‘Of Poets and Madmen’
A special Festival Exhibition at Old Chapel Gallery, Pembridge entitled ‘Of Poets and Madmen’ to run during the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts 2024, opens on Saturday May 11, continuing to the end of June, featuring the work of talented British artists and makers from far and near. This year we are combining this exhibition with our Garden Sculpture show ‘Splendour in the Grass’ which will run throughout the year, featuring the work of several sculptors new to the gallery.
Colin See-Paynton
Colin See-Paynton is widely regarded as the leading exponent of wood engraving in the United Kingdom and his work is represented in many private and public collections around the world. We are delighted to show four of his imposing original oil paintings on canvas in this exhibition.
Ann McCay
New to the gallery is artist Ann McCay whose paintings convey a sense of space and have a strong narrative element. Settings are theatrical, often portraying man-made structures within natural vegetation. The eye is led along paths, through windows and into doorways. The familiar is made strange through the use of intense colour and light. The juxtaposition of images and archetypal nature of the figures inspires the viewer to create their own story.
Mary Griffin
We once again welcome artist Mary Griffin to the gallery, with her vibrant pastels of gardens and intriguing interiors. She finds the medium ideal, because of its immediacy, also using gouache or watercolours to provide interesting surface contrasts and atmospheric effects. Many of her paintings are a glimpse of a moment in time. Her chief concern is to make a statement about life which most people will relate to from their own experience, but narratives are left to be interpreted by the viewer.
Tamsin Abbott
Sought-after Herefordshire stained glass maker Tamsin Abbott will be showing several pieces. Influenced by the natural world and its associated myths and legends, she tries to imbue her work with a sense of these magical qualities which connect humankind to the landscape while doing justice to the alchemical qualities of the glass itself.
Rachel Ricketts
Rachel Ricketts spent years conserving antiquities and works of art, and restoring wall paintings, predominantly in ecclesiastical buildings and stately homes. Inspiration to sculpt then came along with her newly acquired English Toy Terrier who became her first, very wriggly, subject. Her extensive training did not encompass sculpture, in this she is entirely self-taught, her experience with materials and techniques, including patination processes, have proved invaluable.
