Recent drawing - Alphabet Series 'C'

Inspiration from Peter Saville designs

I was recently lucky enough to be given the New Order Blue Monday record sleeve. It is a work of beauty, and made me look more at the designs of Peter Saville. Here are a few of his works that I am particularly inspired by.

Regatta by Louise Plant with soundscape by Bennett Hogg at Cheeseburn

The current exhibition in the gallery at Cheeseburn is Regatta by Louise Plant. The ‘Regatta’ series is inspired by Louise Plant’s observations of rowing. These sculptures simultaneously embody the vortices created by rowers oars being forced through the water and the controlled, explosive, cyclical, rhythmical drive and glide of the rower, connecting mind, body and water.

Sound artist Bennett Hogg collaborated with Louise Plant for the soundscape of the exhibition. The soundscape mostly consists of hydrophone recordings made at Fontburn Reservoire in Northumberland.



Bennett Hogg explains

"I was struck by the bright, almost glassy quality of the hydrophone recordings, and so have also done some convolution filtering with samples of crystal wine glasses. The piece is quiet and contemplative, playing with the idea that elements can transform into one another. Just as Louise has transformed forms observed in water into stone, I've tried to find a solid resonance to the sound of water."




Louise's exhibition will be open to the public again at the final 2019 Cheeseburn Sculpture Open Weekend on Saturday 31st August and Sunday 1st September at Cheeseburn Grange Sculpture Gardens, near Stamfordham, Northumberland.

Another beautiful day at Cheeseburn

Sustainable Ceramics are all set up and ready for another beautiful day at Cheeseburn. It was great talking to visitors yesterday about the different designs and hearing about their personal favourites. 

 I also found it fascinating to talk to Sarah Piper, ceramicist who is also exhibiting at Cheeseburn this weekend. She was telling me all about her smoke firing technique. Fascinating! It produces the most unique results.

All boxed up and ready to go to Cheeseburn

For the next couple of weekends Sustainable Ceramics will be displaying and selling a range of unique handmade bird boxes in the Design Arch at Cheeseburn.

Over the past few weeks David has been thinking about ways to improve the production process and make it more consistent. He has purchased a number of larger containers that will allow him to process larger batches of clay, and has prepared a large plaster slab on which he will leave the clay to dry. The plaster will absorb the water and speed up the drying process.



As the weekend approached we have been particularly busy. I've been creating new product information sheets, giving information about Sustainable Ceramics, and about the production process. David has been sketching some new designs and working on a new batch of boxes to be fired this week in time for next weekend.

We have boxed up all the bird boxes ready to be transported and displayed at Cheeseburn. We hope that visitors appreciate what they see, and find the story behind Sustainable Ceramics an interesting one.

Recent drawing - alphabet series - 'B'

Recent drawing - alphabet series - 'A'

Recent drawing

Recent drawing

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Exhibition invite - David Foggo and Helen Shaddock - new work - White Space, Carliol House - 6-8pm, Thursday 15th August 2019

6-8pm
Thursday 15th August 2019
White Space, The NewBridge Project, Carliol House



David Foggo and I have installed an exhibition in the White Space in Carliol House to coincide with the closing party of Once Upon A Space in the GOLDTAPPED gallery.

Join us to see the results of an experimental process of hanging our independent works in the same space, forming connections between works and making collaborative installation decisions.

In the GOLDTAPPED Gallery, artists Katrin Auld, Helen Edling and Sarah Tulloch have been working together as part of artists’ collective Once upon a Space for a 10 day residency. They will be presenting the results of their residency.

Collage punch will be served...

Location: NewBridge Studios, Carliol House, New Market Street

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Group Show

Group Show is an art podcast series by Caitlin Merrett King covering topics like work, collaboration and criticism. 

Series Two was produced at The NewBridge Project, Newcastle during her Practice Makes Practice residency in March 2019. It features music, sound pieces and interviews from studio and associate NBP members. 

The latest episode (episode 8) features Ilana, Hannah, Helen, Lorna, Marwa and Katy discussing the ‘Great and Tiny War’ project by artist Bobby Baker and produced by Wunderbar. We all met one evening to mull over our experience of being involved (in various capacities) in Bobby's highly moving installation within a house on Sidney Grove from September - December 2018.

The experience of working together was extremely positive and unique. We all felt that it was something special, not like any other work experience that we had experienced before. In the conversation we reflect on what made this particular experience so unique and rewarding. 

Please note that not all the hosts were available at the time of recording and so some key voices are missing.

All episodes are available to download on iTunes or Spotify. 

For more information about Caitlin visit https://caitlinmerrettking.co.uk/

Open Exhibition Preview - Gallagher & Turner - Thursday 22nd August 2019 - 6pm-8pm

I'd like to invite you to an exhibition that will feature one of my recent works.

Opening soon...
OPEN EXHIBITION 2019

23rd August - 5th October | Preview: Thursday 22nd August, 6-8pm

Artists Exhibiting:

ALAN RICHMOND | ALLAN WHITE | ANDREW CHEETHAM | ANDREW WATCHORN | ANNA GOULDING | BETH J ROSS | CHARLOTTE POWELL | CHRIS POLUNIN | CRISPIAN HEATH | DIANA HALBERT | EMINE THOMPSON | EMMA BENNETT | FELIKS CULPA | GARY CARTER | HARRY BELL | HELEN SHADDOCK | HOLLY SCOTT | JACQUELINE QUINN | JAMIE TAYLOR | JOANNE HOWELL | JOHN GREY | JOHN KIM | JOHNNYX | KEVIN BLAIR | LAURA LAWSON | LOUISE PALLISTER | MARIA LAFFEY | MARIA SEARS | MARK BLETCHER | MARTIN GOLLAN | PADDY KILLER | ROBERT SODEN | RORY CANNON | SABINE WEISSBACH | SAM WOOD | STUART JONES | THERESA EASTON | THERESA POULTON

Newcastle and the surrounding areas are widely regarded as having some of the strongest and most diverse creative communities in the UK, with groups of artists thriving and producing fantastic work both in the cities and more rural areas.

Gallagher & Turner are delighted to announce our first ever Open Exhibition, which showcases this abundance of cultural talent, featuring artworks submitted by artists from across the North East, many of whom are new to our gallery. The exhibition brings together the diverse range of practices of over thirty artists, from landscapes to abstract paintings; etchings to screen prints; stonemasonry to jewellery; celebrating the wealth of creativity in our region.

Highlights include the vibrant, Pop-art stylings of local printmaker Johnnyx, whose colourful and subversive works bring a unique sense of sparkle, as well as the delightfully eerie and intricate drawings of Charlotte Powell, which feature compositions of antique dolls and elaborate flowers.

Traditional landscape paintings, full of light and detail, feature scenes of the North East, such as the Tyne Bridge of the coast at South Shields, as well as further afield. These sit alongside more contemporary takes on abstraction with their vibrant energy, such as Beth Ross’s geometric pieces, or Alan Richmond’s Gerhard Richter-esque abstracted landscapes. But it’s not just two-dimensional work on show: figurative sculptures exquisitely carved from natural stone by mason Rory Cannon, delicate jewellery by silversmith Emine Thompson, and striking cast glass work by Crispian Heath will feature in this varied exhibition.

Some of the artists involved have never shown their work publicly before, and so provide a fresh outlook on creativity in our region with the opportunity to exhibit their pieces in a professional gallery. We look forward to welcoming these new faces to the gallery alongside more established artists, and to giving a new platform to the breadth of creative talent that we live amongst.

All work will be for sale

For more information please visit https://gallagherandturner.co.uk/open-exhibition-2019

Latest drawing

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Sounds Like Her - Gender, Sound Art and Sonic Cultures at York Art Gallery

'Curated by Christine Eyene, known for her enquiry into feminist art and her research on sound art from an African perspective – Sounds Like Her sets out to broaden existing approaches to sound art and challenge the Eurocentric and patriarchal frameworks that have informed the discourse on sound art practice and continue to dominate the mainstream today.

The project brings together six women artists, each exploring sound as a medium or subject matter: Ain Bailey, Sonia Boyce OBE RA, Linda O’Keeffe, Christine Sun Kim, Madeleine Mbida and Magda Stawarska-Beavan.

Collectively the selected works represent sound in the broadest sense, exploring voice, noise, organic and synthetic sounds, rhythmic patterns, sonic structures and visual materialisation of sound. The result is a varied exhibition of mixed media bringing together audio, immersive installation, painting, print, drawing and video.'

Having read about Ain Bailey's The Pitch Sisters, I was disappointed not to experience the work within the exhibition. The work, in part, 'responds to the line: "The preferred pitch of a woman's voice is A flat below middle C" from the 1985 film, Peggy and Fred in Hell: The Prologue. The work seeks to present what a female sonic universe would sound like if women's voices indeed vocally hung around an A flat below middle C. The installation is a circular layout of speakers playing the voices of 46 women performing the note.' I managed to find a link to a stereo recording of the work on the British Music Collection website. 

https://britishmusiccollection.org.uk/composer/ain-bailey

I must admit that the element of the exhibition that I was most attracted to was the way in which the walls had been painted and the design of the catalogue. The colour choice could be said to be rather feminine, and given the title of the exhibition, GENDER, Sound Art & Sonic Cultures, I was reminded of one aspect of my Undergraduate dissertation which commented on how the context affects the reading of the work. In this context, the work is displayed in a gallery with delicate pastel shades - is this trying to emphasise the femininity of the work? 

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Displaying ceramic buttons

I appreciated the way that the ceramic buttons were displayed at Centre for Ceramic Art (CoCA) in York Art Gallery. 

Sara Moorhouse in Centre for Ceramic Art (CoCA) at York Art Gallery

The first work I encountered in the Centre for Ceramic Art (CoCA) at York Art Gallery was Arable Landscape: the assemblage by Sara Moorhouse. I was immediately drawn to the collection by Sara's choices of colour and the layered design.



"The wall sculpture refers to a wide open arable landscape, where colours connect across the dominant hues of red, green and blue to represent different shapes and spaces.

The pieces are hand thrown and turned, the movement of the wheel often reflected in the slight asymmetry of the form. The lines are applied by returning the bisque fired bowl to the wheel and painted with ceramic colour by hand. A matt glaze is then applied to stabilize and enhance the coloured surface."

http://saramoorhouse.com/