Local Support

We often hear people talking about buying locally produced goods, usually fruit and vegetables. Perhaps this idea should be extended to buying art locally too.

We don't mean the abstract prints in your nearest supermarket, mass-produced and imported from the Far East, but original art created by artists who live in your local area.

There are many opportunities to see and buy locally produced art. We're particularly keen on going to open studio events. Here you can visit one or more artists that you are interested in, see a variety of their work on display and talk to them about what they do and why they do it.

Many pro-active artists also hold their own exhibitions in towns around their locality. The artist is often in attendance so again, there is a chance to chat about their work.

Often an artist is represented by one of their local commercial galleries. The gallery owner or staff will have an in-depth knowledge of the artist and the works. They'll have a number of works on display by the artist and will be able to obtain others if you are interested.

Buying locally has the advantages of being more convenient to build up a collection of a particular artist's work, it is easier to keep in touch with the artists and is an extra talking point when discussing your collection with friends. It also helps to strengthen the community and retains money in the local economy.

Of course, you needn't buy art locally just because it's local, you should buy art that you like, art that you can enjoy. But as we've explored the world of art, we've discovered lots of local artists making pictures and objects that we like, and we've bought some of them too. Why not explore a little closer to home, you may be surprised at what you find.

Vicky and Vince,
Love Your Art

The Wow Factor!

Loving art as much as we do, we've a long list of places we'd like to visit all over the country (and the world). So when we decided to go to Chichester for our summer holiday we checked our list for the Sussex area and found Cass Sculpture Foundation, with its displays of large-scale, modern sculpture at the top of the list.

When we arrived we found that it wasn't only the artwork that was on a large scale, at 26 acres the grounds were big too. In some galleries and museums you're given a guide to help you find your way around. Here we were given a map, but perhaps a satnav system would have made things easier.

We largely ignored the map and just wandered where we fancied. After passing a fish on a bicycle, we were delighted to come across a bronze sheep (did we mention we collect sheep?). However, we were quite worried about the hungry-looking bronze wolf on the other side of the path and wanted to take the sheep home to keep it safe.

Wandering further, a palm tree made from old tyres caught our attention. Then we came to a large clearing with a huge, bright orange structure of steel loops named Alfa (top picture) and created by Gerry Judah.

Wow! We just stood in amazement at the scale of this work. With its monstrous curves swooping around each other it reminded us of animations of atoms with their electrons buzzing along circular paths. The orange tubes, glowing in the sunshine, created a strong contrast with the grass and trees in their summer greenery.

Everything seemed to be on a big scale. We were dwarfed by a bronze sycamore seed almost three metres (ten feet) tall and the free-standing steel and glass Stairway. We were tempted to have a rest on the Sitting On History seat in the shape of a book.

With over 70 individual sculptures, there was a huge variety of works to look at. From the wonderfully curvy designs made from carbon fibre and epoxy resin by Eilís O'Connell to the slightly creepy Host characters made by Peter Burke from reclaimed copper and steel. With so much choice, how could we pick our favourite?

Well, we found our favourite just as we were heading back to the car. Paparazzi is a series of cameras mounted on spindly birds' legs in bronze (lower picture). With their dull black finish these seemed to reflect the sneaky, anonymous character of the photographers that relentlessly badger the rich and famous.

Sadly we hadn't allowed enough time to see everything as we had to leave to meet up with a friend for dinner. With so many amazing sculptures there was simply too much to see in under two hours. Next time we're in the area, we'll be taking a picnic lunch and making a full day of it.

You can visit the website of Cass Sculpture Foundation for more information on the sculptures and artists.

Vicky And Vince,

Love Your Art.

Worthing Art Gallery

With so many major art attractions wherever you go, it is easy to overlook some of the smaller, less publicised exhibitions in local galleries. So I made a point while on holiday on the south coast last week to seek out one of these exhibitions.

The art gallery at Worthing in Sussex was holding several concurrent exhibitions but with limited time, I had to choose which one to visit. The "Trees In The Landscape" offering sounded interesting and when I entered the Norwood Gallery I found a delightful mix of mainly landscape paintings with trees as the main feature. These were by various artists who had lived in or had a connection with the area.

One of the pictures that caught my attention was Flowers in Hot Sun by Ivon Hitchens. Hitchens had moved to Petworth, north west of Worthing, from London during the Second World War and was a keen landscape artist. The style of this picture, influenced by Cezanne, was bold and somewhat abstract. Its strong, bright colours warmed me up, despite the drizzly summer weather outside.

In strong contrast, another painting I found quite attractive was a winter scene entitled "Mill Near Midhurst". The bleak view across the millpond to the old buildings was gloomy, with heavy grey clouds stretching into the distance. The black bark of the trees stood out starkly against the snowy ground. The artist, Bruce Barnden, was once head of Chichester School of Art an enthusiastic romantic interpreter of the Sussex landscape.

The paintings in the exhibition have been chosen from the gallery's collection by Christine Forbes, a local art tutor. It runs until 5th November 2011. Details of this exhibition and others are on the Worthing Museum and Art Gallery web site.

Vince,

Love Your Art.

Holiday Time

We've been busy planning our holidays which hasn't left much time for getting out and about looking at art. If you are still trying to find somewhere to go for your holidays, here are a few suggestions.

In Birmingham, a sculpture of Andy Warhol is on show.

Or if you fancy a trip to South Wales, a new art gallery has been opened in a phone box.

We are sure that the beer mat show in London will also attract a lot of visitors.

We hope you enjoy your holidays wherever you go.

Vicky And Vince,

Love Your Art.

Objects Of Desire

"Just look at those smooth, sleek lines", I said to Vicky, "and the reflections in the shiny red paintwork." I've always fancied a Ferrari and although we weren't looking at a real car I wasn't disappointed; this painting by Anthony Knight was a stunning representation of a classic Dino.

We saw the painting when we visited the Unlikeness event at Arthur Robinson House in Billingham last week. Anthony and several other artists, photographers and authors were presenting some of their latest work.

Anthony painted his first car at the age of four and in the past couple of years has begun to spend more time developing his artistic talent. He particularly likes to paint iconic American cars, sometimes in an advanced state of decay.

In addition to the cars he was exhibiting there were several paintings of training shoes. This may sound like a strange subject to paint but Anthony is in good company with Van Gogh's old leather boots and Warhol's fashionable high-heels. Anthony's choice of a large size canvas and bold colours for these still lifes created quite an impact. There were different brands and colours and each pair of shoes had been posed in a unique way (one worn-out pair had even been thrown into a dustbin).

We particularly liked the blue Nike trainers swinging in the breeze as they dangled from a telephone line (see picture). The shoes clearly stood out against the background despite the similar blue and white colours. The larger than life scale of the painting meant we were able to admire the intricate design detail of the shoes that had been painstakingly reproduced by the artist, details often overlooked even by owners of the real product.

Anthony is working to develop his techniques and aims to produce paintings that are photo-realistic. From what we saw, he is well on his way to that already.

You can see more of Anthony Knight's paintings on his web site.

Vicky and Vince,

Love Your Art.