Easter Open event at St Michael's Studios, 2 to 5 April, 10-5pm dailyWe're putting on our annual Easter Open Studios event over the 4 days of the Easter Bank Holiday, and many of the artists at St Michael's Studios will be opening their studios to the public.
I'll also be unveiling my latest commission "View from Lewesdon Hill" during the open event. The painting is on temporary loan from the new owner, and as I've spent 6 months making it, I wanted to give the public another opportunity to see it.
The painting is one of a series of panoramic landscape paintings inspired by the unique light and landscape of West Dorset, it's a five-foot painting, showing a vista across the Marshwood Vale from Pilsden Pen to Charmouth, framed by the ancient beech trees on the lower part of Lewesdon Hill, itself an iron age hill fort and the highest point in Dorset.
Also taking place from this weekend are two exhibitions by two artists based at St Michael's Studios. Andrew Leppard and John Rabbetts have a two-man show at Eype Centre of the Arts, which is on from Good Friday April 2nd for one week until Sunday April 11th and will be open from 10.30am until 4.30pm. Admission is free.
Also well worth a look is a solo show by John Rabbetts at the White Space Gallery in Axminster, from April 2nd- 11th April 2010.
"John Rabbetts' vibrant oil paintings are appreciated for their mood and atmosphere. He has a strong sense of the nuances of light and a rare talent for capturing expression and movement. John explores a wide range of subjects, from portraits, to landscapes, interiors and exteriors, and has created a versatile stylistic approach appropriated from artists throughout the history of painting. He tends to work quickly, challenging himself to capture the likeness of an image or accomplish a painterly effect. Working from found and personal images, both photographic and painted, John relishes the activity of painting, pitting himself against the masters, determined to match their virtuosity and enjoying the sheer pleasure of the painters touch."
Meanwhile, artist Tim Nickolson is showing at Sladers Yard Gallery, West Bay, from 28 March to 16 May.
"This is a rare chance to see the joyous colours and irrepressible style of Tim Nicholson's paintings. Tim plays with the idea of representation with a sure hand and a great sense of fun. Every day objects are transformed into jewels, flattened and yet bursting with life. His landscapes may have writing on them as if he has painted them by numbers. Dots and stripes speak of pattern yet the picture leaps out.
Tim Nicholson is the nephew of Ben Nicholson, son of Kit and EQ whose prints play a strong part in the exhibition. Designed in the forties and fifties in the midst of the radical thinking which was the seed for many of the ideas behind the contemporary work in this exhibition, EQ's designs are still fresh and strong today. Known primarily for her textile designs, EQ's paintings were only discovered by friends late in her life. Simplifying and stylising every day objects, they reveal a clear and wonderful talent.
Sladers Yard is an eighteenth century maritime warehouse at West Bay harbour in West Dorset. The original three-storey timber interior of Sladers Yard speaks of its 250-year history as a workplace. Everywhere are the marks of the past: grooves worn by ropes or great bolts driven into the rough stone walls. With its mottled lime-washed walls and rough-hewn pillars, the building makes a stunning setting for contemporary work.
Along the road in Morecomblake, the Artwave West Gallery has it's Easter exhibition, with a dozen artists showing from 12th March - 24th April 2010.
Next up will be the launch of my "Portrait of the Artist" book and exhibition at the Bridport Arts Centre on Saturday 17th April, from 6-8pm. This is a group show of twenty-five painters and sculptors associated with the Bridport art scene, and includes the launch of the book on the opening night. The project is a collaboration between myself writer Lu Orza and photographer George Wright, and we each draw on our own creative disciples to present a multifaceted portrait of the contemporary artist, with Lu's narrative texts, George's evocative photographic portraits and my selection of some of the artists best work.
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