The third biennial open competition Humber to The Wash opened last week at the Barton upon Humber arts centre, The Ropewalk, with more than 150 people attending the preview evening.
And Exhibitions Officer Richard Hatfield is delighted with the growing popularity of the summer-long exhibition which attracts artists from East Yorkshire through to Norfolk.
“Each successive show has been an improvement upon the last and the 2011 show is no exception,” he said. “With more than 350 entries the selectors Hilary Angle and Letitia Thompson had a difficult task in reducing down to the 133 works which can be accommodated in the two galleries.
Richard added: “This year we received our highest number of submissions and sadly, because of space limitations, a lot of good work has been rejected because physically it was just not possible to fit everything in.”
So difficult was the selectors’ task of awarding prize for their favourite exhibit they decided to split the £400 prize between two entries – Jill Marshner’s Black Huts – Storm and 54°23’46.44”N by Stef Mitchell.
One of the selectors, Hilary Angle, admitted to being initially mesmerised by the huge number of submissions.
“But Letitia and I got into our stride and worked our way through every entry giving a thorough vetting to each one. It’s a really hard task and mostly we agreed on what to keep and what not to, bearing in mind the ultimate aim was a cohesive but varied show,” she said.
And Letitia was also amazed at the diversity and high standard of the submitted work.
“It really was a difficult task when selecting the work for exhibition which is a real celebration of the local artistic talent that is in the area,” she said.
The exhibition runs until Sunday, September 4, and The Ropewalk is open from Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm and on Sundays and Bank Holidays from 10am to 4pm.
The annual exhibition by The Ropewalk Studio artists. Featuring work by:
David Alcock
Sally Beaumont
Emily Connor
Debbie Grice
Richard Hatfield
Gill Hobson
Judith Land
Darren Langton
Tim Needham
Julie Oxenforth
Michael Scrimshaw
Shirley Trumble
Keith Woodcock
The Ropewalk’s popular Christmas Art Market will showcase the work of more than 40 makers and artists.
Taking place over the weekend of Saturday December 7 and Sunday December 8 those makers and artists selected to take part will be selling original handmade gifts, cards and artwork (more…)
Helen Martino would describe her work as being ‘sometimes serious and sometimes playful’. For many years Helen worked as a functional potter, making batches of domestic pots on a wheel. Now she sees herself as more of a maker in clay, hand building each piece individually by using soft and flexible sheets of clay. These sheets of clay are freely cut, curved and sometimes twisted, this is how Helen is able to create different perspectives and distortion within her work. The surface is painted with slip, underglaze pigment and resists. Depending on the piece silver and gold lustre may also be incorporated.
Helen is fascinated by body language and how this can be communicated. She observes Mogul and Persian miniatures and admires how they are able to tell a story within one image. These artworks often show a significant event within the life span of a person or family. Helen’s sculptures are also intimate like the miniature and show a single event that can be applied to the past, future and present, allowing the viewer to determine the story of each artwork.
Working in Cambridge, Helen exhibits widely across the UK and is the founder member of Cambridge Open Studios. She will be exhibiting in the Box Gallery in November.
Yorkshire born and bred, Eleanor Tomlinson is a traditional artist and illustrator based in East Yorkshire. Inspired by the beautiful Yorkshire countryside she has grown up amongst, Eleanor predominantly works in ink and watercolour to specialise in capturing and celebrating UK wildlife and the local countryside. Eleanor’s distinctive style using ink and watercolour, combines traditional, well-loved subjects with a contemporary, illustrative twist. Her use and composition of contrasting white space brings a narrative and sense of movement and energy to her pieces. Eleanor’s artworks have also been developed into a wide range of cards, stationery, limited edition prints and homeware collections alongside her original pieces which are being sold in an array of independent shops and galleries across the UK.
LAND, SEA AND SKY
The theme for this exhibition ‘Land, Sea, and Sky’ was chosen because its wide-ranging associations might be interpreted in many different ways, and in part because the theme was seen to have some relevance to the location of The Ropewalk Gallery. No size limit was imposed and artists were invited to respond to the theme in as wide a way as possible, to be as traditional or as innovative as they wished both in process and format. The final selection includes three dimensional and large format pieces as well as more conventional prints.
Printmakers Council was founded in 1965 by a group of prominent printmakers to raise the profile of printmaking as an art form and to provide an exhibition society for members. For over fifty years PmC has continued to pursue these aims through a rolling programme of exhibitions, lectures and practical workshops.
Two new exhibitions with links to northern Lincolnshire are opening this Saturday (Sept 14) at The Ropewalk arts centre in Barton upon Humber.
In the Artspace is Re-Tellings, a solo exhibition by Grimsby based artist Sue Stone whose work is inspired by people, place and time. (more…)
