Is an exhibition of work by four friends: Stephan Keeling, Margaret Roberts, Brij Sharma and Robin Thompson.

Artist statements

Stephan Keeling
My professional life has been spent as a designer in metal and as a sculptor. I retired to Hastings and now work mainly in watercolours. My work is post-impressionist influenced by my time as a designer.

I have exhibited widely, including Goldsmiths and my professional work includes commissions for the Cunard Line, Sainsbury, the Walker Gallery, Aintree Racecourse and  a sculpture (a sunburst) in the foyer of the Wellington Hospital. However, my greatest pleasure was in selling my first-ever picture.

Margaret Roberts
I am a printmaker, paper maker and painter. My recent work combines or selects from a variety of printmaking processes and also a range of materials.  Each work is individual.

The guiding principle is to combine paper, print, paint, presentation into a harmonious whole.  My subjects reflect my life and interests, my beliefs and worries.  I work in a studio at home and, until recently, also in a print studio locally.  However, I now have my own press.

I am a member of East London Printmakers, and have shown my work widely in Kent and Sussex.  Each year we have a group of artists at our home for South East Open Studio.  Recently I had a piece in Pushing Print at Margate.  My website is   www.acorus-art.co.uk

Brij Sharma
From 1976 – 1980 I studied illustration at Richmond-upon-Thames College. About five years ago I started attending a life drawing evening class at Hastings College run by Rod Harman. Rod has given me a great deal of inspiration and encouragement.  I have exhibited work in Twickenham, Hastings Old Town, and Hastings Arts Forum.

My aim in my painting and drawing is to capture a sense of movement, light, and gravity. I am interested in producing work that is aesthetically pleasing as there are plenty of unpleasant things in the World and I see no reason to add to them.

Robin Thompson
In my current work, I am looking at the environments in which many people spend much of their time: offices, conferences and other work places that appear to imprison people and suck the spirit from them.  I am drawing on my own professional life in exploring these mundane environments, which are so central to the lives of so many and which appear to be so impersonal and barren.  I am also reflecting my recent experience in looking at art and design in Japan.

In portraying “working life”, I have been influenced by artists as different as Nicolas de Stael, Edward Hopper and Anselm Kiefer and by the Japanese artist Kawaguchi Tatsuo.  Although I am predominantly an oil and acrylic painter, much of my work incorporates other materials.  I find encaustic painting a rewarding way to achieve transparency and looseness.

Currently I am studying contemporary art at Hastings College of Art.  I have exhibited several times at Hastings Art Forum and at Cranbrook Library, Tunbridge Wells Adult Education centre, Castle Mead in East Grinstead and at the Hastings College summer show and I ran an Open Studio with my wife Margaret Roberts in 2007 and 2009.