Diane Erasmus, Traci Tomkins and Coral Spencer will be exhibiting in the History Room.

DIANE ERASMUS

This is Diane's twelfth year exhibiting at Hilton Arts Festival.

Drawing her inspiration from the beauty of the natural world, Diane Erasmus has acquired a reputation as a sensitive and highly original artist.

Her vivid and inventive landscapes and water scenes are imbued with a profoundly spiritual awareness, yet remain grounded in those elements which define a great work of art. She prefers to work from life and travels extensivly to glean new material.  Her recent trip to India inspired her new work "Impressions of people of India", which she will be exhibiting at Hilton this year.

Woman Praying along the Ganga

TRACI TOMPKINS

Traci Tompkins trained in Theatre Crafts and Performing Arts before a well loved career in media. But it was clay that was to become her passion, when she set up her first full time pottery studio in Hilton in the mid ‘90’s.  A decade of successful selling exhibitions and solo showings followed, becoming well known for her statement hand coiled smoke fired urns and raku fired vessels.Today Trayci balances this individuality as a maker with her commercial studio range and vibrant retail outlet, Zulu-lulu ceramic boutique, set in the heart of the Midlands Meander. ‘Clay allows me the canvas to put my thoughts into stories as they play out in my head…. My training in theatre, mime and dance has influenced how I teach and design, and what I choose to make – it’s a personal signature of expression “.

Trayci Tompkins: Hand coiled ceramics

CORAL SPENCER DOMIJAN

My earliest influences were classical, having been introduced to plaster casts of Roman Classical sculpture in the basement of Glasgow School of art when I was a child. This being significant, because it was the light that fell on these huge piles of human form that intrigued me the most.  My large complex paintings of people on beaches are reminiscent of the huge murals on these walls and although these murals were naïve in style, without light, they were busy, and I enjoyed the collective distraction of the work.I paint light on form and have a keen regard for what I call high skill. My interest in body language and relationships can be seen in my figure placement and conceptual work which explores the body and its relationship to itself and others.With this said, it is sometimes this very compromise that pushes me forward and feeds my work. My subject matter is voyeuristic in nature, the idea of the hunt being part of the journey is what drives me. My love of form allows me to exercise my need to perfect skill and understand skin and the play of light on skin. A genuine interest in the human condition, fear of it and love of it fuels my need to explore it more and unwrap it in my work. Time passing and the implications of this on the body and the mind are a source of interest. As of the other side to my art, the painting of the beaches, “The great watering holes in life.” These works tell the same story, just in plain English.

Trayci Tompkins

Coral