DISCOVER
The Omega Art School Annual Show
20th to 31st March 2024

Preview evening drinks Thursday 21st March 6-8pm
Open daily 11am to 5.30pm
Late opening Thurs 28th March

The Annual show for the Omega Art School students where art interested people are taught by experienced artists.

We are delighted to welcome back the students of Omega Art school who will be showing a range of work in a huge array of mediums and techniques across collage, printmaking, drawing and painting. All classes are lead by practicing artists who can bring so much more than technical know how to the studio classrooms and the results speak for themselves. The Omega Art School welcomes students of all abilities from beginners who haven’t picked up a paintbrush since school to artists who want to brush up on rusty skills or regain confidence. There is a course for everyone!

Email: omegaartschool@gmail.com
www.theomegaartschool.com
Phone: 07981 867826

Kevin Dean talks about the background to The Omega Art School and reigniting creativity. 

‘So many people have told me how their interest in art and creativity was discouraged when they were young, often by their parents, or even teachers. However that sense of wanting to create doesn’t disappear, and it can be reignited at any time in our lives, perhaps in mid-career, on retiring, or once our children are older. There are of course many advantages in taking up art as adults, for instance, our attention span is better than when we were young, we probably have less distractions and can be more focused. It was with is in mind that I began the Omega Art School for adults, after years of teaching part-time or as a visiting lecturer in various art colleges in the Uk and aboard. 

I wanted to give our students an art school experience, with a good variety of different media and techniques, so I teamed up with some great artists who also have teaching experience, we each have our particular speciality, Debs Dodsworth for example is a brilliant printmaker, Chris Wood paints beautiful acrylics, Jacqui Mair is very well known for her collage work, my son Mataio Austin Dean a graduate from the Slade, also teaches acrylics and etching. Rachel Johnstone has also begun teaching textiles, while I teach drawing and watercolour. 

The students meet once a week for half a day, or in the evening over a 10 week term. Most classes begin with a presentation and often a demonstration. The classes are small, so people get lots of help from the tutor - plus we have one to one tutorials at the end of each term. We like to encourage people to work in their own time, so there is also homework available, if people want to do it.

The exhibition at The jack House Gallery is a culmination of a lot of hard work by our students and tutors. Virtually all of the students have at least one piece of work on show, while most of the framed pieces are by people who joined the school when we first began, about 2 years ago. I hope the show will encourage all those people who have an interest in art and possibly a long held ambition to reignite their creativity to join us.’ 

MEET THE ARTIST TUTORS

Kevin Dean Teaches primarily drawing, watercolour and print- making. On graduating from The Royal College of Art, Kevin worked as an illustrator and textile designer. Later working in the Middle East on decoration for architecture, including the large marble courtyard and other areas at the Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi. He has exhibited widely from NY, Paris, Dubai and London. He has also taught part time at The Royal College of Art, Bournemouth & Poole College of Art and Southampton Solent University. Kevin has a studio at ArtSpace Portsmouth.

Jacqueline Mair is well known for her collage work, she also specialises in water based painting, printmaking and drawing. Jacqui has worked as an international artist and illustrator for over thirty years. She has an MA in printmaking from the Royal College of Art London and has taught at the University of Portsmouth and Savannah College of Art and Design, USA and Lacoste, France. As a painter she has exhibited in the USA, Mexico, France and India. Her clients as an illustrator include The Royal Mail, The Financial Times, Microsoft, Roger la Borde, Orange, The New Yorker. 

Chris Wood works in a wide variety of mediums, including acrylics, oils and printmaking. Chris also runs the Experimental life drawing class at The Omega Centre. Chris trained at The Ipswich Art School, followed by Wimbledon College of Art (London UK), after which he worked as a graphic designer and illustrator in Central London. He is a highly skilled fine artist, illustrator, painter and printmaker. Chris has been an academic leader in Further and Higher Education and currently teaches drawing and visual communication part time at the University of Portsmouth. In addition, for the last 20 years he has run a very successful life drawing workshop in Portsmouth. Chris exhibits on the South Coast and in London and has work in private collections around the world. He has a painting studio at ArtSpace Portsmouth.

Rachel Johnston is an artist working with textile-based media and photography. She trained in Fine Art at Norwich School of Art and the Royal College of Art and has worked in public art, community engagement and HE Fine Art teaching since then. She is a member of ArtSpace Portsmouth and exhibits regularly. Her artwork focusses on themes relating to place and narrative and is grounded in material process, using weaving and stitch to make objects that reflect the landscape. Website: racheljohnstonart.com

Deborah Dodsworth specialises in alternative photographic techniques, drawing and printmaking. Deb attended Goldsmiths for her postgraduate degree in Art and Design Education and has over 20 years of experience teaching Art and Photography.  She completed her BA (Hons) Fine Art Multimedia at Kingston University, where she won a scholarship to NCAD Ireland, for a year to concentrate on aspects of photography and printmaking. Deb is also known for her work as an outreach artist for the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) and was invited to meet, HRH Princess Anne to show and discuss heritage and lottery funded community art projects created (in conjunction with NMRN) with children from deprived areas of Portsmouth.  

Mataio Austin Dean is an artist, poet, musician, and activist from Portsmouth, Hampshire. Born in 1996 to a Guyanese mother and an English father, Austin Dean’s practice is often centred around an interrogation of Marxism as a tool for emancipatory praxis. His work is concerned with the relationship between printmaking and orality, with works often consisting of etchings and other printed matter, along with singing, writing, reciting, and speaking. Austin Dean is interested in these forms as having actant potentialities for liberation which can be embodied and actualised.