A new gallery to open in Wigton

I am delighted to announce that The Fountain Gallery will open in Wigton in September 2011. It will be run by a co-operative of over a dozen local artists and craftspeople, and I am proud to be one of them!  This is a nice piece of irony for me, as, many years ago, I ran a small gallery on the opposite side of the road, down the alley called Duke Street.

"The Thorn" one of my recent paintings. Acrylics and mixed media

The gallery is named after Wigton's Memorial Fountain, built in 1872 by George Moore for his wife Eliza

Recent Paintings

 

Mike's oil portrait of the guide at the Laphroig Distillery

Watercolour version of the above

Steve Cleary by Mike

Con's Cover Design for Moon in Leo based on a photograph taken in Furness

Northern Fells Dyptich

Northern Fells

I am continuing with my semi abstract landscapes, and Mike is getting rather good at portraits.

Photos, paintings, cake and drama- what more can you ask for?

We had the most amazing day out on Friday. It is difficult to credit how much quality there is, so close to home. The day was planned just for an art exhibiton, and to see the Quondam Theatre production which we had missed when it was performed locally.

First of all we went to the preview at Red Barn Gallery, Melkinthorpe. We were both really struck by the work of two painters: Jean Laing and Robert Newton. 
We followed with a great cup of coffee and delicious (in my case gluten free) cake in the restaurant attached to the gallery and nursery. (It was gluten free because there wasn't much room in it for anything other than chocolate :-)

The play was performed ten minutes away in the lovely village of Askham, which has an excellent pub, the Queen's Head. It has a welcome second to none, and again, really delicious gluten free food. One of the owners is Tommy Martin whose exhibition of photographs we saw in his gallery just opposite the pub.

Bellies and minds well fed, we went just next door to the village hall to see the best production I have seen yet by our excellent local theatre company, Quondam.

All this- and less than 45 minutes from home.

...and the fun continues!

 Avril made a "bug hotel" for the boys when she was here. Today they started to fill the compartments with different materials they found around the garden.

In the afternoon, we went to see the Snow Queen at Up Front Gallery Puppet Theatre. The boys loved it, but so did Gran, Grandad and Auntie Kate.

Painter's Block

For two or three years now, we have been attending regular weekly art classes, run by local artist Brian Campbell. The classes run through autumn, winter, spring and early summer, roughly corresponding with school terms, but when they end in May, there is a big hole in our week. That is, until Brian's Summer School starts, and we look forward to several days of concentrated painting. There is a real luxury in setting up all your gear and not packing it away at the end of a day, because you are going back to pick up where you left off the day before. Well, we are due to start in three days, and neither of us has a clue what we want to focus on: landscape, figures, portraits, still life, abstract, drawing media- pencil, ink, chalk, pen, oils, pastels, acrylics, watercolour- mixed media! We are both hoping inspiration will come some time in the next couple of days. perhaps getting out with a sketch book is the right thing to do..... or look through old and new photos.... has anybody else got any ideas?

Welcome

Welcome to the official Trifolium blog. This is the place to see all our latest pots, paintings and jewellery and keep up to date with our other projects.