Rugby mum explores creative urge at new exhibition - The Rugby Observer

Rugby mum explores creative urge at new exhibition

Rugby Editorial 27th Apr, 2018   0

A MUM from Rugby is exploring her ‘long neglected creative urge’ at a new exhibition at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum.

Former teacher Rebecca Dawkins is displaying her vibrant paintings at Colour Express, her first solo art exhibition.

Rebecca, who taught at Daventry’s E-Act Academy and Leamington’s Campion School, decided in 2010 to take time away from teaching to bring up her three sons.

But she realised she wanted to take another direction in life, so took an Art Foundation Diploma course – and is now involved in local art events such as the Rugby Open, the South Northants Art Trail and the Rugby Festival of Art and Culture.




She said: “My new exhibition is called Colour Express because of its focus on my use of vibrant, surprising colour combinations and abstractions that may either please or displease in equal measure – and on my fast, often frenetically paced expression within the painting.

Rebecca’s work focuses on the use of “vibrant, surprising colour combinations and abstractions that may either please or displease in equal measure”.

“Many of my paintings have several paintings underneath them and I find that I work and rework pieces until I am happy with the complexity of layers – the fascinating interplay of depth and texture that layers and layers of paint can achieve.


“Paint is never applied with a brush, although I did once use a garden broom. Instead I use up to 60cm long squeegees and huge palette knives to smear, flick, smooth or scrape paint off or onto my canvases.

“The physical workings of the paintings often mirror my own emotional workings as I progress through a painting struggling to achieve what I perceive to be a finished piece that reflects a certain feeling or mood. I am uneasy until I feel and believe that the fruit of my labour is alive with colour, something that is textural both physically and visually.

“I hope that the eye of the viewer is taken on an unexpected and surprising journey around my canvases, and that whether the conclusion is disdain or appreciation that they will at least be moved to feel.”

Colour Express runs until May 10 at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum’s Floor One Gallery.

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