Between Rock And A Hard Place, mixed media, by Lesley Birch
EMILY Stubbs and Lesley Birch are teaming up for Muted Worlds, a lockdown exhibition launched tomorrow by Pyramid Gallery, York.
Pots & Paintings will begin as a digital show from the York artists’ studios before moving to the Stonegate gallery once Lockdown 3 strictures are eased.
“We’re delighted to have been invited by Pyramid Gallery owner Terry Brett once again to create another Pots & Paintings show for 2021,” say exhibition curators Emily and Lesley.
A pot by Emily Stubbs for Muted Worlds, her joint exhibition with Lesley Birch
“This time we shall be online and it’s a more muted edge – winter is here and with it, Covid, and another lockdown – so we feel the need for simplicity. We have collaborated to produce monochrome pieces inspired by the winter season.”
Terry says: “Expect exciting expressive mark-making, beautiful soft greys, earths, charcoals and sage greens with occasional pops of colour in winter landscape and abstract pieces with the forms and lines of the natural world.”
Emily works from Pica Studios, in Grape Lane, where she creates contemporary ceramic vessels that explore the relationship between colour, form and texture.
Lesley Birch at work in her York studio
Fascinated by the juxtaposition of contrasting elements in her work, Emily makes conversations between vessels by placing them together or in groups.
Constantly sketching, drawing and collaging to experiment with line, colour, texture and mark making, Emily translates this process into clay, building up layers of ceramic slips, glazes and stains.
“Stepping away from my usual brightly coloured glazes, Muted Worlds has allowed me to really focus and concentrate on creating rich layers of mark making,” she says.
Flood, mixed media monotype, by Lesley Birch
“Bold brush strokes, blocks of monochrome and areas of scraffito, inspired by the wintery walks around York through lockdown, feature in a new collection of vessels created alongside and inspired by Lesley’s paintings.”
Scottish-born painter and printmaker Lesley interprets feelings and emotions connected to time and place in her works. Calligraphic scribbles and expressive, sweeping brush marks flow on paper and canvas, straddling the boundary between abstraction and figuration.
“The fact that certain combinations of colours, certain marks and movements can convey an atmosphere, that is the joy of painting for me: that exciting moment when materiality and emotion meet,” she says.
“Muted Worlds has allowed me to really focus and concentrate on creating rich layers of mark making,” says Emily Stubbs
The Pots & Paintings go on sale from tomorrow and purchases will be delivered by courier or by the artist if the buyer is in York. Anyone needing further information can contact Terry on 07805 029254.
Looking ahead, Emily will be taking part in the 2021 York Open Studios, showing her ceramics at 51 Balmoral Terrace, York, on April 17, 18, 24 and 25, from 10am to 5pm.
Exhibiting there too will be textiles artist Amy Stubbs, making her Open Studios debut after relocating to York.
YORK Open
Studios 2020, the chance to meet 144 artists at 100 locations over two April
weekends, 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.
Cielo, collage, by Gail Fox
Gail Fox, collage
AN artist for more than
40 years, London-born Gail co-founded York Open Studios in 2002 with Anne
Hutchison.
For 30 years, she made
and exhibited hand-built coil pots after gaining a first-class degree at
Central School of Art in London in 1980, undertaking commissions for fashion
designer Bruce Oldfield and Trisha Guild, of the Designers Guild, for Next
Interiors.
Since a change of artistic
tack, she has focused on painting and now 2D abstract collages: explorations of
juxtapositions, composition and colour, made from painted or found papers.
York Open Studios co-founder Gail Fox
“The whole process is about tweaking and adjusting. It relies on intuition about what seems visually right,” says Gail. “It’s a process of adding to and taking away, a little more of this, a little less of that.
“It’s a bit like adjusting
a recipe until you know the taste is right. Hopefully, after the struggle, something
emerges that has a beauty, a sense of resolution and balance.” Learn more at gailfox.co.uk.
Sculptural jewellery by Jane Atkin
Jane Atkin, jewellery
MODERN and sculptural in
form, Jane’s functional jewellery incorporates unisex designs in predominantly
one-of-a-kind pieces in silver and gold.
“I use cut, uncut semi-precious stones and jet, found by me on the Yorkshire coast, that are employed in modern and minimalist ways,” she says. “From growing up surrounded by good modern design and architecture, these influences filter through into my jewellery.”
Jane Atkin’s studio
Responding to the need to
reduce single-use plastic, she has designed a silver drinking straw as an
investment for the future. “Silver
is naturally antibacterial and will last a lifetime, so this is perfect as a Christening
gift as an example,” says Jane, who exhibited at Pyramid Gallery and Lotte Inch
Gallery, in York, and the British Craft Trade Fair last year.
For more info, head to janeatkinjewellery.com.
Amy Stubbs: heading back north
Amy Stubbs, textiles
RELOCATED to York in a return to her northern roots, pattern
print designer Amy now works from the
PICA Studios artist hub in Grape Lane.
This textile design graduate from Falmouth University draws
inspiration “from a wealth of experience brought to her by her strong Yorkshire
family heritage and the opportunity to experience varying cultures”.
Consequently, Amy’s textile
work combines manually drawn abstract elements with the aid of digital
technology to create her surface pattern prints that feature strong mark-making
motifs and collaging.
2020 would have marked
her York Open Studios. Looking ahead, her new website, amystubbs.com, will be “coming
soon”.
“Cheeky, bright and full of colour”: Emily Stubbs’s ceramics
Emily Stubbs, ceramics
EMILY creates hand-built
sculptural ceramic vessels – cheeky, bright and full of life in character –
that explore the relationship between colour, form and texture.
Born in Holmfirth, her first
taste of clay was during her pre-BA foundation course at Batley School of Art
and Design. Inspired by this medium, Emily studied ceramics at the University
of Wales, Cardiff, graduating in 2007.
Emily Stubbs at work at PICA Studios, York
Moving to York in 2009,
she has worked from PICA Studios, in Grape Lane, York, since 2017, taking Yorkshire
and beyond by storm with her quirky ceramics in galleries and at art fairs,
such as Ceramic Art London.
Emily co-founded the
Art& show at York Racecourse with Victoria Robinson and collaborated with
Cooper King Distillery to create the artwork for their newly launched Herb Gin
label last autumn. Head to [email protected]
to learn more.
Inspired by 20th century travel posters: Elliot Harrison’s illustration of the York Odeon cinema building
Elliot Harrison, illustration
ELLIOT creates architectural
illustrations, prints and posters showcasing iconic York buildings and views,
favouring a vibrant colour palette inspired by Art Deco design and vintage 20th
century travel posters.
His distinctive retro York portfolio has been catching the eye for
the past few years, whether at Frankie & Johnny’s Cookshop, Blossom Street
Gallery and Owl & Monkey or in exhibitions at York Hospital and the Rowntree
Park Reading Café.
Among his most popular illustrations are Rowntree Park,
Bishopthorpe Road, the Blossom Street Odeon cinema, the former Clifton Cinema,
the Joseph Rowntree Theatre and York Minster.
Elliot Harrison surrounded by his evocative retro artwork
His commissions include illustrations for York Theatre Royal and
The Piece Hall, in Halifax, and his repertoire has expanded to take in running
medals, mugs, coasters, cards, Christmas cards and a 2020 York calendar that
sold out.
Elliot, who gained a degree in art and design from York St John University, was selected for his York Open Studios in 2020. Check him out via [email protected].
TOMORROW: Rosie Waring; Colin Black; Nicola Lee; Rebecca Mason and Donna Maria Taylor.
