The lockdowns, which led to the island shutting down for much of the first half of this year, has had a profound effect on most of the island’s population.

One of the knock-on effects was that it led to many planned art exhibitions being postponed, which led many of the island’s artists to be left to their own devices, with far too much time on their hands.

The results of such space for thought and creativity for two particular artists can be seen in the new exhibition to open in Laxey.

Neil Milsom and Julia Ashby Smyth opened ’Deeper’, a collaborative art exhibition at the Hodgson Loom gallery, last weekend.

Despite being outwardly different artists, the work produced by Julia, a graphic illustrator with a devilish eye for creating the figures from your deepest, darkest dreams, and Neil, very much an elemental sculptor who fashions his creations with materials right from under his feet, seem to perfectly compliment each other.

Originally conceived to open before the January lockdown, ’Deeper’ is a rich and immersive exhibition, full of brooding, emotive and timeless imagery.

Neil has created several of his distinctive and impressive sculptures, mixing slate and lime stone, some polished to an almost unnatural shine, with hammered and molten lead to create a series of pieces that look like they could have been unearthed from a burial chamber from thousand of years ago, while Julia has drawn walls full of creatures and folklore characters, together with several friendly comic pieces.

Having the enforced break allowed both artists more time to dwell no their work, which ended up giving the title of the exhibition a, well, deeper meaning.

’During the lockdown, I went off and I did a lockdown diary, which is here, on display,’ said Julia.

’I was in the middle of preparing my work for the exhibition, but after a while, I stopped doing things for this and just went a bit mad.

’Normally, when I work, I do lots of preliminary drawings and I know what I’m doing before I start on the paper. ’However, with a lot of these pictures, it was all about not just going with the process and letting go and just seeing if things worked.

’However some of those things became part of the exhibition because I just let go and stopped contriving to do things by plan. Just go with it and go beyond the limitations that you set yourself and see what happens.

’Deeper’ has several multi-layered connotations and her pictures are layered with different levels of meaning, which Julia draws on for many of her pictures.

’To me, this exhibition meant going deeper and drawing things that sometimes I would probably stop myself from doing in the past,’ she said.

’Some of the things are a bit dark and before I might have thought that some people aren’t going to like that.

’Maybe they are a bit too scary, I don’t know!

’People have actually said to me, am I worried about bringing these creatures into this world?.

’I get a lot of things like that from people, as if they are afraid of them.

’Generally there is a warmth to them though, even though they may look fierce. They are not. They are gentle.

’For example, I drew a red witch-type figure, which I called ’Tainted’, due to the common perception when you see something like that.

’People just assume it’s horrible, but she is looking back at you, as if to say "Look beyond what you see.

i am not this malevolent thing, I am more than that".

’I drew her pregnant and there is a slightly vulnerable look in her eyes.’

Neil had his own definition of the title.

’To me, it draws on the idea of going deeper within yourself, with deeper emotions, and deeper thoughts and feelings,’ said Neil.

’I can see that, especially in some of my paintings which I have included here. They were definitely born from some of the pent-up feelings from the past couple of years.

’But I am passionate about pre-history and about archaeology, human hetirage and where we have come from, and our belief systems.

’A lot of my work is very similar to neolithic art and draws on that heavily.

’You can see this especially in a couple of my pieces, called "Offering".

’They are based on these bowls, which started out as metal discs which were hand beaten into shape out of lead. I used very primal techniques to form them and the results draw on neolithic imagery.

’I also used a lot of new techniques and materials, including Pooil Vaaish limestone as well as the local slate. I like these materials because they are local to the Isle of Man. They are local materials, and the lead is in the ground around us and has been mined here for hundreds of years.

’Deeper’ is open to view until January 2022.