The National Trust of Guernsey’s Art at the Park Gallery in Saumarez Park is delighted to present a new joint exhibition by Bozena Pollock and Sally Cokeley entitled ‘Pink Granite : Wild Flower’. The exhibition runs from Tuesday 31st March until Friday 1st May from 10am until 5pm daily. (Please be aware that the exhibition will close at 2pm on the final day.)

Notes on the exhibition by the artists;-

‘Collaborating on “Pink Granite : Wild Flower” brings together our different approaches to painting and observation.  We chose Port Soif for its combined inspirations for us both - the distinctive horseshoe shaped beach and coastline, and the enclosing dunes that support a rich wild plant habitat.  Meeting regularly at or near the beach, Bozena’s home handily being very close by, has made it a pleasure to work consistently on the project and being able to return to the same place regularly helped us observe changes overtime and to deepen our connection with and understanding of the landscape.  The project collaboration evolved naturally through a practical and generous sharing of ideas, material and research.  In our work together Bozena focuses on painting large scale images that capture the overall landscape and atmosphere of Port Soif while Sally concentrates on the plants and their habitats and exploring the smaller details of the landscape.  Together our combined perspectives create a more complete and layered response to the environment of Port Soif.’

Bozena Pollock Biography

I am an artist whose practice has developed between Guernsey, London and Poland. I studied art in Kraków, my hometown, later I trained in Art Restoration and Conservation in London.

Alongside raising my young family, I became deeply involved in the Guernsey art scene, exhibiting widely and working with other artists and institutions. My paintings are held in the permanent collection of the Guernsey Museum, I have had solo exhibitions at the Coach House Gallery, the Gate House Gallery at Elizabeth College, Art in the Park, Sula Gallery, I exhibited at the George Crossan Gallery in St Peter Port. I have also collaborated in exhibitions at The Greenhouse Guernsey Museum. I had painting chosen for the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy.

When I paint, I enter a state of quiet focus and peace. The atmosphere of making feels almost like a spell: there is only me, the canvas, and the movement of paint. Time disappears, urgency falls away, and nothing exists beyond the rhythm of brushstrokes and colour. This sense of presence and immersion lies at the heart of my work.

Sally Cokeley Biography

Sally Cokeley trained, and subsequently worked, in London as a textile designer creating printed textiles (and also wallpapers) for many well-known high street and exclusive brands. Even now, rather than being painterly, her work tends towards surface pattern. 

Having grown up in Guernsey, Sally left at 18 to study at Art College. After 18 years of working in design in London and abroad she returned to Guernsey but put her creative career on hold while she pursued a more corporate line of work.  Having stepped away from the “office chair” last year Sally now has the time to return to her first passion, being creative.

Sally is fascinated by plants, specifically the wild ones that survive in tough habitats, between rocks, in sand, windy, salty environments or scrubby land.  In addition to a degree in Textile Printing, Sally holds a qualification, with distinction, in Botanical Painting from The Society of Botanical Artists.  Recently though, her painting of plants has turned away from strict Botanical works, which must involve botanical accuracy, and turned towards what she calls plant paintings, in which she portrays how the plant appears in its natural habitat rather than as a specimen.

Becoming much more aware of the importance of wild plants through the work of Grow Guernsey Natives, a charity set on nurturing a wider knowledge and protection of these sometimes tiny but beautiful plants, and the Botany section of La Société, this collaborative project with Bozena gave Sally the opportunity to really look at the plants that enjoy the habitat of the dunes and common land around Port Soif at a level of detail not engaged in previously.  Plants, and what they add to our environment, are amazing and she hopes that her paintings of them will highlight their extraordinary qualities.