New Ashgate Gallery

BAINES SURREY ARTIST OF THE YEAR 2011

2011-08-19T11:11:00.000+01:00

9 – 30 September

New Ashgate Gallery invites you to visit the exhibition and vote for your favourite artist to become Surrey Artist of the Year 2011. Everyone who votes will be entered into a free prize drawer to win a £250 voucher to spend in the gallery.

New Ashgate Gallery and Surrey Artists Open Studios established this competition in 2009 as an annual event of regional significance, increasing the profile of the county’s artists and makers. Supported by the Baines Charitable Trust, this not-for-profit gallery has a national reputation for its tradition of supporting contemporary art and craft since the late 1950s.

Fiona Millais - Solo Exhibition May 2011

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6 May - 4 June 2011

Fiona Millais' work has always been underpinned by her local landscape of heathlands, woods and pools, both remote and intimate. She enjoys exploring the variety provided by these landscapes, which she describes as constantly pushing her to broaden and extend her artistic vocabulary. She is intrigued by how landscapes are shaped by ourselves and by our ancestors, and how we leave echoes, traces and marks upon it.

Usually, but not exclusively, her paintings are based on landscape or still life, but are rarely directly representational. Paintings are often produced on the completion of a journey - either abroad or within the British Isles, and are evolved from memories, drawings and notes done on the spot. Music and literature sometimes provide additional source material.

Much of her work is based on the coasts of Cornwall and Scotland and where she lives in the South East. She collects objects, perhaps while out walking the dog, such as stones, leaves and feathers, which when painted create layers of texture, colour and interwoven history. She often paints and repaints canvasses so that traces of the original images remain present, allowing the work to undergo a process of metamorphosis.

Fiona Millais has exhibited widely throughout the UK, featuring in shows from Cornwall to Penzance, Cambridge and London. She has completed several Artist in Residence programmes, including projects at Lord Wandsworth College and Cheltenham Ladies College.

Christmas Gift Ideas: Paintings & Prints

2010-12-12T21:11:00.001Z

Hester Berry, Frensham Heights

Trevor Price: Have You Ever Dreamt...?

Rachel Grigor: On Either Side of the Lake

Vicki Nigoumi: Medlars

Anita Klein: Celebrating Angel

Susie Perring: Little Bird II

Tim Burns: Pomegranate and Collin's Bottle

Emma Dunbar: Starbrook Man

Christmas Opening Times

2010-12-12T20:58:00.000Z

Mon 20 December 11am - 4pm
Tue 21 December   10am - 5pm
Wed 22 December  10am - 5pm
Thu 23 December   10am - 5pm
Fri 24 December     10am - 2pm

Sat 25 December     CLOSED
Sun 26 December    CLOSED

Artist Focus: Andrea Williamson

2010-12-03T20:45:00.000Z

Andrea Williamson works from her studio space at home on the Shetland Islands designing and making knitted accessories and interior pieces. A love of pattern and colour combined with the soft tactile qualities of wool is the basis of most of her work. Traditional Shetland knitting which has absorbed influences from centuries of trade links with Europe and Scandinavia is a constant source of inspiration. Old notebooks of patterns collected by family members, and garments that have survived over generations but are still vibrant and innovative are a great reference for her. This all filters through herdesigns along with her fascination with all things happily homemade, kitsch and colourful to come out in quirky, light humoured new guises.

Artist Focus: Ruta Brown

2010-12-02T11:31:00.000Z

After gaining a BA degree in Fine Art (Sculpture) at West Surrey College of Art and Design, Ruta Brown also studied silversmithing before setting up her independent jewellery studio.

Directly manipulating precious metals using hand tools and heat, Ruta Brown has developed a comprehensive personal vocabulary of form and texture. This suppports the creation of a distinctive visual language that is expressed in a range of jewellery and small objects.
Drawn to the textural possibilities that can be achieved, Ruta Brown has specialized in the technique of reticulation. Directional heat is applied to forged, folded forms, each piece individually fabricated, in exploration of the structural limits of the metal, mainly sterling silver with 18ct gold added as decoration. The results are a variety of intricate forms, often also incorporating stones and pearls, details evoking weathered fragments of flotsam or other marine elements from the shoreline.
Ruta Brown has exhibited widely in Britain and also in America, Japan, Egypt and Switzerland.

Open Sundays!

2010-11-22T16:52:00.000Z

The New Ashgate Gallery will be open on the following days in the lead up to Christmas:

Sun 5 December      11am - 4pm
Sun 12 December    11am - 4pm
Sun 19 December    11am - 4pm

Artist Focus: Ikuko Iwamoto

2010-11-19T15:17:00.000Z

Artist Focus: Merle O'Grady

2010-11-15T16:11:00.000Z

26 year-old Dublin born designer Merle O'Grady trained in Fashion Design at Limerick School of Art & Design before relocating to London in 2004 to pursue her passion - accessories. She specialised in Accessory Design at London's world-renowned Cordwainers College and spent time working in the studios of designers Tracey Boyd, Betty Jackson, Pauric Sweeney and Topshop's Design Studio. After running a successful stall on Spitalfields market, selling her own leather handbag designs and jewellery crafted from antique 19th Century chandelier crystal, Merle decided to focus solely on creating her eponymous fashion jewellery line.

Merle's signature style includes her distinctive custom-made laser-cut Perspex links combined with Swarovski Crystal components, 22ct Vermeil & 14ct Gold Fill. Each design is limited edition and is carefully crafted by hand in Merle's London studio.
Merle's main aim when designing is to create something unusual & individual yet beautiful & wearable through combining seemingly contrasting materials & textures. For Autumn Winter 09/10 Merle was inspired by lace patterns, contructing her signature lightweight punched-effect Perspex components into intricate geometric arrangements with hand wrapped crystal-tipped wires forming a web of 'bars' like in lace-making. The overall effect is feminine yet striking and slightly armour-like.

Winter Contemporary Craft Collection

2010-11-11T11:45:00.003Z

Private View: Friday 12 November 6-8pm

Friday 12 November -Saturday 29January

The Winter Contemporary Craft Show features an assortment of ceramics, prints, jewellery and silver. Gallery Director Joanne McCarthy is very pleased to present this collection by makers of a national standard: " We have seen very high levels of collecting in contemporary ceramics throughout 2010 which, in this season of austerity, is reassuring for the contemporary craft market and collectors, showing that people still have a need for beautiful handmade objects".

Artist Focus: Richard Jack

2010-11-03T14:39:00.000Z

November 2010 Programme

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Winter Contemporary Craft Collection

Winter Contemporary

Textiles Collection

Winter Fine Art & Fine

Craft

Artist Focus: Michael Fairclough

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Michael Fairclough, known internationally for his impressionistic landscape and seascapes paintings, is represented in many public collections including the V & A in London, the New York Public Library and the European Parliament.

Following his previous exhibition at the New Ashgate Gallery and the completion of the Meteorological Office commission in 2004, two linked developments have taken place. Firstly the sky and it’s phenomena have become the over-arching subjects of his paintings. The sea has become more a means of reflecting and echoing the sky, the land more a perspective above which the space of the sky rises.

“I have never had the experience of sailing and so have never been a seascape artist, though the sea features often in my paintings. I have walked the land and through that knowledge have produced landscapes that recall that experience.

That land is now dissolving as the sky starts to envelope it – the result of the recent second development, that of learning to fly gliders and use the air itself, beginning to get to know the sky by being up in it, following the buzzards”.

Artist Focus: Adam Aaronson

2010-10-12T11:39:00.000+01:00

Adam Aaronson has been at the heart of British studio glass for more than 25 years, first as a gallery owner discovering and promoting new glass talent and subsequently as an artist in his own right. In 1986, Adam opened his own glass blowing studio in the City of London and embarked on his personal journey as a glass artist. More than 20 years later, Adam’s work has developed and matured and he is now exploring several new bodies of work at his west London studio.

Landscape series. These free blown-vessels are created using the “late colouring” techniques Adam has been developing, where powdered and granulated glass colours are applied once the piece has reached full size. The original inspiration for these works came from impressionist painters such as Monet, and influences from Turner and Whistler also surface from time to time.

Miro series. Inspired by the abstract paintings of Spanish artist Joan Miro, these pieces are free-blown in a jewel-like palette of transparent glass colours, fired with pure silver leaf and overlaid with multi-coloured glass canes.

Poppy series. Summer meadows strewn with wild poppies swaying in the breeze is the image Adam had in mind when creating this body of work. These pieces are free-blown in opaque colours and fired with pure silver leaf onto which powdered and granulated glass colours are fused.

“Even after more than 20 years, I am still captivated by the fluidity and movement of a mass of molten glass suspended on the end of a blowing iron. It is almost as if it has a life of its own, floating, ever changing; a life that requires nurturing and taming. The transition from this amorphous state to the final static form never fails to fascinate me. I always try to create a feeling of continual movement and to embody in the finished piece some of the qualities that are inherent in the beauty of the process so that the purchaser can share in the sheer indulgence of this phenomenal medium." Adam Aaronson.

Adam’s work has been exhibited all over the world and can be found in numerous private collections from royalty to rock stars. Major commissions include the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Italy’s venerable Salviati glass studio, and the UK’s National Art Collections Fund. His work has been selected for the prestigious Sotheby’s Contemporary Decorative Arts exhibition in London, and for a mixed media exhibition at New York’s Cooper Hewitt design museum. More recently, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts for his contribution to glass art.

Adam Aaronson and Michael Fairclough Joint Exhibition: Friday 8 October - Saturday 6 November

2010-10-08T15:44:00.000+01:00

Preview Friday 8^th October, 6-8pm

Saturday 9^th October– Saturday 6^th November

[Pavilion Room]

Michael Fairclough [Painting]

New Works

Adam Aaronson [Glass]

‘The Imaginary Landscape’

October is a month where the light starts to fade, the days become shorter, and we all wind down, only to forget about glorious days of sunshine, blue skies and sublime sunsets. This exhibition in October will reignite those memories, a wonderful combination of skyscapes and atmospheric tones captured brilliantly by the paintings and glass sculptures of Fairclough and Aaronson respectively.

Gallery Director Joanne McCarthy will curate this exhibition with the hope that gallery-goers will be inspired and amazed by the myriad tone, colour, shade these artists employ. We are sure this exhibition will be a tour de force!

Surrey Artist of the Year 2010 Winner

2010-10-07T22:08:00.001+01:00

The New Ashgate Gallery is pleased to announce the winners of the Baines Surrey Artist of the Year Competition 2010 following this evening's closing ceremony:

1st Prize: Jamie Barrett - Futuretro

2nd Prize: Adam Green

3rd Prize: Terri Smart

Surrey Artist of the Year 2010 Winner: Announced Soon!

2010-10-05T18:04:00.003+01:00

The winner of the Surrey Artist of the Year 2010 winner will be announced this Thursday!

The winner, selected from the 14 finalists chosen during this year's Surrey Artists Open Studios, will be the artist with the most number of votes from the public and judging panel.

If you haven't cast your vote yet, visit the New Ashgate Gallery this week to choose your favourite. Artists working in a variety of media are represented, including painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics and glass.

Everyone is welcome to attend the closing ceremony at the gallery on Thursday 7 October from 6 - 8pm.

October 2010 Programme

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Baines Surrey Artist of the Year 2010 Winner Announced:
Closing Ceremony Thursday 7 October

Joint Exhibition: Michael Fairclough and Adam Aaronson
Friday 8th October -
Saturday 6th November

HotHouse: Emerging Makers Exhibition
Friday 8th October - Saturday 23rd October

Surrey Artist of the Year 2010 Private View

2010-09-10T11:42:00.001+01:00

Join us tonight for the Surrey Artist of the Year 2010 Private View at New Ashgate Gallery from 6 - 8pm. Come and view the 14 finalists and vote for your favourite to become Surrey Artist of the Year 2010. Artists working in a variety of media will be represented, including painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics and glass.

New Ashgate Gallery and Surrey Artists Open Studios established Surrey Artist of the Year in 2009 as an annual event of regional significance. This important project will increase the profile of the county’s artists and makers and helps to support their livelihoods, enabling many to exhibit in a professional gallery for the first time. Sponsored by the Baines Charitable Trust, this not-for-profit gallery has a national reputation for its tradition of supporting contemporary art and craft since its first establishment as an artists cooperative.

The exhibition is open from Friday 10^th September – Thursday 7^th October. For more information please call 01252 713208 or visit www.newashgate.org.uk

Artist's Workshop with Vicki Nigoumi: 15 September 2010

2010-09-09T17:27:00.001+01:00

The New Ashgate Gallery will be hosting an artist's workshop with Vicki Nigoumi on Wednesday 15 September 2010 at Farnham Museum's Garden Gallery.

The workshop will be delivered by Vicki, focusing on Still Life and Observational painting. All participants are required to bring their own drawing board, painting materials (inlcuding paper, paint and other equipment), rinsing/cleaning equipment and protective clothing and old sheet.

A picnic will be held in the Museum garden weather permitting so please bring a packed lunch.
Booking is essential as there are only 15 places available at the workshop, with a fee of £35 per person (£30 Patrons & Angels), payable in advance.
Please call the gallery on 01252 713208 to reserve your place.

Artist Focus: Vicki Nigoumi

2010-09-08T17:37:00.002+01:00

Vicki Nigoumi studied at Willesden School of Art and Central School of Art and Design ( now Central St. Martins ) London, gaining Central School diploma and N.D.D in printed textiles in 1961.

In 1962 she secured a five year position as tutor in drawing at Khartoum School of Art, Sudan, and whilst in Khartoum established a studio for screen printed textiles.

Returning to England in 1967, Vicki worked as a free-lance printed textile designer, for both fashion and furnishing fabrics. Clients have included fashion designers gina Fratini, Roland Kline, Jean Muir and Jeff Banks. Furnishing designs included in Artizan portfolio and commissions for Warner & Sons and Lewis & Wood among others.

She taught at Adult Education for many years and now takes workshops for painting and drawing.

Her preoccupation with still life painting has enabled her to pursue an interest in colour and drawing and a fascination with the relationship of objects. Many of her paintings include ceramics by contemporary studio potters from her own collection. In recent years Vicki has also been creating and exhibiting her own figurative ceramic peices.

Since her first exhibition at the British Council in Khartoum in 1967 she has exhibited in a number of galleries in the U.K including Medici Gallery, The Mall Galleries, Bankside Gallery London, Eastern rooms Rye, and Arlesford Gallery and regularly at The New Ashgate Farnham.

Vicki has taken part in Surrey Open Studios and is an exhibiting member of both Farnham Art Society and Guildford Art Society.

A joint exhibition of Vicki Nigoumi and John Maltby at the New Ashgate Gallery will be open from Friday 10 September - Saturday 2 October 2010.

Vicki Nigoumi and John Maltby Exhibition: Friday 10 September - Saturday 2 October 2010

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Friday 10^th September, 6-8pm

Saturday 2^nd October 2010

Vicki Nigoumi [Painting]

John Maltby [Sculpture]

[Pavilion Room & Foyer]

Images: Vicki Nigoumi (above); John Maltby (below)

The New Ashgate Gallery is delighted and privileged to present Farnham based painter Vicki Nigoumi and Devon based ceramic sculptor John Maltby in an exhibition this Autumn.

As always, the gallery presents an array of new work from more established artists, exciting to the eye and always worth viewing.

Vicki Nigoumi will deliver a Still Life workshop to coincide with the exhibition.

Garden Gallery at Farnham Museum, Wed 15 September

£35pp for public or £30pp for Angels

All day 10-5, Lunch: 1-2pm (Bring your own packed lunch for a picnic outside, weather permitting)

Workshop Details: Still Life - Artist will set up room with still life groups.

Contact the gallery for more details.

September 2010 Programme

2010-09-04T16:35:00.000+01:00

Contemporary Craft Collection

Saturday 4 September -Saturday 6 November

Joint Exhibition: Vicki Nigoumi and John Maltby

Friday 10 September -Saturday 2 October

Private View: Friday 10 September, 6-8pm

Artist's Workshop: Vicki Nigoumi

Wednesday 15 September

10am - 5 pm

£35 each (£30 Patrons and Angels)

Surrey Artist of the Year 2010

Friday 10 September -Thursday 7 October

Private View: Friday 10 September, 6-8pm

Artist Focus: Anna Knights

2010-09-04T15:49:00.000+01:00

Anna Knights’ close-up botanical watercolours have an immediacy and vitality that transcend tradition. Her highly detailed paintings are a striking blend of vibrancy, sensuality and skilful composition.Each one takes several weeks to paint, as Anna layers up the watercolour to achieve a realistic depth of colour and solidity of form.

Anna is entirely self taught. She enjoyed art as a child but it was only in 2006, at the age of 25, that she discovered an innate talent for botanical painting. 18 months later Anna won an RHS Gold Medal and Best in Show award.

Since then Anna’s fresh style has proved popular and her painting career has blossomed. Anna exhibits regularly at the Chelsea and Hampton Court Palace Flower Shows and her work is now held in the Shirley Sherwood and RHS Lindley Library collections.In 2010 Anna was commissioned by celebrated rose breeder David Austin Roses to produce their first ever limited edition print.Anna also teaches relaxed and enjoyable watercolour classes where she shares the technique she has developed herself.

Anna Knights is one of the 14 finalists in the Surrey Artist of the Year 2010 Exhibition, on show at the New Ashgate Gallery from Friday 10 September - Thursday 7 October.

Artist Focus: John Maltby

2010-09-03T18:01:00.002+01:00

Born in Lincolnshire, England, 1936. Studied sculpture at Leicester and Goldsmiths College, London. He taught painting and sculpture for two and a half years before working with David Leach at Bovey Tracey in 1962.

In 1964 he started his own pottery at Stoneshill, Devonshire, England, making stoneware, earthenware and porcelain.

He has lectured widely in England and has been a frequent visiting lecturer at Bergen Kunsthandverksskole, Norway. In May 1987 he was the sole judge of the International Pottery Competition (Fletcher Challenge Award) in Auckland, New Zealand. July 1987 he conducted a Seminar in Berne, Switzerland, "Creativity Developing a Personal Style" which was repeated in Basle in 1988. In 1989 he was invited by Galerie Handwerk, Munich, to give a lecture and open the exhibtiion English Ceramics. He has also published articles in Ceramic Review (nos. 29, 78, 102) and Crafts (no. 80: 'The Leach Tradition').

Awards include:
1966 Craft Award, Gwen Mullins Trust
1975 Gold Medal, Faenza, International Exhibitions of Contemporary Ceramics, Italy.
1981 Craft Award, South West Arts.
1986 Major Craft Fellowship, South West Arts
He is a member of the Craftsman Potters Assosication of Great Britain, and the British Crafts Centre and is an advisor to the Leach Archive at the Holbourne of Menstrie Museum, Bath, England.

"Normally my ceramics are 'about', English landscape and architecture: they derive their forms and surfaces from a subconscious sense of our history - 'this sea-washed country where the air is never quite free from mist; where the light of the sun is more often pale and pearly than it is fiery. This atmosphere has sunk into our souls. It has affected our art as it affects our life - but it has not resulted in a congenital softness of vision' (Quotation from John Piper, 'British Romantic Artists, 1943).
Works from the 'Kings, Queens and Angels: Such titles are the very fabric of our English Heritage. They are timeless and yet are a microcosm of our own world. They are ancient players; symbols of our dignity and of our fallibility and they are the myths and the essence of our Englishness".

Artist Focus: John Maltby

2010-09-03T18:01:00.001+01:00

Artist Focus: Hazel Craig

2010-09-03T12:42:00.000+01:00

Hazel is from

Northern Ireland

, and her love of the coastline is recorded in many of her oil paintings. Her cottage garden in Surrey is a constant source of inspiration too.

She has taken part in Surrey Artist Open Studios for the last five years, and has also exhibited in various galleries in Surrey and

Northern Ireland

Artist Focus: Diane King

2010-09-03T12:37:00.000+01:00

“She’ll be alright when she settles down” , this is a statement made about me recently by a fellow artist to my dear husband of 40 years who supports my artwork 150% and immediately jumped to my defence and said “I can assure you Diana will never “settle down”, she never has and she never will I hope”.

Several people walking into my Imagination Studio during Surrey Open Studios thought there were multiple artists exhibiting but I assured them that all 100 paintings in the various styles and mediums were all mine. I enjoy working in every medium, often mixing them together. I am reluctant to do commissions as I prefer to have no boundaries and total freedom. I love what I do and if somebody else likes it as well that’s a wonderful bonus but if not then I have still enjoyed being alive and taking part".

Artist Focus: Terri Smart

2010-09-03T12:34:00.000+01:00

"I took up ceramics in 1990 when I was working as an architect in Hong Kong. The feel of the clay and my delight in making a structured piece out of a formless lump became more and more important in my life as I became familiar with the medium.

On my return to England in 1994 I set up my own workshop, joined the Wey Ceramics Society and obtained a City and Guilds certificate in ceramics. I regularly take part in Surrey Artists Open Studios.

In 2000 I helped set up Kaleidoscope, an applied arts cooperative for locally based artists, which held its first exhibition at the Windsor Street Gallery, Chertsey, that year. Since then we have shown together many times, at places such as Guildford House Gallery, Denbies Wine Estate Gallery, Dorking, Cranleigh Arts Centre, the Riverhouse Barn, Walton-on-Thames, and the Fountain Gallery, Hampton Court.

Two years ago we exhibited at the prestigious Orangery Gallery in Holland Park, London.

New ideas generally come to me in the middle of the night, and then I can't wait to get into the studio and work directly with the clay. I am influenced by natural elements such as wind and water and I like to emphasise the contrasts between nature and man. Most of my work is hand-built in textured stoneware clays, and decorated with coloured slips, oxides and glazes before firing to 1260°C.

I am a member of Surrey Sculpture Society and the Surrey Guild of Craftsmen".

Baines Surrey Artist of the Year 2010: Friday 10th September - Thursday 7th October

2010-08-13T13:25:00.001+01:00

New Ashgate Gallery invites you to visit the exhibition and vote for your favourite artist to become Surrey Artist of the Year 2010. Artists working in a variety of media will be represented, including painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics and glass.

New Ashgate Gallery and Surrey Artists Open Studios established this competition in 2009 as an annual event of regional significance. This important project will increase the profile of the county’s artists and makers and helps to support their livelihoods, enabling many to exhibit in a professional gallery for the first time. Supported by the Baines Charitable Trust, this not-for-profit gallery has a national reputation for its tradition of supporting contemporary art and craft since opening in 1973.

For more information please call 01252 713208.

Artist Focus: Rosemary Miller

2010-08-13T10:27:00.000+01:00

Besides working primarily in watercolour I enjoy using various media to explore my interest in light and complex patterns of shape, colour and texture. My work has an emphasis on colour and individuality. Being inspired by the unusual I like the challenge of finding a different viewpoint, composition or subject. My contemporary figurative work is produced both in my studio and outside on location here in the UK and abroad.

I have exhibited for several years with the Royal Society of Marine Artists and R.I. at their annual London exhibitions. In 2005 I was elected as a full member of the Society of Women Artists and won the Anthony J Lester Art Critic Award at their annual exhibition that year. In 2005 and 2007 I won the Derwent Artist Magazine Award at Patchings. Besides being a member of the Maritime Art Group and Borderlands Artist Consortium, I run several watercolour classes and courses throughout the year.

Artist Focus: Gerda Rubenstein

2010-08-13T10:23:00.000+01:00

"My work is modelled in clay or wax for casting in resin or bronze; I have always been interested in the interaction between people and in their emotions and try to express this in three dimensional form. My biggest inspiration came from the liberation and freedom after five years of wartime occupation in Holland.

After studying in Amsterdam and Paris I came to live and work in London where I also very much enjoyed teaching under the ILEA until I had to retire, running a studio with no limitation on age or requirement for previous experience or for diploma standards where the students were offered a model and various materials in which to work and were encouraged to take an individual approach.

A number of commissions came from opening my studio each year which I have continued to do now in Surrey, giving people the chance to see my work and choose what they like".

Artist Focus: Joe Szabo

2010-08-13T10:21:00.000+01:00

"I have been playing around with pieces of colourful glass for ten years. In my native Hungary, I was primarily involved in doing stained glass commissions in collaboration with interior designers. I also exhibited my glass art at a few galleries, too.

Having recently moved from Hungary to the United Kingdom, the country of fascinating hedges, chimneys and stained glass art, I intend to continue working with glass, preserving this country’s traditional glass art and, also, hoping to make my own modest contribution to British contemporary glass art.

Luckily, glass on its own does not always help me realise my ideas so I turn to other media, too. I love using copper and wood. I am also keen on combining ceramics and glass.

My works have been exhibited at Fisherton Mill Gallery in Salisbury, at Oberon Art in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, and, most recently, during the Surrey Artists Open Studios".

Artist Focus: Jean Tolkovsky

2010-08-13T10:18:00.001+01:00

"My main focus is on the small sculptural pieces which are usually ‘quirky’ or ‘whimsical’ and sometimes carry a suggested narrative. The main components of these pieces are hand built using a grogged porcelain or earthenware clay, which is often textured, before being biscuit fired. Colour is applied using underglaze colours. A clear glaze is then applied before re-firing the work to either 1150⁰ or 1220. Once fired the fun begins, assembling the pieces using a variety of mixed media including wire, beads and feathers and then mounting the whole thing on a clay or wooden base.

I have participated in a number of joint exhibitions including venues such as Guildford House and The New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham, and sold at the Art and Craft Fair at the Lightbox, Woking. I sell my work privately and have participated in Surrey Artists Open Studios for the past 2 years. Member of Wey Ceramics Society".

Artist Focus: Christine Hopkins

2010-08-13T10:16:00.000+01:00

Old newspapers, volume XII of the Chambers Encyclopaedia (1955 edition), gift wrapping, tissue paper and junk mail are all components of the dynamic mixed media paintings by Christine Hopkins. The contents of the recycling bin, and other discarded papers, form the collage base for colourful interpretations of the landscape. A member of the Society of Graphic Fine Art, elected to its governing Council, Christine is drawn to strong linear forms and in particular the built world.

“I love small-scale domestic architecture - the sort of houses that ordinary people live in. I sketch wherever I go - this enables me to get a real understanding of the location I’m in. But I often distill this in the finished piece, to give more of the flavour of a place rather than an accurate depiction. Sometimes I will combine sketches from several different places, filter them through my imagination, and produce a new version of reality, based entirely on wishful thinking - a rather ideal world that has some resonance for everyone. The comment I hear most is ‘I know where that is - Hastings/St Ives/Portugal/almost anywhere’ but the paintings are much more about the feel and memory of many places, rather than one. And I love hiding things in the collage - appropriate newspaper cuttings, fragments from clothing catalogues, sheet music etc. For a recycling project I used old train and bus tickets, and commissions can be personalised in this way.”

As well as mixed media paintings, Christine also paints in oil, and has recently become addicted to printmaking, particularly drypoint and monoprinting.

She runs workshops in mixed media painting, collage and simple printmaking techniques at the Skylight Studio in Reigate.

A recent venture has been the setting up of a collaborative partnership - Blue Sky Artists - with artists Rosie Christie and Kirsten Baron, to work on joint projects in 2-and 3-D media, and to exhibit together.

As part of the ‘Big Draw’ campaign each year, Christine demonstrates mixed media drawing in the Menier Gallery in London.

Artist Focus: Adam Green

2010-08-12T15:41:00.000+01:00

Adam Green’s paintings are novel yet sophisticated. The continued presence of ornamental, hypnotic patterns draw from his love of Mexican and African iconography. He takes alternative reference from vintage commercial images, pulling together diverse elements to achieve a quirky, but dynamic composition. Humour flows throughout all of his work, giving the underlying complexity a more approachable edge.

Adam’s influences, motifs and use of pattern provide fascinating appeal, but primarily, it is the physical process of putting paint to canvas that drives him. It is from this starting point that everything else flows and it is here that he shows incredible tenacity in his application of paint.

His paintings have been shown at the Royal Academy and he has exhibited regularly in London and the South East.

Artist Focus: Philip Rylands

2010-08-12T12:40:00.000+01:00

Born and bought up in Warwickshire, I graduated in Fine Art, sculpture in 1993 at Staffordshire University before moving South and exploring painting.

In 2002 I left full time work, able to concentrate fully on corporate and private commissions, as well as exhibiting my own work. Since then I have shown and sold my work both in the UK and internationally.

My style and techniques are continuously developing, although the basic premise of my work remains the same; working from a personal archive of old and new photographs that serve as reminders of events, people and places. To this end, my latest project, 99 Objects, is a collection of same size small works that thoroughly explore this theme, along with an ongoing blog that explains the origins of each piece.

Artist Focus: Chris Forsey

2010-08-12T12:12:00.000+01:00

"I began my art career as an illustrator in a publishers studio after studying art and graphics in Bristol. I am a self taught painter, constantly trying to extend and add to my skills in water-based media. I have exhibited on numerous occasions with the Royal Water colour Society and the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour. At the 2006 RI exhibition I was awarded the F DONALD BLAKE AWARD for a contemporary watercolour by Lincoln Joyce Fine Art. I am a tutor of painting and run my own painting classes in Surrey and Sussex, and in the Greek Islands. I also give lively and informative demonstrations to art societies and groups throughout South East England and am delighted to undertake commissions of landscape subjects and house portraits.

I endeavour to re-appraise my style and technique on a regular basis and this has led me towards a mixed-media approach to my work, combining watercolour, acrylic, pastel and gouache. I am exhilarated by colour and surface and enjoy creating textured layers of dry-brushed colour that allow hints of complementary hue to glow through, thus creating an exciting surface of scattered, broken colour.

I specialise in landscape subjects, exploring the themes of man-made alongside the organic: buildings by water, structure emerging from a rocky cliff. Downland, coastal images of both the

and the mediterranean , buildings and townscapes, sometimes figures are included to bring that human touch. In all cases I am trying to capture the essence of a scene at a specific moment in time, season or time of day always endeavouring to bring passion, immediacy and validity to my work".

Artist Focus: Natasha Smart

2010-08-11T10:28:00.000+01:00

"I am a part-time textile artist and feltmaker who, after many years of home sewing and craftmaking, developed a love of feltmaking following a Foundation Course in Textiles at Morley College in London in 2005/06. My main passion is for colourful Nuno felting (felting merino wool fleece into fabric), which I transform (often with added embroidery) into artworks, clothing, bags/purses and greetings cards. I also create felted jewellery and other accessories, and welcome commissions.

Since June 2008, I have exhibited work at my Oxted studio during the annual Surrey Artists Open Studios event. Through this, in late 2008 I was chosen to produce work for sale in Flora Lou in Chobham, which showcases art and craft pieces. It also led to my running feltmaking workshops from early 2009 (having already gained a Certificate in Training Practice from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)). Workshops have ranged from large groups of over 20 to day-long and 2-hour taster workshops in groups of 3 in my studio. I have also branched out into written tutorials, publishing a felt bead and jewellery-making article in ‘Beads and Beyond’ magazine in June 2009. In February 2010 I exhibited a felted wallhanging at the Greenstede Gallery, East Grinstead, as part of the Afghanistan Inspiration project. My piece was also one of a smaller group chosen for inclusion in a current European tour, which started at the NEC, Birmingham before moving to

France

and

Germany

In 2010 my work has focused on expanding the textural and patterned qualities of felt through the addition of wool yarns to the felted surface. Using simple crocheting and loom-knitting techniques, I create pieces of knitting using mohair wool yarn, and lay these on top of the merino wool fleece prior to felting. Wet-felting the wool layers together creates a new felted fabric with a delicate mohair pattern, from which I then create the final art pieces. These patterns are reminiscent of the organic shapes and textures found in the natural world, hence the theme of my work in this exhibition".

Artist Focus: Jamie Barrett-Futuretro

2010-08-09T12:47:00.001+01:00

"Art has always been my major interest and I have been drawing and painting from a very early age. I was later influenced by my grandfather, who was an accomplished cabinet maker, and I started making sculptures out of any material that was to hand. When he eventually gave me all his tools I was able to perfect my techniques, and have continued to do so ever since!

Most of my pieces are made from acrylic and wood. For the last few years I have been focussing my energy into creating a diverse range of innovative and interactive light sculptures. It is possible to interact with the light sculptures by changing their shapes, patterns and colours using various processes and technologies. My latest works also have the additional quality of being responsive to sound and music. Under my ‘Futuretro’ name, I have undertaken commissions in the

India

and

Japan

More recently I have been experimenting with heat-forming acrylic; this technique has allowed me to create fluid, organic compositions that represent my perception of nature. I also wanted to create a complimentary contrast between the synthetic quality of the acrylic I’m using and the natural forms I am sculpting. This has lead to a new collection of light sculptures entitled “naturesynth”.

My art is inspired by nature and is about the flow and balance of energies. I like to express and share my energy through my creations by making unique, eye-catching objects for people to enjoy".

August 2010 Programme

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Fine Art

Featuring Amanda Hoskin, David Ralph-Simpson, Emma DUnbar, Sarah Spackman, Fiona Millais, Michael Fairclough, Este MacLeod, Hester Berry, Suzanne Stuart-Davies and Rachel Grigor

Saturday 3 July-Saturday 31 July

Contemporary Craft Collection

Saturday 5 June -Saturday 28 August

Ceramics by invited CPA member potters

Featuring Gareth Mason, Matthew Chambers, Susan Disley, Ikuko Iwamoto, Sotis Filipides, Peter Hayes and Julian Belmonte

Saturday 12 June -Saturday 28 August

Craft Focus: Guy Royle Jewellery

Saturday 5 June -Saturday 28 August

Artist Focus: Matthew Chambers

2010-07-16T16:54:00.000+01:00

Matthew Chambers gained an M.A. in Ceramics and Glass at the Royal College of Art, Kensington, London in 2004.

His inspirations include geometric and optical art, constructivist themes, and modern architecture and design. He explores the interests in abstract, making mathematically constructed sculptures that are each built up of many different wheel-thrown sections. These sections are joined together to make complex rhythm patterns that convey individual properties of space, light, and colour. He aims to make each piece unique, sustaining an abstract and rhythmical beauty from the pattern of its own shapes.

Artist Focus: Peter Hayes

2010-07-15T11:54:00.000+01:00

“I have always been interested in - why and how 'things' are made of clay. One of the major introductions I had to ceramics was digging Neolithic iron age and roman samien shards on archaeological digs somewhere in Wales while trying to survive as an art student in Birmingham. I am naturally drawn to shapes of artefacts and objects from other cultures and other times, but that remain timeless.

Erosion and change through time and nature are recorded in a piece. My main aim in my work is not to compete with nature; but for the work to evolve within the environment. The minerals, like iron and copper, that I introduce into the 'Raku' ceramic surface have their own affect on the clay during the time they are submerged in the river or the sea. This erosion process continues with sanding so that the texture and cracks do not interrupt the surface but become an organic, integral part of the patina. Each individual piece takes on its own developing surface; its own history and its own aesthetic. I am merely the maker.”

July 2010 Programme

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Solo Exhibition: Graham Dean

Saturday 3 July-Saturday 31 July

Ceramics by invited CPA member potters

Featuring Gareth Mason, Matthew Chambers, Susan Disley, Ikuko Iwamoto, Sotis Filipides, Peter Hayes and Julian Belmonte

Saturday 12 June -Saturday 28 August

Contemporary Craft Collection

Saturday 5 June -Saturday 28 August

Craft Focus: Guy Royle Jewellery

Saturday 5 June -Saturday 28 August

Graham Dean Solo Exhibition

2010-07-01T11:58:00.000+01:00

Saturday 3rd July - Saturday 31st July

Open to the public on Saturday 3rd July with an informal reception all day

Returning to the New Ashgate Gallery with an innovative new exhibition of work,

Graham Dean is a contemporary painter of international renown.

This exhibition will present Dean’s work in an innovative way, not perhaps a progression from his most recent solo Sleepers at Waterhouse & Dodd in 2009, but based loosely on the documentary ‘Falling between the Floorboards’, flimed over a year between 2008-2009 in various European locations as well as in the artist’s studio while he worked. The artist believes this type of exhibition to be unusual, and like nothing he has done previously.

The artist and Gallery Director will curate this exhibition collaboratively – hanging unframed works contextually with excerpts from the artist’s sketchbook.

Daily screenings of a documentary, ‘Falling between the Floorboards’, made about Dean in 2009 will complement the work, adding another dimension to the visitor’s experience.

Footprints

The gallery will exhibit 30 of Dean’s Footprints works. Footprints is a series of numbered, limited original unframed pieces. Dean has ceased work on this series, so the pieces are very collectible, and more affordable than other works in his repertoire. Buying work from the Footprints range offers a younger or less experienced collector the chance to enter into the market. For example, the average realised price of a Graham Dean work ranges from £1500 - £2500, and the pieces from the Footprints series are priced at approximately £500.

About Dean’s work

Graham Dean's paintings use the figure not in a literal way but more as a vehicle to convey ideas, emotions and psychological states. Whilst his works are representational, they escape the illustrative through his ability to draw a broader meaning from the deeply personal.

Employing a technique that he calls "reverse archaeology", Graham Dean transforms the conventional use of watercolour painting. Contrasting layers of paint are laid separately onto porous handmade Indian paper, achieving a density and brilliance of colour that is visceral in its effects, merging the figure with the organic process of paint spreading through paper. Sections from several different versions of the same composition are torn away and reassembled in a form of collage, lending each image a rawness and immediacy which supports the emotive and dramatic qualities of the works. He calls his figures 'holding pens' for emotion.

Biography

Graham Dean came to prominence in the seventies and the eighties when he was part of a group of artists in

Britain

who marked a return to figurative and realistic art, set in an urban context. The late eighties saw him radically change direction by ‘re-inventing’ watercolour, often on a large scale with sensual and psychological subject matter.

He is based in Brighton and in Umbria, Italy.

He is represented in London by Waterhouse & Dodd of Cork Street, whose repute in the Fine Art business extends far and wide.

Dean’s work is of investment quality; he is collected internationally by an astute following.

www.grahamdean.com

To view excerpts from videos about Graham Dean visit

http://www.grahamdean.com/mambo/video-part1.html

June 2010 Programme

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Contemporary Craft Collection

Saturday 5 June -Saturday 28 August

Joint Exhibition: Anita Klein and Nigel Swift

Saturday 12 June -Saturday 26 June

Private View: Friday 11 June, 6-8pm

Craft Focus: Guy Royle Jewellery

Saturday 5 June -Saturday 28 August

Ceramics by invited CPA member potters

Featuring Gareth Mason, Matthew Chambers, Susan Disley, Ikuko Iwamoto, Sotis Filipides, Peter Hayes and Julian Belmonte

Saturday 12 June -Saturday 28 August

Joint Exhibition: Anita Klein & Nigel Swift

2010-06-04T13:14:00.003+01:00

Saturday 12th June – Saturday 26th June

The exhibition will open to the public on Saturday 12th June with an informal reception all day.

Representing diverse styles and practices, Anita Klein is mainly a printmaker who creates luscious, sensuous, linear etchings, woodcuts and linocuts mainly of voluptuous, cherubic women in either autobiographical or fantasy scenes.

Nigel Swift, her husband, on the other hand, makes representational expressive, impasto pastel and oil works on paper and canvas of landscapes under atmospheric pressure or varied weather conditions – a classic landscape artist.

If we read these works, we could say that Anita, the wife, dreams of far away, fairytale & fantasy while her husband is rooted in the actual, the way things are on a daily basis – and that may be the manner in which his view point is framed by the changing landscape of weather. Interestingly enough, Swift relies on observational methods to derive form and composition in his seemingly abstract works, whereas Klein meticulously composes the position of figures in accordance with orientation of paper and other incorporated characters. Both methods require that influence of the hand of the artist that is unmistakable in medium, style and tone. The printmaking method is laborious in that it requires quite intensive process and order, while the painting and drawing with pastels or oils is more automotive in many ways – more plugged into the cerebrum, as the artist needs to directly interpret a view, an atmosphere and observation in order to represent it so in accurate terms.

Neither opposes or detracts, but simply flesh out aspects of creative technique and process, and offer the viewer the chance to compare and contrast the work of a duo that live and work as husband and wife. Their enduring appeal is certainly due to a classical grounding while making work in a contemporary manner.

Contemporary Craft Collection

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Saturday 5^th June – Saturday 28^th August

A diverse range of new works of craft will be on show at the New Ashgate Gallery from Saturday 5^th June. Featuring Jewellery, Ceramics, Silver and Textiles, the show will also present a craft focus, with the spotlight on craft by Cathy Miles, jewellery by Guy Royle, and the work of silversmith Alex Ramsay.

Contemporary Craft Collection: Featured Artists

Glass Lara Aldridge

Ceramics Jill Ford, Sotis Fillipides, Adele Thurstan, Akiko Hirai, Este MacLeod, Claire Baker, Margaret Gardiner, Lucy Dunce

Jewellery Hannah Souter, Anne Massey, Shimara Carlow, Nicola Morrison, Sarah Packington, Claire Baker

Textiles Kay Morgan, Victoria Richards

Artist's Workshop with Julia Gascoigne Palmer: 18 May 2010

2010-05-20T17:26:00.000+01:00

The New Ashgate Gallery will be hosting an artist's workshop with Julia Gascoigne Palmer on Tuesday 18 May 2010 at 2pm.

The workshop will be delivered by Julia, using mixed media. The workshop participants will each be given a sheet of watercolour paper and a drawing board. Julia will give a demonstration of creating a layered painting in acrylic, crayons, charcoal and collage, based on a series of landscape photographs. Each participant will be asked to select an image in order to choose the dominant/prevailing or underlying colour. Then a first layer of paint mixed with a medium will be applied and drawn through with scrapers and shapers. Further structure to the form will be added by using crayon, charcoal and collage, as well as by applying further layers of transparent and opaque layers of paint.
Participants will be encouraged to intuitively respond to the materials, and to experience how paintings can be built up in stages or layers.
Booking is essential as there are only 15 places available at the workshop, with a fee of £15 per person, payable in advance.
Please call the gallery on 01252 713208 to reserve your place.

Spotting Farnham ... a community arts project

2010-05-11T09:02:00.001+01:00

As part of Lighting The Touchpaper, a cultural leadership programme for young artists, spotting farnham presents a community art project for Farnham.

During April two groups of local residents in will take part in a series of painting workshops to produce a collaborative art piece.

Spotting farnham is based around the painting practice of recent graduate Amy Collins. In a media saturated world the project aims to break things down, make work in a manner that is accessible to all and create individual paintings that celebrate anomalies and the handmade. One participating group will be at Brightwells Gostrey Centre where residents will be encouraged to make the best art they can. Building on the success of the After School Art clubs, the second group will be at Roman Way with children aged 5 -16.

Workshop Schedule:
Roman Way; Tuesday 20 April – Tuesday 4 May, 4.30pm – 5.30pm
Brightwells Centre; Wednesday 14 April – Wednesday 28 April, 10.45am – 11.45am
Final collaborative workshop; Saturday 8 May, Farnham Spring Festival 2.30pm – 3.30pm

During April and May the two groups will explore marks, dots and spots that they can build into an image. Through providing creative experiences people can benefit from the sense of self and value that the arts can award. The two groups will come together at Farnham Spring Festival at Farnham Maltings on Saturday 8th May for the final workshop. Here they will piece together the pixel paintings, share experiences, exchange ideas and take ownership of the project as one group. During the spring festival members of the public are invited to join Amy in making their own pixel painting as part of the community festival.

The community picture will be on show at The New Ashgate Gallery from Saturday 8 May – Saturday 22 with a private view in celebration of the project on Saturday 8th May at 6pm- 8pm.

May 2010 Programme

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Saturday 8th May – Saturday 5th June; Gallery
Julia Gascoigne Palmer

Solo Exhibition: Baines Surrey Artist of the Year Winner 2009

with Craft Focus on Glass by Amanda Simmons

Saturday 8th May – Saturday 5th June; Balcony Room
Hester Berry

Solo Exhibition: Paintings by emerging artist and recent graduate of MA Fine Art

with Craft Focus on Basketry by Lise Bech

Saturday 8th May – Saturday 22nd May; Foyer Gallery
Amy Collins

Spotting Farnham

Solo Exhibition: Hester Berry

2010-05-07T15:43:00.005+01:00

A Solo Exhibition of Hester Berry's work will be held in the gallery’s Balcony Room from Saturday 8th May – Saturday 5th June, featuring recent and past work from selected periods of study.

Hester Berry, recently graduated from Wimbledon College of Art with an MA in Fine Art. Her eco-friendly works are expressive representations of rural and urban landscapes with painting surfaces made of recycled plastic bags & cardboard, often raw-edged & organic in appearance. Framed, these works transgress from two-dimensional surfaces into three-dimensional art objects. Hester prefers to paint from life, invariably in the rain, observing the idiosyncrasies of natural life from a sheltered perch.

Her recent MA Show captivated many, with a steady stream of collectors at New Ashgate’s doors since Susan Martyn of the gallery initially approached Hester to show here. Of course, the eco-friendly aspect of her work appeals to many, as well as her style which is a distinct visual language – her work is instantly recognizable, and no doubt will develop into an obsession for many collectors.

The gallery is very proud to have nurtured Hester since her time at Wimbledon & hopes that this exhibition is the start of a long relationship between her and the New Ashgate. The find of Hester Berry harks back to earlier times when previous gallery Director Elfriede Windsor exhibited the young Mary Fedden & Sandra Blow amongst other notable artists.

Paintings will be complemented by a craft focus on established basket maker Lise Bech.

View more works online at http://www.newashgate.org.uk/pages/exhibitors/thumbnails/6105.html

Baines Surrey Artist of the Year Winner 2009 Exhibition

2010-05-07T11:01:00.004+01:00

On Saturday 8^th May the Solo exhibition of paintings by Baines Surrey Artist of the Year Winner 2009 Julia Gascoigne Palmer opens!

Julia Gascoigne Palmer, based in Farnham, was named the inaugural Baines Surrey Artist of the Year 2009 last October. Julia’s work was initially selected from a public vote during the annual Surrey Open Studios season in June 09 which attracted a variety of local talent, from painters and sculptors to jewellery makers and textile artists. A total of 385 artists entered the county-wide annual art competition, which will be in its 10^th Year this June.

Julia’s work, popular with both the judges and the public vote for its bright use of colour and nod to beauty in nature. Here at the New Ashgate we find it is refreshing to see that not far from the London contemporary art scene the public are choosing the aesthetic over the conceptual in contemporary art.

Julia’s work as a painter has woven a path between landscape, interiors and still life. “My love of colour has always been at the forefront of my work with an early interest in the Fauvist Artists.” This work was further stimulated by her travels in East Africa, North America and Mexico, culminating in a painting scholarship in the North Yemen.

Her interest in landscape grew on moving to Farnham from London in 1993, and she’s aware of the influence of the local Surrey landscape on her work: “Much inspiration for my work was gained by walks in and around Frensham Ponds, the Alice Holt Forest, and along the hidden River Wey.” With her bright use of colour and clever portrayals of natural light it allows the viewer to see the local landscape in a new and refreshing way.

The exhibition is on until 5^th June 2010.

To view more works please visit: http://www.newashgate.org.uk/pages/exhibitors/thumbnails/6476.html