Abstract

This solo exhibition at the City Gallery, London (Thompsons) builds upon several visual tests focused on the experimental depiction of snow, as a solid manifestation of water and its impact on the transient and refractive qualities of light within the winter landscape. This visual research continued to extend Healey’s longer term research in experimental depictions of evanescent, fleeting light conditions, particularly in the peripheral and coastal areas, including phenomena such as the aurora borealis and the ‘blue time’ in parts of Scotland and Finland. The focus of this cited outcome is also part of an ongoing dialogue with “capturing the mood of the moment” that has been explored in several exhibitions. An appraisal of this approach has been featured over four pages in the British magazine “The Artist” in November 2007 with eight featured paintings. The City Gallery exhibition, with new snow landscape approaches, was initiated and rooted in drawing. These experimental works form part of the Drawing Research Group and initiatives such as the international drawing conference in 2006: 'Drawing Board'. Keynote speakers included Mike Esson of the International Drawing Institute (IDI, comprising : College of Fine Arts, UNSW, Sydney, The China Central Academy of Fine Arts, CAFA, in Beijing and Glasgow School of Art, GSA),Healey and Deanne Petherbridge. Other linked contributions included “Drawing as reflective Practice” exhibited at Glasgow School of Art and the Air Gallery, London. In “Drawing as reflective practice” Healey’s exhibited drawings, evidenced on DVD, were part performance and part artefact. Additional dissemination of drawing work was achieved through a public lecture given at Temple University, Japan, during the duration of another show in March 2005. A catalogue of this cited exhibition in The City Gallery London was published.