Art Exhibitions In Churches

It’s been a busy few weeks! Exhibitions have been popping up left right and centre and the nice thing about our locality is that churches, amongst other public buildings, are happy to host art groups and societies in their beautiful buildings. Not only is there a selection of artwork, pottery, textiles, jewellery, woodturned work and more to look at, the buildings themselves are works of art in a way – those stained glass windows, the architecture, the atmosphere!

St Laurence’s Church in Ludlow, Shropshire and St Mary Magdalene Church in Leintwardine, north Herefordshire are two such places of worship that very kindly allow artists and creatives to showcase their work for a period of time. The latter church is currently hosting a group of 20 creatives during Herefordshire Art Week https://www.h-art.org.uk – we finish on Sunday 15 September at 5 pm at St Mary’s in Leintwardine, having had a wonderful 8 days of visitors.

There’s a lot of work involved in setting up art exhibitions, something that isn’t always apparent. Months of planning, decisions to be made, artists to be contacted and invited to submit, venue prep, previews to be organised, stewarding, the lists goes on..!

But the hard work is all worth it when you get to meet and chat to people visiting the shows who take an interest in what the artists have created and want to know the process.

If you are in the area or local to Herefordshire, Shropshire, Welsh borders, why not come and visit the last few days of our H.Arts Exhibition at our lovely village church?

St Laurence’s Church, Ludlow

St Mary Magdalene Church, Leintwardine

The Bells of St Clement’s

This old English nursery rhyme mentions several churches dotted around London, so it’s probably fitting that my two paintings ‘Oranges’ and ‘Lemons’ will be taking part in a Summer Exhibition run by Ludlow Art Society and it will be held in….. St Laurence’s Church in Ludlow, Shropshire.

Running from Saturday 19th to Monday 28th August in the middle of this beautiful market town, there will be lots of wonderful artworks on display so hopefully we will have lots of lovely visitors popping in to have a mooch.

You never know, you may hear the peal (or peel!) of the church’s bells too!

‘Oranges’
‘Lemons’

Exhibitionitis!

Well it’s turning into a fairly busy year, exhibition-wise. There are a lot of available art exhibitions to submit work to, very tempting, but I’m trying to build my stocks up in between commissions, so I’ve limited myself to the following events…so far.

The Ludlow Art Society and Association of Animal Artists exhibitions are on at the moment, Ludlow actually closes today and I’m delighted to write that ‘Barb’ sold at that one, yay! The Rose Paterson gallery at Weston Park near Shifnal, UK is the setting for the AAA exhibition and it makes for a grand day out, as the grounds are gorgeous, the work on show is amazing and the café does a great flat white!

In a month or so, my donated 5” x 7” ‘postcard’ will be displayed in Vancouver, alongside many others, in the annual Twitter Art Exhibition – monies raised will benefit the Urban Native Youth Association – so if you’re in that Canadian neighbourhood, don’t miss it.

Then later in the year, I’ll be taking part in H-Arts which is the Herefordshire arts festival here in the UK and I’ll be exhibiting alongside a collective of local artists in our village church… very exciting!

Here are some of my submissions to the various exhibitions.

Exhibitionitis – is that a thing, is there a cure?!

‘Barb’ – sold at Ludlow Art Soc Spring Exhibition
‘Red Cow’ at Weston Park – Assoc of Animal Artists exhibition
‘Locked On’ – at Weston Park – Assoc of Animal Artists exhibition
‘Young Fox’ at Ludlow Art Soc Spring Exhibition
‘Border Collie’ for Twitter Art Exhibition 2023

Ramalamadingdong Merrily on High..!

The Tolbooth in Lanark, Scotland is an amazing venue used for various events by the local community including a Christmas Shop by the Tolbooth Artists group.

This year we had a bit of a hiccup with a lockdown brought into force a few days after the start of the Christmas Shop but we are now about to re open on Friday 11 December at 10am – yay!

Here are a couple of my paintings for sale at the Christmas Shop – these were 2 Swaledale rams at the Highland Show in Edinburgh last year who knew how to strike a pose! I really missed visiting the Highland Show this year, but hopefully it will be on again in 2021.

Anyway – I’ll finish by wishing you all a Happy Christmas and much improved New Year – stay safe xx

Swaledale Starry Night 2
Swaledale Starry Night 1

Coast to Coast

Well it’s been a wee while since my last blog and it’s not as if I haven’t had spare time to write one… thank you Covid 19!  So here is something a bit different to my usual animal portraits.

Lanark is a market town close to where I live in Scotland and in the town there is a beautiful old building called the Tolbooth, which is used for various events including art exhibitions.

I am proud to be part of the Tolbooth Artists group and our summer exhibition which closes on 12 September has a theme of Coasts and Rivers.  The pieces of work displayed by local artists have been wonderful, giving visitors plenty to enjoy in a Covid-safe environment.

I was delighted to find out that both of my paintings submitted, have been sold.  A large acrylic on canvas of the setting sun on Arran (just off the west coast of Scotland) and a small pastel painting of moonlit waves – two coastal scenes but different in size, subject and medium used.  Both fun to do and both now in new homes.

Coast to coast!

Setting Sun On Arran

Moonlit Waves

 

Pug Dug Making An Exhibition Of Himself

We visited the Paisley Art Institute Annual Exhibition last week and wow what a fantastic selection of artwork there is.  It was very well attended at the preview and there was a great buzz at the venue.  The ex-supermarket location was spacious and well lit with plenty of room to manoeuvre around the viewers.

I was delighted to spot my little pug, sharing wall space with other small paintings by artists I greatly admire.  I hope he enjoys his time at this exhibition and maybe, just maybe, he might be lucky enough to find a new home.

‘Brooke, Action For Working Horses and Donkeys’ Art Auction & Exhibition 2019

I was approached a few weeks’ ago by an old school friend, Ann on Facebook to see if I would like to donate a piece of art for an upcoming Art Exhibition & Auction being held in Chester, U.K. by the Brooke organisation which helps working horses, donkeys & mules around the world.

It educates the owners to work their animals without causing distress or suffering. Of course, I wanted to do my bit and contribute to such a great cause, so after a chat with Ann about what would be suitable and her help with the text to accompany the artwork, I found a reference photo by Leslie Charlesworth which was available to use with his permission and modified it to produce a pastel painting called ‘Resignation’.

The title explains the feeling that this mare has, as you can see what she is dealing with in the reflection of her eye if you look closely.

I hope that the auction raises a good amount for the Brooke organisation to further their work.

Paisley Art Institute 131st Open Art Exhibition – 2019

Following on from my delight at having a painting selected for last year’s Paisley Art Institute’s annual exhibition which consequently sold, I am absolutely chuffed to bits to let you know that I have been selected for this year’s PAI exhibition too.

‘Pug Dug’, acrylic on canvas panel, will be taking part and I couldn’t be prouder!

Exhibition runs from 7 September – 20 October 2019 at the Piazza, Central Way, Paisley, PA1 1EL, Scotland.

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‘Pug Dug’

 

 

Paisley Art Institute – Part 2

Back in May, I blogged about having a painting accepted for the Paisley Art Institute’s Annual Exhibition in Glasgow, well I’m very happy to let you know that my little ‘Siamese’ painting actually sold.  This is the first time I have entered a major exhibition and was knocked out to have a painting accepted, but the icing on the cake was when I visited the show with a friend, only to find a small red dot on my label!  Yay!

The gallery was extremely quiet and echo-ey so my friend and I had to do silent ‘whooping’ and slow motion jumping up and down so as not to disturb any of the viewing public!!

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Paisley Art Institute

When I decided to change my career and become a self-employed artist a few years ago, little did I think I would be selling my paintings and undertaking commissions, but even more surprisingly did I ever think I would be taking part in a prestigious art exhibition!

This painting, ‘Siamese’, from a photo reference by Charlotte White, has been accepted into the Paisley Art Institute’s 130th Annual Exhibition and I can’t tell you how chuffed I am 😁