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‘Sew Seasonal’
Tuesday August 17th -Saturday September 4th 2010
Allotments and the food and flowers they produce have inspired the embroideries and photographic images on display in ‘Sew Seasonal’ . The exhibition features embroideries by Oxford Textile Workshop complemented by the digital images of Linda Wride, RHS Photographer of the Year.
The Oxford Textile Workshop are a diverse group of people united by their passion for embroidery and textiles. Whilst some members are professional artists, others are enthusiastic and highly-skilled amateurs. The group, which meets monthly to share ideas and participate in workshops, also holds exhibitions to showcase their embroideries. By responding to a theme, the group hopes that this exhibition will illustrate the wide variety of styles and techniques individuals can use.
Linda Wride is an award winning Oxford-based photographer who specialises in botanical images. Her photograph ‘The allotment in June’ was overall winner in the Royal Horticultural Society Photography Competition. Her winning image was from ‘Cultivating Communities’ a projects based on and inspired by the plants, people and potting sheds of Osney allotments, off Botley Road in Oxford. The exhibition includes a selection of photographs from the project, including the RHS winning image.
There will be a chance to find out more when representatives from Oxford Textile Workshop will be holding ‘Meet the Artist’ sessions on Wednesdays 18th August and 1st September and Saturday 28th August, 11am until 1pm.
‘Hurry Slowly’
Tuesday September 14th to Saturday October 2nd 2010
10 am to 4pm, Monday to Saturday (closed Sunday and Bank Holidays)
For the past year, Helen Caless and Julie Smith have been creating art inspired by the museum. The public will now have the chance to see the extraordinary work produced by their artistic residency in a three week exhibition running from September 14th until October 2nd.
Julie Smith, a fine art lecturer and visual artist, has been creating exquisite silverpoint drawings and collecting objects on walks, all beginning from the museum. She has also been drawing and mapping Wantage by its hedges. Helen Caless, a professional textile artist and co-director of the Bullpen Arts Centre in Stanford in the Vale, has been casting small textile objects in metal and collecting fragments from the mould-making processes used. The artists have also collaborated to produce sculptures in response to the museum’s own collection.
Helen explains, “After running some family-friendly art workshops at the Museum, the idea of volunteering to be an artist-in-residence was appealing. I enjoy discovering new things every time I visit the museum. I love the way a museum’s collection can transport you, in your imagination, through time – triggering all sorts of associations. My artwork makes reference to the significance of objects, collections, treasures, textiles, toys and storytelling. The chance to collaborate with Julie has meant that some of the pieces in the exhibition are the result of joint ideas and processes. As artists working in the digital age, we have found it inspiring and refreshing to be handling items from the past and using them to inspire our own drawing, sculpture and textiles.”
Apart from exhibiting their own work, the artists will be installing objects into the museum cabinets in the main galleries. Objects will include a cast iron bobbin with wool, an intricately embroidered tablecloth and a plaster doorknob. Julie adds,” We have looked at the role of the museum as a place for interpreting the cultural heritage of the Vale of White Horse. Our aim is to address how we look at things, and the role of ‘touch’, plans, discoveries, books and text in museums.”
There will be a chance to chat with the artists and find out more about their work when they will be in the Museum on Wednesday 21st September from 11am – 1pm for a ‘Meet the Artists’ session.
‘Through the Glass’
Tuesday October 5th – Saturday 16th October 2010
10 am to 4pm, Monday to Saturday (closed Sunday and Bank Holidays)
Vale & Downland Museum, 19 Church Street, WANTAGE, Oxon OX12 8BL
Tel: 01235 771447 (office
Email: museum@wantage.com
Website: www.wantage.com/museum
Museum Contacts: Dorothy Burrows (Community Co-ordinator)
Pam Matfield has been a dancer, singer, actor, theatre director , choreographer and teacher and now works as an artist. Summing up her creative career, Pam describes herself as a pragmatist who, over the last 80 or so years, has learnt to "Say yes to everything! ” This positive approach to life will be very much apparent when Pam stages her first solo art exhibition from 5th – 16th October. ‘Through the Glass’, will feature extraordinary examples of Pam’s latest passion- painting with glass.
Pam explains," I have been involved in the performing arts for most of my life. After I semi-retired from the theatre at 75, my interest moved on to representational art and I trained as a sculptor. I have worked in stone, wood and clay but finally discovered that the glass provided the most interesting and inventive material for what I wanted to achieve. The joy of working with glass is light transmission which you don’t get with painting and the serendipity of what happens when it is fired.
There are many forms of glass, and I work with a mixture of sheet glass, rod glass, powdered glass and liquid glass. The hanging designs, as in my tree picture, are created in liquid glass on one thin sheet, covered with a second thin sheet and then fired to fuse them together.
The sculptures are first designed as flat pieces and given an initial firing to create a basic two-dimensional piece. After cooling, they are fired again over a customised mould to create a three-dimensional sculpture.
One of the greatest technical challenges with glass is to cut into curved shapes and my work this year demonstrates a progression towards softer designs incorporating more curved edges to give a softer and more organic outcome to the sculptures. I am now exploring painting with glass, using similar techniques to painting with watercolours and which requires several firings during making.”
There will be a chance to meet Pam and chat with her about her work during ‘Meet the Artist’ sessions at the museum on Wednesday 6th October, 10.30am – 1.30pm and Saturday 16th October, 11.30am – 1.30pm.
Tranquil Brush’
Tuesday October 19th to Saturday October 30th
10 am to 4pm, Monday to Saturday (closed Sunday and Bank Holidays)
Twenty years ago, Margaret White attended an evening class to study Chinese Brush painting. She and fellow students found this style of art inspirational. When the evening class eventually closed, the group were determined to keep in touch and continue experimenting with the techniques they had learnt. ‘Tranquil Brush’ was born and today it has twelve members who meet one Saturday per month in Abingdon to explore this ancient art form. Paintings produced by members can be seen in their latest exhibition.
Margaret explains, “The traditional Chinese artists copied works from the old masters. Our paintings are in the style of various artists, some of whom are still living.
Water-colour and ink are the medium used in our paintings. The ink is ground with an ink stick made of pine soot and glue on a well-type stone. Our paper is often called rice paper, but is actually made from various materials such as mulberry or cotton and each type has a different absorbency. The brushes are made from wolf, goat or horse hair, tufts of which are bound together and glued into a hollow handle of bamboo.
Beginning by learning the ‘Four Gentlemen’-bamboo, plum blossom, orchid and chrysanthemum, the strokes used will follow through into landscapes, birds and animals. Paintings are completed by a seal or chop depicting the artist’s name. Calligraphy is often added quoting a poem or saying. Each year is depicted by an animal. 2010 is the year of the Tiger. There are so many techniques involved you are always learning something new.”
There will be a chance to meet members of the group and find out more about this absorbing art on Saturday October 23rd between 10.30am and 2.30pm when members of Tranquil Brush will be in the museum for a ‘Meet the Artists’ session.
 
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