Members' update: Clorinda Goodman, Ross Ashmore and Nadiya Pavliv Tokarska

Lost and Found is an exhibition which looks at how artists find the inspiration for their work.  It could be an old photograph or a picture in a book that hasn’t been opened for years; a memory recalled by a piece of music or a fragment of ceramic found on the shores of the Thames.  These works have been made in the classes held in the Community Art Room in the Crypt of St John on Bethnal Green and consist of Mosaics, Stained Glass and Stone Carving. Included in the exhibition is Clorinda Goodman's stone carving Eden.

Lost and Found is at the Belfry, St John on Bethnal Green, 200 Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green, London E2  9PA. Opening days and times: 11-5pm Saturday April 6th, Sunday April 7th, Saturday April 13th and Sunday 14th. For more information, please contact Alex McHallam on 07751880247, email alex_mchallam@hotmail.com.

Ross Ashmore is exhibiting at ‘SPACE art gallery’ showing over 100 of his highly expressive impasto paintings from his project to paint every station on the London Underground – of which there are 267.

As an urban landscape artist, Ross feels compelled to document the ‘beauty in our streets’ before the inevitable changes society forces upon them. He endeavours to convey emotion in his paintings, revealed by his textural mark making in paint, creating energy – giving each painting a life of its own. Speaking of his work, Ross said: “I love the physicality of painting…and it’s everyday life that I want to highlight in my work. What better subject could there be than the streets where we find these wonderful stations.”

The exhibition is at SPACE art gallery, 141 High St, Southgate N14 6BP and will run until Friday 5 April.

Nadiya Pavliv Tokarska is currently exhibiting at the Tokarska Gallery. In her works, Nadiya sees London as a soulful essence that takes on different dimensions and identities, delivered through a subtle balance of intensity, vibrancy and dynamics of the images.

The following show at the Tokarska Gallery is Seeking for INNER-SELF by Christophe Lenoble. Private View - 4 April 2013, 6pm - 9pm. Show runs 4 - 27 April 2013, Thursday - Saturday, 12pm - 7pm.

Ross Ashmore

Following his degree in Fine Art and Illustration at Bristol, Ross Ashmore spent the next two years illustrating for publications such as the Radio Times. He then went into commercial art, working as a graphic designer for the next twenty years.

Ross says he has no regrets choosing this career path. “The mass produced commercial world is so concerned with perfection – 'everything was airbrushed out!' In contrast I began to appreciate being different, embracing individuality – freedom of expression. This view is what drives and inspires me today. It's the ordinary things in life, the mundane that I want to catalogue in my work. With all the relentless change, very soon, we may forget the way things were.”

As a Christian, who is also an artist, he says it is great to share both together with others. His work is best described as expressive. He works in oils on canvas in an impasto style and enjoys portraying urban landscapes.

He has embarked on an ambitious task of painting all the London Transport Underground Stations - of which there are 267. “I realise for me this has to do with my commercial past. I was always under pressure to deliver on time, except this time I had created my own brief and deadline.” To coincide with this year's 150th Anniversary of London Underground, he will finally complete all the paintings, of all the stations, this summer.

CiTiES: All Dimensions

Celebrating urban-living and virtual-architecture the call for entries for CiTiES: All Dimensions by the Tokarska Gallery invited regional and international artists to showcase their deeply personal perceptions of modern inhabiting. With hundreds of entries from across the globe the resulting show offers the selected artists a prestigious platform for cultural integration and an exclusive opportunity to network with artists and critics in this genre.

The show, which will be split into two parts, will begin with the Private View on 14 February 2013. At the Private Views you can meet some of the artists behind the works on show, which will include sculpture, paintings, photographs and installations.

CiTiES: All Dimensions Part 1:
Thursday 14 February 2013 – Private view at Tokarska Gallery, 6pm-8pm
Saturday 23 February 2013 – Performance night 6-9pm. Music provided by Young Zen
14 Feb 2013 – 24 Feb 2013 Exhibition will be open to the public Thur - Sat 12pm – 7pm

Caroline Nina Phillips

Liminality

Deeper

The urban landscape has been a source of fascination, inspiration and a recurring theme throughout the work of Caroline Nina Phillips. Observational drawings and camera snapshots of the local urban environment are used as starting points for these layered, painterly works. Particularly favoured focal points are construction sites; building works; passageways and stairways. Noticeably, the chosen places are those which could be easily overlooked. It is through experiencing; looking; recording and reflecting upon such particular spaces, that Caroline Nina captures their existence and essence.

Many of the paintings are suggestive; openings entice as barriers block. Stairwells guide the viewer’s gaze from one implied space to another – beyond the physical boundary of the painting. Attracted to specific spaces that offer this potential for imagining; Caroline Nina Phillips contemplates what can be seen and the possibilities of what remains unseen. Features fascinate and draw her in with their depth and intensity. Captivated by the real, raw, gritty surfaces and atmosphere of many of the places she chooses to paint, Caroline Nina aims to evoke such qualities through her diverse colour choices and expressive, textural handling of the paint.

Oils are scraped, layered, removed; smeared, worked and reworked again and again- indicative in many ways of the process of building; of time passing; of ageing; deterioration; breaking down and of revival; reconstruction; of turning something old; damaged or worn, into something new.