GINA SOUTHGATE - ARTIST AT THE CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL

Gina Southgate with her creations

 Gina Southgate is the silent presence at the Cambridge International Jazz Festival. She works alongside musicians to paint them as they play  - to see her dab and splodge and sweep at the canvas during a gig is quite something. As one artitst remarked of the result “ Hey man I have it on my phone already – it’s original and it’s live” That sums it up really. Gina is now the go-to artist for shows all over Britain. She has just finished an intense session in London and is poised to paint the First International Jazz Festival with her style and verve.

 It must take some nerve. There you are on side-display next to some of the most revered players in the jazz world, and you’re meant to concentrate on the action and do something entirely different at the same time. And it’s there for all to see. Gina does not turn her back coyly on the audieince. Every brushstroke is public property. The painting is sonically driven;

Art in Action

‘I work with the frisson of the music observing the relationship between musician and I instrument . I try to capture the energy and essence of the gig in the real time . Sometimes I work solely with sound and ignore the visual content producing abstract imagery.”

 Gina has been on the Arts scene for some time, but has had a massive renewal of popularity in recent years.

 ‘I grew up in Essex and did a two year foundation at Southend College of Technology just after the emergence of punk. My foundation there was a turning point. I moved to London to do a degree in silversmithing/ metalwork at Camberwell School of Art and Crafts followed by a postgraduate year in pewter casting’

 It all turned around after a residency for the Newcastle Arts Centre that began a string of bookings in the suddenly vibrant North East. -  including the zany Something else producers at the BBC. Gina ended up on Jazz on 3 and Late Junction.

Gina has gone into top gear with her work and now is in demand on an international scale.  She attributes her success to the company she keeps, her creative parents and friends’fantastic practicing artists, designers and musicians ‘

 At the Stapleford Gallery there is a show of her latest work, on until December. Worth a visit – but her apogee of brilliance is surely when she is painting to the beat.

A creative artist with a mission.