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FROM ROCKEN END TO BINNEL

Pots by Molly Attrill  /  Paintings and Drawings by Bridget Macdonald

This exhibition opens on Saturday, 8 April and runs until 1 May, 2017 in The Clayden Gallery at Quay Arts, Newport Harbour, Isle of Wight

This is the first time my sister, who is a potter,  and I have shown our work together.  We have chosen to focus on the small stretch of coastline on the Southern tip of the Isle of Wight where we were born and where Molly still lives.  She has her studio at Binnel, near Ventnor, and here she uses the inherent characteristics of different clays, glazes, oxides and firing schedules to make her pots.  Decoration is based on observational sketches, using techniques including brushwork, wax resist and sgraffito.

I shall show new lighthouse paintings and a sequence of tiny ink drawings (4 x 6 ins) which are as much about memory as the present day.  These refer to William Blake’s wood engravings for Thornton’s edition of Virgil, which Samuel Palmer called “visions of little dells, nooks, and corners of Paradise”.

 

Pine Tree
Magpie
Binnel Point

 

 

 

 

 

A visit to Wolverhampton Art Gallery

Today I went to Wolverhampton Art Gallery to see their small exhibition ‘Art and Writing’, which includes my 1990 drawing Rosmersholm.  This was acquired by WAG in 1991 and is based on the play of the same name by Ibsen.  I was interested to see the work again and pleased to find it in good company, alongside etchings by Ana Maria Pacheco and Paula Rego.

The charcoal drawing dates from a phase when I worked more closely from literary sources than I do at the moment.  I was also at that time very interested in the figure and in suggesting psychological tensions between figures, without resorting to direct illustration of the text.

The exhibition runs until February 5th and precedes a literary festival in the city.

I also had the chance for a second look at Rosemary Terry’s exhibition ‘The Projected Kitchen’, which runs until February 12th.  This is an installation of sculptures carved in wood, which takes every day kitchen objects and plays with ideas of scale, and two and three dimensionality.  It is a beautiful, quiet and contemplative show.  Rosemary is an old friend from my ten years at the Eagle Works in Wolverhampton, a well known group studio situated in a 19th century factory building, which has been going strong for over 30 years.

So, a worthwhile trip and it was nice to be back in Wolves again.

 

26th January, 2017

 

 

 

 

To all visitors

Having my own website is a new departure for me and I hope you will enjoy looking through it and will revisit often.  I shall give information on forthcoming exhibitions on this page along with relevant information on new work, projects and activities in the studio.

Do please use the Contact page to email me – I would welcome feedback.  You can also still get in touch with Art First via the link provided.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Bridget Macdonald