Devizes and London.

Sladers Yard is an artist-led showroom in a Georgian maritime warehouse. Its exposed stone and mottled lime-washed walls and original timber interior make a stunning and atmospheric setting for contemporary and applied art.

West Bay: Beatitudes by David Inshaw will be at Sladers Yard from 27 May until 22 July. Also featuring mirrors made by Cheryl Campbell and furniture by Petter Southall. Separate press releases available.

David Inshaw will give a talk on Thursday, 5 July at 8pm. Tickets £5 from Sladers Yard

Sladers Yard, West Bay, Bridport, Dorset DT6 4EL
Open 10 – 5pm Wednesday – Saturday,
11 – 5pm Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays.
For further information and bookings for the artist’s talk please visit w , email i or call Anna Powell on 01308 459511.

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