 Barry WhitePainting as frozen music – perhaps?
Wednesday 24 January - Sunday 4 March 2007Barry White’s abstract paintings have both their own architecture and a personal sense of place. There is a compelling sense that you are not just looking at them, but are about to enter into their space. Listening to music, Bach’s suites for solo cello or Charlie Parker’s improvisations, in their individual ways take the receptive listener along a path of exploration and creative development in terms of abstract form and sound. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  11am – 4 pm Admission Free Grazyna
Whittle: Textiles This exhibition
brings together three artists working in different mediums but sharing
a similar sensibility - a subtle use of colour and tone, a very
individual response to forms and colours found in nature, and work that
communicates a sense of calm and stillness.
All living and working in the North of England, Ann Raby has an M.A. from Leeds University. Kyoko Takahashi took her degree at Bradford College and is part of the Bradford based ceramics group, Flux. Grazyna Whittle attended Trafford College and Goldsmiths College, London. She is a member of the Cheshire Textile Group. All three have exhibited widely and have recently had there work shown at Dean Clough Gallery, Halifax, and West Yorkshire. Grazyna Whittle Grazyna Whittle uses a muted palette of greys and whites for textiles which bear little resemblance to the traditional decorative items associated with this medium. Closer to fine art than craft, her work frequently makes use of the minimalist grid, and by repeating square and rectangular motifs she creates a sense of order and unity. As a counterpoint to this, she draws with thread, binding the shapes or sewing over them in a semi - random but controlled fashion. With the addition of calligraphy, this produces a surface which reminds one of manuscripts or palettes of stone with some obscure or long forgotten meaning. Ann Raby Ann Raby enjoys taking long walks in the countryside around Wakefield where she lives. Although most of her work is purely abstract she is influenced by natural forms and colours found in the landscape and the feelings they evoke. Her large oil paintings feature eliptical forms, which appear to be floating in pools of colour. Reminiscent of eggs or seeds they seem to be bursting with the potential for new life. Kyoko Takahashi Kyoko Takahashi’s ceramic sculptures are variations on a theme of the most simple of manmade vessels; the pot. But they transcend this basic form to become works of art with a timeless beauty. Her sculptures create a complete world in themselves, one can run the eye over the surface as if looking at a landscape of sand dunes or rocks weathered by thousands of years of erosion. To the touch they feel like stones you might find on the beach, their surface patterned with ripples reflected from the water. One can imagine putting them to the ear, as we would a shell, and listening to the roar of the sea. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wednesday 2 May - Sunday 10 June 2007Jitka Palmer: Paintings and Ceramics |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
My work is
figurative, narrative and expressive.
I love watching
people, their body language and facial expressions. I am on the lookout
for special moments and situations accompanying every human activity. For years I have
been focusing on people going about their daily jobs and occupations;
people happy to be at work, concentrated, involved, skilful and
admirable. I decided to
concentrate on a few professions which I would like to be able do
myself, had I more lives: musician, sculptor, baker, bee keeper,
butcher, dustbin man and others. I would like to
include some pieces based on my own artistic practice, including a
first self-portrait. Part of this
project would be a collaboration with the photographer Mic Warmington,
who will record and illustrate my studio activities with semi
documentary images and photographic sketches. To balance the
images of people busy and working, I would like to touch on a problem
of people out of work, which will be based on my last year’s project,
working with asylum seekers in Birmingham. I pinch and coil
earthenware vessels and sculptures and treat them as my canvases. I use
slips in a very painterly way, building layers of colours with slips,
oxides and stains. I use dry pastel and
watercolours for my work on paper.
My sketchbooks and photographs serve as a
valuable collection of raw material.
Mic Warmington : Photography I have often thought of my photographic work as "Sketching with a camera", often highlighting and abstracting unnoticed details in the environment. This project is my attempt to document Jitka in her studio whilst giving the viewer an intimate insight into the environment within which she works. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YORKSHIRE
SCULPTURE GROUP
Things Only Seem To Be Things Wednesday October 3rd to Sunday November 4th 2007
"Things
Only Seem To Be Things"
This quote from the poem “Judging Distances” by the second world war poet Henry Read, is the central tenet which informs and elucidates the coming together of our four diverse bodies of work. We have, at times taken unpredictable and perhaps uncharacteristic routes in what we regard as a search for truth, in pursuit of which we felt it worth setting aside previous artistic identities. We regard the text as a parable which defines the dilemma and liberation which existed for the artist in the C20 and continues into the C21: i.e.: “What is Reality ?” -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ARTSMILL
WINTER FAIR
OPEN EXHIBITION Wednesday
November 21st 2007 to January 13th 2008
 |
