This November three dedicated and distinguished artists will exhibit, together for the first time at Beaux Arts. Despite having more than 100 combined years of experience in the art world, all three artists still work with a fervour and energy that would rival any art student.

Blow

One can see in these works many of Blow’s favourite inspirations especially expansive skies, undulating moors and the juxtapositions of trees against buildings. Through tenacity and hard-work, she has resolved the dilemma of including more colours whilst maintaining the immense simplicity that is so characteristic of her work. Along with this simplicity, the balance of these works is to such an extent that the paintings can be appreciated when hung from any angle.

Sandra Blow is an abstract painter with a remarkable range and force, often in the face of fashion’s aversion. Driven by an instinctive form of explosive energy, she has succeeded in meeting this with a structural balance to create her own unique brand of order-out-of-chaos.

Hoyland

Meanwhile, Hoyland has learnt over the years, how to express and translate this radical energy in a myriad of ways. As if to betray the true degree of effort that is required to create such paintings, they ooze daring and spontaneity. The perfect splat.

The paintings in this exhibition are a curious hybrid of styles and techniques. In addition, they are the ultimate in ‘action paintings’ even when executed on a smaller scale. Here not only the action of the painter, but also the movement of the paint is of vital significance. Somehow despite the dynamism and youthful energy, one can tell that these are not the paintings of a young artist because to attain this level of competence must surely take years.

Fantastically constant and often very revealing washes give background to a myriad of procedures. Any one painting can leave the viewer contemplating any of several possible methods the painter might have employed. Everything from the careful application of a drop of paint, through to the forceful hurl of half a tin of paint - is present in Hoyland’s repertoire. He has mastered his own kinetic forces and expertly harnessed those dictated by gravity and by the paint itself. Like a volcano, he can conjure craters with his explosions of paint upon canvas or he can create a seemingly impossible uniform of drips despite their disobedient and unpredictable nature.

Never content to stick with tried and tested formulas; Hoyland has consistently rejected the temptation to take the easy way out by painting what people want. As his reputation for painting in a particular style develops, so then it is time to move on.

King

The refusal to settle into the familiar is a characteristic that is shared by Philip King. Whilst much of his initial success came from the cones of the 60’s, he has persisted over the years to shy away from the predictable and push his work in unexpected directions.

Despite an already distinguished career, Philip King continues to extend his language as a sculptor. His new work are examples of King’s gift for suggesting bounding motion beyond the limits of his fixed creations and highlight his current preoccupations with colour. Also present in the show are some re-worked forms that he created in the 1980’s when he first became involved with symbolic figuration. In their new apparel of bold primary colours, Moonstruck (first exhibited in 1983) and Sun, Bird, Worm, House seem to take on different personas and add an extra dynamism to these more familiar forms.

However banal; King’s work always contains a certain inexplicable quality, as if it comes from somewhere higher. Whether a pious artist or an explorer of form and symbolism, he proves that his work can be just as arresting and inspiring when small in scale as his monumental works of the1970s or the deity-like cones of the preceding decade.

King is one of the few living sculptors for whom the ruins of the classical (pre-Christian) era remain a potent force. Combined with this is his interest in and experience with Eastern traditions (be it Japanese ceramic sculptures or bronze Buddhas cast in accordance with Buddhist casting tradition). The depth and scope of his experience as a sculptor is astounding, making him one of the most fascinating yet under-rated sculptors living in Britain today.

It is a rare thing in this day and age to find anything that is pure and unpolluted. However, one could easily argue that these three artists have remained true to their artistic roots and ideals and have not been lured by either the pursuit, or the trappings of fame and fortune.