We’re delighted to announce the first show in our new pop up art space, nestled in the heart of Chesterton. Thrifts Walk Studios, has five independent artists based there, who have worked with residents in the city to restore the disused space so that it is usable, into a pop up ‘art shop’ where the artists can meet their customers and the public direct, plus a gallery and a garden where artists can sell, exhibit and exchange ideas with other makers. The gallery exhibitions are, of course, open to the public, with work for sale.
Kith & Kin is a new exhibition from Cambridge portrait painter, Heloise Toop and will run from 11 to 25 March 2016.
You can visit the exhibition between 10am and 5pm on
Saturday 12th / Sunday 13th
Friday 18th/ Saturday 19th / Sunday 20th
Friday 25th (9am – 5pm, with a private view for families midday – 2pm) / Saturday 26th
Kith and Kin, explores the connections between the family we have and the family we choose. Throughout 2016, Cambridge Art Salon is loosely curating a programme of talks, exhibitions and research as part of We Are Family – a new project that explores the value of family and intergenerational arts in the community.
Heloise, who works primarily in oils, studied at The Heatherley School of Fine Art in Chelsea and has embraced portraiture as her ‘path to happiness’. Art critic, Clive Christy has described her paintings as ‘strong and yet very sensitive… she seems to capture a vulnerability and humanity in her works’. A review in Style Magazine wrote ‘Heloise’s mastery of the paint palette is breathtaking; from delicate eyelashes to wispy strands of hair, her depiction is stunningly realistic’.
In 2009, at just seventeen, Heloise had a painting selected to show at the Mall Galleries in London. She also exhibited, by invitation, at the 2013 ‘People’ exhibition at the Bankside Gallery. Five of her paintings were shown at the ‘Debut Contemporary Art’ Gallery in Notting Hill, London and she has exhibited and led a portrait painting workshop at Impington Village College’s Annual Art Exhibition.
More recently, Heloise was one of two artists live painting at New Artists Fair in London.
Her commissioned work includes a portrait of Dr Rebecca Lingwood, the first female director of Madingley Hall, Cambridge and Professor Michael Green, a fellow of Clare College, Cambridge and former Lucasian Professor of Mathematics.
Of her latest pieces Heloise says ‘As a portrait painter, I always strive to convey some kind of human emotion in my work. In my most recent paintings I have focused on the relationship between siblings, and the relationship between my friends and I. There are sets of portraits that interact with each other through eye contact and smirks. Each set tells a different story. Alongside this brand new work, I will also be exhibiting some large scale oil paintings featuring friends dressed as fairytale characters, and some honest portraits of those close to me. My Kith and Kin‘