Tag: Juan Moore

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Isle of Man Art News – 25 September 2017

If there’s one thing I love to do at weekends (besides having a very indulgent lie-in), it’s going to exhibition previews. Some are better attended than others and Eileen Schaer’s private view yesterday at the House of Manannan was one of the best I’ve been to this year. There was a great turn out with lots of familiar faces from all facets of the creative industries spectrum. Previews are always a great opportunity for me to catch up with people I haven’t seen in a while – I had a chat with Eben Carswell from Studio 42 in Port St. Mary who was in fine form and looking forward to announcing his next show at the gallery; John Caley took my mug shot; I shared my latest radio bloopers with Sarah Hendy; got the low down on the Affordable Art Fair in Bristol from Kate Jerry; said a quick hello to Sally Black and Claire McMahon and had a Creative Network update from Myra Gilbert just to mention a few of the people there.

Of course I also had the chance to congratulate Eileen on a wonderful show, and wonderful it is. Her enchanting style looks deceptively childlike but on closer inspection the attention to detail is quite something. I was really pleased to see so many red dots – indicating sold – but was not at all surprised. If like me you’re also a fan of Eileen’s work there were still a few pieces available but you will need to get your skates on as I think it might be a sell out show. Open to the public from tomorrow until 19th November, do make sure you make a special visit to see this gorgeous exhibition. Click on the pictures to view them in the lightbox.

 

There’s another preview coming up next weekend which is likely to be equally popular. Jeremy Paul, perhaps one of our best known local artists, opens his new show at The Isle Gallery on Sunday 1st October 2.00pm – 5.00pm. “Wildlife – An Artist’s View” celebrates nature in all its glory with Jeremy’s incredibly lifelike portrayal of wildlife from across the globe. From the Ranthambhore Tiger to Local Barn Owls & the Arctic Polar Bear, Jeremy presents over 30 new works depicting creatures small and large from Africa, Costa Rica, the Arctic and the Isle of Man.

Category winner of the BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year, and select finalist for the David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year 2016 and 2017 and recipient of a British Wildlife Award, Jeremy Paul exhibits worldwide, achieving international acclaim. “My aim as a wildlife artist is not merely to illustrate but to impart the atmosphere of the setting and the feel of the wildlife in its natural environment. I spend many hours in the field observing wildlife and looking for settings and lighting to inspire an idea for a painting.” 

This exhibition has been kindly supported by Blackford Financial Services, the Isle of Man Arts Council and Culture Vannin and runs from Tuesday 3rd October – Sunday 12th November.

Manos Kalamenios, a former student of the Isle of Man College (as it was known at the time), is doing amazingly well in the UK. He posted up this week that it’s been 5 months since his participation at Ceramic Art London and that lots of things have happened since then. Notably he’s taking part in two major shows in the UK – the London Design Festival at Tent London which was on over this weekend and closed yesterday, and also the British Ceramic Biennial in Stoke on Trent as part of FRESH exhibition which is on between 23rd September – 5th November 2017. So congratulations to him and if you’re in Stoke on Trent do go and have a look at his work – it’s really something special. Here are a few examples of his work.

I’ve noticed Sam Maiden’s work popping up on the internet recently and thought I would share this lovely series of photos with you of one of my favourite structures, Queen’s Pier in Ramsey. I think you’ll agree they are rather lovely. I’m so delighted that restoration work is underway but obviously it’s going to take a lot of time, money and expertise. If you would like to help the Queen’s Pier Restoration Trust they have a Facebook page you can follow where they sometimes post up requests for help by people with particular skills and they also have a great website where you can get lots of additional info and Donate.

News Shorts

There’s a new exhibition opening at the Manx Museum on 7th October, exploring the beauty of Manx Tholtans.  The show focuses on these fascinating buildings through the eyes of Manx photographer, Ray Kelly and multi-media artist, Niamh Kelly. Ray has now produced a second photographic volume of these lovely old ruins. I saw some of Niamh’s ceramic work earlier this year at the Hodgson Loom gallery in their annual exhibition, which this year had the theme of ‘Time’. Niamh won the Ceramic category and was runner up overall, so I’m sure we can look forward to seeing some more of her wonderful pieces.

Dates for your Diary

 

On now until 8 October; Isle of Man Society of Architects at The Sayle Gallery

On now until 30 September; “Views, Vistas & Studies” at the Hodgson Loom Gallery

Opening today, 25 September; ‘Painted Dreams’ by Eileen Schaer a the House of Manannan, Peel

Opening 1 October – 12 November; ‘Wildlife – an Artist’s View” – Jeremy Paul at The Isle Gallery

7 October – 27 January 2018; Manx Tholtans at the Manx Museum – Ray Kelly and Niamh Kelly

7 – 28 October – All things Loaghtan at the Hodgson Loom Gallery in conjunction with the 7th North Atlantic Sheep Conference

12-15 October – 7th North Atlantic Native Sheep and Wool Conference. For full details go to viking-sheep.org

 13 October – Arts, Craft and Demonstration Fayre at The Working Men’s Institute in Laxey – 11.00am – 9.00pm

 

Here’s this week’s round up of images from Social Media. Click on the pictures to view.

 

 

Please remember to Share this post via your social media to help get the word out about our fabulous local Artists.

Have a great week!

Jane x

PS There will not be a news post next week as I’m having a day off! xx

 

Keep up-to-date by ‘Liking’ the Facebook Page or by ‘Following’ me on Linkedin or Twitter@manxart or Instagram @manxartdirectory or Pinterest. To get in touch please email: graceandhall@gmail.com

 

 

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Isle of Man Art News – 29 May 2017

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Click here to support the Joey Dunlop Foundation

Gosh it’s all so busy at the moment! Last week the amazing Roger Dean opened his new show at The Sayle Gallery on Tuesday evening with a private viewing which went extremely well, followed on Wednesday by the fabulous Islexpo event with the Pecha Kucha’s kicking off the evening followed by Roger talking about his architecture in the Garden Hub. Unfortunately I missed the Pecha Kucha’s being otherwise engaged but I’m delighted to report that they were filmed and are going to be loaded up on to the Douglas page on the Pecha Kucha website shortly which you can find HERE. I’m really looking forward to seeing them. 

Private Viewing at The Sayle Gallery last Tuesday – with thanks to Dave Armstrong for the photos.

Roger’s ‘fireside chat’ with two times BAFTA winner and long time friend, Dave Mousley, centered on his architectural designs which are currently being considered for Knebworth and the Peak District. They’ll be absolutely amazing if/when they go ahead and real holiday and short break ‘destinations’. It would be fantastic to have something like that here don’t you think? There was a really good turnout and I heard a number of people saying that this was the first they knew about this aspect of his work so I think the different content went down very well. There were plenty of questions from the audience at any rate. The only thing missing was the ‘fireside’ and being dressed for the day rather than the evening having set out from the house in the sunshine earlier that morning I was nearly blue with cold by the time I was ready for home! Roger fortunately managed to escape Manannan’s cloak on Thursday morning to head back to the UK and I then spent a very relaxed few hours enjoying the second day of Islexpo, going from one extreme to the other with the sun soon burning through the clouds and leaving me with a rather pink schnozzle and a roasted left arm.

It was great to see so many people at the Villa and the sunshine was really helpful in showcasing the Island at its best. It was evident from a show of hands during one of the presentations that there were a good number of people who had traveled to the island especially for the event. I spoke to a lawyer from Liverpool who was thinking of relocating his back office here and an HR agent from Dublin who was hoping to be able to provide candidates to island businesses to give just a couple of examples. Inward investment, diversification and increasing our population with skilled workers into areas such as art, music and media will be key to the success of the Island as the changes on the horizon draw ever closer and challenge our status quo. Events like Islexpo are great for bringing out the local business community to help sell the benefits of island life so I think congratulations to Sam Jones, Kate Brier, Alex Wilson and loads of others at DED for putting on such a great conference are well deserved. 

I’ve kept back a few of the Yes logo’s which went into the delegate bags. If you’d like to win a set autographed by Roger, head over to the Directory’s Facebook page and Share the Event pinned to the top of the page and leave a comment (such as Yes!) so that I know you’re in it to win it. I’ll pick the winner at random on Senior Race Day.

As well as dashing around arranging private viewings and Islexpo doings I was also delighted to be invited to Ramsey Grammar School’s arts evening and was not at all surprised to see the quality of the work there, as we really do have some great talent here on the Island. I did mention RGS in last week’s post but ran out of time to do it justice, so here are a few of my photos from the evening. It was nice to see that Annette Baker, the headteacher, had also participated! Well done to all, it was a really good display of work. You can click on any of the pictures in these news posts to see them in the lightbox.

The very talented Sally Black has recently posted up some pictures of her new work which I absolutely love! They are really quirky and I can see these doing really well as fabric designs. I don’t know what plans she has for them but don’t forget that you can find Sally and lots of other Artists’ contact details through the Directory pages.

Juan Moore has devised a short survey about his work and where to take it. You’d be really helping him out if you could kindly spend a minute or two to complete it and you might even win one of his prints. Any excuse to post up one of Juan’s pics 😉   Click here for the link to the Survey.

There’s a new show on at the Hodgson Loom Gallery including a land speed record holding motorbike (goodness only knows how Julia managed to get it up there – she said it involved men and planks). It’s a show designed to delight our TT visitors with photos and artwork around the TT event (actually that’s a point, am I actually allowed to mention the TT or do I have to apply for permission to use it in my news?). After this show there’s the Manx Cancer Help event – if you haven’t got your canvas in already please deliver it asap to MCH headquarters in Tromode, the Sayle Gallery, Celtic Gold in Peel or the Hodgson Loom Gallery. More details to follow on that one.

On the subject of the TT, I don’t normally dip into media but I thought it worth mentioning ‘3 Wheeling’ which has been produced by Santon based Chris Beauman. It was filmed during last year’s TT and the clue is in the title – it’s about the sidecars rather than the bikes. Whilst I haven’t been to see it yet I’ve heard it’s superb and will get your adrenaline racing. It’s on twice daily at the Broadway Cinema at 12:00 noon and 21:30 through until 8th June.

Here’s this week’s round up of images from Social Media – enjoy!

 

Dates for your Diary

 

31 May – Sarah Hendy’s arts show ‘Spotlight’ on Manx Radio, 5.30 – 6.00pm (and every Wednesday)

On now– REM-EMBERS EMBLAZONED – David Maddrell at Studio 42 (and lots of other lovely work too…)

On now – Hodgson Loom Gallery – ‘Salty Wheels’ and Fottofinders TT exhibition.

On now until 10 September –  “This is Summer” exhibition at the House of Manannan

On now and throughout the TT period –  ‘Thirty-Seven and Three Quarters’ – photographic exhibition by James Marvin at The Sayle Gallery; and
24 May – 15 June Roger Dean’s paintings at The Sayle

On now – ‘Catch and Release’ at the Isle Gallery – Nick Barlow and Julie Roberts

15 June – First Meeting of the Isle of Man Drawing Club, 6.30 pm at the British Hotel, North Quay, Douglas

15 June – Start of Paul Parker’s Water Colour Landscape Painting Course at Thie Ellyn

21 June – The Isle Gallery: Lino Block Printmaking One Day Adult Art Workshop, 10.00am – 4.00pm

 

That’s it for this week folks. Have a great and safe Practice Week and TT!

Jane x

Keep up-to-date by ‘Liking’ the Facebook Page or by ‘Following’ me on Linkedin or Twitter@manxart or Instagram @manxartdirectory or Pinterest. To get in touch please email:jane@graceandhall.com

 

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Isle of Man Art News – 27 February 2017

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The News is kindly Supported by the Isle of Man Arts Council.

 

Wow! Talk about raising the bar. What an exciting show at The Sayle. I was at the preview on Friday evening and was really impressed with how cosmopolitan it feels. 

When I called into the gallery last Wednesday it was in the process of being transformed. A wall had been built cordoning off around a third of the space which now hosts the Mark Wallinger exhibit but it still had to be clad in black fabric and the plinth that displays Kevin Atherton’s work had not even been started. I’ve no idea how they managed to pull it all off by Friday evening but they did and it’s been well worth the effort. The gallery would certainly stand up to scrutiny by any art professional and indeed, Michael Sandle RA, who I had the pleasure of being introduced to on Friday, was very happy to see the gallery fulfilling its remit.

 

 

I talked to Kevin Atherton for a few minutes about his work ‘Log’ which he made originally in 1981 and has now animated as ‘Log II’. It’s a series of sketches documenting his boat journey from the Isle of Man to Liverpool and was originally shown in Liverpool. He told me that he had thought about exhibiting it there again but feels that it’s more relevant to people who live on the Island and that he thinks they were more likely to understand it.

At the beginning of the series you can see the lifeboat station and the Tower of Refuge, then as you progress through the pages many of them turn to simple lines representing the horizon, some with seagulls. On average each sketch took 17 seconds to do and over the course of the 4 hour journey this translates to over 800 pages. As you  get towards the end of the journey the sketches capture the change in horizon and the Liverpool shoreline. I think if you were to look at this work without understanding it you would likely be critical. Indeed the original work has graffiti on it such as “6/10” which Kevin has addressed in his animation rather than removing it from the original pages.

When you visit the gallery do pick up the information sheet about the different exhibits as you will get so much more from the show if you take a few minutes to read through it. 

I asked Helen Fox, curator the show, a few questions just before the preview opened. Apologies for the background noise – people were starting to arrive as I recorded this. I’ve since ordered a tripod for my camera as my arms were aching trying to hold the camera still – and I need to do something about sorting the sound out too! It’s all a bit of a learning curve so please bear with me.

 

 

I also talked to Keith McIntyre briefly about his work (as it was getting quite busy and noisy by then) and managed to record just about the whole thing out of focus, and wobbly due to not knowing how to use my camera properly and the lack of a tripod, but it’s still interesting to hear what he says about his work.

 

Here are a few more photo’s, taken by someone who is obviously eminently more competent with a camera than me!  (As with all the photos you can click to view them in the lightbox).

It’s a great show and is on until 26th March so you’ve got a whole month to go and see it – don’t miss it because this could well be the best show of 2017.

 

 Julia Smyth and Nicola Dixon were finally able to reveal their latest commissions for the new mental health unit at Manannan Court which is due to open in March. The original works have been blown up in size to create these fabulous focal points. Julia’s ‘Road Map to Recovery’ is surrounded by works of the patients from the unit and her own lovely personality shines through – I love the road marker that says ‘Unexpected Hug’.


Nicola Dixon had a challenge on her hands as she usually works fairly small and was given a colour palette to work to, but she’s done a fantastic job I’m sure you’ll agree. As with Julia’s work, the picture has been enlarged for the reception area. It’s actually several pieces in one as the four corner pictures depict the names of the different suites – ‘Harbour’, ‘Glen’, ‘River’ and ‘Spring’ – although the ‘Spring’ suite has not yet been designed. They have been used on the signage around the building. Well done to both of them – and also to Simon Park who I believe has ‘a wonderfully serene wall in one of the lounges’, although I don’t have a picture of that to share with you as yet.

 
  

 
   

The Department of Economic Development has launched a new creative industries booklet. The booklet titled ‘Build a Career in the Creative Industries’ focuses on creative industries which produce wealth and jobs through the creation and exploitation of ideas using individual creativity, skills and talent.

 

 

Daphne Caine MHK, Political Member at the Department of Economic Development with responsibility for Creative Industries, commented:

‘Creativity and innovation are key skills that can facilitate economic growth throughout all sectors of the economy. Creative Industries in the Isle of Man offer a range of diverse and exciting opportunities, often celebrating our unique culture and heritage. The Department of Economic Development is able to offer support to Creative Industry businesses via our grants assistance schemes, by providing networking opportunities and facilitating a wide range of projects which frequently include film and television productions.’

Jane Jelski, Senior Manager for Special Projects at the Department, added:

‘The Department also works with a range of partners to support collaboration and celebrate grass roots creative activity in the Isle of Man. This has included support for a range of events, workshops and regular industry skills development evenings held at Noa Bakehouse.’

Sub sectors included within the Creative Industries include advertising and marketing, architecture, crafts, design, IT, publishing, museums and heritage, performing and visual arts and film.

Build a Career in the Creative Industries is available to download at: http://www.whereyoucan.com/ibweb/res/pdf//Creative-Industries%202017.pdf. Printed copies are available from the Department of Economic Development.

The Department of Economic Development, in partnership with the wider Isle of Man Creative Industries sector, is hosting the next networking and skills event for creative professionals from 6pm – 8pm, 16th March at Noa Bakehouse. The event is free to attend and pre-registration is not required.

Please contact jane.jelski@gov.im for more information.

 

 Here are a few pictures for you from the current Hodgson Loom Exhibition which is the Isle of Man Photographic Society’s show. A nice little show to pop into if you’re in Laxey (and the tea and cake next door is very good too).

 

 

Dates for your Diary

 

On now – Rob Jones’s Drawn Steel Through the Seasons – Milntown Gardens, Ramsey

On now – Western Photographic Society Exhibition at the Manx Museum

On now – 24 February – Bob Hitchin’s Digi-rama at the Erin Arts Centre

On now – 11 March Manx Landscapes and Seascapes at The Isle Gallery (Group Show)

On now – 11 March Hodgson Loom – Isle of Man Photographic Society Exhibition

On now – 27  March – Turning Point at The Sayle Gallery

28 February – Cut off point for Creative Network Website update

1 March – Sarah Hendy’s new arts show on Manx Radio, 5.30 – 6.00pm (and every Wednesday)

6 March – Adult Workshop – Ceramic Decorative Dishes at The Isle Gallery 10.00am – 1.00pm

16 March 6.00pm – 8.00pm DED Networking and Skills event for creative professionals at Noa Bakehouse

27 March – Jimmy Duggan Solo Show at The Isle Gallery

 

And finally, here’s this week’s round up of images from Social Media. The colour palette is a bit ‘same-y’ this week I think. Still, I hope you enjoy having a look through them.

 

Have a great week!

Jane x

 

Keep up-to-date by ‘Liking’ the Facebook Page or by ‘Following’ me on Linkedin or Twitter@manxart or Instagram @manxartdirectory or Pinterest. To get in touch please email:jane@graceandhall.com.