York River Art Market: Not taking place this summer amid concerns over social distancing
FIRST, no 2020 York Open Studios in April. Now comes a second blow for York’s artists in Coronavirus lockdown as this summer’s York River Art Market season is called off.
“Unfortunately, YRAM 2020 has had to be cancelled,” the official statement reads. “Officials have advised that the space besides the river is unsuitable for social distancing.
“Please check our Facebook page and support our artists. See you all in 2021 for the best year yet. Stay safe and stay well.”
The fifth year of riverside art markets on Dame Judi Dench Walk would have run on July 4, 11, 18 and 25 and August 1, 8, 15 and 22.
YORK Open
Studios 2020, the chance to meet 144 artists at 100 locations over two April
weekends, has had to be 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 ceramics, collage, digital,
illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, sculpture
and textiles.
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.
Helen Whitehead at work in her studio
Helen Whitehead, glass
HELEN’S glass jewellery
and sculpture is inspired by her deep connection with wild plants, herbs, the
moon and the planets. In her intuitive work, glass is layered with
precious metals, paint and images, then fired to produce colourful abstract
compositions.
Helen loves
experimenting with alchemic reactions in her glass kiln and layering different
mediums within small pieces. “My pieces are little worlds, reflecting the inner
and outer world,” she says.
As well as working in her York studio, Helen provides fun and friendly fused-glass workshops in the community. Follow her at facebook.com/HelenWhiteheadGlassArtist.
Printmaker Sally Clarke
Sally Clarke, printmaking
SALLY specialises in collagraph
printmaking, using the human figure and composition to express atmospheric
imagery.
Sally studied for a Fine
Arts degree at Gloucestershire College of Arts as a mature student. She worked in
various media before discovering printmaking more than 20 years ago, finding herself
attracted particularly to its limitless opportunities for experimentation.
Sally is a founder
member of York Printmakers, has exhibited in many Yorkshire venues and is a
regular exhibitor in York Open Studios. Contact her via sallyclarkeprintmaker@yahoo.co.uk.
Adrienne French: interpreting colour and texture in her landscape paintings
Adrienne French, painting
IN her evocative
paintings, collographs and monoprints, Adrienne interprets colour and texture
of both local and foreign landscapes.
She pursued her love of art by completing an art and design degree at Leeds University in 2000 while continuing her work as a nurse. Until 2015, she was artist in residence at a hospice, alongside continuing to develop her own artwork, a process that is ongoing.
She has shown her work
in northern galleries and takes part regularly in many annual arts events in Yorkshire.
All roads lead to Adrienne at adifrench@gmail.com.
Caroline Lord: recycling pottery, wood and metal in mosaics and sculptures
Caroline Lord, mixed media
CAROLINE combines found
items of pottery, wood and metal, recycling them into mosaics and quirky
ceramic sculptures.
She studied stained glass
and tapestry weaving in the 1960s at Edinburgh College of Art, where she was
awarded a scholarship for a further year’s study, specialising in tapestry weaving.
One of Caroline Lord’s quirky sculptures
Ten years ago, after
completing a mosaics workshop led by Emma Biggs, Caroline changed artistic
direction, starting to work with re-cycled ceramics.
She has exhibited in
York Open Studios, at the Zillah Bell Gallery, Thirsk, with the York Art
Workers Association and in the Great North Art Show. Contact her at
carolinelord42@hotmail.com.
Peter Park: textile designer turned painter
Peter Park, painting
PETER would have been making
his York Open Studios debut with his expressive and gestural abstract paintings
of the Yorkshire landscape and coast in acrylic paint on canvas.
After a foundation course at York School of Art, he studied printed textile design in Manchester (BA) and Birmingham (MA), then worked as a textile designer and lecturer in design in Manchester.
One of Peter Park’s abstract paintings of a Yorkshire landscape
Returning to York in 2013, he began painting, predominantly landscapes that he has exhibited at fellow York Open Studios exhibitor Kay Dower’s Corner Gallery and with Little Van Gogh in London. Seek him out via peter.park500@virginmedia.com.
Tomorrow: Dee Thwaite; Anna Vialle; Rosie Bramley; Tabitha Grove and Peter Heaton.
Pyramid Gallery owner Terry Brett, on Stonegate, York, holding a work by Askrigg artist Piers Browne from the Full Sunlight exhibition
THE
Coronavirus pandemic may have shut doors on next month’s York Open Studios, but
Pyramid Gallery is stepping in to offer an online exhibition to York artists.
What’s more, gallery owner Terry Brett is calling this new service Strange Days, after the song of that title by The Doors. As rather more than one door closes, The Doors open new possibilities for a different form of Pyramid selling.
“This applies to artists who have sold through the gallery either recently or in the past, and we’re extending this invitation to any of 2020’s 144 York Open Studio artists,” says Terry.
“The
artists will keep the work that they’re showing at their studio, and between
them and the gallery, delivery will be arranged to the purchaser’s address if
it is within a YO postcode.”
Terry has run Pyramid Gallery, in Stonegate, since 1994, says: “We need to survive in these Strange Days, and so do our artists. We noticed many posts on social media this week by worried artists who had heard that York Open Studios was cancelled. We wanted to do something positive for them. It has given us an aim and lots of work to do, which is very useful for morale.”
Morale that he believes is under immediate threat from this week’s urgently announced Government financial policies in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. “I am disappointed by the ineffectiveness of government to make sensible and working decisions,” says Terry.
The brochure for the 2020 York Open Studios, adapted post-cancellation by participating York jewellery maker Jo Bagshaw
“While
other European nations are protecting citizens and employees from economic
crisis and worry, our Government seems unable to make the decision to support
individuals and freelance workers or self-employed artists.
“These
matters are being passed down to the community to resolve. It’s not a good
approach. The Government should offer quickly to make payments to everyone, so
that we know we can pay rents, employ people and buy essentials.”
Pyramid Gallery
is reducing its normal commission to the artist for this event to 20 per cent
plus VAT on each sale and is arranging the delivery free of charge to the
customer.
“Some
artists have already submitted work for the online show, and images are being
placed on the website all the time,” says Terry. “The show will continue as
long as there is a Coronavirus crisis.”
Pyramid Gallery continues to open its doors, Monday to Saturday, between 10am and 5pm, but will be closed on Sundays. On show until April 26 is Full Sunlight, an exhibition of etchings and paintings by Piers Browne, studio ceramics by Hannah Arnup, figurative sculptures by Helen Martino and glass by Fiaz Elson.
The artwork for The Doors’ Strange Days
Oh, spoiler
alert, here are Jim Morrison’s 1967 lyrics to The Doors’ Strange Days:
Strange
days have found us
Strange days
have tracked us down
They’re
going to destroy
Our
casual joys
We shall
go on playing
Or find a
new town
Yeah!
Strange eyes fill strange rooms
Voices
will signal their tired end
The
hostess is grinning
Her guests
sleep from sinning
Hear me
talk of sin
And you
know this is it
Yeah!
Strange days have found us
And
through their strange hours
We linger
alone
Bodies
confused
Memories
misused
As we run
from the day
To a
strange night of stone
Let’s look forward to the day when Pyramid Gallery can host an exhibition with another of The Doors’ titles, The End, but in a good way, not an Apocalypse Now way.
