Assignment 6 (part) - Visit to Art Galleries in Fowey

Fowey is a little seaside place, best known for its most famous resident Daphne du Maurier. It's a quaint little town, with bookshops full of du Mauriers works, restaurants full of fish dishes, Tea rooms full of cakes, and I would hope, Art Galleries full of Art. 

21/01/12

Toe In The Water 

This is the first little gallery that I happened upon. From the outside it looks fairly like a tourist based art shop, but when you enter you realise its actually full of some really lovely things. Its next to the Fowey Fudge shop (which was sadly shut for winter) showing that it's in a tourist area. Interesting to note that they were still open for business, even though some of the shops around them had closed their doors to the cold, and to the locals. This was a place that isn't looking just for tourist money, its there for passing trade, and for the locals all year round.

 Its owned by an artist (Max Harrower), and at the time of my visit his sister was running the gallery come store. It's a relatively small space, but they have filled it pretty full of an array of local artists, and some Fowey based nick-knacks. The Lady working there was polite, and helpful and very welcoming, she was pleased to have my small piece of opinion, and for it to be posted online. She expressed her wish for all the artists that I show on this blog post, to be correctly described as to what work was done by which artist. She showed that she was interested in artists as people, not just as a commodity that could be exploited, unlike other galleries that I discovered this day, but more on them later. 

One of the pieces of work that stands in my mind from 'Toe In The Water' is Linda Evans' piece 'Mevagissey mixed media collage' which is from a collection of her work, they are decorative pieces, made of bits and pieces. Made to resemble local places, it keeps the interest in the quaintness of the place, without exploiting it. It's the sort of work you can only get hold of, if you happen to be in the right place at the right time. 

Linda Evans - 'Mevagissy Mixed Media Collage' (£65)

Linda Evans - 'FY6/FY7' (£65)

'Fused Glass Art' by Debbie Lord was also following this localised theme, with her beach scenes and little sea side houses made delicately and stylishly out of coloured glass. These really aren't things you can buy from a dealer in the middle of London, Its craft made by local people, of their local environment, sold in the same locality. That's what makes it special and worth a trip to either just look, get some inspiration for your own work, to buy someone close to you a special gift, or to treat yourself to a keepsake of your trip. It's about the trip, about the little holiday and the specialness of the place you are visiting. 

Debbie Lord - 'Moored by The Habour Wall' (£190)

Debbie Lord - 'Fused Glass Art' (Various)

Saying this, I did find a driftwood seagull, so it has fully conformed to all my coastal art assumptions. 

Driftwood items - Various Artists

John and Patricia Christian - 'Sea Shore'

Patricia Christian - Various Glasswork

Max Harrower - Canvas Boat Print (£85)

Cry Of The Gulls

Review has been removed due from request from owner.

Fowey River Gallery

Review has been removed due from request from owner.

I learnt a few things from my little research trip to Fowey, That art can be local and lovely, it can be exploited for money, and some people care more about money; than they care about helping artists. A trip to Fowey is well worth the visit, I will be revisiting in the spring, when more places are open to the bustling tourist trade. 

Assignment 6 (part) - New Website

Yesterday, I sat down and realised, That I just needed a professional looking website, That I could keep up to date. I thought about making a Lisa Birch Photography/Artwork facebook fan page, But decided it would then show, how un popular I currently am, So this is something I will create when I have more of a fan base. 

For now, I made a website with Yola.com, which is helping British Businesses get online for free, so I claimed my free domain name, and got started with their easy to use website builder.

My intention for this site is to keep all my projects connected in this one place, rather than being spread out everywhere. I also hope to display my new illustration work, and hope for some feedback.

So please visit www.lisabirchart.co.uk

Assignment 6 (part) - Visit to Mid- Cornwall Galleries

Mid-Cornwall Galleries

I thought I'd start my gallery tour, with the one closest to me, Which turned out to be a generally nice place to visit. It doesn't look like much from the outside, set in a old school house, just off a busy (as busy Cornwall can be in winter) road in St Blazey Gate, (near St Austell). It had plenty of parking, and two cars in the car park when I arrived, One belonging to the only member of staff, and the other; some gentleman who had popped in to buy a calendar to brighten up his home office.

The woman working there was polite, slightly chatty, and I had called earlier and spoken to her about taking a few photographs, and she was okay with this. (picking up on the European way of thinking maybe, photos allowed but no flash?) I wondered around first of all, looking at all the lovely things they had. and then did a second route around and photographed either things I liked, or things that stood out, and the things I didn't think fitted in. The woman explained to me that some of the work was very local, which I saw by the paintings of places such as St Ives, but she assured me that they had work from Europe and America. 

What was interesting to me to note, was that there was nothing purely on display, everything was purchasable, and for sale, with its little card dictating how much its apparent worth is. Some things were priced from £1.50 each for adorable earthenware buttons, by Mary Goldburg. Then I noticed that some pieces were a little over expensive for what they actually were, such as Rosa Sepple's works, 'Dancing Partners' Mixed Media on Paper, for £2750. Which was, in my opinion, some creepy badly drawn people, in situations that made the viewer feel slightly uncomfortable, with a whole lot of glitter. I don't know what it is about using glitter in something that's meant to be fine art, it just reminds me of my own GCSE art piece that I pretty much gave up on painting, and thought, sod it, glitter will fool people into thinking that's its lovely. (in fact that GCSE art piece sold pretty well, probably for the sheer fact that people like glitter) I just feel that Rosa Sepple's work is imaginative, but its lacking taste. It seems like she is trying to be provocative, but her figures are ugly and verging on the grotesque. 

Mary Goldburg - Earthenware Buttons (£1.50 each)

Rosa Sepple - 'Dancing Partners' (£2750)

Rosa Sepple - 'Tonight You Belong To Me' (£1400)

Onto something positive now, I found some very lovely small pieces in this gallery, such as Catherine Hoskin's pieces with little birds. One piece 'And So I Saw Perfection' (mixed media on board) for a modest £35 each, is just sheer loveliness, It isn't over fussy, and is something that I would aspire to create. She has show her creativity and expressed a good sense of taste and judgement. These images wouldn't look out of place as greetings cards, but as little framed pieces of inspiration they are adorable. Each piece has its own little phrase like ' Shall I compare thee to a summers day?'. Its inter-textuality appeals to me, in its little postmodern decorate way.

Catherine Hoskin -(front) 'And So I Saw Perfection' (£35) (behind) 'The Life of Birds' (£35)

Catherine Hoskin - 'Get Birds to the table in the garden' (£35)

Catherine Hoskin - Ye Little Birds (£35)

This little gallery is well worth a visit, if you are passing, or looking for something to do. It might be nice place to stop at if you're visiting the Eden Project, as its fairly close. But don't get caught out by its opening times, 11am-4pm in January. 10am - 5pm all other months, I'll include a few of the photos I took, but I have been told its 'stock' changes every 6-8 weeks, so it's worth popping in every now and again. It's a good place to go if you're looking for something affordable to decorate your home or office, or a gift, but it's not particularly risk taking. I did find a few too many sea-side themed pieces, some that were brilliant, and some that just felt like they just had nothing else to create.

Steve Parkinson - 'Tri Layered Box' (£275)

Gallery View of Beverly Young's canvas's (£140 each)

Gallery View of Simon Pooley - 'Windborne' (left) (£2750)

Jewellery Selection Anne Farag and Jane Llewelyn Jones (Priced £35- £215)

Tracy Rees Selection (£650 each)

Amanda Hoskin - 'Flowers at St Ives' (£3500)

Virgina Dowe - Dogs (£295 each)

Bob Crooks - Various Glassware (£23- £105)

Assignment 6 (part) - Galleries

Local Galleries

I've decided to take a visit to all my local art galleries, since moving to the area, (mid Cornwall) only a few months ago I have not had a chance to go around and see what is happening with this local art scene. I hope it's not all summer tourist based, or I will become sick of looking at seascapes and non imaginative ways of portraying lighthouses.

In the summer I visited the Tate in St Ives, which on all accounts was a good experience, but something I would never willingly do in the middle of summer, ever again. The gallery itself was not packed, but its lack of car parking and beach side appeal of its location, meant the streets were seemingly hell. I have never seen so many tourists so willing to sun themselves on a relatively small beach, in a small town. I will probably never understand the mindset of tourists. Inside the Gallery, (once we had parked over double yellow lines up some private housing street, like everyone else had done) I found some fairly interesting pieces of art, although the only work that stands out in my memory is the work of Martin Creed, which they funnily enough used as their cover image for all their advertising for the summer show.  'Half the air in a given space' which shows a room, half filled with white balloons. It was an interactive space and I did have great fun playing in it. It encouraged people to re think the forms of space, and how spaces can be transformed into surreal places, by the use of balloons. It was imaginative, but nothing else in the collection really stood out to me, whether it wasn't to my taste, or I just had the feeling I had already seen similar works before.

I also visited British Art Show 7 : In the Days of the Comet, which is a travelling show, and stopped for its first time in Plymouth, it was fragmented into different venues, quite a stretch apart, from Plymouth College of Art, (which had Martin Creed's work), University Of Plymouth, Plymouth City Museum, Plymouth Arts Centre, and Royal William Yard. I see going to an exhibition as an enjoyable activity, something that should be savoured and time spent, but with these all split up and literally all over the place, it was hard to view it all as one touring piece. I admit that it was good for all the venues to host their little bit, but It shouldn't become such a mission and a pilgrimage (as Grayson Perry might put it) to visit this art. No single piece of work or artist stuck in my mind in a positive way, I was disgusted by one object in particular 'Object - Our House' by Nathan Mellors, which was a severed head, vomiting into a bucket. I did not see its value as an art piece, or why it had the audacity and pretention to be put into a gallery space. It was set as a side piece for a similarly cringe worthy film 'Our House'. It was tacky for the sake of being tacky, bad taste, bad humour and I just did not judge there to be any aesthetic taste or judgement used by this artist. 

Right, now reading this back to myself, Im going to go on a quest to find some Local art that I like and see artistic value in. Im going to visit all the nearest galleries to my house, and a few a bit futher a field. Using google to plot out my stopping points and best plan my routes. Here are a few places I will be visiting in the near future:

Mid Cornwall Galleries

St. Blazey Gate, Par, Cornwall PL24 2EG

01726 812131 ‎ · midcornwallgalleries.co.uk

Ritter Gallery

53 Fore Street, Par, PL24 2NH

01726 817317 ‎ · rittergallery.co.uk

Fowey River Gallery

38 Fore Street, Fowey PL23 1AQ

01726 833828 ‎ · foweyrivergallery.co.uk

Toe In The Water

10 Lostwithiel Street, Fowey, PL23 1BD

01726 832582 ‎ · toeinthewatergallery.co.uk

Cry Of The Gulls

2 Webb Street, Fowey PL23 1AP

01726 833838 ‎ · cryofthegulls.co.uk

Charlestown Gallery

Quay Road, Saint Austell, PL25 3NJ

01726 67886

Charlestown Trading Co

The Old Workshop, Charlestown Road, St. Austell PL25 3NJ

01726 70458 ‎ · charlestowntrading.com

The Tulkinghorn Gallery

28 Fore Street, Lostwithiel, PL22 0BL

01208 873990

Breaks Gallery

21 Fore Street, Fowey, PL23 1AH

01726 832005

Atishoo Designs

71 Charlestown Road, Saint Austell PL25 3NL

01726 65900 ‎ · atishoodesigns.co.uk

The Lemon Street Gallery

13 Lemon Street, Truro TR1 2LS

01872 275757 ‎ · lemonstreetgallery.co.uk

Lander Gallery

Lemon Street Market, Lemon Street, Cornwall, Truro TR1 2QD

01872 275578 ‎ · landergallery.co.uk

Driftwood Gallery

24 New Bridge Street, Truro TR1 2AA

01872 273747 ‎ · driftwoodgallery.co.uk

I decided I'd better visit quite a few, to make more of a chance of finding something I like, and that inspires me. I'm aware that these are mainly little individually run and owned galleries, and I won't be viewing anything as extreme as the next Damien Hirst or discover something as obscure as the next Francis Bacon. I'm just a bit fed up with all the Tate branded artists, so this is my mission, to find assessable art on my doorstep. It shouldn't be too difficult considering I'm living in somewhere that claims  to be cultural and artistic, Just hope I don't get too sick of looking at too many seagulls made of driftwood.