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Socially Distanced Studio 2021

Following the success of our Socially Distanced Studio 2020, we are repeating the experience for you this year! So please submit your art and we will post it  here

Welcome virtual visitor!


Come right in and feel the experience of meeting local artists

See their work, hear them talk about it, share ideas and techniques.....and be inspired!

Lindsey Kennedy

Some images of mosaic work from last year reflecting lockdown walks and inspiration from being in my garden. It was certainly an opportunity to focus on my craft practice, although only in the latter stages. As with many artists and makers it took time to adjust to the restrictions on activities. The major move of buyers and supporters to online was truly amazing. Hopefully that ethos of support and engagement will continue beyond the pandemic.

I was fortunate to be able to continue with drawing, designing and making. It was certainly an opportunity to develop some new strands of mosaic ideas.
 

Mat Brown

My pieces focus on death, decay and rebirth, and a unity of nature. I'm a massive fan of upcycling and organic themes.

The left-hand image is "Phoenix".  The right-hand image is "Starscape"

You can see more of Mat's work on his Facebook page

Bill Hammond

BIll is one of our Shrewsbury Urban Sketchers. He is in the process of creating a print based on a sketch done at Greyfriars bridge on Saturday morning (29 May) of the musicians and passers-by.  Lovely to see a work in progress

Lindley Fallon

Papier mache, paintings and ceramics which I have been making during lockdown!  My work is mainly animals as I love wildlife and the natural world. I work in watercolour and acrylic for the paintings and most paintings have been made into cards. The papier mache was a new venture.  I thought with the gloom and doom of lockdown some bright colours would be what was needed (some chickens have been sent to America too!).  I am what i would call an enthusiastic amateur - having had no training past A-level art - and that was a very long time ago! 

Morgan Bird

I am Morgan Bird (mvkpaints) these images are a portrait of my cousin and his girlfriend, with some details of the portrait, as a moving present for them.

The painting is oil on canvas and is called "Marc and Rachel: 8 Today". They are super supportive friends and this was a gift, which has not yet been delivered because of lockdown etc... I love all things paint and pigment and think oil paint in particular is a magical thing. Much of my other work uses imagery or reimaginings of past paintings, usually always portraits or figures, and I love to incorporate art history into my work; this piece uses traditional oil techniques, such as glazing and impasto to produce a contemporary but traditional piece that showcases all the things oil paint can do. I am looking to create paintings not just pictures and love the work of Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Peter Howson, Ken Currie, George Condo and Yoshitomo Nara.

I hope you enjoy looking at my painting and I welcome any feedback.

info@mvkpaints.co.uk / 07720375116.

Instagram - mvkpaints
Facebook - MVK Paints
https://mvkpaints.co.uk

John Wragg
"FOUR WORLDS WINDOW"

Media:Linoprint On Fabriano Cream Unica, 250gsm
Dims: H:29cms W:41cms
This print won the 2020 national competition, the "King Lear Prizes Chairman's Prize". I have 5 copies left for sale from the limited edition of 10.
£100 Mounted, Unframed
£120 Mounted, Framed
johnwragg.net

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Pete Fricker

Shrewsbury Glass Festival 2021

The glass displayed was hand-made in Stourbridge Glass-blowing Studio, except one or two pieces.  I have not made since 2019, but have access to the Studio and hope to make again soon.

Colour is a central feature, with glass trails, cane and shards contributing to the designs. The making process creates flowing movement in frozen time, relationships of colour and texture.  The ‘palette’ of colour and the surprise factor ensure that each is a unique piece of glass art. The magical medium of glass constantly asserts itself, introducing distortion, refraction and reflection.

   

Vessel forms provide a sculptural framework for the designs. The result can be as organic as the natural phenomena that inspired them. An interest in abstract painting is evident in some pieces. The heating and manipulation of colour resembles action painting.  Ideas often grow from the process itself and take the design in a new direction.

I studied at the International Glass Centre in Brierley Hill from 2007 and then part-time until its closure in 2009.  I was one of the last students to leave this excellent institution. An initial interest in stained glass and painting gave way to a fascination with hot glass; The immediacy and physicality of the making process is strangely addictive. Towards the end of 2010 I jointly founded Stourbridge Glassblowing Studio with three other ex-Brierley Hill students. The Studio is still run as a collective in the refurbished Ruskin Glass Centre in Amblecote, Stourbridge.  


The making process
Clear glass at 1100 degrees centigrade is gathered from the furnace by turning a blowing iron and wrapping the molten glass around the end; this is shaped using wet papers or a wooden block. Colour can be introduced at the start and added at different stages. Trails of coloured glass are applied hot to the surface of the glass while it is turned. Further gathers of clear glass build to the required size, before the piece is blown to the required size. The hot glass must be turned constantly to keep it on centre.  It is reheated regularly to maintain it at a working temperature using a reheating chamber known as a ‘glory hole’.  

After the piece has been transferred from the blowing iron to a punty iron it is reheated, the neck can then be stretched, cut and opened using tools. The finished piece is finished it is removed from the punty iron and placed in an annealing oven to cool slowly.  You can never be sure of the result until the annealing oven is opened the following day; it is a moment charged with excitement, but not without occasional disappointment.

Colour
Coloured glass is made by adding metal oxides and metal salts to a mix that consists mainly of sand (Silicon Oxide) and oxides of Sodium and Calcium; for example adding Manganese produces amethyst, Iron salts with Carbon and Sulphur give amber, and Copper Oxide results in turquoise. A piece of coloured glass can be picked up directly onto the hot iron at the beginning of the process and will lend the piece its colour as it is blown out. 
       
After gathering clear glass from the furnace, shards and frits, powders and grains may be picked up on the surface.  Hot threads and trails wrapped around the piece, and surface colours manipulated using hand tools or optic moulds.

Contact

Email: frickerpj@yahoo.co.uk / Tel: 07864832928
               
A member of the Contemporary Glass Society and the Visual Arts Network I am represented on their websites 

Jane Beesley

Originally from Yorkshire, I've "lived" in Shrewsbury since 2002. Until a few years ago I was a Humanitarian Aid worker.  I currently live in Belle Vue.

I work mainly in acrylic and mix media. Primarily exploring abstract land/seascapes. I also enjoy drawing illustrations and cartoons, using pen, watercolour and collage.

In 2020 ten of my "covid diary" cartoons were published in a book "10x10 Lockdown". With all profits going to Women's Aid.

Some of my work can be seen at The Green House Cafe, 1a Milk Street, Shrewsbury.

Instagram: @Jane.beesley

Facebook: Janebeesley and the Artful Bob

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Jeremy Keeling: Bricett Owl

A combined analogue and digital collage. It began life as cut paper pieces which were then scanned and manipulated digitally.

It features the church in the village in Suffolk where I grew up: St Mary and St Lawrence, originally a 12th century Augustinian Priory.

Available as an A2 giclée print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Ultra Smooth 310gsm paper
 

Alison Conde

I am self-taught and decided to take up acrylics in lockdown, and to my great delight, I truly love painting.

I use watercolour and also acrylics.

Maggie McKean

Pomona Grocery, Shrewsbury

Acrylic & Mixed Media / Framed / H: 68 cms x W: 57 cms / Price: £375

This painting was created in 2019 after I had seen the wonderfully picturesque frontage of the grocery shop on Castle Gates, Shrewsbury.  I thought the piled-up crates with fruit and veg on top outside the shop on the pavement were very characterful.  The painting contains elements of collage, particularly hidden messages such as:  Health, Wellbeing, Feel Great which I think sum up the ethos of buying fresh fruit and veg from such a charming grocery.     The painting has been mounted to show off the deckled edge of the thick watercolour paper which is excellent for mixed media usage.

Submitted to the 2021 Ellesmere College Open Art Exhibition Online Website

Maggie McKean

Summer View from Snailbeach Mine

          Gouache (en plein air) / Framed: H: 46 cms x W: 56 cms / Price: £350

This painting was created en plein air when joining a Sketch Club Group of friends at Snailbeach Mine.  The disused buildings of the mine were the chosen subjects to be sketched by most of the group, but I thought the view looking away from the mine was particularly summery and gorgeous for a landscape painting completed on the spot.  Although I worked in acrylics for a long time, I have more recently enjoyed the flexibility of painting with gouache and particularly enjoy painting outdoors using gouache.

Submitted to the 2021 Ellesmere College Open Art Exhibition Online Website

Maggie McKean

The Morning Post (still life)

          Gouache (currently being framed) / Price:  £350

This painting was created in February 2021 as part of an ‘at home’ module on Still Life painting tutored by Wilf Langford during the pandemic lockdown.  As students were unable to meet together at the English Bridge Workshop our artwork had to be created at home.  The subject matter in this painting was to be an assemblage of meal items.  As my home dining and kitchen spaces are severely limited I thought that a breakfast tray would provide the answer.  The title ‘The Morning Post’ refers to a letter in an envelope which sits amongst the breakfast tray objects, written to me by my sister when I was at the University of Leeds in the 1960s, and shows the address of my first year rented accommodation which I hated !  My sister found this letter recently which she had written to me from our boarding school in North Wales and we shared a real laugh over the schoolgirl language and jokes. 

To be exhibited at the 2021 Shropshire Art Society Exhibition at St. Mary’s Church, 21st June to 3rd July

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