Autumn Exhibition 2020 ‘When Soft was the Sun’
As the evenings start to draw in, our thoughts turn to home and a good fire in the hearth. To set the scene we mark the beauty of the changes of the season, and introduce our special Autumn Exhibition entitled ‘When Soft was the Sun’ * which opens on Saturday September 5 at Old Chapel Gallery, Pembridge, promoting the work of talented British artists and makers from around the county and beyond.
Our line up this year will feature artists Jenny Jones, Jemima Jameson and Sue Hayden.
This will be Jenny’s second exhibition with us. She was a huge success last year. She paints mainly in watercolours and oils, usually of characterful domestic scenes and the farming community around her home. Jenny studied part time in Florence followed by a foundation course at Shrewsbury Art School, and a degree course at Farnham, graduating in 1976.
By popular demand Jemima returns with a beautifully executed collection of painted olive and oak wood panels alongside useful boxes and cabinets. Hares, foxes, kingfishers are just some of nature’s beautiful creatures that Jemima captures in acrylic paints as she creates these heirloom pieces.
Artist Sue Hayden is excited by the relationship between texture, shape, light and space in landscapes and paints with acrylics and pastels on paper that have been layered up beforehand with paint and paper creating a collage effect. This adds energy, randomness and interest to the subject. Her inspiration comes mainly from glorious Pembrokeshire.
We are always delighted to show new stained glass panels by Herefordshire artist Tamsin Abbott. Her work is influenced by the Herefordshire countryside, the orchards, the hills, the woods and all the plants, birds and animals that grow and live.
Tamsin works on mainly British made mouth blown glass, in fabulous colours. She completely covers the glass with a special black glass paint which is totally opaque. When the paint is dry Tamsin then scrapes back into it using a variety of simple tools. She uses the paint like a scraper board which is working in the negative to achieve an effect rather like a woodcut.
Sarah Noël is new to the gallery and we are delighted to be showing her most recent collection of Raku fired ceramics. Sarah makes figurative, stylised three-dimensional ceramic sculptures, wall pieces and panels. Sarah’s work expresses the human condition through a simple spirituality. She has been influenced by medieval art forms, and European and American folk art. Sarah works alongside her sister Anna in their tiny shared studio. She studied ceramics at Bristol Polytechnic gaining a BA Degree in 1983 before setting up the present studio with her sister. Sarah prefers to work mostly in two dimensions. Although most of her pieces have a back and a front, they are largely pictorial in character combining references to the old Staffordshire flatbacks with elements as diverse as Islamic art and Indian shadow puppets.
Another newcomer to us is ceramic artist Eleanor Bartleman. She makes intriguing figures based on animal and human forms. Each piece is individually hand built and modelled in porcelain clay.
Her ideas are drawn from many sources – mostly from various areas of mythology, the main theme being the beast epic of Reynard the Fox. A recent development is the making of wall pieces – where she has been able to explore the more illustrative side of her imagery.
To compliment this exhibition there will be jewellery from designers including Leoma Drew, Hilary Mee, Chrissie Nash, Hannah Dunne, Rachel Bailey, Lesley Strickland, Gail Klevan, Elizabeth Terzza, and more.
*Title inspired by a poem from Piers Ploughman
Please note revised opening times: Wednesday to Saturday 11- 4.30pm
This exhibition will run till the end of October 2020
For more information contact Yasmin on 01544 388842
or visit www.oldchapelgallery.co.uk.
For more information contact Yasmin on 01544 388842 or visit www.oldchapelgallery.co.uk.
