On 23 March, I went to the Fillingdon Fine Art exhibition in Piddington, High Wycombe. The exhibition showcases art by artists from South Africa.

I chose to attend this particular exhibition because it seemed to interest me that the art was done by artists from a different culture.

I saw many different art forms made with different medias: clay, resin, oil paint, pastel, beads, ceramics, glass, fabric etc. All these works were made by artists from South Africa and they made things ranging from jewellery to spoons. I was very lucky to meet one of the artists whose art was on display at the exhibition, Jennifer Newman. She was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She studied Graphic Design but then realised it wasn't right for her. Jennifer then went on to study ceramics and sculpture and majored in that. She later moved to London in 1981 and relocated to Oxfordshire in 2001. I especially loved her use of resin in ’Edge’ the main piece in one of the rooms, depicting Robben Island.

I also met the curator of the display, Deborah Digsby. She told me that she highly recommends this job, even though it isn't the highest paying, it is really quite interesting, meeting new and upcoming artists and putting all the works together to make one big exposition.

My first impressions were that there was a wide variety of art and different art forms which struck me as interesting and the vast variety of art created, and the different techniques also fascinated me.

I learnt that art doesn’t necessarily have to hold emotion or ideas, it can also be used to express thoughts. Even though it hasn’t made me think about any art forms differently, it has made me think about how the art forms are used to portray these ideologies. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being part of the audience at an art event. I would DEFINITELY recommend coming to the Fillingdon Fine Art Gallery!