Higher Education at Harrogate College

Travelling the sublime, by Andrew Stratford

In a world dirtied by human disregard for our surroundings and persistently ravaged by seemingly endless conflict we can still, if we look hard enough, find some prodigious beauty around us. My current work is about a continuing search for the sublime in the landscape. Whether that is the few remaining scraps of the natural environment or that which has been manipulated by agriculture or even scarred by industry. I find the world around us endlessly fascinating, exciting, calming, uplifting and occasionally slightly terrifying.

I am as equally fascinated by nature as I am by the stark contrast of industrial and urban decay. I often find myself drawn to wide open spaces, big skies, the coast and the sea. Both outside in the landscape and in the studio, using my notes and sketchbooks for reference, I experiment with expressive, gestural mark-making to add spontaneity. I attempt to capture an emotion, a feeling of movement and atmosphere and to create depth and texture by building up layers of paint. Although my paintings are semi-abstract in nature, I always attempt to retain a sense of place and the human connection to it.

Belonging, by Melanie Benn

The title for these spheres is ‘Belonging’. My Master’s journey has taken me from exploring concepts of decay and regeneration to ultimately delving into the theme of ‘Belonging’. Creating spheres that transition from man-made to natural entities, symbolizing nature’s reclaiming process is quite powerful. It’s intriguing to imagine these spheres becoming integrated into the forest landscape, echoing the resilience and adaptability of nature.

IVHU by Letty Gwanzura

I am a fashion designer and my main focus is making surface patterns on my fabrics. I use acrylics and pen before putting them on illustrator or photoshop to make the images look better and also to see if the repeat pattern comes out the way I would like it to look on fabric.

My collection was inspired by my Zimbabwean roots and it shows the spiritual connection between music and the soil, hence it is called IVHU.

Ivhu is a word taken from the Shona language from Zimbabwe meaning the soil. We are from the soil hence we are referred to as daughters and sons of the soil. Our ancestors are called ‘vevhu’ meaning those in the ground or the soil, so part of our connection to them is through music with some powerful meanings and the use of instruments like the drum, mbira (lamellphones), hosho which consists of a pair of (mapudzi) maranka gourds with seeds which is played alongside the mbira. My prints are very colourful and fun as I play around with colours on illustrator and photoshop which is one exciting thing about this collection.