THE Fylingdales Group of Artists is exhibiting at Blossom Street Gallery, Blossom Street, York, until November 30.
Formed in 1925 in Denton Hawley’s studio in Robin Hood’s Bay with eight members and a mission to exhibit Yorkshire pictures: a modus operandi that prevails to this day.
Through the decades, members included Algernon Newton, Roland Hill, Florence Hess, Albert Pile, Fred Williams, Will Taylor, William Dealtry and many more.
Whitby Abbey, Standing Proud, by Ann Thornhill
Twelve members are contributing 31 works to the Blossom Street Gallery exhibition, consisting mainly of paintings in oils, acrylics, gouache and limonite.
Two pieces by Paul Blackwell are in pastel; Angie McCall has incorporated collage in her mixed-media work and linocut, wood engraving, etching and aquatint printmaker Michael Atkin features too.
On show alongside them are works by David Allen, fellow Royal Society of Marine Artists member and past president David Howell, Kane Cunningham, John Freeman, Linda Lupton, Don Micklethwaite, Bruce Mulcahy, Sue Slack and Ann Thornhill.
Gallery opening hours are 10am to 4pm, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
Rocky Shore In Sun, by Bruce Mulcahy, at Blossom Street Gallery, York
Artist Amelia Baron with her thread on calico cotton work Connected at the In The Open exhibition at Ryedale Folk Museum
IN The Open explores the impact of the Covid-19 public health crisis on artists and their creative practice in an open exhibition at Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-le-Hole, near Kirkbymoorside.
In 2021, in a desire to do something positive to support artists as the lockdown restrictions were lifted, the museum and artist Kane Cunningham came together to look at how artists were affected by the pandemic and how it changed their work.
The project finale is the exhibition of artistic responses to the northern landscape, on show in the art gallery and online via the museum’s website, ryedalefolkmuseum.co.uk, until Sunday, November 14.
Lockdown Feathers, monoprint, by Andrew Dalton
Funded by Arts Council England and selected by a panel featuring curator Jennifer Smith, photographer Joe Cornish, painter Kane Cunningham and ceramic artist Layla Khoo, In the Open assembles paintings, photographs, ceramics and textiles by more than 80 professional, amateur and hobby artists who have turned to the landscape for inspiration.
Museum director Jennifer Smith says: “We are absolutely delighted by the quality and variety of entries. It is encouraging to witness the broad range of people turning to art to express their feelings about landscape and countryside during the pandemic. It has been my great pleasure to bring these individual perspectives together.”
Museum staff also invited entrants to submit an accompanying piece of writing, reflecting on the effects of the events of the past 18 months on their artistic practice.
Message In A Bottle – Yellow Peril III, embroidered fabric and cement, by Nerissa Cargill Thompson
“Many artists have taken the opportunity to discuss the role that their art has played in their lives during this time, supporting them through the lockdowns in a range of really significant ways,” explains Jennifer.
As well as showcasing art produced during lockdown, a central aim of In The Open was to provide a platform for artists to speak openly and share their experiences.
“During the selection process, we had a strong sense of the therapeutic aspects of making art, as well as the benefits of spending time out of doors,” says Jennifer.
Rievaulx Abbey, etching and collagraph, by Anna Matyus
“It’s very moving to learn how much both their artwork and the countryside have meant to artists in these times. Some artists have contributed very personal reflections. Taken together, they are poignant, touching and capture a particular moment in time.
Ryedale Folk Museum is open from 10am to 5pm in September, then 10am to 4pm in October and November. For more information, go to: ryedalefolkmuseum.co.uk/art-gallery/
In The Open curator Jennifer Smith, director of Ryedale Folk Museum
The In The Open artists:
Garth Bayley; Sandra Storey; Nerissa Cargill Thompson; Kevin Parker; Adele Froude; Gaby Lees; Jennifer Cottis; Diana Terry; Freya Horsley; Rebekah Staples; Andrew Dalton; Anna Matyus; Rachel Morrell; Margaret Geraghty.
Emma Paragreen; Jane Wilson; Sarah Roberts; Tim Bos; Zara Browne-Gilbert; Debra Snow; Gigi Dyer; Jill Setterington; Susan Noble; Annie Louvaine; Diane Eagles; Heather Burton; Rebecca Hughes; Jane Walker.
A Moment On The Road, oil and acrylic on canvas, by Louise Ventris
Ernest Newton; David Hope; Louise Ventris; Katy Doncaster; Sue Slack; Jane Taylor; Tessa Bunney; Sarah Connell; Nick Walters; Iona Stock; Catherine Hill; Peter Hicks; Kirsty Davis; Francesca Simon; Janine Baldwin; Alice O’Neill.
Chris Carbro; Judith Pollock; Colin Culley; Sarah Cawthray; Alex McArthur; Sarah Billany; Angela Summerfield; Louise Gardner; Claire Castle; Marion Atkinson; Sandra Oakins; Teddi Coutts; Lucy Saggers; Christian Bailey.
The In The Open exhibition on display at Ryedale Folk Museum
Natalie McKeown; Stef Mitchell; Ken Clarry; Kimberli Werner; Louise Goult; Alina Savko; Louise Lorimer; Lesley Wood, Christine Heath; June Appleton; Joe Cornish; Joan Currie; Alison Britton; Susan Plover; Rob Moore.
Caroline Clarke Green; Simon Dobbs; Louise Harrison; Jean Stephenson; Simon Thurlow; Kane Cunningham; Lindsey Tyson; Judith Glover; Margaret Robson; Fran Brammer; Sally Lister; Amelia Baron and Wendy Tate.
Sea View From Coastal Path, papercut/collage, by Alice O’Neill
Artists Andy Goldsworthy (left) and Kane Cunningham at Southfield House for their collaboration with Ryedale Folk Museum. All pictures: Tony Bartholomew
SCULPTOR Andy Goldsworthy will be among six artists collaborating with Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-le-Hole, to explore the impact of the pandemic on artists and their creative practice.
Goldsworthy will feature in a series of videos, created by Scarborough landscape painter Kane Cunningham for sharing in May and June, that will include photographer Joe Cornish, landscape painter Peter Hicks, photographer Tessa Bunney, sculptor Peter Coates and painter Francesca Simon too.
The collaboration will culminate in an open exhibition in September, bringing together professionals, amateurs and hobby artists in response to the northern landscape.
Cheshire-born sculptor and land artist Goldsworthy specialises in site-specific installations involving nature and the passage of time.
His latest work, Southfield House, has been developed on the North York Moors from conditions created by the pandemic and forms part of Goldsworthy’s quest to explore the environment through natural materials.
“It was conceived during lockdown and made between lockdowns,” says Goldsworthy, 64. “I wanted to make something during that period that has that sense of being uplifting,” he says. “The work is now connected to that moment in time.”
Kane Cunningham, left, and Andy Goldsworthy on the North York Moors
Funded by Arts Council England, the Ryedale Folk Museum project “grew out of a strong awareness of the lack of access to the natural environment in adherence to the Government’s Stay Home message at the height of the pandemic”.
Like everyone else, artists have found their travel restricted during the series of three lockdowns, hence museum director Jennifer Smith says: “At its heart, the project is an opportunity for artists to share their experiences and to encourage others who may have seen significant changes to their output because of Covid-19.
“Through Kane Cunningham’s films, we are seeing honest and open discussions about the challenges – and, sometimes, the opportunities – faced by the artistic community.
“Situated within the North York Moors National Park, we needed only to look outside the museum window to realise that there was nobody here during lockdown. One question that interested us was what impact that was having on artists who respond directly to the landscape and who make their living from that inspiration.”
The partnership between the museum and Cunningham, founder and co-director of Scarborough’s Festival of Big Ideas By The Sea, was a natural one.
“For 20 years, I’ve travelled from Scarborough to St Bees, coast to coast,” says Cunningham, whose studio is in the Old Parcels Office at Scarborough railway station. “In a normal year, my art takes me over hill and dale and across mountain pathways to find the perfect view.”
Andy Goldsworthy at Southfield House for the Ryedale Folk Museum project exploring the impact of the pandemic on artists and their creative practice
The sense of loss during lockdown led to Cunningham’s desire to reach out to others on this theme: “I felt the need to discover more about the landscape and what it means to me and other artists in these challenging times,” he says. “Has it changed the way they think about their work? Has it changed the way they think about the landscape?”
Ryedale Folk Museum hopes that sharing the contemplations of assorted artists will inspire people to create new work or to reflect on a piece created since the start of the pandemic, to feature in the open exhibition of 2D and 3D work from September.
The submissions window will be open from this week to June 30, whereupon works for the exhibition will be selected by a panel that will include Cunningham, Joe Cornish and ceramic artist Layla Khoo.
In addition, artists and other creative practitioners, of any art form, are invited to send their own brief film clips – less than a minute long – to be shared on social media, responding to the question: “How has your creative practice changed in the past 12 months?”.
Full details can be found on the museum’s website: ryedalefolkmuseum.co.uk/art-gallery/
