Surprises At Newby Hall

There's a lot to see at Newby Hall. Apart from the house and gardens there is quite a bit of art too. On the day I visited, there was a display of children's book illustrations by Catherine Rayner, pictures to view in the hall itself and the displays by the Matombo sculptors. But my main aim was to look at the contemporary sculptures on the woodland trail.

It was a bit of a relief to be able to get out of the hot, late summer sun and wander along the shady woodland trail. This was a quieter part of the Newby estate; a place to wind down a bit and enjoy the natural surroundings. But it did turn up a few surprises along the way.

Walking through woods can feel strange, the shadows, the darkness between trees, you sometimes feel as though you are being watched. I looked up and found that I was - an eye-shaped stainless steel sculpture was hanging from a long branch, gazing across the path.

The suddenly from the right a wild boar rushed towards me. Well it seemed to but it was just a bronze casting of one, apparently being chased by medieval hunters.

Of course, art can be fun too. In a broad clearing a family were gathered round a group of giant conkers, one of which was tied to a branch as a swing. Four children were scrambling over the conkers on the ground and arguing over whose turn it was to go on the swing. I'm not sure they should have been doing that as they were priced at £550 each!

Strolling past a large bush I came face to face with a huge gorilla! Fortunately it was only another bronze casting, Jambo from Jersey Zoo.

As I neared the end of the trail, I was startled by the screams of children; they had just entered the tunnel on the miniature railway, another attraction at Newby, and I was back in the real world.

Altogether there were over 50 sculptures placed in the woods and around the gardens. Materials included bronze, wood, glass, stone and steel. This was an excellent experience for me as I am very interested in sculpture.

The sculptures on the trail are all for sale and are on view until 26th September 2010.

Read more about Newby Hall.

Love Your Art,
Vince

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

Matombo - Spirit Of Sculpture

The north-east of England may not be the centre of the art world but it does have global connections. Two sculptors from Zimbabwe have spent the summer in the gardens at Newby Hall near Ripon, demonstrating and talking about sculpture and exhibiting work that they and other sculptors from their country have produced.

As I headed along the path towards the exhibition area, I saw the first clue that the Matombo exhibition was going to be interesting. Here was a group of giraffe standing by the hedges surrounding the exhibition area. Although they were made from welded metal they were very big, perhaps close to actual size. As I turned into the garden, spread out before me were lots of stone and metal sculptures neatly laid out on the grass and on raised beds. There were animals, birds, figures of people and many abstract sculptures in various sizes, textures and colours.

In the centre of the garden were two lumps of rock that a couple of children were chiselling away at. "Having a go yourself" is encouraged and the rocks had clearly been attacked by kids of all ages over the weeks.

Matthew Nakhawale and Dudzai Mushawepwere, the sculptors, were busy answering questions from visitors, polishing the sculptures with beeswax and supervising the kids as they chipped away in the middle of the garden.

I chatted with Dudzai for quite a while. He told me about the types of stone, the techniques used to create the sculptures and the way some of the artists approached their sculpting. I was a little surprised to hear that it can take several months to complete even a small sculpture. Dudzai was very enthusiastic about his own work, explaining that he liked to create sculptures in an abstract style. He hoped that different people would interpret his art in different ways or one person may see different meanings in the shapes at different times.

As I was leaving a young boy had just finished chiselling at one of the rocks in the "have a go" area. "That was fun," he called to his mother. Yes, it was a bit of fun for the kids and fascinating for me. We may not have heard much good news from Zimbabwe recently but this exhibition showed that there is a positive side to life there.

More on Matombo.

Love Your Art,

Vince