Review Of The Year

As the new year approaches, it's time to both look back over recent months and look forward to more exciting art over the coming year. It's been an interesting year for the art world as well as for us. Here are a few of the things we particularly remember.

The Turner prize was won by Martin Boyce with a sculptural installation. 2011 was a special year for the competition as it was held away from the Tate Gallery at the Baltic in Gateshead. In coming years, the plan is to hold the competition at venues alternating between the Tate and other regional galleries.

The Hepworth Wakefield Gallery opened in the Spring. Although we haven't yet been to see the exhibitions, a visit is on our list for 2012. We enjoyed the Barbara Hepworth Museum at St Ives in Cornwall a couple of years ago and look forward to seeing more of her works along with other similar art.

The Zurbarán saga continues. First these historical paintings were to be sold off, then a deal was agreed to save them. Recently the deal looked like it had fallen through, then it was back on. Perhaps we haven't seen the end of the uncertainty yet but hopefully the plans for converting Auckland Castle into a new art gallery, with visiting exhibitions as well as the Zurbaráns will be finalised in the new year.

Vicky's highlight of the year was when we visited Bowes Museum to see an exhibition by Damien Hirst. His prints, depicting food packaged as medicine, ask whether we are as reliant on drugs as we are on food in these modern times.

Our trip to the village of Lempa in Cyprus was Vince's highlight of 2011. The jumbled collection at the College of Art reflected the bright and informal atmosphere of the island and it was a visual delight to become immersed within the work of the students.

But we both agreed that our joint favourite place this year has to be Cass Sculpture Foundation at Goodwood. Their stunning collection of outdoor sculpture really needs a whole day to view and appreciate the huge amount of artworks. Unfortunately we didn't allow enough time to see everything so we'll be heading back there again, hopefully in 2012.

Vicky And Vince,
Love Your Art.

Turner Prize At The Baltic

You may have read our previous post about the four contenders for the 2011 Turner Prize coming to the Baltic gallery in Gateshead (here).

I've been looking forward to visiting the exhibition and had the opportunity to go to Newcastle on Friday. Unfortunately, Vince couldn't make it so I headed off alone to see what was on offer.

The first of the exhibition spaces contained Martin Boyce's installation of three works. I found this interesting and atmospheric: metal leaves along the ceiling created a dappled effect with the light, a sculptural table and a streetscape of rubbish including a waste paper bin and fallen leaves.

Then I moved on to Hilary Lloyd's space which had a variety of visual images playing on television screens or projected on to the wall. The images were deliberately distorted partial images of objects such as a tower block, shadowy figures and other unidentifiable things. This was quite challenging to the viewer as the images were constantly moving and changing.

Next were Karla Black's giant size sculptures of paper and cellophane which dominated the exhibition space. Covered with paint, powder and perfumed bath bombs these objects smelt as well as making a visual impact. I was able to walk under and through some of the sculptures.

George Shaw's paintings of the urban landscape of Coventry were very realistic. The pictures, whilst showing the bleakness of an inner city estate, turned run down garages and boarded up shops into works of art. Witty titles such as "Landscape with dog s**t bin" made me laugh out loud at the irony of such a commonplace item being given pride of place in the landscape.

So which one do I think will win the Turner Prize? Although I liked Martin Boyce's pieces, my favourite works are by George Shaw. These are something that even people who hate modern art can relate to. The pictures are painted with such skill and detail they look almost photographic. It's hard to believe they were painted with Humbrol enamel paint and not the more traditional oils or watercolours.

Read more on the Baltic Gallery web site.

Vicky,

Love Your Art

Darlington Art Fair

Saving Darlington Arts Centre from final closure next year is going to be a huge challenge. As we have reported in previous posts, Darlington For Culture have been working to encourage more use of the centre and looking at organising classes and events. On Saturday, one of their first events, an art fair, took place so we popped over just before lunch.

With displays and stalls spread over several rooms at the centre, there was plenty to see. Apart from paintings there was an interesting mix of arts and crafts including photography, glasswork, ceramics, jewellery, textiles, candles and cards. And for the kids there was face painting.

We had only been there a few minutes when we came across our friend, Janet Orme, exhibiting her exquisite botanical watercolour originals, prints and cards. Janet has now expanded her offering to include delightful china cups and dishes with her pictures printed on them.

Darlington Media Group were hosting a photographic exhibition - Disparate Integrations - that Vicky particularly liked. The photos by Bob McAvoy, Geoff Dodds, Jim Lycett and Ian Martin were predominantly black and white local scenes and views. Vicky thought the monochrome style gave a timeless feeling to the images and helped to focus on the subjects of the pictures. We both stopped at a picture of hay strewn over some old metal cartwheels and agreed this was a very atmospheric picture, reminiscent of historical farming techniques and a simpler life. This exhibition continues until 15th October 2011.

We were very pleased to see lots of sheep paintings (did we mention that we collect sheep?). We were particularly interested in those by Anne Mason, Eiann Cosgrove and Caroline Riley. We hadn't been looking for anything in particular but all three artists had "portraits" of individual sheep. It was difficult for us to resist any of these but after much deliberation we bought a pair of prints from Caroline Riley. We are now trying to come up with names for them both.

Most of the exhibitors were local artists and craftspeople and the event was a great showcase for their work. We can't remember anything similar to this in Darlington recently and in view of its popularity we hope there will be further events like this, perhaps near Christmas. We look forward to visiting the next one.

Vicky And Vince,
Love Your Art.

ps. Our next post will be in 2 weeks - Wednesday 21 September 2011

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.

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.

Vorticism Mania

In the past week or two, I've been reading a lot about the Vorticists. With articles in the newspapers and on the Internet, it's difficult to avoid at the moment. Fortunately, having an interest in abstract art, I have found them all interesting. When I mentioned this to Vicky, she said she had heard the term but didn't really know what Vorticism was. So we spent an evening last week, reading up and talking about it.

Founded in the run up to the First World War by Percy Wyndham Lewis, Vorticism is a style of abstract art influenced by Futurism and Cubism. Works are inspired by the geometry of the industrial machinery of the time and include sculpture and writing as well as painting.

It is a British development in art but had both supporters and detractors. Apart from Wyndham Lewis, other painters and sculptors within the movement were Jacob Epstein, David Bomberg, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Dorothy Shakespear.

The War made things difficult for the artists to continue their work although exhibitions were held in London (1915) and New York (1917). Sadly, after the war, Wyndham Lewis was unable to revive the movement as attention moved to new developments in Europe and America.

Vicky enjoyed finding out more about Vorticism and although it's not her favourite type of art, she was fascinated by the stories we read.

Of course, the reason for all the interest in Vorticism now is the opening of the Vorticist exhibition at Tate Britain today. On display will be works by the leading Vorticist artists and sculptors of the time.

The Vorticists: Manifesto for a Modern World runs until 4th September 2011.

Picture:
Wyndham Lewis
Workshop circa. 1914-5
© Wyndham Lewis and the estate of Mrs G A Wyndham Lewis. Photo: By kind permission of the Wyndham Lewis Memorial Trust

Vince,

Love Your Art.

Howay, It's The Turner Prize!

Great news for the north east of England. The Turner Prize is coming to the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead later this year. It's a welcome change to have this major art event held outside London and there are plans for the event to be held at other regional venues every second year in the future. The Baltic, a converted flour mill, provides an ideal venue with it's spacious display areas and a solid reputation that it's built up over the years.

But the change of venue hasn't changed the controversy over the choice of artists which always seems to surround the event. This year the artists short-listed for the prize range from a sculptor of concrete trees to an artist who covers sheets in make-up. Here's a brief guide to the four nominees and an outline of their work.

Karla Black has an innovative approach to sculpture; producing installations out of unusual ephemeral materials such as cellophane, Vaseline, lip gloss and flour.

Martin Boyce, a sculptor, is known for his atmospheric installations influenced by modernism an urban landscape of sculptural trees, litter bins and park benches.

Hilary Lloyd uses sounds and images from the urban environment to create installations using those films, and the projection equipment itself, in the gallery to challenge the viewer with the still and moving images.

George Shaw uses Humbrol enamel paint to depict the area around his childhood home in Coventry in a photo-realistic way. His work represents conventional landscape painting but focuses on images of the mundane and the everyday.

We've never been to a Turner Prize exhibition before as we haven't managed to be in London at the time. With this year's event just up the road on Tyneside, we'll definitely be paying a visit and we'll let you know who we think should win.

The exhibition of the works of the Turner Prize nominees runs from 21 October 2011 to 8 January 2012. You can read more about the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art or Tate Modern.

Vicky and Vince,

Love Your Art

Press Freedom

We always look forward to our trips to Richmond Station in North Yorkshire. And on Friday evening we were rewarded as usual with an exciting show of works by twenty of the UK's most popular printmakers.

As we strolled around the building, we were amazed at the broad variety of techniques used: etching, linocut, lithography, aquatint etching, screen printing and engraving. And with an even wider range of subjects and styles there was literally something for everyone to enjoy.

This made it very difficult for us to pick out a couple of particularly interesting pictures to write about. In the end, we agreed that everything was attractive and of high quality. So here are just a few of the things we saw in no particular order of preference.

Tescopolis, by Martin Langford, showed a busy townscape where all the buildings, vehicles and signs were branded or referred to Tesco, suggesting they are taking over the world. The only exception was an advertisement for The History Channel showing a program about Sainsburys.

Vicky's eye was caught by linocuts produced by Colin Moore. He has been influenced by Edward Bawden among others and Vicky instantly recognised the general style. The print "Suffolk" was her favourite with its soft colours and English themes.

Appropriate to the location in a former railway station, Gail Brodholt had a number of pictures showing railway stations and scenes. These were quite atmospheric, and were printed in strong, unusual, almost neon colours.

Ghost by Chris Pig was a detailed engraving that showed a building with ghost-like clouds swirling overhead. Chris has been influenced by film noire amongst other things and the building looks like it has a dark and scary past.

There were several attractive etchings of animals by Sonia Rollo including hares and cows. And Maggie, the cute little dog with big eyes made you just want to say "Ahhh".

We are hoping to win the competition running during the show. The prize is a copy of Nige Barges Past by Anita Klein. It shows a domestic scene which, like our own kitchen, is cramped, limited in space and means we are always bumping into each other. It is also typical of the way we use our kitchen: Vicky likes to cook and Vince likes to clear the cupboards of crisps, biscuits, etc. Hang on, that looks like our oven in the background too!

The show runs until 6th May 2011 and all the prints are available for sale. More details on the Press Freedom exhibition web site.

Vicky and Vince,

Love Your Art

The Art of Jewellery

I love buying and wearing jewellery but try as I might I've never yet persuaded Vince to buy me any. I think he's scared of getting it wrong, because I'm very fussy (subtle hint: a pair of Tiffany diamond studs!). Vince wears a watch occasionally and that's about as far as he gets with personal adornment. He says that jewellery should enhance the natural beauty of the wearer. So he might have been surprised by the latest exhibition at mima in Middlesbrough on The Modern Jewel: In Time and the Mind of Others. Here jewellery becomes more than an object to be worn; it is a piece of art.

I was fascinated by the exhibit "Charlotte's Choice", two sets of cast carob beads, one set from gold and one from silver. Each set has equal value which works out to be 251 silver and 4 gold beads. Charlotte Wood, a 19 year old fashion student and Teesside resident, can choose which set she keeps and wears. The other set will be kept for exhibiting by the museum.

I would have loved to have been in Charlotte's shoes when she was given the opportunity to commission artists Lin Cheung and Laura Potter to produce this jewellery for her. Still, I can influence her choice as visitors are invited to help Charlotte by putting a gold or silver token into a box. I opted for the silver; 251 beads would make a wonderful necklace! I wonder whether Charlotte will follow the visitors' advice or make her own choice?

In any case, her choice is not final: she is allowed to swap one set of beads for the other. The rules for this exchange are set out in a contract that is part of the exhibit, along with a book to record the details of the exchanges over time. So Charlotte and the beads will become part of an on-going living art project.

The exhibition is part of the museumaker project and is a collaboration between the artists, local residents, mima and other Middlesbrough museums.

You can read more about the artists and the projects here:

Lin Cheung

Laura Potter

mima

Museumaker Project

Vicky,

Love Your Art

Artistic Influence In Hartlepool

Vince's interest in boats combined nicely with our mutual interest in art last week as we headed over to Hartlepool for an afternoon out. After a quick look round the marina, we called in at Hartlepool Art Gallery to see an exhibition by local artist John McCracken.

We found an extensive show, filling a large part of the gallery, mainly portraits including several self-portraits of John at various ages (See picture above). We hadn't come across this artist or his work before but that didn't stop us appreciating his varied styles, mixture of subjects and versatility.

A couple of paintings that caught our attention were of people sat on a train. These pictures reflected a favoured style of John's: painting ordinary people in everyday situations. We could almost recognise the people sat chatting, reading the paper and gazing out at the dramatic views along the Durham coastline.

Also on show were paintings by artists who had influenced John's work such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Frank Auerbach. Some of these pictures had been loaned from the Tate Gallery, MIMA and Newcastle’s Hatton Gallery. It was interesting to compare the styles of all four artists in one place.

Originally from Belfast, John later settled in Hartlepool and came to have a wide involvement in the art scene in and around Hartlepool. He lectured at Hartlepool College of Art and was a curator at the Gray Art Gallery and Museum. He acquired a number of important modern works of art for the town’s collection including Lucian Freud’s ‘Head of a Woman’ and Frank Auerbach’s ‘Shell Building Site’. His friendship with Lucian Freud also allowed him to bring a major exhibition of Freud's work to Hartlepool in 1972. This is the only venue outside London to have held such an exhibition.

Apart from art, John wrote poetry and enjoyed jazz music. Sadly, he died in 1982 at the age of 46. We were surprised to discover that he married his wife, Carol, in the church that is now the art gallery where his exhibition is being shown. A very appropriate tribute to this versatile artist who had so much influence over art in Hartlepool.

The exhibition, 'John McCracken – His Work and Influences', continues at Hartlepool Art Gallery on Church Road until 2nd April 2011.

You can read more about John McCracken on Wikipedia.

Vicky and Vince,

Love Your Art

Food, Glorious Food!

After the indulgences of Christmas and having polished off the last of yummy chocolates, cakes and puddings, we decided we needed to get out for some healthy fresh air. So last Sunday we had a trip to the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle to see Damien Hirst's current exhibition.

The exhibited works were grouped into four sections: photogravure prints of skulls and butterflies, Spirograph style drawings, spot paintings (multi-coloured circles) and pictures of medicine packaging modified to represent food, rather than tablets, as the contents. It was the latter display that caught our attention the most.

The thirteen prints of food packaged as medicine, collectively known as "The Last Supper", are intended to question the relative importance of drugs and food and whether people in the modern world can survive without both of these. The prints were cleverly presented using drug company packaging with the ingredients changed to items of food and the brands replaced by variations on Hirst's name.

We laughed at the idea of food as medicine: imagine popping a small pink capsule of sausage or having steak and kidney pie fed intravenously! We also wondered about the Science Fiction connection and the rehydrated food used by astronauts on space flights. We decided that we preferred the tastier and healthier option of preparing and eating natural food - the colours, tastes and smells that bring so much pleasure to life.

As we wandered round the other galleries, we were reminded that food has been a popular subject in fine art over the centuries. An oil painting by Henri Fantin-Latour with fruits and flowers looked so tasty we wished we could eat them (the fruits that is, not the flowers). Damien Hirst has brought this tradition of food in art into the 21st Century with familiar commercial packaging and a pop art style to give us plenty of food for thought (sorry!).

By now we were getting hungry and headed downstairs to the cafe. We were relieved to find that there were no fish and chip pills or dumpling suppositories on the menu and enjoyed a nice cup of Yorkshire Tea instead.

The "Damien Hirst: Print Maker" exhibition runs until 27th February 2011. More details are on the Bowes Museum web site.

Vicky and Vince,
Love Your Art

Cockerton Art Group

We had a weekend of surprises while visiting an exhibition of art at a local church in Darlington.

Our first surprise was how many people were there viewing the art works. When we arrived, around 11am, the atmosphere was buzzing and we had to squeeze past lots of other enthusiastic viewers to see the pictures.

The show, held by Cockerton Art Group in the Methodist church on the village green, had around 120 pictures produced by the group's members. As you would expect with a general exhibition like this the subject matter and the mediums used were wide ranging. The quality of the work was excellent and most of the pictures were for sale, with prices typically between £10 and £50.

We moved slowly up and down the rows of tables with the pictures on them, it was easy to view the pictures and nobody seemed to mind if you picked them up for a closer look.

As is customary with our blogs, we will mention a few that we liked. Vince was impressed by Carol Cloughton's picture of sheep on the moors. By the way, did we mention that we collect sheep art? Vicky liked L Roach's use of perspective to draw you along the South Jetty at the harbour in Amble, Northumberland. We also admired the finely detailed fretwork of two ladies by Peter Edge.

After a brief look round we noticed a sign saying 'cafe' so decided to go for a cuppa. Here was our next surprise, the Sunday School rooms had been converted into a makeshift cafe and it was packed with even more people than the exhibition! We managed to find a space sharing a table with a couple who had been to see the pictures too. We enjoyed a friendly chat with them about the exhibition and the pictures that we liked.

Our final surprise was on the way out as we spotted a couple of scantily clad women! Fortunately they were only paintings, by the aforementioned Peter Edge. We wondered what the Minister might say if he saw them in his church!



Love Your Art,
Vicky and Vince

Going Back In Time

I must be dreaming. I am. I'm dreaming. I can't believe it. I've travelled back in time to when I was six years old and I'm surrounded by dozens of pictures of Thomas, Percy, Henry and the Fat Controller. Back then I was a huge fan of Thomas the Tank Engine. Those little oblong books, full of wonderful stories and brilliant pictures, were what childhood was all about.

But hang on, it's 2010 now, I'm not six years old any more (sadly). How can this be possible? Well, I'm at an exhibition of original illustrations from the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends comics. There are over a hundred pictures here; many black and white drawings, some in colour, depicting all the popular characters from the stories, old and new.

To add to the excitement, the exhibition is in a converted railway station, in Richmond, North Yorkshire. And what's more, all the pictures are all for sale!

These original pen and ink drawings were created by the late Timothy Marwood for the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends comics. They include cover illustrations as well as the stories inside the comics.

With so many magical pictures here it is almost impossible to pick a favourite. The quality and detail is fantastic. I must have looked at each picture 3 or 4 times at least. Eventually I recognised the images from a story I remembered reading all those years ago. It told the worrying tale of how Thomas was low on water but found the water tank out of order. The fireman saved the day when he refilled Thomas's tanks from a nearby stream using only a bucket full of holes!

Vicky's favourite was set in the countryside and showed a charming scene with two children receiving an Easter egg from the Fat Controller with Thomas and James in the background. No doubt they were being rewarded for preventing a major disaster on the railway. Sadly, Vicky, quite an avid reader, has never read the Thomas books. Perhaps this visit will inspire her to do so.

I suppose the question on your mind now is whether we bought one of the illustrations. Well, I think you probably know the answer to that already. A charming drawing of Thomas with Annie and Clarabel is now waiting at the signals until we find a space for them on our walls.

The show continues until 31st October 2010.

Read more about the Thomas show.

Visit the official Thomas web site.

Vince (aged 6+),

Love Your Art

Ripon - City Of Art

As I entered through the heavy wooden door the sight before me was not what I expected. You would generally think of churches as peaceful, reverend places with a handful of tourists admiring the architecture, stained-glass windows and religious artefacts.

But here, in Ripon Cathedral, were crowds of people, chatting loudly, dodging seats, memorials and other visitors to look at the paintings and photographs that are part of the Great North Art Show.

A wide variety of pictures adorned the walls down both sides of the cathedral with more on display boards at the east end of the building. An endless list of artists were exhibiting an endless variety of pictures including landscapes, abstract, townscapes, animals and local scenes. Here are a few that caught my attention:

I liked the watery reflections by Fiona Kemp.

Wendy Gimson had some interesting shimmering trees.

Sally Gatie had produced some pictures that made clever use of quilt patterns.

And having an engineering background I was particularly drawn to the Valve pictures by Sue Slocombe.

The bright colours in the pictures of buildings by Alan Luty were really attractive and worked especially well on the night scenes.

Yvonne Elvin had an interesting variety of pictures including this one.

The cathedral isn't the only venue for the Great North Art Show. Around the city hotels, cafés, commercial galleries, and other places have art on display. Even the Workhouse Museum has some installations and was due to hold digital photography workshops. The whole city has become an art gallery!

I managed to pop into a couple of galleries on Kirkgate on the way back from the Cathedral. Alan's Gallery has dozens of watercolours and prints for sale, many depicting landmarks in and around Ripon. The small prints for £20 were neat and colourful, an ideal memento of your visit to Ripon, or a lovely gift for a friend.

This is the ninth year of the event and it continues to provide funds to support the choral and musical activities of the Cathedral. There was probably too much to see in the limited time I had available. Perhaps next year I should set aside a couple of days to do justice to this interesting and extensive exhibition.

The show ends on 18th September 2010.

www.greatnorthartshow.org.uk

Vince,
Love Your Art

Encore!

Last week was a busy week for us. On Thursday evening we headed to Arthur Robinson House on The Green in Billingham for the opening evening of the Encore exhibition. Here fine art students from Cleveland College of Art and Design were showcasing and selling art they had produced on their courses.

On arrival we were greeted with a glass of champagne and canapes, always a good way to start any social occasion! We strolled around, admiring the skills of these young artists whose work included paintings, glass, plaster, porcelain, mixed media and prints.

Here are some of the works that particularly caught our attention. (With apologies for our low resolution images that don't do justice to these artworks.)

Even before we entered the building, we noticed a colourful set of prints through the window. "Emotions Within Relationships" by Lauren Duncan explores relationships between people, from beginning to make friends, to a more involved relationship and finally its deterioration and breakdown. The work is split up into segments to reflect these stages. The wide range of colours and varied patterns, including figures, is intended to help viewers connect with the work.

Kirsten Yates presented a series of three large canvas paintings entitled Fairytale. These largely abstract images are intended to relate to the more real aspects of the Alice In Wonderland story (one of Kirsten's favourite books), rather than the more obvious "fairytale" images. The pictures are based on deserted forests. The use of strong shades of blue in this picture made it stand out to us.

We liked the set of digital prints by Hope Stebbing, called "Home Is Where The Heart Is". These showed repeated, hand drawn images of everyday objects. The curvy shapes and bright pink and purple colours on the old-fashioned telephones created an image reminiscent of the 1960s. Vince said, "It reminds me of record covers by the Beatles." Vicky liked the clean, simple lines of the birdcages. "It's unusual to have simple outlines rather than blocks of colour," she noted.

Sadly we don't have enough space to talk about all the art that was on display but the students have clearly put in a lot of effort to produce some substantial works of art. Well done all.

Check out the College's site at www.ccad.ac.uk.

Love Your Art,
Vicky and Vince

A Spot Of Art

We've just got back from the Station in Richmond, North Yorkshire. This wasn't a train journey (the railway in this part of the Dales closed in 1969) but a visit to an exhibition of pictures from over two hundred artists and photographers on display in the restored railway station.

Since opening in 2007 Richmond Station has become one of the region's most popular venues for exhibiting art. Their latest initiative, A Spot on the Wall, is a fantastic opportunity for local artists to put their work in front of thousands of people, who may not otherwise visit an art exhibition or commercial gallery.

As well as local residents, the Station attracts many tourists visiting the region from all around the world. We watched people coming and going all the time, not only to see the art but to visit the shops, the cinema and have coffee or lunch in the open-plan restaurant. This is a thriving centre of the community.

Although we didn't go intending to buy anything (our walls are pretty full at the moment), we were very tempted by many of the pictures and the fact that all the artists are locally based. In fact, we spotted the names of several artists that we recognised from previous events we've visited in the region.

While we were there we chatted to the Curator, Donald Cline, who told us that one lady had bought her first ever picture. This was largely down to the informal surroundings, the easily accessible displays and the wide variety of pictures on show.

Of course, you don't have to buy, the show can be treated simply as a large exhibition of original paintings, stunning photographs and limited editions. It seemed that wherever we went in the building there were pictures; they clung to display panels, paraded along the mezzanine gallery and meandered down the corridor to the shops.

Curator, Donald, is delighted with the response to the show.

"Art lovers have already bought up sixty-five of the pictures on display, raising over £13,000. This is great news for the artists and also helps to support the running of the Station," Donald told us.

We like the idea of this event, giving people the opportunity to see lots of local artists in one place and being able to buy a picture and take it home straight away; you don't have to leave it until the show is over.

The exhibition and sale ends on 3rd September 2010. You can read more information at www.richmondstation.com.

Update: At the end of the show, 110 pictures had been sold, raising £22,000. An estimated 40,000 people had visited the Station while the show was running.

Love Your Art,
Vicky and Vince

If Toucan You Can Too

We've been back to Croft village hall where Fran Connelly and Petra Lloyd were exhibiting their artwork as part of the North Yorkshire Open Studios event. For a couple of weekends, artists across North Yorkshire are throwing open the doors of their studios or holding exhibitions and demonstrations of their work. These open studio events are a great way to meet up with your favourite artists or get to know about some new ones. We were able to chat with Fran and Petra about their work and see a broader range of the things they do.

We mentioned Petra's toucans in a previous blog and were delighted to see an even wider selection to choose from than last time. Petra was half way through making one of her ceramic toucans. She explained to us about the clay, how she shaped and carved it and how it was fired using a process called Raku. The Raku firing is a technique, developed in the Far East, that extracts oxygen from the glaze, allowing the metals within it to form unique and distinctive colours such as blues, greens, copper and bronze. As we listened to her explanations, Petra thrust the half finished toucan into Vicky's hands, encouraging her to work at some of the carved detail around the eyes. This kind of interaction with the artists makes these events really interesting and fun. We were so impressed with the way the toucans were made and the wonderful end results that we just had to buy one. We look forward to it landing on on top of our display shelves next week.

The way that Petra's toucans and other ceramics were displayed alongside Fran's gorgeous, dramatically-coloured pastel skyscapes (yes, we bought one of those too) created an attractive display. The mix of different styles worked very well together.

Unfortunately we were not able to visit any of the other open studios last weekend but if we are free next weekend, look out for us.

Find out more at http://www.nyos.org.uk.

Vicky and Vince,
Love Your Art

Spring In Amsterdam

A few days away in Amsterdam gave us a great opportunity to look at some 'proper' art for a change! We visited two museums, the Van Loon; a traditional family-owned canal house and the Rijksmuseum, the main museum in the city.

The Van Loon house, built in 1671, had artistic connections from the time it was built: its first tennant being Ferdinand Bol, a pupil of Rembrandt. The rooms remain decorated as they were near the end of the eighteenth century. We were delighted to discover that one of the bedrooms was decorated with a sheep print - walls, curtains and bedding. We may give that a try at home! The walls throughout the house are adorned with family portraits, dating from 1600 to the present day, painted by many artists.

In contrast, the Rijksmuseum is a typical large museum with displays of paintings, ceramics, silver and furniture. There were dozens of paintings, some of which we had heard of: The Night Watch by Rembrandt, The Milkmaid by Vermeer, The Toilet by Jan Steen and Portrait of a Young Couple by Frans Hals. Sadly, none of these were for sale, so it's back to the charity shops to find something to fill that gap on the stairs.

Seeing all these original old paintings puts our little collection of prints to shame. Never mind, we like what we have. And besides, The Night Watch is just a bit too big to go through the front door.

Love Your Art,

Vicky and Vince

Croft Art Exhibition

The other week we went to a local art exhibition in Croft, a small village near Darlington. From the outside Croft Village Hall didn't look promising, a scruffy portacabin that had seen better days. Never being ones to judge a book by its cover, we decided it was worth taking a look. Other people thought so too as a good number were arriving to view and buy.

The work of Croft village art group was on display alongside the works of local artists including Petra Lloyd, Fran Connelly and Lone Helliwell. Most of the pieces on display were for sale though I was disappointed to discover that two of the pictures I really liked were marked "Not For Sale". Others were priced reasonably and they were being sold quickly judging by the number of little red stickers (indicating they were sold) that were appearing like a rash.

There was a variety of work on display to cater to all tastes: conventional landscapes, traditional still lifes (should that be still lives?), textile pictures, pastels and some wonderful toucans. We caused much amusement when we said that we collect things with a sheep theme (by the way, did I mention that we collect sheep art?). We were pointed in the direction of Lone Helliwell's textile pictures which included a gorgeous collage depicting sheep in a moorland landscape. Sadly, we decided not to buy the picture, it was just too big.

We both enjoyed visiting this small exhibition. It was interesting and popular, proving that local events are definitely worth a visit.


Love Your Art,
Vicky