Art and Textiles in Yorkshire

Saturday was one of the wet days – in a ‘maybe we should build an ark?’ way – torrential rain, grey skies, strong winds – British Summer at its ‘finest’! So I took the opportunity to go and see an exhibition and to check out a possible future event to take part in   – both in Yorkshire !

Exhibition – The 62 Group

Always inspiring, an exhibition by the 62 Group never fails to get me thinking. The work of some of the group is on display at the wonderful Sunny Bank Mills Gallery in Farsley, near Leeds. The Gallery itself was fabulous (there’s a little cafe and a shop selling gorgeous things too – hello Michele Daykin, Charlotte Whitmore     both fantastic jewellers! ) The Mill closed in 2008 but now the buildings are used by small and creative businesses – there’s a fantastic Scrap Store that’s open to the public – it has everything from shuttlecocks to fabric sample books, and there’s an eco store inside too!

Back to the textile art. Wonderful pieces by Dawn Dupree, Jeanette Appleton, Hannah Lamb, Caroline Bartlett and more. Showing textile print, stitch, assemblage, appliqué. The interpretations of the title were individual. So the work is brilliantly varied. Some artists were inspired by the mill itself – it used to make military fabrics I think, so Nigel Cheney‘s piece ‘Whortleberry Blue’ seem very apt. Debbie Lyddon‘s piece seemed very at home against the colour of the mill floor.

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After the exhibition, it was a very rainy drive over to Skipton, North Yorkshire for a look at Art in The Pen

An art fair take over of an animal auction mart – fantastic! Each artist/maker gets a pen which they then ‘dress’ to become their own unique gallery space for the 2 day event.

There were over 200 artists selling work from a few pounds to thousands. There were jewellers, (hello Magnolia Restrepo ! Stunning jewellry combining precious metals and gemstones – so delicate and detailed) ceramicists, painters, print makers, textile artists, metal workers, wood carvers and more. I saw some familiar faces (hello Ceri at Oakwood Soaperie ! gorgeous hand made soaps and wonderful new ecoprinted range of textiles) from the North East and found some new art to love (hello Liz Salter beautiful paintings and sketchbook work so evocative of the weather and landscapes of Northern hills).

 

I was supposed to be wandering around with my work head on but my art lover’s heart kept interupting. My dear pal KPH got some good practical suggestions in – looking at how participants had made their 3 x 2m stands into gorgeous temporary galleries – and she got some shopping done too 🙂 I had asked the family present to check things out but the junior artist got distracted by the Art Shop on site – think that one’s going to be a portrait artist!  Whilst the team driver was too overcome by the meat pie and mushy peas he got in the cafe!

It did look like a very well organised event, and I will definitely add it to my list of applications!