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From Light, Earth & Wind
Landscapes by Miriam Maselkowski
Tuesday 1 April to Saturday 12 April 2008
10.00am to 4.00pm
London-based artist Miriam Maselkowski grew up in Wantage and still enjoys cycling through the town and surrounding villages. It is this local landscape that provides the inspiration for all the large paintings in her new exhibition at the Vale & Downland Museum.
Miriam studied art at St Oswald's School of Painting, where the intense work curriculum gave her an excellent technical background. All the tutors were practising artists. Miriam learned drawing and painting techniques - including oil painting, watercolour and egg tempora - and also printing, including monoprinting, etching, mezzotint, collograph, and soft and hard ground etching.She writes:
"I learned a lot at St Oswald's. The tutors and the technical training were brilliant. The course was most beneficial in forcing us to look into ourselves. In my case, I was made aware of a blockage that was preventing me from directly expressing what I was experieincing onto the canvas. I remember how one day, one of the tutors pushed and pushed me to overcome this, and this made me really frustrated. In desperation I just painted what I felt. It was a wonderful relief. This approach has been the basis of my work since that moment."
About her painting, Miriam says this:
"I want to paint the immediate experience free from thought.
When I am in the landscape there is
the sound of the wind through the trees
the whole of the surroundings moving, swaying in time
the vast openness of the hills.I can breathe.
The fresh, painful rain hitting my cheeks.
There is no separation between me and the landscape.
I feel alive.
In painting large I am immersed in the experience. using large gestural movements enables me to break free from being mentally and physically tight. It allows me to lose myself in the expression of the experience. I can reconnect.
When I paint I come up against fears and frustrations. Overcoming these is where I find most satisfaction in painting.
My aim in painting is to paint an experience honestly and directly, and without fear."
Recent Paintings by Grant Waters
Portraits, nudes and Oxford scenes in oils, charcoal or watercolour
Tuesday 15 April to Saturday 26 April 2008
10.00am to 4.00pm
Grant Waters works in oils and his paintings are always figure based. He will move from commissioned portrait to life study, to street or cafe scene. He paints what he encounters.
Educated at Oxford Brookes University and Berkshire College of Art and Design, he has sixteen years experience in teaching art and is a regular contributor to Oxford Art Society Exhibitions.
Artweeks South Taster Exhibition
Diverse examples of work in various media by artists from across southern Oxfordshire
Tuesday 29 April to Friday 9 May 2008
10.00am to 4.00pm, FREE
Joan Durbin, volunteer Artweeks co-ordinator for the Didcot area of South region, has organised this exhibition with the aim of bringing together diverse examples of the work being shown across the wide area covered by the Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire.
As South region is launching the 3 weeks Artweeks festival and the Vale and Downland Museum is such a popular venue with tourists and locals alike, it seemed a very appropriate place to begin the show.
Work from artists as far away as Thame, Cumnor , Sandford-on-Thames, Wallingford, Didcot, Upton , Blewbury as well as Wantage will be displayed, with site numbers to enable people to follow up visits to individual studios, with the help of the free Artweeks guide, obtainable from museums, libraries, tourist information centres and many local outlets in rural parts.
Work being exhibited includes paintings, sculpture, ceramics, stained glass, textiles and embroidered pictures and jewellery, several exhibitors being professional artists. About 28 artists are showing one piece each, to encourage you to visit their venue where you will be made very welcome and will have the opportunity to ask questions and in some cases see demonstrations of the work being produced.
The Charms of Wantage
People, Places & Betjeman: a study of the townscape and landscape of Wantage and the Vale of White Horse by David Kenneth Collins
Tuesday 13 May to Saturday 24 May 2008
10.00am to 4.00pm
As a self-taught artist, David has made use of photography, sketching and paint to make studies of local landscape for most of his forty years. Oil painting in his spare time and learning to create mood with light was a natural progress for him. In January this year David exhibited one of his works for five weeks at the 'Oxford Open' at Modern Art Oxford. "It was great to display with fellow artists and get positive reaction from the public," he says.
Here's how David describes his work and his new exhibition:
"Vibrant and figurative is the best description of my work. I often use layers of paint to give the trees in my backgrounds a new dimension. Reflecting rural life of any kind is important, putting people and wildlife in a scene can make it much more interesting."
"It has been an ambition of mine for years to be able to capture the people and history of Wantage and the Vale of the White Horse. The opportunity to use childhood memories of how places change over the years was the driving force behind this exhibition. I have sought to shed new light on the rural landscape, the towns and the open spaces that have been sculpted and preserved for generations."
"Studies of the fine Georgian buildings in the town square, White Horse Hill and the Ridgeway are all here. Also, there are two paintings that are a special tribute to the famous poet Sir John Betjeman, who lived in Wantage for many years. Enjoy!"
Diversity
An exhibition of textiles & mixed media by 'Losing the Thread'
Tuesday 27 May to Saturday 7 June 2008
10.00am to 4.00pm
'Diversity' is the title of an exciting new exhibition at the Vale & Downland Museum in late May and early June. It's presented by 'Losing the Thread', a dynamic group of textile artists. Formed in 1992, there are now 14 in the team and they have even been featured in 'Embroidery Magazine'.
Most members have trained on City & Guilds courses at Urchfront Manor Adult Education College in Wiltshire and some have had other art and textile training. Nearly all teach embroidery, either regularly or on a freelance basis, and are involved in other groups, such as The 62 Group, The Practical Study Group and the Urchfont Master Classes.
'Losing the Thread' have exhibited widely around the South of England, including The Guildhall Gallery, Winchester; the Alfred East Gallery, Kettering; Walford Mill Craft Centre, Dorset; The Corinium Museum, Cirencester; Westbury Manor Museum, Fareham; The Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford; and Bromley Central Library, Bromley.
Each member pursues their own themes and ways of working. They use mixed media, including fabric, felt, paper, wood, metal and glass to create embroideries, collages, sculpture, installations, wrappings, photographic work, paintings and drawings. There's a great chance to meet the artists and chat to them about their work at the museum on Saturday 31 May from 11.00am to 3.00pm, free of charge.
Group member Maggie Harris says, "As this exhibition title is Diversity, we hope that we have an exhibition that is diverse in thinking, materials, outcomes and skills. We sincerely hope that others will view and appreciate the exhibition for the diversity and feel sure it will also gain diverse re-actions from the public!"
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