Barbara Chalk - Simon Lownsborough - Todd Hunter - Friday 12 June - Saturday 27 June 2026

Artist's Statement

This body of work begins in uncertainty.

After a severe infection left me with what doctors described as a brain injury, I faced the unsettling possibility that I might never recover my ability to draw. For a long time, creativity — something that had always felt instinctive — seemed fragile and uncertain.

Eighteen months later, these drawings stand as a celebration of recovery. They are also an expression of deep gratitude to those who stood beside me during that difficult time, even when, as some gently observed, I was not quite myself.

Hares, elusive and watchful, have long held a place in folklore as a creature of resilience, renewal and transformation. It seemed a fitting companion for a period of life defined by recovery and rediscovery. Moving lightly through each work, the hare becomes both witness and guide, quietly carrying the story forward.

The titles offer their own clues. Some are playful, others deliberately tongue-in-cheek. Hare Brained, perhaps, needs little explanation. Yet beneath the humour lies a deeper reflection — the fragile balance between holding on to what remained and learning, gradually, to release what could not be controlled.
A red cord appears in all of the drawings. Red is the most emotionally intense of colours, often associated with vitality, courage and the human capacity to endure challenge. Across cultures the red thread has carried powerful symbolism: in Chinese and Japanese traditions it is believed to offer protection and good fortune, while in other traditions it represents invisible bonds that connect people across time and circumstance.

In these works, the red cord becomes a quiet thread of continuity — a symbol of connection, resilience and the unseen forces that guide us through difficult passages.

Artist's Statement

Burdens are an ever-shifting part of living, uniquely different for everyone. They shape our lives to some degree and make who we are more interesting and complex. The weight we put on a burden determines how it affects us. Disadvantages, responsibilities and difficulties are a part of living and what may be a strain for one person might be of no consequence to another.

This body of work explores the weight and pull of burdens, using basic earth materials and tools – stone, metal, wood, hammers and fire. Stone and wood are collected as one might collect burdens – and then transformed into something other.

Artist's Statement

Strictly speaking, I’m neither a figurative nor an abstract painter and I find the space between figurative and non-figurative art an exhilarating place to work. I’m drawn to images that possess a mystery that hides things, being out of focus and relying more on evocation than a simple recognition.

The figure and the landscape are both elements present in my work, evidenced or acknowledged through colour and form, but most importantly through a dynamic or force. By this, I mean dealing with movement and magnetism, the pulls between one form or another and what the spaces between and around this pull look like. It’s the abstraction of forces and the residue or traces of these forms that survive the many erasures that become the elements of the painting. The problem I see, for me, is not the object in the painting, but the painting as object.