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Japan January 2008
Kirsty has recently returned from a trip
to Japan. She was invited to Japan by the Hibell, a publishing company
who print and sell Kirsty Wither limited edition Giclee prints exclusively
for the Japanese market. Hibell have 12 galleries across Japan,
each featuring a Kirsty Wither print exhibition during January and
February 2008.
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Alongside the
prints, the galleries exhibited (and sold!) original Kirsty Wither
paintings. Kirsty visited 3 galleries in Tokyo as well as galleries
in Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe.
During the gallery visits she met staff and customers to discuss
her work and sign prints for the customers. |
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"It was an absolutely fascinating trip and I found
meeting so many people who collect my work on the other side of
the world very humbling. In terms of my work, the landscapes, colours
and patterns of Japan will, I'm sure, have an impact on my future
work - I can’t wait!" |
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Kirsty's 2006 solo show in the Open Eye Gallery was a great success. The
art critc for the Edinburgh Evening News,
Martin Lenon gave it a four star review and
wrote:
Kirsty Wither's paintings - whether flowers,
landscapes or figures - are anything but anonymous. Not content with giving
her paintings depth and vibrancy with impasto strokes, she has such a
fabulous grasp of colour that whatever she chooses to paint either leaps
out at you or draws you in. Being bored isn't an option.........it works
beautifully.
Kirsty's work was also the subject of three magazine feature articles:
The Artist Magazine December 2004
Executive Lifestyle Spring 2005
Leisure Painter July 2005
The
Art Group publishers of Kirstys
work in card and print form. They are also about to launch a range
of limited
editions Giclee prints.
The
Ikea card and poster range published in association
with the Art Group is selling extremely well, and has quickly been reprinted
after the initial run sold out. Kirstys mother and father are regularly
to be found in their local Ikea making sure her cards are at the front
of the stands!
"As
a gallery owner, it is a particular joy to come across young, emerging
talent; to find someone whose work is technically
good, whose style is original and whose paintings are exciting: someone
whose work has that intangible quality that strikes a chord and makes
one want to see more.
Seeing Kirsty Wither's work for the first time struck
a chord with me. Here was someone painting with a vibrancy and vigour
that one sees all too rarely; here was representational work that was
refreshingly individual and well crafted, which celebrate the joy of what
paint can be made to create; here was an artist with a commitment and
passion about her painting which leaps straight off the canvas.
Subsequently meeting the creator of these works was to
appreciate all too clearly how the character of the artist is so often
reflected in the paintings. Kirsty Wither positively bubbles with energy
and enthusiasm while at the same time being meticulously organised and
focused. Her studio is a riot of colour, of canvases on every wall, of
brushes and palette knives an every surface. Yet appearances can be deceptive
for the paintings which Kirsty creates are well thought out, expertly
made, while at the same time maintaining that all important ability to
excite.
Twelve years ago, Kirsty Wither graduated from
Grays School of Art in Aberdeen; she has had numerous successful exhibitions
since then and her work now hangs in many private collections in addition
to prominent corporate and public ones. Portland Gallery is delighted
to exclusively represent Kirsty Wither and to be showing her work".
Tom Hewlett, Portland Gallery, 2002.
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