Lily Skull Sculpture

The RAra Collective is a group of four artists who live and work in the West Country of the UK. We all have very different styles, but we found that by grouping together, we could broaden our appeal. ------------------------ MIRANDA WOODARD FRASER. Miranda Woodard lives in the West Country. Her childhood was spent surfing the sea and skimming the waves on the beaches of Cornwall. She went on to study at Winchester School of Art, and is now a founder member of the RAra Collective. Her paintings, drawings and sculptures are wonderfully deranged. She uses vibrant colours and seductive shapes which draw you into her vision. She reveals the ordinary in unexpected places, entertaining and surprising the viewer with her sense of pattern, shape and colour. Although her work is full of fun and enjoyment, the macabre and the weird are never far beneath the surface. The echoes of half remembered dreams ripple across her canvases, prodding your funny bone. She balances 'the beautiful ' and 'the disturbing' on each end of a visual see saw then leaves it to you to decide which side wins. Miranda sells her work through "The Last Tuesday Society Gallery", Hackney, London and through . Her work has been acquired by the international collector and art patron, Maryam Eisler, and H.R.H the Prince of Wales amongst others. -------------------------- SIMON FRASER Simon Fraser, a.k.a. WYN, was born and raised in the jungles of Malaya then burnished and singed in the furnaces of Rock and Roll. He is now working in the calmer surroundings of the West Country UK. Simon's work has been exhibited in Galleries in London and across the UK, as well as in New York, Paris and Beirut and can be found in collections as far apart as Buenos Aires and Edinburgh. Simon's earlier work was usually signed with the acronym "˜WYN' and mostly consisted of painted wooden sculpture. In the late "˜90s, he was commissioned by Harrods of London to produce 20 pieces for their Christmas window displays. H.R.H. Prince Charles also acquired two pieces around the same time. Much of Simon's recent output has evolved from the idea that once a work has left the gallery, it ceases to be an individual piece and becomes a part of the décor of a room. Consequently his latest pieces are designed to brighten or soothe the spaces they inhabit, only revealing their secrets on closer inspection. Simon is a founder member of the RAra Collective.