Recently I have been involved in the Queen Street Gallery, a new gallery and the first of its kind in Neath. The gallery widens the reach of art in the Swansea Bay area and includes well established as well as emerging Welsh and international artists in different fields of practice.
Queen Street Gallery opened in June and is proving a popular addition to the centre of Neath. Just down the road from the train station, it is an easy place to get to and has its latest exhibition opening tonight from 6 – 8pm (Friday 7th September 2018). Carole and Peter Evans have a retrospective exhibition of their painting – closely observed cameos of everyday life. Both Carole and Peter were born in Neath and both have exhibited throughout Wales, London and The Cotswolds.
There are many galleries in Swansea these days, some quite big and some quite small. Elysium Gallery is one of the small ones but is part of a large artists organisation in the city with close connections to Swansea College of Art and running a substantial collection of artists studios and events.
The exhibition, “Paint to the Teeth Bone”, that has just finished at Elysium featured three emerging artists currently students at the college. I look forward to seeing how each of the artists develop their work but I was particularly taken by Sophie Hardings work on figures.Continue reading→
The third focus of my attention in my walk around the art of Swansea was the BEEP Painting Biennial. This work was in several venues in the city but the bulk of it was exhibited in the College of Art throughout August and into September – it finishes this weekend so if you have the opportunity, I can recommend it.
I have picked out some of my favourites below but the there were many more I liked and the exhibition could have been half the size and would still have satisfied (unless, of course, my favourites were not included).Continue reading→
I love the effect the moving waters of Tennant Canal has on the reflection of the reeds along its banks – painterly or impressionistic! You can see from the photos that it was a good day for a walk along this canal at Jersey Marine near Swansea.
The “brush strokes” of leaves both in the water and against the canvas of the field make these grasses some of the most attractive plants in this enclave of nature surrounded by the habitation and industry of man.
There will be another photo of reeds against the sun to be seen later today on Monochrome Madness 41 at Leanne Cole Photography.
Complementary images are posted on Instagram through the week and can also be seen on the sidebar of the StillWalks blog.
I am currently working on the post-production for a StillWalks video in Cwmdonkin Park in Swansea. It is a while since I was able to look at the photos and I was surprised to come across the image below. It is not one that I am likely to use in the video but I love the abstract nature of this tree bark.
The colour and texture make it a painting for me, one which makes me feel a little uneasy! Is that a face in there? Can you see it?
Middlesbrough on New Year’s Day is the focus for this week’s posts. Last week I was looking at Belfast on Boxing Day and the lack of human activity there. Middlesbrough, on New Year’s Day, was quiet as well. Two reasons for this could be that people were recovering from the night’s festivities but the other is likely to have been the weather!
The weather on the first day of 2014 in the north east of England (if not the whole of the UK) was miserable, wet and windy. Flood warnings have been regular for many places at the end of one year and the start of the next and I feel sorry for all those who have suffered from these and the accompanying power cuts.
However, the photo below proves that it was not bad weather everywhere all of the time. The sunset reflected in the windows of Middlesbrough Town Hall as seen from MIMA on New Year’s Eve is evidence of that. Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art is a fantastic bit of architecture and always has fascinating exhibitions – we make a point of visiting it each time we are staying in the area with family.
The current exhibition by local artist William Tillyer occupies both of MIMA’s main galleries and although there were only about half a dozen works that we personally liked, the whole exhibition was interesting with some of the works being visually quite deceptive. I am not allowed to show photos from the show but you can click the links above to find out more.
This week’s featured StillWalks video is from Middlesbrough. Although the production for “Suburban Lakeside Walk” was done in the Winter, it was clearly much better weather than is evident in the iPhone photos I took around the lake this winter.
You can use the Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Suburban Lakeside Walk” which features Hemlington Lake in Middlesbrough. Click the image below to watch the video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.
This metallic canvas is Turner-esque in the violence of the storm – but I did nothing, just took the photo!
The texture . . .
. . . and vibrance of the colour amazes me.
I love it but . . .
. . . it’s just . . .
. . . an old freezer . . .
. . . destined for the scrap merchant.
Of course, it should never have been burnt, but it has provided me with some interesting material to play with and add to my collection of metal (weird, I know). I shall be recording some of sounds it can make soon. Anyone interested can listen to my metallic sound collections on SoundCloud here and here or click below. If you can’t see the sound files below, please visit the blog page.
Meet the Artists at Ludlow Assembly Rooms this afternoon from 3.30 – 7.30 pm.
All are welcome, no charge, free wine and a chance to meet us, Alastair Duncan and Jean Duncan, and ask about our work. There is tapestry weaving, digital prints, painting on metal and canvas, photography, video and video interventions.
The show continues until 26th October and can be viewed during normal Ludlow Assembly Rooms opening hours which includes evenings.
