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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
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I’m really delighted to have launched the Directory’s first two shop pages for original artwork for 
