Moments in time

An exhibition of recent paintings by Adele Dark

Imagine picking your way through the rocks careful not to slip, the sea a distant whisper.  It is low tide, the winkles and crevasses suck and yawn.  It is still, not a whisper, peace and silence, interrupted only by the distant haunting cries of Curlews.  Look now into a rock pool and spy nature’s treasures left stranded by the tide.  A floating sliver of burnt umber seaweed or electric green sea lettuce.  Sea lichens, pink, white and black spots spreading onto the orange or green rock.  Rock folded and worn in time like a warmed chocolate bar left in the car.  The transient nature of rock pools reminds me of our lives.  A snap shot of elements captured and held like moments in time, events and chance meetings that shape and mould our very being.  I hope that my work captures a flavour of the glinting secret rock pools, recording a moment in time.
 
Some of you will know me for my drawing classes at Highlands and the Arts Centre or from children’s workshops at the Arts Centre of Jersey Heritage sites.  My own family are my art critics and I was pleased to get an ‘I like that one, mum, and the three dimensions’ from my teenage son.  He disappeared when I excitedly began to tell him of my personal renaissance and how I was already thinking of the next series of work.  We are so busy with our work and family it’s only with maturing children and an iron determination that I have found my way back to creating artwork.  A visiting artist of my generation talked of ‘beginning again’ and the excitement, nerves and exhilaration of all that this entails, ‘a new journey’.
 
My work has always been concerned with the outdoors, a place that has informed and influenced it, a place I want to be.  It is the places painting outdoors takes me, the colours, movement and hidden shapes which drive me.  Finally I need to thank the Jersey Arts Trust whose support has enabled me to exhibit my work at the Jersey Arts Centre.

flickr.com/photos/adele-dark/