KUNSTHUIS Gallery, at Dutch House, Crayke, is presenting work by four artists living and working in Britain who demonstrate a fresh approach to painting and sculpture in a spring exhibition until June 11.

Hazel Clark, Gareth Griffiths, Stephen Heward and Chris Brook all push the boundaries of their creative practice with a dynamic use of concepts, techniques and imagery.

Hazel Clark is a North Yorkshire painter and sculptor who has exhibited for more than 20 years since graduating from Leeds University with a Fine Art Degree. Her energetic and varied use of paint – which can be poured, worked with a knife, or brushed – is related aesthetically to her chosen subject and her work displays a subtle blend of the figurative and the abstract, offering a sense of discovery and celebration.

From 2000 to 2002 Clark was a Britart featured artist and then went on to train as an art psychotherapist, since when she has combined painting with her work as an NHS art therapist and latterly as a sculptor in stone.

"Much of my work has been influenced by Jung and his archetypal patterns of life: dipping into stored sensory material, going beyond the core of consciousness and creativity," she says.

Her techniques include pouring oil and water-based paints together. “Sometimes it works and a lot of the time it doesn’t; there are elements which are difficult to control or stabilise," says Hazel. "Other paintings are worked more with the knife than the brush to achieve texture and layers I can then carve into. One of my favourite and most exciting methods is running diluted oil paint, directed so it flows and mixes on the canvas. This demands immediate response. The best marks are sometimes ephemeral, so the process has to be repeated.”

Gareth Griffiths is a sculptor originally from North Wales who has been elected as a member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. He has exhibited at Liverpool's Tate Gallery and in Leeds, Cardiff, London, Prague and North America and his work is on permanent display at Michael O’Hare's Michelin-starred Leeds restaurant The Man Behind The Curtain.

York Press:

South Bank, by Gareth Griffiths

His art practice is influenced by West Coast American architecture known as “Googie”, derived from a John Lautner-designed coffee shop built in West Hollywood. This style of architecture was born after the Second World War and became more notable during the 1950s and 1960s, using flowing lines, odd abstract cut-outs, upswept roofs and boomerang shapes.

Applying new technologies, architects were able to design buildings that looked more like works of art, rather than simply functional buildings. In turn, Griffiths' colourful sculptures are made with the intention of catching people’s attention and drawing people closer.

After a lifetime of studying landscapes and skies as a landscape architect and flying instructor, Stephen Heward has turned to painting as a liberating and expressive outlet that has become an evolving dialogue with the elements and celebrates the experience of landscape.

“Each body of work is different; the response of a slightly different me," he says. "The texture and thickness of paint can vary from thin glazes to heavy impasto, depending on mood and instinct. The changes are an important aspect of my practice, which needs constant challenges and re-evaluation of my methods and environment. There is spontaneity and fluidity. There is an economy, an impatience, a romanticism and a pragmatism. The work evokes a sense of place and a sense of space.”

Artist and printmaker Chris Brook was born in Yorkshire in 1960 but now lives in the Scottish Borders. Fusing traditional and self-discovered painting and printmaking techniques, Brook creates pieces that possess a tangible and tactile quality. The subject is predominately landscape driven, influenced by the proximity of where land meets sea and its recurring theme of containment.

Never intended as site specific, instead the paintings are a collection of marks and shapes to suggest a narrative, alluding to the type of place Brook would like to find. The theme of containment is echoed through naive imagery, depicting boundary walls, furrowed fields, crop rotations and fence rails, while scored graphic lines offer a method of permanent mark making over layered surfaces. A personal, reflective landscape emerges, a reinvented retreat which conveys protection, comfort and shelter.

For those interested in abstract drawing, a Drawing: Introduction to Abstract Drawing workshop will be held on Wednesday, May 10, followed by an advanced course, Drawing: Abstract Drawing Advanced on Wednesday, June 7, both from 5.30am to 9pm. Tickets can be booked online at kunsthuisgallery.com/shop.

Kunsthuis Gallery is located at Dutch House, Mill Green Farm, on the road between Crayke and Brandsby. The gallery is open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm; entry is free to Dutch House and Kunsthuis.