The Pyramid Gallery poster for the Strange Days virtual exhibition
IN
response to York Open Studios 2020’s cancellation, Pyramid Gallery owner Terry
Brett is stepping in with a lifeline to artists, offering the Stonegate gallery’s
website as an online showcase at a much-reduced commission.
Its name
prompted the lyrics of The Doors’ song from 1967, Strange Days is an “Art behind
the doors” show that aptly is growing through springtime with new additions
each day, trailed on Terry’s blog at pyramidgallery.com.
“We’ve opened the show to all York Open Studios artists and any York artists who already do business with the gallery, and I’ve lowered my commission to just 20 per cent, plus VAT, to make it work for them,” says Terry.
Delivery Creature, by Chiu-I Wu, one of the York Open Studios 2020 artists
“This enables York artists to show their new work to our customers, without a selection process, and allows them to earn more from each sale.
“The gallery
is closed and my staff are furloughed, so I can operate with lower overheads
during the Coronavirus lockdown, hopefully maintaining contact with my
customers who are confined to their homes.”
For those
living at a YO postcode, there will be free delivery of artworks, subject to the
present lockdown restrictions. “So, delivery might be in a few weeks if the
items cannot be sent through the post,” says Terry.
Terry Brett, on Stonegate, outside Pyramid Gallery
To
complement the Pyramid virtual gallery, he has addressed the challenges presented
to galleries by the Covid-19 pandemic in a candid piece on his blog.
Among the York Open Studios artists taking part in Strange Days are Kate Buckley; Peter Park; Jo Walton; Chiu-I Wu; Lesley Birch; Colin Black; Linda Combi; Zoe Catherine Kendall; Michelle Hughes; Sally Clarke; Adrienne French; Hacer Ozturk; Jill Tattersall; Karen Thomas; Kate Pettitt and Ruth Claydon. #
The second weekend of the 2020 event would have taken place on April 25 and 26.
TODAY
should have been spent visiting other people’s homes, not staying home. Next
weekend too.
This is not
a cabin-fevered call for a foolhardy Trumpian dropping of the guard on
Covid-19, but a forlorn wish that York Open Studios 2020 could have been just
that: York Open Studios. Instead, this weekend and next weekend will be
York Shut Studios.
Nevertheless,
in the absence of the opportunity to meet 144 artists at 100 locations, banished
by the Coronavirus lockdown, CharlesHutchPress
is determinedly championing the creativity of York’s artists and makers, who
would have been showcasing their ceramics, collage, digital, illustration,
jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, sculpture and textiles
skills.
Each day,
in brochure order, five artists who now miss out on the exposure of Open
Studios are being given a pen portrait on these pages, because so much art and
craft will have been created for the event and still needs a new home. Home and
studio addresses will not be included at this time.
Meanwhile,
York Open Studios artists are finding their own way to respond to the shutdown
by filling their windows with their work instead. Look for #openwindowsyork2020
to locate them. “If you see one in your area while taking your daily exercise,
take a picture and let us know,” they say.
Furthermore,
look out for plenty of the 144 artists still showcasing their work over the
York Open Studios period online. Holtby studio painter Kate Pettitt, for
example, is penning a daily blog at facebook.com/katepettittartist/.
“Visit the YOS website and take your own virtual tour at
yorkopenstudios.co.uk,” she advises.
Good advice! The website says: “We’re doing a Virtual Open Studio, with artists posting based on a daily
theme for the ten days spanning our two weekends. They’ll be showing you their
studios and workshops, favourite processes, answering your questions, and of
course lots of pictures of their new work!
“Search for
#YorkOpenStudios anywhere on social media or follow your favourite artists to
see more.”
First, however, here are five more artists and makers for you to discover…
Harriet McKenzie: Artist and foster carer
Harriet McKenzie, ceramics
HARRIET’S 2020 mission
is to “examine drawing in the interface between the two- dimensional picture
plane and the three-dimensional object”.
To do so, she creates ceramic
Circles: enclosed forms, in black clay with engobe and sgraffito painting.
Her Circles reflect how relationships, interplay and suggestion are the bedrock of her art practice in her home studio. Harriet, or Hatti as she is known, is both an artist and a foster carer, a role that fundamentally informs her work as “a multifaceted influence revealed over time,” she says.
Harriet graduated with First Class honours from her Bradford
School of Art fine art degree in 2007, first participating in York Open Studios
in 2008 and she has since done so in 2009, 2011 and 2015 to 2018, when she was
a bursary award winner.
Rounded up: A selection of Harriet McKenzie’s Circles
Her formal art education had a gap of 20 years as, first, she
took time out to travel and live in America, before making a home and raising her
daughter in York.
“I found it impossible to do both art and earn a living as a single parent,” she says candidly. “With my art, I got so focused and involved with each project, my poor daughter suffered, but with age comes a better balance.
“Now, I only do work to show in galleries or Open Studios once a year, as this can fit round my sometimes challenging life as a foster carer.” Seek out Harriet’s work at hattimckenzie.com.
Harriette Rymer at work
Harriette Rymer, painting
HARRIETTE creates
abstract paintings, vibrant and playful in character, often featuring a
geometric context, that she presents as original wall art panels, digital
artworks and installations.
“By employing a range of
mediums, I explore conflicting and harmonious relationships within colour and
texture,” she says.
Harriette first studied art and design at Leeds College of Art in 2013, later taking a science degree in Newcastle. After graduating, Harriette returned to her artistic passion and now combines her love for precision with design in her paintings, screen-prints and cards (where she uses block-printing and stamping techniques).
Energy, by Harriet Rymer
Her fascination with colour manifests itself throughout her vivid
work, curated under such collections as Confetti Collection, Hues, Colour
Overlays, Milieu, Pattern Postcards and Expanse.
“I want the viewer to make personal connections with each
composition, just as I have, whether it’s a reminder of a place they know well
or a visualisation of a memory, thought or feeling,” says Harriette, who uses
acrylic, gouache, watercolours and pastels.
This year she has exhibited in the York Printmakers show at Pairings wine bar, Castlegate, York, and in A First Glimpse at the Inspired By…Gallery, Danby, and she would have done so too at this month’s cancelled British Craft Trade Fair, Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate.
Take a look at harrietterymer.com.
“I’m an instinctive painter,” says Steve Williams
Steve Williams, painting
STEVE’S strikingly vibrant and original paintings in acrylics are inspired mainly by North Yorkshire’s landscapes and coastline.
“I’m an instinctive
painter,” he says. “My pictures take form through the process of painting, not
through adherence to a fully formulated plan. Exploring my emotive response to
my subject matter, I allow my paintings to develop as a result of my mood or
subconscious mindset. They stem from an original idea, image or situation and
then come together of their own accord.”
Whitby At Night, by Steve Williams
Using acrylics, palette
knives and brushes, Steve seeks to infuse his pictures with fluidity, energy,
colour and texture. “My aim is to achieve a balance, a cohesion, harmony and
completeness, in all of my pictures,” he says.
“I work spontaneously to
convey my emotional energy into a painting. I believe this is the only way to
ensure authenticity.”
Steve exhibits regularly with contemporary galleries throughout Yorkshire, in London and further afield. Commissions are welcomed via stevewilliamsart.moonfruit.com.
“My inspiration comes from nature’s wonders,” says Sam Jones
Sam Jones, jewellery
SAM is self-taught in
the art of lampworking, otherwise known as glass-bead making.
She works with various
materials, such as glass rods, clear resin and metals, making her own glass
beads and combining these with silver, copper and semi-precious stones in her
jewellery since 2006.
She graduated with a degree in jewellery from Sheffield Hallam
University in 2000 and works within the creative industries as a scenic
painter. “I’m drawn to colour, pattern and texture,” she says. “I enjoy experimenting
with processes and like working with various materials as I find each has its
own qualities.
Handmade glass-beads necklace, by Sam Jones
“My inspiration comes from nature’s wonders, from the nebulas
within our galaxies, to the weird and wonderful inhabitants of our oceans.”
Should the non-scientific among you be wondering, a nebula is a
giant interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen, helium and other ionised gases.
Some nebulae (the Latin plural) come from the gas and dust
thrown out by the explosion of a dying star, such as a supernova. Other nebulae
are “star nurseries”: regions where new stars are beginning to form. Science home-schooling
lesson of the day, at your service.
Discover more at samjonesjewellery.com.
Gerard Hobson with his wren installation beneath the Clock Tower at Beningbrough Hall, near York. Picture: Sue Jordan
Gerard Hobson, printmaking
GERARD has had a love of
birds, animals and art since childhood, a wildlife bent that saw him qualify as
a zoologist from Bangor University and work for Wiltshire Wildlife Trust as a
botanist and illustrator.
On relocating to the
north, he worked for Yorkshire Wildlife while continuing to develop his own work
on a freelance basis, turning his hand to woodcarving and studying print-making
in York.
Gerard now works from
his garden studio in Clifton, producing limited-edition hand-coloured linocut prints
of birds and animals, much of his work being inspired while out walking his dog
on the Clifton Ings.
His repertoire has expanded to take in cushions and lampshades, mugs and chopping boards, produced in tandem with Georgia Wilkinson Designs, and cut-outs of birds, animals, fish and mushrooms.
Leaping Hare, by Gerard Hobson
Gerard branched out still further earlier this year for his Winter Wildlife In Print show at the National Trust property of Beningbrough Hall, Beningbrough, near York, where he combined multiple prints in the Hayloft gallery with 14 sculptural scenes/installations in the outbuildings, gardens, grounds and parkland, inspired by creatures that make Beningbrough their winter home.
“I hope my art may stir people to become more interested in
the wildlife around them, to feed the birds and join their local wildlife trust,”
he says. “To share this with their children and their children’s children, and
hopefully generations of young people will become more interested in the birds
and woodlands around them. Maybe some will go on to be environmental
campaigners – who knows!”
More info at gerardhobson.com.
TOMORROW: Lesley Birch; Frances G Brock; Maria Keki; Beccy Ridsdel and Dawn Ridsdel.
Gin Anyone? A sketch for our times by Geraldine “Geri” Bilbrough
TODAY
should have been spent visiting other people’s homes, not staying safe at home.
Tomorrow too.
This is not
a call for a foolhardy Trumpian dropping of the guard on Covid-19, but a
forlorn wish that York Open Studios 2020 could have been just that: York Open
Studios. Instead, this weekend and next weekend will be York Shut Studios.
Nevertheless, in the absence of the opportunity to meet 144 artists at 100 locations, banished by the Coronavirus lockdown, CharlesHutchPress is determinedly championing the creativity of York’s artists and makers, who would have been showcasing their ceramics, collage, digital, illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, sculpture and textiles skills.
Each day,
in brochure order, five artists who now miss out on the exposure of Open
Studios are being given a pen portrait on these pages, because so much art and
craft will have been created for the event and still needs a new home. Home and
studio addresses will not be included at this time.
Meanwhile,
York Open Studios artists are finding their own way to respond to the shutdown
by filling their windows with their work instead. Look for #openwindowsyork2020
to locate them. “If you see one in your area while taking your daily exercise,
take a picture and let us know,” they say.
Furthermore, look out for plenty of the 144 artists still showcasing their work over the York Open Studios period online. Holtby studio painter Kate Pettitt, for example, is penning a daily blog at facebook.com/katepettittartist/. “Visit the YOS website and take your own virtual tour at yorkopenstudios.co.uk,” she advises.
Fran Brammer: Founder member of York Textile Artists
Fran Brammer, textiles
FRAN left behind
Worcestershire for Yorkshire to teach art and design, then textiles, until
succumbing to the allure of a historical costume-making course.
She now works as a
textile artist and tutor, specialising in personal landscapes “drawn” using
freehand machine stitching that she produces for sale, exhibitions or private
commissions.
“My work is created by
building, then cutting away layers of found fabrics and stitching,” says Fran. “The
images explore individual experiences and histories both large and small.”
In her teaching
capacity, she hosts workshops, demonstrations and talks focusing on freehand
machine work and creative textiles.
“The images explore individual experiences and histories both large and small,” says Fran Brammer of her textile work
Fran, a founder member
of York Textile Artists, writes on her latest blog: “If you are a bored
creative, feeling a bit isolated and frustrated, try out the York Textile
Artists public Facebook page.
“We are planning to post
challenges and projects for you to get involved with, some as daft as a brush,
others more proper and ‘textiley’. If you don’t do Facebook, go on to our
website, yorktextileartists.com, and sign up for newsletter. We have plans.”
As for how Fran’s
artwork is responding to the Coronavirus shutdown, she writes: “All of the
current pieces are tied to opportunities lost due to social distancing…so time
to start anew and work with the restrictions.
“This has no deadline, no
purpose or goal, it just is. It is about being in the landscape, about being
alone with that landscape and how perception shifts, given time and space.
Interpretation and response rather than fact.” Read more at franbramm.wordpress.com.
Geraldine Bilbrough at work on an illustration
Geraldine Bilbrough, illustration
INSPIRED by music, film, stories and human emotions, using pencil and sometimes watercolour, before re-touching digitally, Geraldine tries to capture beauty and feeling within her thought-provoking images.
This York illustrator and designer has been drawing
all her life and considers art her biggest passion, creating detailed
illustrations, often based around portraiture with an occasional hint of
fantasy.
A portrait by Geraldine Bilbrough
“I enjoy nothing more than finding inspiration for new work and discussing ideas with other creatives,” her website profile says. “When I’m not drawing, I love to travel and explore new places, eat my way around cafés and restaurants, visit art galleries and learn French.” Learning French will have to hold sway for now, but roll on a return to those other joys, Geraldine, whenever that day may come.
2020 would have marked her York Open Studios debut.
Cast an eye over geraldinebilbrough.com.
“The thing about jewellery is that it’s never practical,” says Ruth Claydon
Ruth Claydon, jewellery
HOW would Ruth Claydon
sum up her jewellery? “Old, found, turned around,” she says, picking the title
Moth And Magpie for her brand of re-purposed cast-offs mixed with ancient
treasures, in acknowledgement of how her instincts match both.
“My ideal Magpie-upcycler scenario is discovering a vintage
or antique piece of jewellery and taking it back to my studio whilst I’m still
giddy with excitement to create new jewellery from it straight away,” she says on
her mothandmagpie.com blog.
Sharp-eyed Ruth sees the
potential in re-working cast-off old jewellery, making a virtue of the unwanted
by merging it with heirlooms and ancient finds such as salvaged Roman glass
beads and metals. In doing so, she makes old into new, modern designs, enhanced
by techniques such as hammering, melting and enamelling.
“Old, found, turned around”: Ruth Claydon’s definition of her jewellery
“Because the thing about jewellery is that it’s never practical,”
her blog contends. “It’s not about what will ‘do’. You absolutely have to love
it. It’s emotional. It’s the icing on the cake. It’s as personal as perfume. It’s
about how it looks, but even more it’s about how it makes you feel.”
A light carbon footprint sparks joy for Ruth. “Because I want to wear things that have also made other women feel special,” she says. “Because I want to create value from individuality, exclusivity from design, and if an Elizabeth Taylor diamond winks at me across a room, I can twinkle right back knowing that pinning down my glamour is as complex as the history entwined in the piece I am wearing.”
Find out more at
mothandmagpie.com.
Jacqueline James with her large and sturdy Swedish floor loom
Jacqueline James, textiles
JACQUELINE creates one-of-a-kind,
custom-dyed, hand-woven rugs and wall hangings, mainly contemporary in style,
using natural and durable materials in geometric patterns and stripe rhythms.
Born in Dumfries, Scotland, she grew up in the Pacific Northwest, USA, before moving to York in 1982. From 1985 to 1988, she studied woven textile design and construction at Harrogate College of Art and Technology, where she focused on rug weaving.
In 1989, Jacqueline
established her weaving studio in York, since when her textile work for
commission and exhibition has blended traditional techniques with contemporary
design style.
“Everything is made by hand on my large and sturdy Swedish floor loom,” she says. “Inspiration for new designs comes from everywhere, especially all the colours and patterns I see in nature, landscapes and architecture.”
Geometric patterns by Jacqueline James
Jacqueline’s work is in public and private collections in Britain and North America and her major commissions include weaving for York Minster, Westminster Abbey and the British Library. “I particularly enjoy designing and weaving bespoke commissioned work from private clients, interior designers, architects and places of worship,” she says.
“For me, weaving is a
lifestyle occupation which gives me a great sense of purpose. I adore the
tactile qualities and the rich colours of the threads I use and find the action
of weaving very engaging.
“Rug weaving is the perfect vehicle for
my visual interpretation and expression. As a rug weaver, I feel
privileged being part of the international weaving community and continuing an
important heritage craft tradition.” Discover more at handwovenrugs.co.uk.
Jean Drysdale: Designing sculptural objects, wall pieces and items to wear
Jean Drysdale, textiles
JEAN has worked in felt textiles since leaving
modern language teaching in 2007.
“I was drawn firstly by the apparent simplicity
of a process that produces wonderful results,” she says. “Then I looked
further, researching the great history, breadth and the depth of the felt-making
tradition.”
In 2011, she completed a City and Guilds course and since
then she has developed her felt-making process to create highly textured
sculptural objects, wall pieces and items to wear.
Textile with style: The work of Jean Drysdale
“Now I delight in achieving a contemporary result through use of
wide-ranging and ever-evolving techniques,” says Jean. “I work with unspun
sheep’s wool fibre, ranging from British and European rare breeds to fine
Australian merino. The felting process bonds the wool with silks and other
natural fibres.”
She likes to
explore texture, form and colour. “I use traditional and contemporary wet-felting
and hand-dyeing techniques and enjoy contrasting colours which migrate and
transform during the process,” says Jean, who has exhibited in York, Leeds, North
Yorkshire and Scotland, including at Helmsley
Arts Centre and Kunsthuis Gallery at The Dutch House, Crayke. More info at
jdrysdalefelt.co.uk.
TOMORROW: Harriet McKenzie; Harriette Rymer; Steve Williams; Sam Jones and Gerard Hobson.
Voces Suaves: Madrigals At Your Service streaming today (April 18)
THE National Centre for Early
Music series of Facebook streaming premieres presents vocal ensemble Voces
Suaves this afternoon at 1pm.
Over the coming weeks, the York
music venue, at Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, will be streaming a line-up of
past performances from the NCEM archives.
In today’s Facebook concert, Voces Suaves perform Madrigals At Your Service, focusing on the musical treasures of the Italian Renaissance and re-creating the magnificence of the courts of Ferrara and Mantua, with music by Monteverdi, Gesualdo and Wert.
NCEM director Delma Tomlin
says: “This group of nine professional singers are graduates of the Creative
Europe EEEmerging programme and have
performed at major European concert venues and festivals, taking audiences and
critics by storm.
Palisander: Online concert coming next on May 2
“This performance, recorded
at St Lawrence’s Church in York, was a highlight of the 2018 York Early
Music Festival and it forms the third in a series of NCEM Online concerts
designed to welcome audiences from across the world into the extraordinarily
rich world of early music.”
Future streaming concerts include a 2019 performance by the recorder ensemble Palisander on Saturday, May 2, at 1pm. “The group have been part of the EEEmerging programme too and their debut album, Beware The Spider!, released in 2017, received outstanding reviews from the critics,” says Delma.
Palisander’s concert was
recorded in the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, at the 2019 REMA
Conference.
To join the merry streaming
throng, simply click on to the NCEM’s Facebook page @yorkearlymusic.
Alternatively, log on to the NCEM’s website, ncem.co.uk, and click on
the news section.
Future concerts and streaming dates will be announced at ncem.co.uk.
YORK Open
Studios 2020, the chance to meet 144 artists at 100 locations over two April
weekends, should have started with a preview this evening, but the annual event
has been cancelled in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However,
with doors sadly shut for the April 17 to 19 and April 25 to 26 event,
CharlesHutchPress wants to champion the creativity of York’s artists and
makers, who would have been showcasing their ceramics, collage, digital,
illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, sculpture
and textiles skills.
Each day,
in brochure order, five artists who now miss out on the exposure of Open
Studios will be given a pen portrait on these pages, because so much art and
craft will have been created for the event and still needs a new home.
Addresses will not be included at this time.
Meanwhile,
York Open Studios artists are finding their own way to respond to the shutdown
by filling their windows with their work instead. Look for #openwindowsyork2020 to locate them.
“If you see one in your area while taking your daily exercise, take a picture
and let us know,” they say.
More Alike Than Different, by Lu Mason
Lu Mason, multi-media
IN her latest work, Lu is looking at how we connect as human
beings, using the theme that we are all cut from the same cloth.
“My installation consists of one long series of paper figures,
all connected to each other, all cut out from the same roll of paper: More
Alike Than Different,” she says.
Lu has had an unusual
journey to where she is now as an artist. She worked for many years as an
occupational therapist, but she always painted patterns for her own enjoyment
and had a small business making rag rugs.
Lu Mason: Unusual journey
Fifteen years ago, she
started making cut-paper mobiles, since when she has enjoyed putting her work in public places in
the form of installations, as well as creating mobiles using Perspex shapes
over the past year.
“I make site-specific work, in collaboration with
clients,” she says. “I’m interested in doing installations, residencies and workshops
and I’m now producing a range of brooches made out of Perspex too.”
Lu was one of the 2020
York Open Studios multimedia bursary recipients in a
scheme set up to enable artists to create experiences such as digital works,
installations, films or performances for the annual event. Take a look at
madebylumason.weebly.com.
Andre, by Nick Kobyluch
Nick Kobyluch, drawing
NICK’S pen and ink drawings explore line, form and colour
through both landscape and portraiture work, most of his final pieces
originating from drawings initially done in his sketchbooks.
Born in Bradford, he moved to London to work as a freelance
illustrator for design, editorial and advertising clients, from the Observer
and the National Lottery to Barclays
Bank and Oxford University Press, after completing his BA in graphic design at
Hull College of Art in the 1980s.
Over the years, he has moved away from commercially commissioned work to pursue his own interests in drawing, motivated by a desire to experiment and evolve as a line artist, favouring the pen, “the most unforgiving of mediums”, over pencil and charcoal.
Nick Kobyluch: Motivated by a desire to experiment
The urban environment inspires Nick. “I love cities and the way
they represent in complex physical form the many ways we interact as
individuals and as a society,” he says. “It’s all there in the odd
juxtapositions, hidden corners and strange compromises.”
He names Frans Masereel, George Grosz, Edward Bawden, Eric
Ravillious, Richard Diebenkorn and David Gentleman as artists he “comes back to
time and again”. “All share a mastery of line and form,” he says.
This would have been his first year as a York Open Studios exhibitor: the latest affirmation of his desire to “keep moving forward” as an artist. Contact him via nickkobyluch2@gmail.com.
Hole Of Horcum, by Michelle Hughes
Michelle Hughes, printmaking
MICHELLE is a printmaker
and graphic designer, creating linocut prints inspired by nature and the great
British countryside.
“I love exploring the
countryside by bike or on foot, camera in hand, capturing ideas for my next
prints,” she says.
Once back in her garden
studio, Michelle makes simple but stylised silhouettes based on her
photographs, then cuts these shapes into lino. She hand-prints with an etching
press, using oil-based inks to create tonal blocks of colour.
Michelle Hughes: Artist and workshop tutor
For 25 years, Michelle
designed homeware and fashion ranges for large corporate companies such as
Disney, George Home at Asda, Arcadia and Shared Earth. In June 2016, she took
the leap of faith to set up her own business, initially in graphic design, then
printmaking, bringing together her love of craft, photography, colour, nature
and exploring.
“I’ve always loved working with my hands and making things,” says Michelle, who also holds workshops in her Holgate studio. “I like the spontaneity of making marks with the tools, the quality of line and the graphic style of the final print. It enables me to distil the landscape down into simple lines.”
Michelle has designed a series of a dozen linocuts, A Landscape Speaks, for the National Trust property Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. Learn more at michellehughesdesign.com/.
Oil on canvas by Lucy McElroy
Lucy McElroy, painting
AFTER 15 years as an art teacher, Lucy balances her time between
the “joys and challenges of being a mother, teaching part-time at All Saints RC
School and spending time developing her own practice in her home studio”.
“Traditional techniques enable me to create a true likeness of
my subjects, while exploring ways to capture beautiful and emotive moments on
paper and canvas,” says Lucy, who studied fine art at the University of Leeds.
Lucy McElroy: Capturing beautiful and emotive moments
She works in pencil, pastel, charcoal and oil on canvas and
finds time for a few portrait commissions each year, undertaken in between her
own creative projects.
This would have been the first year that Lucy had participated
in York Open Studios. View her work at lucymcelroy.co.uk.
The Blue Bell, in Fossgate, York, one of 30 new works Ian Cameron made for York Open Studios 2020
Ian Cameron, painting
IAN’S artwork is created
using crayon wax rubbings, vibrant Brusho-coloured washes and Indian ink
drawings, embellished with collage and watercolours to create a multi-layered
effect.
“I love to draw in my
sketchbook,” he says. “I usually draw with a black gel pen and often use
watercolours. Sometimes I rub over embossed surfaces such as manhole covers
with a wax crayon and then paint over with a colour wash to create a resist
effect. The final picture has a great deal of depth brought about by the
different layers or levels.”
Ian Cameron in the wooden studio he built in his garden
Ian developed an interest in art “quite late in life”, at 50 to be precise, in 2003 when he attended GCSE Art evening classes. A-level studies and an art and design foundation course at York College ensued.
2020 was to have been his seventh year in York Open Studios, exhibiting 30 new works created in the wooden studio he built in his back garden. For more info, visit ifcameron.tumblr.com.
TOMORROW: Fran Brammar; Geraldine Bilbrough; Ruth Claydon; Jacqueline James and Jean Drysdale.
Suhail Yusuf Khan , left, JonThorne and James Yorkston: new album, new tour date in Selby
YORKSTON Thorne
Khan, the first gig at Selby Town Hall to fall foul of the Covid-19 shutdown
last month, has been re-arranged for November 24.
Tickets
for the postponed March 20 show remain valid for the new date, with further
tickets still on sale at selbytownhall.co.uk.
Yorkston Thorne
Khan are Scottish songwriter James Yorkston (guitar, nyckelharpa, voice); Bishop’s
Storford jazz musician Jon Thorne (double
bass, voice) and Delhi-born eighth generation sarangi player and vocalist
Suhail Yusuf Khan.
The trio will be touring in support of their third album, Navarasa: Nine Emotions, a January 24 release on Domino Recordings that followed 2016 debut Everything Sacred and 2017’s Neuk Wight Delhi All-Stars after they first met by chance backstage in 2015 and played together ever since.
On the latest recording, they tackle Robert Burns and Sufi poetry, via Dick Gaughan and Amir Khusrow Dehlavi, traditional Scottish songs, ragas and their own spidery compositions.
At the heart of Yorkston Thorne Khan’s transporting new album is the subcontinent’s navarasa: the nine (nava) emotions or sentiments (rasa) of the arts. This “unifying underpinning” is a centuries-old organising principle, wherein the individual artistic emotions range from Shringara (love, beauty), through Hasya (laughter, mirth, comedy), Raudra (anger), Karuna (sorrow, compassion or mercy), Bibhatsya (disgust), Bhayanaka (horror, terror), Veera (heroism, courage), Adbutha (surprise, wonder), to Shanta (peace, tranquillity).
The artwork for Yorkston Thorne Khan’s Navarasa: Nine Emotions
Each song is connected to one of these emotions; for example Westlin
Winds is paired with Adbutha, opening with the life-destroying Act I of Robert
Burns’s poem Now Westlin Winds (And Slaught’ring Guns).
Then it deliciously transplants its disjoined, nature-extolling and
life-affirming Act II on to Indian soil with a composition in Purbi, a dialect
of old Hindi. “I learnt the song by listening to various qawwali [Muslim
devotional song] singers singing at Hazrat Nizammuddin’s dargah [shrine] in
Delhi,” says Khan. “Its source is Hazrat Amir Khusrau.”
In this way, Yorkston Thorne Khan unite one of the key spiritual
visionaries and architects of Hindustani art music, the poet-philosopher Hazrat
Amir Khusrau, with the key literary visionary of Scottish culture, Robert
Burns.
This bricolage of diverse cross-cultural elements is apparent across Navarasa:
Nine Emotions. Yorkston weaves in
Scottish folk, sangster and literary strands; Thorne is grounded in jazz and
groove. Then add New Delhi-based Khan’s feast of northern Indian classical,
light classical and Sufi devotional musical and literary influences. “What
binds these diverse musical strands together is a dark happiness,” says
Yorkston.
Looking forward to the re-arranged show in the autumn, Selby Town Hall manager Chris Jones says: “Sadly James, Jon and Suhail’s show was the first in our calendar to fall victim to the lockdown. They are such a phenomenally talented trio, and the feedback I had heard from the early gigs on their tour was amazing, so it was desperately disappointing not to be able to give the Selby audience that experience.
“Thankfully
though, we’ve been able to reschedule the show for November 24, and this is
definitely one that’s worth waiting for.”
Hull Truck Theatre: Lights still out until the end of July
HULL Truck
Theatre will remain closed until July 31, putting paid to this summer’s big Dream
of a community show…for now.
Today’s board and management decision “continues to follow Government guidelines about Coronavirus”, enforcing the postponement of all spring/summer season shows, most prominently Tom Saunders’ community production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream from July 4.
The statement says: “We
are working with partners and visiting companies to re-schedule all shows, so
that audiences who have missed performances during the closure period still get
to enjoy the great programme of entertainment that had been planned.
“The box- office team are working hard to contact all audiences who have tickets booked for shows affected by the closure and bookers do not need to do anything at this time. Details of individuals shows and information about rescheduled dates can be found on the Hull Truck website, hulltruck.co.uk.
“The theatre is looking to the future, developing flexible plans for when we can reopen, including a programme of inspiring and joyful entertainment that will celebrate the very best of theatre, bringing people together in a safe and positive environment to enjoy and share a unique collective experience.”
In the meantime,
Hull Truck at Home offers a programme of drama and creative
activities to keep audiences and communities entertained and inspired while at
home in lockdown.
On April 8, more than 700 people watched a screening of Paragon Dreams on Hull Truck’s YouTube channel. Written and performed by Hester Ullyart and directed by Mark Babych, the show was presented last April and May as part of the theatre’s Ten Years On Ferensway anniversary celebrations. Further announcements for the Hull Truck at Home programme will follow next week.
Mark Babych: Hull Truck Theatre artistic director
Hull Truck’s joint chief executive
officers, executive director Janthi Mills-Ward and artistic director Mark
Babych, say: “Protecting our team, audiences and communities is our upmost
priority during this period. The theatre building may be closed except for a
security team, but a small core team continue to work from home to ensure that when
it is safe for us to reopen, we are able to bring you the very best
theatre.
“We miss the wider team who have been furloughed as part of the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, but we look forward to welcoming them and you back. We want to take this opportunity to thank everybody, from staff and audiences, to artists, partners and donors, for their continued and invaluable support during this time.”
What happens next to A Midsummer Night’s Dream? “We are deeply disappointed to have postponed our community production, which would have seen up to 100 members of our local community come together to create, perform and have fun,” they say. “But we are determined that this project will happen in the future, celebrating our fantastic community and the collaborative art of theatre.”
As for Hull Truck’s financial wellbeing: “We can reassure everyone that we have a sustainable financial plan in place for the closure period,” say Mills-Ward and Babych. “We are now looking to the future and how we can continue to play a vital role in the cultural landscape of our city and the lives of our communities, as we all emerge from this challenge.
“We are exploring all financial and funding options open to us to ensure we continue to present great theatre, to work with and support talented artists – writers and performers – at all stages of their career and offer creative opportunities to local communities, for generations to come.
“We are hugely grateful to those Hull Truck heroes who have either
donated the cost of their tickets or made independent donations to support the
work we want to continue to do when we reopen, via the Hull Truck Theatre
Future Fund.”
I LOVED a tackle because you loved a tackle. I loved your hunched-shouldered walk of innocence. I loved your Clough riposte. I loved your gantry talk on match-days, still full of Norman bite. I loved that when I arrived at your driveway to interview you, you were tackling a flat tyre…with that famed left foot of course.
Come Hull or high water, Lucy Beaumont will be streaming online from her living room on Sunday
MARK
Watson and Lucy Beaumont will star in the first Your Place Comedy night in a
streamed show live from their living rooms on Sunday at 8pm.
At a time of huge uncertainty and upheaval in the Coronavirus lockdown, not least for the live entertainment industry, ten small, independent venues across the north have come together to “provide their audiences with some much-needed laughter during these difficult times”.
The driving force behind the online venture is Chris Jones, Selby Town Council’s arts officer, who manages the Selby Town Hall arts centre. “In a nutshell, I was frustrated that the traditional relationship between venue, artist and audience – the venue providing the artist with income and the audience with entertainment – has been eroded for the foreseeable future by Covid-19 and I wanted to find a way to re-create that,” he says.
“So, I’ve got ten venues from around Yorkshire and the Humber to chip in a small amount of money to put on a live stream comedy gig this Sunday (April 19), featuring Mark Watson and Lucy Beaumont and compered by Tim FitzHigham.”
Joining together in this venue-focused initiative are Selby Town Hall; The Ropewalk, Barton upon Humber; Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds; East Riding Theatre, Beverley; Junction, Goole; Helmsley Arts Centre; Shire Hall, Howden; Otley Courthouse; Pocklington Arts Centre and Rotherham Theatres.
What’s on at home: Mark Watson , live from his living room
“Their contributions to Your Place Comedy go towards paying the artists a guaranteed fee at a time when all live income has been taken away, and, in exchange, venues get a show to sell to their own audiences as one of their own, helping maintain those vital relationships with audiences they have nurtured over the years,” says Chris.
“The show will be free to watch on Facebook and YouTube via www.yourplacecomedy.co.uk, but with an option to donate. All monies raised will be distributed evenly among the ten supporting venues, each of them now having to navigate their way through some challenging financial times.”
Mark Watson is an Edinburgh Comedy Award winner, television panel show regular and ever innovative performer. Lucy Beaumont, from Hull, is a BBC New Comedy Award winner who writes BBC Radio 4’s To Hull And Back and stars in the Dave channel’s Meet The Richardsons. Compere Tim Fitzhigham writes and stars in BBC Radio 4’s The Gambler and presents CBBC’s Super Human Challenge.
Summing up the living-room comedy initiative, Chris says: “In these trying times, when the wonderful audiences who make the work we do possible are unable to visit our venues in person, and when the performers who rely on us for their livelihoods have had many months’ worth of shows cancelled, the organisations involved in Your Place Comedy want to help support those who make live entertainment happen, bringing a little bit of joy to the audiences we miss so much.
“If the
first one is a success and this looks like a sustainable model, I would hope to
do several more through the lockdown period and possibly beyond.”
Compere Tim FitzHigham
For full details of Your Place Comedy, and to find out how to watch the show, visit www.yourplacecomedy.co.uk.
YORK Open Studios 2020, the chance to meet 144 artists at 100 locations over two April weekends, should have started with a preview evening tomorrow, but the annual showcase has been cancelled in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However,
with doors sadly shut for the April 17 to 19 and April 25 to 26 event,
CharlesHutchPress wants to champion the creativity of York’s artists and
makers, who would have been showcasing their ceramics, collage, digital,
illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, sculpture
and textiles skills.
Each day,
in brochure order, five artists who now miss out on the exposure of Open
Studios will be given a pen portrait on these pages, because so much art and
craft will have been created for the event and still needs a new home.
Addresses will not be included at this time.
Meanwhile,
York Open Studios artists are finding their own way to respond to the shutdown
by filling their windows with their work instead. Look for #openwindowsyork2020 to locate them.
“If you see one in your area while taking your daily exercise, take a picture
and let us know,” they say.
A work from Sharon McDonagh’s Fragments series: An exploration into the fragility of life
Sharon McDonagh, painting
SHARON is drawn to painting the “darker side” of York, in particular to
its derelict buildings, against the backdrop of her high-profile past career as
a police forensic artist.
That work required her to draw dead bodies, creating artist’s
impressions of unidentified fatalities from mortuary photographs and
crime-scene information, and you can make the psychologist’s leap between death
and decay if that is your Freudian wont.
“It might seem mad going from being a forensic artist depicting bodies
to doing paintings of decay, but I suppose it’s all an organic path of death
and destruction,” she says of her detailed, intriguing work, marked by unconventional
themes and, in particular, a love of architecture, York’s forgotten buildings
and items left behind.
Sharon McDonagh with her Fragments works at the Blossom Street Gallery’s Urban Decay exhibition earlier this year
Earlier this year, she exhibited her new Fragments series in the Urban Decay exhibition at Blossom Street Gallery, and works on that theme would have featured in her second York Open Studios show too.
“Fragments is an exploration into the fragility
of life,” Sharon says. “The vintage light switches and sockets symbolise the
person, while their last moments and memories are represented by the fragments
of wallpaper and tiles. The last glimpses of life, the last remaining fragments
before they die.
“I thought of light switches and sockets, because of the act of switching on and off lights and then life finally being switched off.” Discover more at sharonmcdonagh-artist.co.uk.
Autumn Hedgehog, linocut, by Jane Dignum
Jane Dignum, printmaking
JANE creates colourful
linocut prints and also makes collages out of pieces of her prints, her subject
matter spanning wildlife, the Yorkshire coast and the city of York.
“I like experimenting with different techniques of
printmaking and enjoy the sometimes surprising results that occur,” she says.
Jane Dignum in her studio
Jane studied fine art at Leeds College of Art, where she started to investigate printing. She always carries a sketchbook and camera and creates designs from photographs that she has taken. Take a look at janedignum.com.
Filey, by Carolyn Coles
Carolyn Coles, painting
PAINTING impressionistic
seascapes and landscapes, Carolyn’s use of palette gives her work identity and
life. She paints mostly on bespoke, stretched canvasses in oils and acrylics,
applied with palette knives and flat brushes.
“I like to capture atmosphere, usually with a leaning towards dark and moody and generally on a larger scale,” she says.
Carolyn’s formal artistic education began with studying art and design at York College, then specialising in illustration at Hereford College of Art and Design, earning distinctions in the early 1990s.
Carolyn Coles: Specialising in seascapes and landscapes
After a career taking in marketing art materials and
graphic design and illustration in journalism, Carolyn now devotes her time to
painting, exhibiting and selling work both on the home market in York, London,
Derby, Manchester and Leeds and internationally too.
Carolyn’s love of the seaside and nature in general
is reflected in her new collection. “The impressionistic style allows the
viewer to interpret their own story and pull their own memories back into play,”
she says.
“I’m interested in re-creating a feeling, an
essence. I love being by the sea or in the hills. It’s a tonic. The noise,
everything, just soaks into me. I like to be playful, bold and subtle in my
work.”
A regular participant in the annual Staithes Art
and Heritage Festival, she also exhibits at various galleries in York. More
details at carolyncoles.co.uk.
Adele Karmazyn: distinctive mix of techniques
Adele Karmazyn, digital prints
ADELE’S mostly
self-taught process involves scanning 19th century photographs, textures and
her own paintings to create digital photomontage artwork, often with a
hand-finished element using inks, oil paint and gold leaf.
Her love of antiques and oddities, old doors and weathered surfaces are the foundations of her work. Bringing people from the past back to full colour and intertwining them with creatures big and small, coupled with delicate foliage, she creates images both sophisticated and playful. Often she uses idioms, metaphors and musical lyrics for inspiration and to add narrative.
Forest Boy, by Adele Karmazyn
Adele studied for a textile art degree at Winchester School of Art, worked
briefly for an interior magazine in London and then set out to see the world.
Many years later, she settled in York and returned to her first calling, completing
a diploma in children’s book illustration in 2015, gaining a distinction.
It was then that she then turned to using her camera and photoshop, but still picking up her paintbrushes regularly and drawing on most days too. “Creating textures, drawing animals and getting the composition on paper is where each image begins,” says Adele.
More info can be found at adelekarmazyn.com.
A North Eastern scene by Nathan Combes
Nathan Combes, photography
NATHAN photographs urban landscapes, working primarily in black and white as he captures the sense of isolation and decaying beauty found in the places that he visits.
“I use a variety of modern digital and vintage film cameras to
photograph places, locations and objects that are often overlooked and deemed
unworthy of attention,” he says.
Recording life in black and white: Photographer Nathan Combes
Inspired by photographers such as Robert Frank, Chris Killip and
William Eggleston, his work is thought provoking, challenging and humorous.
His York Open Studios debut would have featured work from his
most recent project, focusing on the North East. He can be contacted via
nathancombesphoto@gmail.com.
Tomorrow: Lu Mason; Nick Kobyluch; Michelle Hughes; Lucy McElroy and Ian Cameron.
