Gina Ward
Born 1973. Gina was awarded a 1st Class Honours Degree in Painting and Drawing at Edinburgh College of Art in 1998.
In the same year she was awarded the John Kinross Travel Scholarship to go to Florence for three months to paint. She produced a body of work from which several pieces were selected for the Scottish Academy archives.
Her work is spontaneous and lively. Her immediate style of drawing and her apparent random use of mixed media captures a moment in time and shows immense vitality. Her work creates a great deal of interest and over the years has been acquired by many private collectors as well as being much admired and collected by other artists.
Gina tends to work small scale because her drawings and mixed media works are done on the spot. She makes no apology for any ‘messy’ marks which she says are integral to the spontaneity and ‘character’ of any individual piece. Her work is in no way contrived or overworked, sometimes appearing ‘unfinished’ she captures a focal point and allows the viewer’s imagination to ‘fill in the gaps’ from the suggestions of her drawing or patches of colour. This is a skill that can only be fully achieved by a very capable artist.
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Gina lived in the north west of England for a number of years where she enjoyed drawing people in Manchester city centre and browsing in Bolton Market. 2003-04 was spent in London, where she completed a series of drawings from around the city. She later moved to South Wales where she now lives with her husband and children. One of her children has special needs and has taken up a lot of time and attention.
Gina has worked in primary schools and has facilitated art workshops with children and adults. She paints backdrops for a theatre company and is an activities coordinator in a care home.
Drawing and painting for herself is something Gina continues to do whenever she can. She has also worked to a number of commissions.
Artist Statement:
People going about their business are an important part of my drawings. I work in a variety of media but often I return to line drawings. I experiment with expressing tone and distance through pure line and enjoy experimenting with mark making and gestural drawing.
I also enjoy making small portraits in oils and sometimes still-life studies, exploring colour and light. I paint objects which are familiar to me such as a favourite pair of shoes, a chair and even myself.
I have also done some studies from outside, which examine the effect of sunlight on buildings and different weather conditions. The elderly clientele of the local pier are another source of inspiration to me.
Working with some patients with dementia I find the arts invaluable as a means of expression and communication. Art as therapy is certainly incorporated in my own work, there is a compulsion and release in mark making and a freedom and joy in creation.
“Gina Ward … [is] capable of animating bustling street scenes and panoramic views with a lively flowing line. She captures the impersonal activity of metropolitan life in familiar places. The figures in her city scenes are usually anonymous pedestrians and other transients; in the rustic scenes tall multi-storeyed houses are dwarfed by hills and ominous clouds… Yet a sense of humanity pervades all. Ward’s drawings resonate with a sense of place and lived experience.” –City Life March 2003
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Education |
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1994 – 1998 |
BA (Hons) Painting and Drawing (First Class) |
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Edinburgh College of Art |
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Solo Exhibitions 2005 |
Wendy J Levy Contemporary Art Ltd Executive Business Channel Ltd, Manchester |
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2003 |
Arranged by Comme Ca PR, Manchester 0202348678787 |
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Joint Exhibitions 2003 |
Wendy J Levy Contemporary Art, Manchester (with John Pegg) |
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Group Exhibitions |
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2011 2010 2002 |
Wendy J Levy Contemporary Art Mixed Summer Exhibition, Manchester Wendy J Levy Contemporary Art Christmas Exhibition, Manchester Wish You Were Where? Manchester City Gallery |
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2001 |
Castlefields Gallery Christmas Exhibition, Manchester |
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2001 |
Rogue Open Studio Manchester |
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2001 |
The Zion Centre, Manchester |
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2001 |
Creative Consultants Gallery and Art Lounge, Manchester |
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2000 |
Wendy J Levy Contemporary Art Christmas Exhibition, Manchester |
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2000 |
Rogue Open Studio, Manchester |
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1998 |
Royal Scottish Academy, Annual Students’ Exhibition, Edinburgh |
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1998 |
Royal Bank of Scotland Exhibition, Edinburgh |
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1998 |
Scottish Gallery Student Exhibition, Edinburgh |
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Prizes and Awards |
John Kinross Scholarship, Royal Scottish Academy
Work selected for the Scottish Academy archives
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