James Staples and Christine Tebbitt offer Oxmarket exhibitions

Wildly Precise is the name of the exhibition as James Staples – born and raised in Selsey –  heads to Chichester’s Oxmarket Gallery from July 28-August 9 for his debut show.
James StaplesJames Staples
James Staples

“This is my first exhibition! I have always had a talent and a passion for art but up until about three years ago I hadn’t really done a lot with it.

“I was given a set of Prismacolor pencils one Christmas and just fell in love with the medium.

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“My spare room has been slowly filling with pencils ever since.

“I began drawing people’s pets and with them being so popular I decided I should probably try to exhibit my work so everyone could get a good look at it.

“I thought a natural progression from people’s pets would be to fully explore the wonders of the animal kingdom.

“So I put together a collection of wildlife that I really wanted to draw, from foxes to tree frogs.

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“All the pieces have been drawn using a combination of artist-quality pencils except for one that I used pastel pencils.

“Although still a pencil, it’s an extremely different way of creating a portrait.

“The collection will also feature my favourite portrait to date which is a male silverback gorilla called Kidogo who lives in a zoo in Germany.

“The piece took me over 50 hours to complete!”

James added: “I’m predominantly self-taught. I did begin studying art at college but I didn’t have a good relationship with education.

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“My biggest influence in relation to my own style is an artist called Bonnie Snowden. I am in awe of her work.

“My favourite artists seem to be a long way from the work I create though.

“Early on I fell in love with Salvador Dali and George Seurat.

“Nowadays I look to artists like Banksy and Tai-Shan Schierenberg. I think because my work is so precise I find it difficult to blur the lines. I look up to those who do it so well.”

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Also coming up at the Oxmarket Gallery, from July 27-August 9, is an exhibition from Christine Tebbitt.

Christine explains: “I moved from Chichester last year to Middleton, and I was inspired by my surroundings to choose the sea side as a theme for my current work.

“The beginning of my sewing life was patchwork and quilting.

“I loved the order and structure of creating patchwork quilts.

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“I then started to look further into the craft and was directed to crazy patchwork which used different types of fabrics, including lots of hand-stitching using different threads and beads.

“I then went on to learn hand embroidery.

“After going to an embroidery show I came across the most beautiful landscape scenes created with a sewing machine.

“A subsequent workshop with textile artist Linda Miller taught me how to achieve what I wanted to do and I was absolutely hooked.

“My sewing machine and I have never looked back.”

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