Celebration of sibling spirit (From Stroud News and Journal)

Celebration of sibling spirit

A CELEBRATORY new exhibition of paintings by Terry Cripps, entitled Sisters, opens at Stroud's Subscription Rooms this week.

"After the success of the summer Open Studio exhibition Well Red, I wanted a wider and more significant audience for the showing of new work," said Terry. "This collection has been created with the George Room in mind.

"These paintings represent a renewed passion for simplicity and a confident approach to the materials. They celebrate the life of my sister Trudy Ambrose and our sibling spirit.

"Provoked by her illness and death from cancer, they attempt to explain what her suffering and pain did to our relationship as brother and sister. They are the journey I took to come to terms with the loss of my bright, joyous, younger sister.

"They deal with the raw edges that develop between people when they are at a loss to explain what is happening between them. There is nothing about them which is morbid or macabre."

The monochrome paintings use the naked linen surface and the bright white of gesso to convey passive aggression, using notions of growth, intrusion and loss as ideas for composition.

The four large colour compositions are of memories that Terry and his sister held as defining moments in their childhood, in most cases not observed by adults so remained quietly theirs, a private possession. They include archery in the garden, snowballs at noon, two giraffes from a childhood trip to Kenya and much more.

Sisters runs at the Stroud Subscription Rooms from Monday, February 14 to February 25. The exhibition is open Monday to Saturday between 10am and 5pm and entry is free.