Sep 19 - Trio Of Friends Launch Their First Public Art Exhibition
A group of friends launched their first public art exhibition at Sacarello’s Coffee House.
Friends and family were invited to have a look and purchase paintings inspired by Gibraltar by Naomi Purswani, Beatrice Garcia and Phoebe Kelly on Thursday last week.
A total of 17 pieces went on sale with a price range of anything between £40 and £120.
The artists were all school friends in Westside School, now aged 23 they are all in different places in their lives now and it’s their love and passion for art that has held their friendship together.
Beatrice said the idea for the exhibition came to them while she and Phoebe were sat in Sacarello’s having a coffee. They then asked Naomi to come on board.
Beatrice said it took her a couple of months of thinking of what she was going to put together, but then about a month and a half to paint and put the finishing touches.
History of Art student Naomi added: “I think a lot of the time it’s a lot of hesitation. And yes the theme was Gibraltar but we were thinking of how we’re going to interpret that.
“Each of us has a completely different theme. It takes a lot of time to think about what we’re going to do and to come up with a coherent aesthetic, in a sense.”
Beatrice, who works in banking, said her paintings are relatively figurative but doesn’t base it on a certain style, but rather on a concept, whereas Naomi said hers was part-planned and part-accidental having started with an idea of it being very clean and precise but it ended up becoming a bit wild.
Phoebe, who studied History of Art at university and now works in compliance, painted portraits of her dad, her sister, her brother and her friends Beatrice and Naomi.
She said: “They are all people I hold very close in my heart and I was just trying to express how I see them and how I feel about them on paper or on canvas.”
She used a mosaic-style approach after renovating a room in her parent’s house, and so she decided to use felt to layer to add more texture to her pieces.
Phoebe has worked with an art foundation in Hong Kong and with the Other Art Fair in London, and worked directly with mid-level artists, which gave her the opportunity to absorb their knowledge and style which she’s now able to infuse into her work, however she said she still attributes a lot of her art work and knowledge to her time in Westside School here in Gibraltar.
The friends have all described the exhibition as an enjoyable experience and said they’d like to exhibit their work together again.
The paintings are on display in the “pit” area in Sacarello’s.
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