This exhibition features our talented and renowned artist Hugh Dunford Wood - Don’t miss out!  Make a date in your diary folks!!

Our talented resident artist Favell Bevan-Arti will be exhibiting her latest work with fellow artist Cathy Osbond.

The exhibition runs 26^th May – 10^th June. Open every day 11 am – 5 pm.

Our resident artist Vincent Blackwell is busy working on some very interesting art right now! His approach is aimed at a complete original abstract style that has never been embraced before. 

Here at West Country Galleries, we feel that Vincent’s work is truly the prerogative of a talented artist. In creating such stunning shots in his line of abstract photography, is an acquaintance of great imagination and a scientific bent of mind. The results speak for themselves…….using creative powers to over spill capacity.

Click on Vincent’s gallery page to view his popular abstract paintings and photography.

Renowned resident artist Ahrabella Heabe Lewis is once again participating in the Site Festival 2012 Open Studios. An annual artist led arts festival with  approximately 70 artists from the Stroud area opening their studios to the public. Ahrabella’s studio is on Route 2 and her entry is on Page 14 in the  Open Studios Directory. Her studio will be open on these two weekends:- 

Weekend One -Saturday 12th May  11am to 6pm

                           Sunday  13th May   11am to 6pm 

 And 

Weekend Two -Saturday 19th May 11am to 6pm 

                            Sunday 20th May  11am to 6pm 

A selection of her characteristic bright colourful circular themed paintings, cards  and examples of  recent photographs will be on display. 

Ahrabella Heabe (Lewis)  

Kelmscott 

Church End 

Hampton Green 

Box Stroud 

GL6 9AD

Please ring for directions if needed -  01453 882939       

Ahrabella Heabe Lewis - Art to Inspire 

“Art is one of the sources through which the soul expresses itself and inspires others.. ” Meher Baba

Website:Ahrabella Heabe Lewis 
Facebook Art Page:Art from the Heart - Ahrabella Heabe Lewis 

Flickr : Art is life playing to other rhythms

Blog : Ahrabella Heabe Lewis Art 2 Inspire

Twitter ;Ahrabella H Lewis@artistAhrabella 

Telephone: 01453 882939

Mobile: 0777 99 88 210 

Diamond Dawn - by renowned artist Dick Twinney

Footbridge Field, below Tregaswith, St. Columb, Cornwall.

This Cornish landscape portrait of pheasants has been especially painted to  mark our Queen’s Diamond Jubilee (60 years) as she is the Patron of  the Royal Agricultural Benevolant  Institution one of the charities I am supporting this year through my art.

One of the things that has always fascinated me when out in the countryside during the winter months is the way frost appears on plants and leaves, delicately edging the foliage with diamond- like crystals of glistening white which is even more enhanced once the sun rises.

I have used this natural beauty in my artwork before so, as I wished to use the word diamond in this painting’s title, I have again incorporated frost in this portrait of pheasants leaving their night-time roosts and starting scratching the frozen ground for anything edible. This is a sight I have seen on many occasions  being somewhere I visit regularly, usually two or three times a week, as it is just a short distance from my Studio.

Diamond Dawn has been a pleasure to work on and I am delighted with the end result.  It will always remind me just how lucky and indeed privileged I am to be able to spend so much time in these special places plus the added job satisfaction that the painting will also,  in a small way, support and help, via the RABI, others who live and work in the countryside who have unfortunately fallen on difficult times.

Article by: Dick Twinney

Image by resident artist: Hugh Dunford-Wood

Artists Hugh Dunford Wood and Ian Dicks will show how they use digital media in and outside the studio, and demonstrate its versatility to the artist.

They believe there is misunderstanding among many artists around this new medium, despite the much discussed iPad landscapes that Hockney has recently painted.

In five years time most artists will have a digital side to their work, much as musicians have today, and its uses and possibilities will only multiply.

Do you want to be in the vanguard of arts practice? Come and learn more.

Friday 27 April 2012, 7.30pm

Bridport Arts Centre - Tickets £5

To book call 01308 424204

www.bridport-arts.com

If you have images you have made digitally, see how they look projecterd in the Arts Centre windows after the talk.            

For more info contact exhibitions@bridport-arts.com

In five or ten years time, most artists will be using some electronic media,
as part of their practice, just as musicians and photographers do today.

Some of you missed the talks at Little Place and at the Chelsea Arts Club.
There will be a fourth talk at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen in Bovey Tracy
on Thursday 5 July at 6.30.

Book through the Bridport Arts Centre.

See you there!

Article by resident artist Hugh Dunford Wood

To be shown at on the big screen at Little Place, Silver Street, DT7 3HR

At 7.00 for 7.30 on Wednesday 2 May 2012

This is pure indulgence.  A night of celluloid Robyn Hitchcock, the great surrealist singer-songwriter first seen in Lyme Regis two years ago: ‘Awesomely mundane’  (The Independent) 
‘Scandalously talented’  (Sunday Times) 
‘Bleeding marvellous’  (NME) 
‘Makes little sense’  (Luton News) 

Robyn Hitchcock is coming to give another sell-out concert with the poet John Hegley on 5 May as part of the celebrations to launch the Jurassic Coast Earth Festival 2012, part of the Cultural Olympiad 2012. 
‘Silhouetted like tiny hieroglyphs against the flaming horizon, Hitchcock and Hegley will unpack their music, humour, and philosophy in the Marine 
Theatre, Lyme Regis, as chilly spring grazes the eternal coast.’ 

See news of many other events on www.earthfestival2012.org A Celebration of England’s only A Celebration of England’s only natural World Heritage Site

Jonathan Demme’s Storefront Hitchcock (1997)
“Rock-music lover and feature-film director Jonathan Demme takes on eccentric British singer-songwriter, Robyn Hitchcock, in an ambitious concert film. Setting up a stage in a New York storefront, Hitchcock plays with his back to the glass, while an audience looks on inside and passersby view the action through the window; it’s not much different from what happens at a live Hitchcock show,  aside from the window. In his clear voice, Hitchcock preambles his songs with explanations so long they are like mini-films themselves; he even rambles about his practice of rambling! Delivered with Hitchcock’s unnerving deadpan wit and complex guitarwork, after over an hour of pure music and plenty of close-ups, it’s unclear what Demme was after — to convert the world into Hitchcock fans, or to reveal a man behind the madcap moods and masks he dons throughout his performances? ~ Denise Sullivan, Rovi” 

Sex, Food, Death and Insects (2008) but that features band collaborations- inc Peter Buck from REM, Nick Lowe and John Paul Jones of Led Zep. That’s an hour long. 
“Legendary underground cult artist Robyn Hitchcock reveals his creative process as never before. This Sundance Channel Original Production chronicles the origins of a forthcoming album (featuring 8 brand new songs), the formation of his band The Venus 3, and their U.S. tour. Famed for his twisted rock lyrics that are at once blithe, scathing and deep, Hitchcock is one of England‘s most influential songwriters and performers with a body of work spanning over 20 albums and three decades. Joined in music and conversation by friends and bandmates like, Peter Buck & Bill Rieflin of R.E.M., Scott McCaughey from Young Fresh Fellows, Chris Ballew from The Presidents Of The United States, John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin, and Nick Lowe, Robyn lets loose his creative genius in a free-flowing musical interview that gives us an unprecedented glimpse into his mind and craft.

To avoid disappointment email Hugh in order to book your seat as we can only
seat 20 and that’s a squeeze. Please do not come earlier than 7pm – it disturbs my family.

Bring a friend or two and £5 contribution please for a ringside seat and a
glass of wine or two to aid discussion by the log fire afterwards.  And
please let us hear your views on the subjects screened.  Feedback and lively
craic is invited and encouraged.  It helps me plan what to show next. Do you want films also on musicians?

I look forward to seeing you! 

Article by resident artist Hugh Dunford Wood