Art Galleries are great but they can sometimes feel a little impersonal - you are one step removed from the artists themselves. And, of course, there is a premium for buying via a dealer rather than getting the works straight from the source.
On the other hand, art by semi professional or amateur artists can be of varying quality and the 'selection process' that galleries carry out mean that you have already had some form of quality filter already applied - as long as your taste is the same as that of the curator.
I like to think of art exhibitions as exhibitions first - no obligation to buy and primarily a chance to see a wide range of materials and subjects and to meet some of the people who made them. The Rotary Club exhibition is handily located at the Holiday Inn near Abbey End in Kenilworth. This year's exhibition runs from the 3rd to 5th of June and it is well worth a visit.
There are exhibits of work from local schools and clubs - mainly drawings and paintings. There are also plenty of works on display from established artists and also some new names to me from the Kenilworth area - a sign that creativity is alive and well and that the next generation are on the way too. For a relatively small exhibition there is a wide variety of technique on display - painting on silk, watercolour, acrylic, oil, different printing techniques, photography, pottery, felting, woodwork.
This striking acrylic on canvas "Girl at Rockpool" by Steve Robinson caught my eye. It's quite a large painting and I loved the spare painting style with large blocks of colour that come together beautifully. The lack of detail in some areas really balances the painting and the composition makes it work. The bottom third of the painting works well for me to show the depth of the pool, the reflection and some foreground detail too. This image pops well in the room despite the average lighting in what must be the hotel's banqueting suite. A real bargain at £240 framed and the star of the show for me.
I also was drawn to this acrylic on paper - "Wood For The Trees" by Kevin Alexander. I like Kevin's paintings because from a distance you know what the subject is but the closer you get the more the image breaks up into scratches, scrapes, flashes of unexpected colour and textures. This quite small painting is also a quite simple subject - a stand of trees in a woodland that is brought to life purely by the way it is handled as a painting. This is a subject that I can't ever imagine working as a photograph. The painting is for sale for just £195 framed.
There is quite a lot of reflection on this photo - a challenge with the lighting. This is a linocut print of Green Park tube station by Gary Eite. Gary is a former contestant on Sky Arts' Landscape Artist of the Year and he specialises in studies of industrial architecture. For me the things that stand out are the strong structural perspective lines and the bold limited palette. I also really like the choice of the tube map red.
This untitled piece by Jan Norrish is created using, I assume, fluid acrylic paint on canvas. I'm drawn to the clear individual strong colours in fractal-type details and the little strands of yellow against dark in the top left and bottom centre of the painting. You can interpret it how you like - fireworks/galaxies/flowers? Some work better than others in my opinion but that is the beauty of art - it is subjective and wonderfully personal. This canvas is for sale for £50.
Jim Elliott has a table of wonderfully organic and tactile pottery with natural colour glazes all at very reasonable prices and Jacqui Smithson's felting bowls and bags are bright and affordable (she'll be demonstrating the technique over the weekend too)
Visiting a local art exhibition is about taking some time to evaluate what you see - what do you like or not like about each, what do you think the artist was trying to do? It can be hard to trust your own judgement over the art critics and the price tag. One of my worst experiences in an art gallery was seeing the enormous crowds standing ten deep in the Louvre to catch a glimpse of the Mona Lisa and ignoring the incredible masterpieces all around them in the same room. The most expensive art is not unarguably the 'best' and neither is the best-known artist necessarily the most skilled.
You don't have to buy, and you aren't expected to, but I am sure the artists there would love to meet you, and hear your constructive opinions about their art. Feedback is one of the reasons they contribute to these shows and take the time to man them.
If you do buy in my opinion it is worth remembering that pieces of art are a luxury and it is very unlikely that anything you buy is going to appreciate in value significantly through ownership - but then the same is true of the flat screen TV, hifi, expensive wallpaper and anything else that you buy to entertain yourself or please your eye at home. There is something special about having something in your home that resonates with you and that has been made by the hand of someone who really caress about it. Art also makes a wonderful gift and there are things here for all pockets. It is equally true that the hours and passion that go into making these pieces of art is not reflected in the price being charged - they really are labours of love.
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