In 'Effortless Brushstrokes' Beside the Wave and Falmouth Art Gallery have joined forces to showcase great works of art which express 'the most with the least' and as such, these paintings reveal the 'immensity' that is held within a few strokes of a paintbrush or palette knife. The incredible skill required to say so much with, on the face of it, so little effort is the focus of these shows. At Beside The Wave, we have looked at the concept of "Effortless Brushstrokes" in four ways.

Effortless Brushstrokes: the Maximum with the Minimum

Miro once said: "I feel the need of attaining the maximum of intensity with the minimum of means and it is this which has led me to give my painting a character of even greater bareness." This pared back sense of 'bareness' is apparent in the contemporary work of Lyndsey Redford, Myles Oxenford and Andrew Tozer. In each of these cases, paintings appear to be swiftly and effortlessly made, but spring from innate ability combined with an unerring commitment to observation and practice.

Effortless Brushstrokes: Paint like a Child

The drawings of a child are vital, lively and spontaneous and Picasso maintained that "All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." He also said that it took him "four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child." For some artists, this need to recapture the vitality, spontaneity and truth of childhood expression and description leads them to 'deconstruction' and this can be observed in the work of Miles Heseltine, Paul Wadsworth and Simon Stooks.

Effortless Brushstrokes: Creating an Impression

For many of the artists in this collection 'effortless' brushstrokes are used to create an impression, rather than attempt to make a literal representation of their subject. Typical of this approach is the sense that artists such as Sarah Wimperis, Andrew Tozer, Robert Jones, Ted Dyer and Neil Pinkett, capture the impression of place, instinctively knowing how to say just enough, and when to stop, confident that a perspective has been captured and light, vibrancy and movement have been effortlessly expressed.

Effortless Brushstrokes: a Tendency to Abstract

In his work, Miles Heseltine draws on the thought that De Kooning likened abstraction to Lewis Carol's Cheshire cat when the smile remained even after the cat had vanished. Apparently effortless in its simplicity, a tendency to abstract seeks to represent purely the essence of what is to be expressed. Chris Rigby draws inspiration from Cezanne's "direct honesty" in his own sense of enquiry into the nature of things whilst Benjamin Warner's versatility as an artist and colourist sees form edging up to abstraction. John Raynes, meanwhile, seeks out the abstract forms within the world around him and it is the objectivity of the mathematical or geometrical shapes that compels him. This exhibition showcases paintings which have been created with apparent ease, but which come as a result of a lifetime's commitment to expression through the medium of paint.

To receive further information about the exhibition please contact Beside The Wave gallery@beside-the-wave.co.uk or 01326 211132. All paintings will be available to view on the gallery website www.beside-the-wave.co.uk from 10th February 2012.