Hastings Observer
Show that’s not to be missed, a display of earthy sensuality
Belly Dancer, by Bea Lacey
Review: Bea Lacey New Works Exhibition, Weekend Gallery, High Street, Old Town, until May 6
WELL-KNOWN local Hastings artist Bea Lacey has been displaying her work in numerous exhibitions in local galleries for more than two decades.
There have in recent years been exhibitions of her work and those of other artists at her small Memorial Gallery in the town centre.
Her work has had early the hallmarks of strong draftsmanship and a delight in the human figure. Later works have frequently tended to greater abstraction and a delight in the play of shapes.
But an earthy sensuality and the impact on the viewer of human and other natural forms linger as a residue in many of her more abstract explorations of light and colour.
The vivid works in the Weekend Gallery represent a selection from newer developments in her work. They explore the boundaries between photography and painting in highly-treated digital images.
The Lacey hallmarks are all there for this viewer. But the photographic impact of light and colour has perhaps greater initial visceral impact and immediacy. Although I have found that they also reward repeated viewing.
There are subtle tonalities of light and dark and painterly qualities in even the more low-key exhibits.
Bea Lacey has strived, I think, to convey movement of expert and stylised kinds with bold, dramatic and sometimes cinematic images.
There is a perceptible and charming delight in the grace of running or dancing living forms in many of the more successful works on display.
This is most obvious in larger bursting with life pictures, like the belly dancing series, or that of the coach and horses.
It is not surprising that her recent visits to Morocco with its ceremonial display, royal parades, shrouded women and fluid limbs, gave much stimulus to creation of her new works.
In the big dancer series, a gorgeous pink colour of shimmering dress, highly toned skin with flashing revelations and concealments excite the imagination through the artistry of capture as much as subject.
The woman’s still intense gaze humanises and pierces the space above her whirling goddess-armed movement.
Vivid circling gyrations and boldly light electric moments, caught within the space of the pictures.
In the carriage picture, again, limbs are caught straining to the limits in highly trained exertions; blurring in the dazzling Morocco light highlighting a highly decorated carriage and its static passengers in a dynamic parade of contrasts.
Here again subject and treatment seem to meet their match.
Don’t miss.
Mike Ryan
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