Readers’ Day at The Ropewalk

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…)

Lu Mason has been making mobiles out of cut paper and also out of Perspex for ten years.  She is particularly drawn to making shapes that move, that cast interesting and changing shadows and patterns.  Lu loves the way that light passes through the tinted Perspex, creating a stained-glass like effect around the walls of the room where the mobile is hanging.  She is also interested in the slow and balanced movement of the mobiles; these movements are intended to encourage relaxation and calm.  Many of the design shapes in the mobiles are inspired by `1950’s artists, especially the work of Lucienne Day, Barbara Hepworth, and John Piper.

Lu also makes boxes full of layers of Perspex shapes.  These can be displayed on shelves, window ledges, or hung on walls, and have the same effect of casting coloured light shapes when the sun/directional light shines through. These boxes often feature repeated patterns, not unlike patterns on textiles.

She often create installation work –  installing her work in public spaces rather than galleries.  These are usually constructed out of paper; the scale of the work changes according to space she is filling. The subject matter recently has been very varied, and has included weeds and wildflowers, cyclists, an airborne city, Coptic figures, life size costumed figures, and huge birds.

In the Ropewalk Box Gallery Lu will be hanging a combination of Perspex and paper mobiles. They will be works that suit a domestic environment.  Her vision is to fill the Box gallery with moving shapes that will intrigue and delight visitors.

“Landscape is what we make of it”.

We absorb the landscape through its sights, its sounds and our senses. We observe its present and glimpse its past. But we construct it from the thoughts and emotions we bring.

The Humber Estuary is rich with places to go to: to think, to draw, to remember. The broadening skies, the relentless shifting and eroding tides, the industry of ships, of docks, of power generation, all watched by vibrant wildlife.

But this is just a start. All is riddled with marks and memories of its past: the concrete gun emplacements falling into the sea; forts rusting in the estuary, the memorabilia of a whaling industry. Then there is personal history: my mother, born and raised in Cleethorpes, catching the ferry to Hull; and great uncle, Captain Ernest Fall, with a naval history going back to the Battle of Jutland.

This makes me think how places change in mood and spirit as times change and eras pass. Beauty becomes threat. Turmoil becomes tranquillity. The stillness and cries of curlew are interrupted by bombing raids. The North Sea winds turn to drive an offshore army. The rhythmic tide becomes a tidal surge.

All this becomes a reason to search for the landscape of the Humber Estuary.

But there is something else. I saw the sun setting over the Estuary. It turned the landscape into an inferno. I thought of other histories being acted out on the horizon: the sacking of Troy, the destruction of Palmyra. I don’t know why, I just did.

Stephen Todd

2019

Re-Tellings is a solo exhibition by Grimsby-based artist Sue Stone whose work is inspired by people, place and time. Hand embroidery plays a big part in Sue’s work sometimes mixed with machine stitch and/or paint and there are also some digital prints and new iPad drawings.

The pieces in this exhibition are part of an ongoing series of narratives inspired by memories; both the artist’s own and those of others. Members of the public were invited to take part by sharing memories of themselves and their relationships in the form of anecdotes, and images and Sue has now collected stories from all over the world.

The common link in this particular selection of work is that of family and friendship. Many of the stories focus on relationships between family members; the bonds between siblings and cousins, mothers and daughters, grandparents and grandchildren. But there are also tales of imagined journeys and that illusive dream of a Desert Island.

Then there’s the epic chronicle of the artist’s own life story told in a series of self-portraits one for each year of the artist’s life so far. 3 new self-portraits bring the installation up to date.

Sue Stone is an exhibiting member and former Chair (2013 – 2018) of the internationally renowned 62 Group of Textile Artists and a Fellow of the Uk Society of Designer Craftsmen. Since 2006 her work has been exhibited widely throughout the UK and Europe, and in Japan, Pakistan and the USA.