The Christmas Exhibition 2023 at Old Chapel Gallery, Pembridge
entitled ‘Winter Curiosities’ opens on Saturday November 4 with a dazzling collection of hand picked, hand made delights! Give the High Street a miss this Christmas and shop for unique British made presents in the calm and tranquil atmosphere of the gallery. Enjoy a truly delightful shopping experience.
We will be featuring a cornucopia of wonderful Christmas present ideas from the best of British artists and makers, many from Herefordshire and its surrounds – something for everyone! Including handmade cards, candles and soaps, Christmas tree decorations in copper, brass, glass and porcelain, jewellery in silver, acrylic, pearls and semi-precious stones, studio glass and stained glass, ceramics – functional and decorative, ironwork – including pokers, snuffers, candle holders, bronzes, and sculpture – both for indoors and to grace the garden, original paintings, prints, including limited edition etchings, a wide range of textiles to include jackets, hats, scarves, gloves, cushions and throws.
To adorn your walls we will be showing a new collection of textile embroidery pictures by Rachel Wright. Rachel is inspired by many subjects, including landscapes, seascapes, wildlife, harbour towns, boats, lighthouses and windmills. These themes are then translated into machine embroidered fabric collages that are lively and swirling with movement, with vibrant threads used like a fine paintbrush to fill in the details, worked onto carefully cut pieces of fabric. This enables Rachel to draw and paint through fabric and stitch, providing a rich source of colour, texture and pattern which forms her ‘palette’.
Colin See-Paynton is a Fellow of the Royal Cambrian Academy, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers and a member of the Society of Wood Engravers. He 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 welcome him once again to the gallery.
New to the gallery is stained glass artist Lilly Eris who finds her inspiration in the rich tapestry of human mythology and the boundless intricacies of the natural world. She works in the traditional storytelling medium of stained glass to create mythical scenes. With its luminous translucence and timeless beauty, stained glass offers the perfect medium for Lilly to express the narratives and aesthetics that have captivated her imagination for years.
Another newcomer to the gallery is stained glass artist Jane Littlefield. Inspired by the nature, history and folklore of her home in the Peak District and deeply influenced by medieval stained glass, using age old techniques, she has developed her own contemporary style in which traditional glass paints create multi-layered and textured images on small panels that are then fired in the kiln.
Duncan White creates intricate ceramic sculpture. He is an enthusiastic collector of antique ceramics and other collectable artefacts and his own creations appear at first glance to suggest tiny but valuable archaeological finds that could be found locked away in a museum’s display case.
His constructions are witty and amusing but with serious undertones.
Justine Allison hand built ceramics are very much concerned with the simplicity and beauty of the clay and incorporating pattern and texture as well as glaze to create subtle, unique variations. Thinness and movement are very important in each piece.
By popular demand Jemima Jameson returns for ‘Winter Curiosities’ with a beautifully executed collection of painted 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.
Morag Archer creates jewel-like mixed media mosaic pictures, using scraps of broken vintage china, paper, paint and gleaming gold leaf. Birds are her main inspiration.
Jo Verity shows a great love and respect for folk law and the cycle of life and death within the natural world in recreating the journey of our land’s repossession of animals that once lived among us. Sometimes a little on the dark side each piece tells its own unique story.
Tamsin Abbott’s magical stained glass always attracts much attention, drawing on the natural world around our Herefordshire countryside and its hares, badgers, ravens, foxes and more.
Potter Josie Walters makes tableware and cooking pots in earthenware clay, which are decorated with lively motifs in slips and coloured glazes. Most of the pots are thrown on a traditional momentum wheel, even though many of the finished shapes are oval or rectangular.
‘Winter Curiosities’ will also be showing a new collections of jewellery by Rachel Bailey, Rebecca Lewis, Elizabeth Terzza, Leoma Drew, Chrissie Nash, Gail Klevan and Rozie Keogh.
