Hello everyone
We hope you have been enjoying the incredible summer weather we have been having here in Wales.
We are delighted to inform you that our ‘OPEN 21’ exhibition is now up and running and will be on show in the main gallery until the 28th of August.
The standard of work in this year's competition was exceptionally high and we had a fantastic response to the call out with over 70 entries from across Wales and the UK, we would like to give a big thank you to all the artists who entered.
Judging a competition and putting together an exhibition is never an easy task and so we are most grateful to the judges, Mary Hayman, Felix Akulw and Tony Botto, for selecting such an inspiring and thought-provoking show.
The winners were - First place place Graham Parker for his painting, ‘Perfect Day’, David Williams came second with ‘Nant y Glesiad Woods’ and Sandra Wintle in 3rd place for her painting, ‘Breakers’. Also, Colin Davies, Nicola Gregory and Andie Clay all were commended by the judges.
In addition to OPEN 21 we are also showing a solo exhibition of last year’s OPEN 20 competition winner, Susan Barber’s paintings in the Cwch gallery.
Susan’s colourful and uplifting exhibition has been enjoyed by all who have visited, her joyful work captures the essence of summer and children enjoying their day at the beach. As we emerge from lockdown, her paintings serve as a timely reminder that life really can be fun.
Following on from our last 2019 Plein Air Competition, we returned to Victoria Gardens last weekend, to paint the beauty and landscape of the Gardens, it’s Victorian Bandstand and the Gothic style of St David’s Church in our second Plein air painting competition.
Despite Covid, artists were still able to attend, making it a more measured event with socially distancing artists. Some 20 artists participated, painting incredible scenes - despite the rainy weather!
It was a tough choice for the judges to narrow the work down to 3 main prizes. The prize winner's were: First Prize – Lauren Humphrey, Second Prize – Julie Davies, and the winner of the Amateur category is - Veronica Flynn.
All the finished paintings can be seen in an exhibition and sale of contestants work at the gallery from the 4th to 25th of September, proceeds from sales will be donated to the St David’s Church Fund.
Our new artist this month is Janet Chaplin. Janet lives and works in Abergavenny. She paints the hills and sea of what she quotes as a “fabulous place”. Her style is semi abstract focusing most of the process on colour, textures, and contrasts.
Our new workshops program is now live on our website we have some amazing classes and courses starting off next
month. we are delighted to welcome back Cas Holmes who will be taking a two-day workshop; 'Small objects of desire', Saturday 30th & Sunday 31st October 2021, 10am - 4pm
This workshop teaches you how to take inspiration from everyday objects or other types of personal memorabilia as a starting point for developing themes you will create your own layered, collage and stitch ‘Still Life’ or ‘Landscape/Nature Study’. Found paper, fabric scraps and found materials will be combined with transferring of images and stitch as a means for informing work for the development of new ideas. These will be constructed on a small canvas.
Cas will also be showing her work in our October exhibition, ‘Found’ by the group, Art Textiles: made in Britain. More information about this exhibition will be in our next Newsletter. In the meantime the Found exhibition book is available for sale at the gallery.
It has been a difficult year for all, and there have been hardships for us too. But, as a small organisation of just Sarah and myself we have and will continue to survive thanks to the support from yourselves, we feel passionate about helping our artists and bringing art to the public through our exhibitions, workshops and competitions.
All the very best,
Bethan