the sea of spring rising and falling, all the day long

Annette Philio, Antonia Spowers, Claire Brewster, Danielle Creenaune, Jude Tucker, Juliet Gutch, Katherine Jones, Lucy Bainbridge, Patricia Swannell, Phil Chitty, Rachel Shaw Ashton, Tracey Bush

The Spring exhibition at jaggedart presents new work by artists who have been inspired by the idea of Spring as water. The exhibition draws together a refreshing combination of works, including paintings, photographs, works on paper, video and 3 dimensional works, which celebrate new life.

Lucy Bainbridge's source material is often photographs taken at dawn or dusk, which lend clarity to her screen prints. She removes much of the detail from these images, while retaining the essence of the subject. Whiteness and purity are combined with formal shapes in contemporary landscapes. A subtle interplay of light and shadow is present in her delicate embossed works.

Tracey Bush presents new body of prints inspired by the rivers which have affected her. The blue and green tones of the River Han, following her visit to South Korea flow over the page, while her turquoise tones of the Thames and the River Helford snake across the paper. Underlying much of Tracey's work is the current theme of the impact that man makes on the environment.

Claire Brewster retrieves old and discarded maps, transforming them and giving new life to the obsolete. She intricately cuts out birds, insects and flowers from the paper, which takes on an almost sculptural beauty, with striking shadows. The relationship between the bird flying over the land, whilst its body is made up of this topography reveals a new way of looking at nature.

Phil Chitty's intimate drawings are immediate and evocative. Structured and repetitive marks evolve into organic and fluid forms. Chitty leaves vast swathes of the page untouched, giving intensity to the drawn sections. Chitty simultaneously presents the fragility and the strength of his constant subject - nature, in these confident and emotive, abstract drawings.

Danielle Creenaune conveys personal landscapes in this series of graceful prints. She responds intuitively to each landscape and conveys it though a varied language of marks and tone. These prints are rhythmic, which reflects the changing seasons and the movement of water.

Juliet Gutch's installation, 'A dream at Sea,' is about the movement and interaction of shapes in space and the balance of those shapes. Her mobiles are concerned with the interweaving individual contour which flow into each other and against each other, creating ever-changing sculptural forms. Made of wood, they respond to the slightest air current, effortlessly evoking natural forms.

Katherine Jones' uses traditional forms of printmaking combined with drawing and watercolour. They often depict a house in the woods. The forest simultaneously protects and stifles, and the prints are enlivened by Katie's confident use of colour and message.

Annette Philo 'When I see green it isn't grass,' explores the nature of appearances. Philo digitally alters colours to break down what we think we know, and what we think we see. Philo's film shows young deer walking past her fixed camera. The river seems to turns from grey-green to a blue with an electric quality. The deer are tantalisingly close. They are aware of her, but are unconcerned by her presence.

Rachel Shaw Ashton has created two new works for this exhibition. Her paper cut-outs are elaborate, considered and structured. 'Everything you think you'll know, Everything you thought you knew,' is about all that we have learned being discarded and forgotten to make room for the new and the happiness and confidence that this brings, however short lived. "Here comes a feeling you thought you'd forgotten," is about that fleeting second of pure euphoria that seems to drop into our heads barely once or twice a year for no reason and with no warning.

Antonia Spowers is inspired by varied elements of water including its structure, behaviour and altered states. Spowers' recurring interest in circular forms, suggest themes of continuity and connection. The construction and large scale of her paper sculptures evoke feelings of buried layers in the landscape and the re-cycled patterns of energy from the past.

Following a three year break from watercolour, Patricia Swannell has returned to it, with an assurance which belies this delicate and sensitive medium. For these new works, she is inspired by the traditions of Chinese brush painting, brush, breath and body interact with water as both subject and medium. The gentle azure tones recall the rippling surface of water, the element that gives life. The disrupted rhythms of the brush strokes recall the ebb and flow and irresistible currents of this essential force.

Jude Tucker's new work is a departure from her more literal depictions of leaves and flowers. Her strong connection to the material; a white-grey Portland limestone, results in a reaching curved abstract figure. Her skillful carving is powerful and beautiful. The works' undulating curves above all celebrate natural splendor.