25 - 29 October 10 - 4.30 with an evening viewing on Tuesday 5.30 - 8.30 and extended opening on Thursday until 7.30
I always have butterflies in my tummy in the run-up to an exhibition. It's partly lack of sleep and the stress of having too much to do, but it's also the excitement of seeing how the exhibition comes together: how artists who have exhibited here before have developed and also what new subjects, media, and techniques are represented. There is of course the challenge of bringing it all together – a wonderful mixture of different skills and styles that still work as a professional and attractive whole. I think I’ve managed this before, so I’m waiting for the comments for this year’s visitors – but yes I’m excited to present all these different artists!
Our stewards for Tuesday are both new to this venue: Laura Dutton and Jo Rockley.
Laura makes her glass pieces using a glass kiln casting process and sometimes lamp-worked glass. She is also a printmaker and has a fine art degree from UWE, where she specialised in printmaking.
Her pieces are inspired by natural forms, materials, and images. This includes fungi, slime moulds (her favourites!), lichen, plants, seed heads, bark, seaweed and shells and geology and she explores the spaces between perceived opposites, such as beauty/ ugliness, science/ magic, perfection/ imperfection, order and disorder.
The names of her pieces are fascinating: I confess I had no idea of the different names for different kinds of glass making, not the taxonomy of her different subjects. Do come and talk to her about her processes tomorrow, if you can.
Jo Rockley creates all her work from layered paper and cards, cut with a scalpel and put together to produce some striking images with very different colour palettes and subjects: people, animals and places. The likenesses she creates in this style are remarkable. Fans of Dr Who – in many different incarnations and old film stars should certainly check them out and I can see why she is commissioned to produce really original family and pet portraits. You will be able to talk to Jo on Tuesday about how and why she creates work in this way, but her work will be here all week. A scalpel artist is certainly a first for my exhibitions at PAC!
Do come and see these two artists - and the other equally interested artist. I'll be featuring as many as I can in the coming days.
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