We predict a great future for Theresa Reilly-Cooper, whose pencil drawings explore the possibility of representation and figuration while obliterating parts of the image – sometimes the head, sometimes the entire figure – with precise assurance. The extreme and expressive economy of ‘Check Skirt’ makes it a particular favourite.

'Check Skirt' - original art work by Theresa Reilly-Cooper

'Leather Jacket' - original art work by Theresa Reilly-Cooper

'Wolverine Tee' by Theresa Reilly-Cooper

Sylwia Podlaska channels Diane Arbus and Paula Rego into oils and canvas and creates enigmatic and economic paintings that investigate integrity, in their use of the thematic of bubbles, doubleness and hybridity. They invite us to form strange narratives despite their almost graphic boldness.

'Calia' - original art work by Sylwia Podlaska

It is difficult to find likenesses for the work of Ben Crawshaw because it so unique. We love his unusual, eclectic and cohesive large-scale paintings, from the bright splendour of ‘Tools’ to the accomplished hybrid of ‘Dance Gear’ which manages to be both balletic and military, gothic in style and reminscent of television graphics.

'Tools' - original art work by Ben Crawshaw

Phillipa Cannan creates beautiful, ethereal and dynamic paintings, often of animals in movement  – ghostly and fleeting figures, glowing against deepening backgrounds. We would also like to introduce you here to the very prodigious (and very bright) Stuart Barnes, whose compelling paintings form only an aspect of his output.

'So full of shapes is fancy, That it alone is high fantastical' - original art work Phillippa Cannan

'Piechart 1' - original art work by Stuart Barnes

Gemma Goodwin’s series of ‘Blink’ drawings, meticulous and photo-realistic, capture and still those moments that go unnoticed on a conscious level, though they may be registered without our knowledge, and contribute to the expressivity of a face. The subject, an everyman, is intensely vulnerable in those incessant but briefest of moments, when we blink. The gaze trained on the subject is, in contrast, intense, allowing nothing to escape, and denying the composure often granted to the subjects of portraiture. Freud once wrote (in attention to gesture or a gesture of attention): “He who has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret; if his lips are silent, he chatters through his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.” But is this requisite attention or humiliating voyeurism?

'Blink 7' - original art work by Gemma Goodwin

More news on promising young artists to come…