‘Sanctuary’ - celebrating the faded glory of neglected spaces

Chris Cyprus - Spring Gallery, Cheltenham 20th-27th June 2023

Amongst the madness of the modern world, peace and tranquillity appears from the most unlikely places. My celebration of the humble smallholding explores the crooked beauty of neglected spaces, once loved and cherished by their owners but ultimately ravaged by nature and the passage of time.

A fascination with the dilapidated garden shed began in 2008 when I took on my own allotment plot on the council allotments near my home. I greatly admired the ‘make do and mend’ mindset of the allotment holders and was keen to replicate these ideas on my own allotment, and to capture these wonderful characters on canvas.

My body of work featuring allotments spanned a decade, and was inspired by my experiences of visiting allotments up and down the country, and the acquaintances made along the way.

The paintings became a great success and led to a feature on BBC Gardeners World, and a painting commission from presenter Joe Swift.

Following the Covid-19 Pandemic, I felt compelled to resume observations of the faded beauty of the tumble down garden shed, the smallholding and its world weary inhabitants, resulting in this evocative body of work.

“My passion as an artist lies in transforming what might be considered ‘ordinary’ or ‘mundane’ subject matter into something extraordinary using a combination of vivid colour palette, contrasting shadow and light and juxtaposition of what I would consider interesting elements within a scene”.