2/01/12
Our very best wishes for 2012 to you.
Entries are starting to come in for our next exhibition, 'Looking forward', which will open on Saturday 18th February and will feature a great selection of new work from many of our favourite artists...
23/12/11
Seasonal greetings to everyone and thank you for your support in 2011 which has been a record year for gallery sales.
We remain open through Christmas and New Year during our usual winter hours...10 to 5 daily but closed on Sundays and Wednesdays so do pop in for a drink and a chat. Both the Small Picture Show 2 in the upstairs gallery and the superb exhibition of photographs by Tom Learmonth continue until Saturday 7th January at 5pm.
After that we will be taking our annual break and the gallery will be closed from 8th January to 10th February
reopening on Saturday 11th February at 10am just in time for those last minute Valentine gifts.
All the work in the gallery will remain on the walls while we are away so if there is anything that interests you, please leave a message via the 'contact us' button above and we will deal with it as soon as we return.
22/10/11
We've been a bit busy during the summer and failed to post any news but nobody has complained. Is anyone reading our news page? Please let us know if you are, otherwise we will discontinue it!
Currently we are very excited about the imminent arrival of Glenn Ibbitson's Consignment exhibition which you can see by clicking on the link on our home page.
Also some terrific work coming in for our small picture show number 2 which will all appear on the site as soon as we have them.
Hope you are all having a terrific Autumn, as we are...
Cheers for now
John and Margaret
25/6/11
This is our press release for the Andrew Douglas Forbes exhibition which opens on Friday...
we dont even have all the images yet but it will surely be alright......
Andrew Douglas-Forbes: Painter and operatic singer
(Exhibition of new paintings in Tenby)
The results of Andrew Douglas-Forbes’ two artistic careers, as a renowned and avidly collected painter and as an operatic singer, may soon both be enjoyed in Tenby. From the 1st to 28th July, his exhibition of new paintings is taking place at the White Lion Street Gallery, and he will sing at a choral evensong at St Marys Church on Saturday 9th July between 4 and 5pm.
Andrew sees his two professions as being, in essence, the same – both are concerned with communication, with harmonies and discords, and describing emotions, objects, feelings and colours. His painting is subtle and atmospheric, the objects or views he chooses to paint suggesting far more than the obvious and immediate.
He works primarily from drawings made on the spot, with particular attention to the architectural details of buildings, the peculiar mannerisms of people and variations of colour and light. The precise fine line pencil work is translated into broad brush, almost abstract painting in his huge cluttered chapel studio. Starting on a board already surfaced with random acrylic paint to provide a neutral broken ground, the painting fades into and emerges from the background.
In preparation for this exhibition Andrew has made a number of visits to Tenby, sketching both in the town and in surrounding villages wherever he could find subject matter to suit his interest. He has also drawn from his own large collection of antiques and artefacts for interior paintings in the style that have become his trademark over the years. The results - old houses, derelict cottages, dressers and chairs, faded flowers, distant views - hint at mysteries, speak of old times, forgotten stories, the past.
The exhibition of new paintings by Andrew Douglas Forbes at The White Lion Street Gallery in Tenby, opens on Friday 1st July with an opportunity to meet the artist on Saturday 2nd July from 2 to 4pm and everyone is invited. The exhibition continues until 28th July, the gallery is open from 10am till 5pm every day except Wednesday, and entrance is free.
14/5/11
The images of Penny's paintings that we are showing on the her page do not do the paintings justice at all.
They are brighter and much more vibrant on the wall so do pop in and see them if you can before it all ends on 28th June...just remember not to come on Wednesdays when we are not here.
New paintings have just arrived from Matt Forster, Peter Cronin, Graham Hadlow, Sue Pomery Wilks and
Ivan Taylor...check them out on their pages now.
21/5/11
This is the press release for the terrific new exhibition by Penny Timmis which opens next week:
Penelope Timmis; loose, lively and full of colour.
Penny Timmis will show her new collection of paintings at the White Lion Street Gallery in Tenby from 2nd June. With family living in Manorbier , Penny is a frequent visitor to Pembrokeshire, enabling her to travel the area and build up her stock of images, memories and experiences of the county. Many of her paintings are started outside in the open, as immediate responses to the view of coastline, landscape or sea she encounters. Affected by wind and weather she captures her first impressions.
She chooses not to record in an exact photographic sense, responding more to the colour, movement and pattern of what she sees. Back in her studio, the roof space of a converted chapel on the Welsh borders, surrounded by her sketches, papers, pots of paint and water, she recreates the spontaneity of her initial drawings. Working with crayons, watercolour, acrylic paint and ink she layers the mediums, often adding an unexpected flourish of line and colour, or the addition of collage.
In her exhibition she shows land and coastlines of Pembrokeshire, her native Shropshire and glimpses of her ‘other’ life as a dairy farmer with paintings of boisterous heifers and imperious poultry. Penny was born in 1956, studied art at the Froebel Institute in London and briefly in Shrewsbury before moving to Shropshire. Widowed with 4 children and a farm to run, the likelihood of developing a painting career seemed unlikely but Penny juggled her roles, sharing some of her farming duties with a neighbouring farmer, and started to paint seriously 9 years ago.
Her paintings were first showed in Tenby at Art Matters in 2004, since when she has become a regular exhibitor in prestigious galleries across the UK and at the Affordable Art Fairs. She has been elected as an associate of both the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists and the Society of Women Artists with annual shows in the Mall Galleries in London. This will be her third solo exhibition in this gallery in Tenby.
18/5/11
Andrew Douglas Forbes spent a few days with us this week sketching possible subjects for his exhibition in July.
In addition to a variety of locations in the town, we took him out to see some lovely cottages in Pembroke, Carew, Cresselly and Lampeter Velfrey. Looking forward to seeing what he will do with them....!
15/5/11
We have now sold the Ethel Harker painting of Tenby (see news 14/04/11) but will post the date that it will appear on BBC2 as soon as we know it
5/5/11
An exciting exhibition by mother and daughter Linda and Cheryl Thompson opened on Saturday with a very busy opening on Saturday and a flurry of sales. This is the press release:
From Edinburgh to Tenby and Llareggub
Linda Thompson was born and brought up in Edinburgh and moved to Pembrokeshire in 1975.
Cheryl, her daughter, was brought up in Tenby but now lives near Edinburgh with her new husband. Both have Fine Art Degrees, Cheryl from Cardiff University in 2001 and Linda from Trinity College, Carmarthen in 2007 as time allowed once the family had flown the nest. Their first exhibition together will run throughout May in Tenby. Both had their work selected in the Tenby Open Art Competition in 2008, with Cheryl winning the Pembrokeshire Young Artist Award, and have won other prizes too. Both like to take a look at their subjects from unusual angles too, but there the similarity ends...
Linda’s collection of around 30 paintings, entitled ‘A Different Point of View’, are mostly painted in acrylic with a strong use of colour, and take a refreshing look at aspects and odd corners of Tenby. Different locations are sometimes juxtaposed, familiarplaces are glimpsed through doors and curtains or reflected in windows, and aspects of Tenby’s recent history are re presented in unusual ways. ‘De la Rue’ is based around the property formerly the residence of the De la Rue family, now the Atlantic Hotel, and relates to their connections with Tenby and to horse racing and gambling.
‘Grand design with a red roof’ shows a different angle on the old lifeboat house which is currently being converted to a residence under the watchful cameras of Channel 4’s Grand Designs team, and ‘Room with a View’ is painted to show a classic view of Tenby Harbour as if reflected in a window of the former Ocean hotel.
Cheryl’s collection of 20 ‘etching like’ prints, entitled ‘Milkwood’, are based on Dylan Thomas’ ‘Under Milk Wood’. She has read the play but has not listened to, or seen, any production of it so brings a new perspective in her interpretations of the characters, often choosing the lesser known inhabitants of Llareggub....Mr Pugh is seen dunking Mrs Pugh in rat soup, Evans the Death’s Mother is busy making welsh cakes in the snow, Mr and Mrs Floyd, the cocklers, lie ‘side by wrinkled side, like two old kippers in a box’. Her influences include Ralph Steadman and Gerald Scarfe both in the sense of humour and in the excellent quality of the drawing so the contrast with her mother’s paintings couldn’t be greater.
25/4/11
To date we have sold 25 of Graham Hadlow's excellent watercolours, with only a few days left.
Another terrific sunny day in Tenby, we are so lucky.
14/04/11
BBC2 filming at Art Matters
A 1950s oil painting of Tenby in summer, bought at the Lincoln Arts and Antiques Fair this year, has been brought home. For the BBC2 programme, “Put your money where your mouth is”, presenter James Braxton selects and buys work that is likely to turn a profit and contacts potential buyers to do a deal. In this case the buyer was us.
Filming for the programme took place today in the gallery and surrounds, to show the arrival of the painting, discussion of its merits and provenance and the purchase negotiations. As the painting shows a view from The Paragon towards St Catherines and includes the bandstand, cliffs, the end of Lexden Terrace and distant coastline, filming continued in the town to compare the work with the view today. The work is typical of its time, and charming, in a painterly style in subtle colours, the beach shown with figures enjoying the sunshine, playing games, paddling and sunbathing beside a lively turquoise sea.
The artist, Ethel Harker, was listed as a member of the Liverpool Academy of Arts and showed her work at The Walker Art Gallery in the 1960s. She is mentioned in David Buckman’s “Artists in Britain since 1945” and described as ‘a versatile painter in oil and watercolour who studied at Chester School of Art and privately ... a member of the Liver Sketching Club ... exhibited at Royal Cambrian Academy and Walker Art Gallery ... lived in Heswall, Cheshire.’
James Braxton, the presenter, is a director of a string of auction houses across southern England and lives with his family in Sussex. He is well known as a television presenter and antiques expert on programmes such as ‘Bargain Hunt’ and ‘Flog It’.
Whereas the television programme will not be shown until the Autumn, the painting may be viewed in the gallery now. You are invited to come and see the painting and estimate its value.
2/04/11
Light and shadow, water and reflection: new watercolour exhibition
This exhibition opened today with a flurry of sales:
Subtle, skilful work is what characterises the paintings of Graham Hadlow. In Tenby, he shows 40 new watercolours – fresh and delicate depictions of wide land and seascapes, grand mountains and intimate images of Pembrokeshire.
Graham is a well-known figure in the county, having taught pottery and been Head of Art at Greenhill School for years, been a fisherman and champion fly-tier, and a football player, and having shown his paintings in galleries across South Wales. Now he is a full-time artist, a tutor of adult students and demonstrator to art clubs and societies in the elusive medium of watercolour. For anyone trying to control water with a brush on paper (and create something recognisable) Graham makes the process manageable for beginners and gradually introduces advanced techniques regarding light, reflections and water.
In Graham’s own paintings light is rendered precisely: strong sunlight and shadows as in Tenby Harbour; soft sunsets as in paintings of Nevern Estuary, Marloes Sands and Solva; the reflected light from snow on mountains, castles and cottages; and cool moonlight on townscapes and estuary scenes.
Water is represented in variety in Graham’s work. The still waters of the sluice in Tenby and the millpond at Carew contrast with the rushing streams of Dartmoor and at Cenarth. The sea is shown as calm, incoming or at spring tide, alongside the beaches of Newport, Fresh West and Amroth, and lapping into harbours, estuaries and pills. The inclusion of water and wet ground, mud or sand, offers the challenge to the artist of showing reflections of light, natural features, buildings and skies - easily achieved by this master and emulated by his students.
Rarely peopled, except for fishermen ‘escaping’ for the day to Amroth or Freshwater, distant boatmen and occasional farmers, the paintings have a sense of peace, however rough the sea or squally the sky. There is contentment in Graham Hadlow’s painted world. Things are shown as they are, without tricks or exaggeration, simply the artist’s touch in minute observation, clever composition and creating the mood.
25/02/11
Half term week and very busy here in Tenby despite the damp weather...at least it is mild.
Proving especially popular this week are the lovely raku pots by Neil Richardson and jewelry by Sara Lloyd Morris, both of whom were part of our Christmas exhibition in 2010 and have stayed on as regular exhibitors.
12/02/11
What a terrific week we have had! We welcome back a whole series of artists we haven't seen for a while...some for years. How lovely to see Therese James from Llanelli, David Garfield and Mies Rietveld who had a joint exhibition years ago, Paul Stokle from Whitland (but very elusive), John and Sandra Phillips who had an exhibition here a year ago and Barbara Hanley now painting (previously known as Barbara Lock the potter).
Also welcome back are Gwyn Cecil Williams, Paul Guiffrida, Stella Watras and Andy Wardrop.
Just take a look at the TEN exhibition and see what we mean.....
7/02/11
We're back from our Hols. and ready and raring to go. Our 10th anniversary exhibition is about to arrive so we are looking forward to a very busy week collecting work and getting the whole thing organised.
26/11/2010
The 'small show' is looking just great...so many lovely things, so do take a look.
Mick Morgan has just been in with a whole collection of new pottery...jugs, bowls, oven to tableware, a large bread store and so much more....not on the web yet but pop in and see it if you can.
13/11/2010
Today is the deadline for artists to submit work for the Small Picture Show and it is all very exciting as we have had superb work from around 25 artists, all priced under £300 which will be hung upstairs to open next Saturday (20th Nov) and should be on the site very soon.
21/10/2010
The news page has arrived! Yes, this is our news page where we will add all sorts of bits and pieces of news as it happens here at Art Matters HQ. Your comments are invited! Send us an email message....