In this, the last week of ReMix Creatives' 'Material Matters' exhibition at the Castle Park Arts Centre, I spoke to artist Deb Kemp, about creating artwork during lockdown.

Established over 15 years ago, ReMix Creatives is a small private group of mixed-media artists, who exhibit annually at Castle Park. Deb, who is a painter, print-maker and art teacher, has been a member for seven years.

"We come together once a month in Frodsham," she tells me, "and we have visiting tutors who are practicing artists, craftspeople and makers from a real range of disciplines.

"We are very lucky because we have some really quite prestigious tutors from the world of art who come and deliver workshops to us. We've had workshops in print and weaving and basket-work and dying with indigo, which introduce us to techniques, methods and approaches that you would never explore if you were just working at home on your own.

"Influenced by some of the workshops we've had along the way, we all develop our own work, bringing it together and sharing ideas and supporting each other. And then we exhibit it together. There is always a fixed theme, so hopefully this makes for a cohesive exhibition at the end of the year.

"One of the real pleasures of the group for me is that there's something very nourishing about creating artwork with other people who are also creating artwork, and being in a group of people who relish talking about their fabric collections and about seeing galleries and exhibitions."

For this year's exhibition, ReMix Creatives collectively decided on the title, 'Material Matters', which, in its multiple meanings, allowed for many different interpretations and approaches. As Deb observes, "it didn't matter that it was ambiguous, because we could all make it work for us."

"I was thinking I could do things in textiles and print and paint. And then of course Covid hit, and 'Material Matters' took on a really significant meaning that we had never anticipated at the beginning of the year, because suddenly we were talking PPE and facemasks and reduced physical contact," she says.

At first, with global panic over the pandemic swelling, Deb found it difficult to concentrate on producing art, but her work soon began to reflect the general mood of the moment.

While her sketches from this period do not represent the Covid crisis pictorially, they conjure a more visceral sense of its darkness and anxiety, morphing from the open landscapes which usually inspire her work into images of narrow woodland pathways, the light engulfed by trees.

Although lockdown felt like a stagnant, fruitless time in some respects, in others, it has allowed for increased artistic growth and exploration. "It gave me more time than I normally have to paint, which is a real silver lining," Deb explains.

She also observes that lockdown, with its endless expanses of empty time, allowed people to explore art in ways they may never have considered before.

"Wherever you looked, people were creating, whether by drawing rainbows and putting them in their windows or watching Grayson Perry's Art Club on Channel 4. I think art was something that was really therapeutic for a lot of people during lockdown."

Now that the 'Material Matters' creation process is coming to an end, ReMix Creatives have been discussing their theme for the year to come, and have decided on 'Wabi-sabi'. This Japanese philosophy and aesthetic honours imperfection and transience, focusing on the value of the humble and the homemade.

"Doesn't that sound good!" Deb says, "So that's our theme; we're all really excited about it. I've no idea about what I'll end up with by the end of the year. I'm trying not to have any preconceptions and I'll see where it takes me!"

You can visit the 'Material Matters' exhibition for free at the Castle Park Arts Centre until Saturday 12th September. The gallery is open from 10am-4pm.

Follow Deb on Instagram (debkempartwork) and ReMix Creatives on Facebook