Two up and coming stars and one with years of live performance behind him are part of next week’s first ever Ropewalk Guitar Festival.
Played out at Barton upon Humber’s Ropery Hall from Thursday, June 2, to Saturday, June 4, the Festival promises something for everyone – from the dizzying heights of Martin Taylor on the first evening to folk legend Dave Swarbrick on Friday and Chantel McGregor on the final evening.
“I think that for the first Guitar Festival staged at The Ropewalk we have been very lucky to attract such a diversity of guitar talent,” said promoter Mark Keable of mtm promotions.
“One band I am particularly looking forward to is the Marcus Bonfanti Trio who spent last year playing his own brand of blues up and down the country,” Mark went on. “He is fast building a reputation as one of the most exciting acts on the live circuit.”
Bradford born Chantel McGregor is making a rare solo appearance at the Maltkiln Road venue. Chantel has been playing guitar – a half-size acoustic – since the ripe old age of three and in her early teens developed rapidly into an incredible rock and blues musician.
Realising at an early age that if you picked up a guitar you got attention, especially from her dad whose guitar it usually was, it was inevitable that she would get one of her own. So at the ripe old age of three, she got her first guitar, a half size acoustic.
After studying at the Leeds College of Music where she achieved a First Class Honours degree in Popular Music in July 2009 she has quickly built up a following playing both solo and with her band throughout the UK and in Europe.
He may not be a guitar player but Dave Swarbrick can certainly play those strings. Described as “the most influential [British] fiddle player bar none” his style has been copied or developed by almost every British and many world folk violin players.
One of the most highly regarded musicians produced by the second British folk revival, his work for the group Fairport Convention from 1969 is usually credited with leading them to produce their seminal album Liege and Lief (1969) which initiated the electric folk movement.
He guided the band through a series of important albums until its disbandment in 1979 and since then he has played in a series of smaller, acoustic units and engaged in solo projects.
“Dave was last at Ropery Hall nearly two years ago with his band Lazarus so we are delighted to welcome him back,” Mark continued.
Tickets for Dave’s appearance on Friday evening alongside the Steve Tilston and Chris Sherburn and Denny Bartley cost £20; to listen to Marcus Bonfanti alongside the Steve Skaith Band and Paul Lidell on the Saturday afternoon costs £18 while Chantel McGregor will be appearing in the final session alongside Walter Strauss and Ezio with tickets costing £20.
The Ropery Coffee shop will be open until 7.30pm on the Saturday evening and will be serving food until 7pm for those who will be at both afternoon and evening sessions or arriving early for the evening session.
The annual Ropewalk Studio Artists Exhibition features work from
David Alcock
Sally Beaumont
Emily Connor
Deborah Grice
Gill Hobson
Richard Hatfield
Judith Land
Tim Needham
Michael Scrimshaw
Reginald Swinney
Shirley Trumble
Keith Woodcock
85 Fathoms
Michelle recalls a frightfully fascinating childhood memory of a former sideshow attraction in Whitby. Her recollection of witnessing a pickled dicephalic baby and the staked bones of Dracula began the blurring of the boundaries between reality and fantasy.
‘Fairground Fables’ was conjured to question the satirical and moral ambiguity of fringe entertainment presented behind the curtains of Vaudeville theatres and Victorian Side Shows. Michelle draws from idioms and fables that play with tales of tragedy and fortune as well as the traces of life that befall the discarded or well loved, by enlivening everyday objects with an air of uncertainty. She assembles things left behind on dusty shelves, creating magnetic forms that encourage the viewer to take an encounter with the apprehension of things. ‘Fairground Fables’ is bent with a nostalgic and melodramatic allure that bestows something provocative and enchanting.
On November 24 Michelle will be running a workshop teaching participants how to make their own Fairground Fable. Bookings can be made in the Craft Gallery.
Richard Hatfield & Tim Needhams’ interest in painting stretches back through careers that began just one year apart. Working independently, both find common ground in their references to landscape, yet it is their divergent approaches which spark the dialogue in this show.
I paint out of doors and in the studio. Landscape embodies form, colour and light. Painting can reflect these primal elements and leave us with an object akin to poetry. I play with the picture plane and use paint on various surfaces, abstracted to convey feelings and form with a sense of the drama of the place.
Tim Needham
The subjects are the amalgamation of the remembered, the fleetingly observed and the repeated, emblematic motifs left, like an afterimage imprinted on the retina. I look for a sense of the unfamiliar in the ordinary – a gentle disquiet. Some pieces recall a particular moment or episode, often dramatic and transient such as the effects of light or weather, frequently in the extreme. It is at these times that nature can reassert itself into our consciousness and provide us with a taste of something that is awesome in the true sense of the word. Other paintings are less dramatic and conjure up emotions and associations of particular memories and universal fears from early childhood.
Richard Hatfield
Max Marschner was born in London in 1929. His early life was interrupted by World War II and evacuation, but in 1943 he enrolled in the Junior Department of Camberwell School of Art. He stayed there until the early 1950s with breaks for National Service and matriculation. He excelled in the design department. These were the wood engraving years.
Throughout his life Max delighted in the unexpected; scenes and buildings which had a tale to tell, or that presented a mood or sharpness which suited his work.
By the beginning of the 1960s he was experimenting with linocuts, monoprints and basic etchings, often using ideas from old postcards and encyclopaedias, which he hoped would depict a sense of surprise and strangeness.
A move to Lincoln at the beginning of the 1970s brought changes. Screenprints was possible: The same ideas, but larger and more colourful prints.
In 1973 Max bought his first ‘real’ camera, a Pentax Spotmatic. This he used for the rest of his life. He enjoyed experimenting with the old ways of photography, developing and printing in his darkroom. Eventually he taught himself Photo Etching. This involved infrared film, large negatives and acids, though changing over the years to safer methods of working.
ALMANAC – the seasons they rolled in and they tumbled
Ron Wilson and Jan Stead hail from the West Riding of Yorkshire. They met whilst studying art and design and teacher training at Bretton Hall over 40 years ago, they have kept in touch – sharing a passion for Yorkshire, art and design and in particular, printmaking.
ALMANAC
An Almanac can be described in general terms as an annual calander which contains a wealth of information such as important days, times of the sun rising and setting and changes in the moon and tides. In the past the Almanac was particularly important to farmers but perhaps their relevance is somewhat diminished. Ron and Jan have each produced a visual Almanac based on the four seasons and the wheel of the year where they have attempted, in their printed pieces, to re-establish the natural connections of the rolling seasons.
Ron: My Almanac wraps localities and phenomena in folklore and myth, elements within the work are symbolic and at times esoteric. The images in the Almanac are lifted from Anglo Saxon and Medieval almanacs and bending them to a response that will resonate with contemporary audiences. I invite the viewer to create their own narrative.
Jan: My Almanac is in Astronomical Seasons where the equinox and solstices mark the beginning and end of each season. It does, therefore, span two calendar years. Spring, Summer, Autumn and the first month of Winter – December are set in 2018. The remainder of winter – January and February, are in 2019. I am concerned with the equinox, solstice and moon shapes on key dates in each month. The images are a mix of Pagan, Christian and general traditions.
Ron Wilson and Jan Stead October 2018
The Box Gallery is housing everything you need to go back to school, college, university and work. From textiles kits to lino kits, book binding kits, notebooks, handmade pens, bags and accessories, there is something to make you stand out from the crowd.
