The West Gallery is situated in Zone B on the Ground Floor along the children’s corridor and near the Friends of the RUH coffee shop.
Phil Batty
These pieces are a sample of work from an exhibition called “Still Alive”, which was first shown at Corsham Gallery May 2024. This exhibition was created to celebrate what has been achieved since fully embracing an artistic life.
Phil has been exhibiting a couple of pieces in Open exhibitions since 2019. But she took the plunge to exhibit all her work in Oct 23 when she joined the local Art Trail. The following month she got the opportunity to rent an art studio, and this is some of the work created in that art space.
Phil’s background isn’t in art (although she has always created in some form). She trained as a nurse back in the 80’s and worked in the NHS until 2015, (with a segway into education for a few years in the middle ). She retrained as an Alexander technique (AT) teacher to rid herself of back pain and has been running her own AT practice since 2016.
Phil found out about intuitive expressive painting in 2018, it was then she caught the art bug. She was then diagnosed with stage 3 malignant melanoma in 2019, and treatment continued throughout 2020, with follow ups until 2025 (scans are clear). Throughout the treatment process she continued to paint just in her kitchen and the desire to fully embrace an artistic life came about, she realised just how important art was to her going forward.
“Still Alive” is a collection of mixed media artwork. She creates through a response to the materials used, and their response to each other. Either by directly applying paint/ mediums to the surface or on to separate paper to create collage material. She then responds to the collage papers created and incorporate them in the work. Phil’s inspiration generally comes from within, but obviously this is influenced by all that surrounds her. Some of these pieces have poems that resonate incorporated within them.
To buy an artwork please contact tonysmith3@nhs.net or 01225 824987
A third of every artwork sold goes to the RUH Arts Fund to continue the exhibition programme for patients, staff and visitors.
ARTSPARKS gallery
Artsparks brings a series of regular creative workshops to young patients on the Children’s Ward. The workshops led by our Lead Artist, Edwina Bridgeman and Visiting Artist, Charlotte Stowell allow patients to use their imagination and develop their own ideas. The artwork can then be taken home, shown to clinical staff or installed in the public Artsparks gallery in Zone B which reaches an audience of 22,000 people per year.
