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Wednesday 12 October 2011

Nottingham Castle Open 2011

Went along to the Nottingham Castle Annual Open today. I felt very inspired by the work on show! There was a real contrast of quality work this year and I have included a selection of the pieces I enjoyed (and have found image and web/blog links to!!) on this page.

Firstly, Anna Collette Hunt (winner of the 2010 Open) and her installation Stirring The Swarm was fantastic! 10,000 beautiful handmade ceramic insects spiraled up and over the walls of the foyer stairs...it got me very excited for my mould-making project tomorrow!

image by Julien Marcetteau
I loved this paper piece Eyjafjallajokull by Mark Robert Beecroft. Hand printed paper, scored and folded to create an interesting surface pattern 

Eyjafjallajokull from rogue artists studio

I found the ceramic pieces Urban Decay by Steve Leaning very interesting, especially after watching Ceramics: A Fragile History on BBC4 the other night.
Urban Decay from arts duck
Kyle Hands gloss paint pieces were really delicate looking but loaded with layers. I liked the use of this somewhat nondescript/everyday material too
Painting No. 39 from Kyle Hands
 Laura McCafferty was exhibiting, who actually came into uni yesterday to give a tutorial! She shared a great quote about drawing, "it is the space between real life and imagination.." and that whenever she gets stuck or is experiencing a sense of drawing-block she reaches for the Pedagogical Sketchbook. I took it out from the library and am planning some sketching with it over the next few weeks!

Maggie Fowler from lauramccafferty.com
Melanie Page had some beautiful drawings on display. Delicate and intricate mark making, just lovely! I particularly liked her use of colour in the piece A Very Scientific Moment.

http://melaniepagedrawing.blogspot.com/
I was very taken by the collage and mixed media pieces of Christine Reynolds scratching, layering and surface manipulation - love it!

A Chance Encounter Etched into Significance from christinereynolds
The pieces by Thomas Darby reminded me that I have seen a lot of this type of collage recently. I quite like it, the cutting away to reveal, the juxtapositioning, the use of redundant old photograph/image given a new depth of interest with what's used underneath

from thomasdarby/cut
George Hardy had some large scale portraits in ball point pen. It was the intricate and painstaking mark making that impressed me most with these 

 http://lincolnschoolofartanddesign.blogspot.com/2011/09/ma-fine-art-graduate-shows-at.html
After yesterday's introduction to Colour I was very much drawn to the painting Not a Stag Party by Jackie Berridge...I really loved the blue!


I also liked the figures and composition in the pieces Watch The Bride and Bunny Island

Watch The Bride
Bunny Island
Donya Coward also had some work on show. I loved her work at the Harley Gallery and it was nice to see some larger work here too

http://www.donyacoward.co.uk/gallery.html


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