The Remarkable Everyday arrives at The Old Brick Workshop

The opening of a certain exhibition...I may have mentioned... happens in just under five days time. The work began arriving today at The Old Brick Workshop and needless to say I'm excited! Here are a few sneak previews of what to expect as well as our official press release.

 

The fascinating world of ‘THE REMARKABLE EVERYDAY’ is explored in a new, contemporary art exhibition at The Old Brick Workshop Gallery in Higher Poole, Wellington Somerset. TA21 9HW.  

 

Featuring work by nine artists living and working in Somerset, the exhibition has been inspired and organised by artist and bookseller, Natalie Parsley whose own enthusiasm and love of seemingly banal everyday subjects led her to gather together a group of like-minded fellow artists to share her passion with their own views of both the commonplace and the curious in drawing, painting, print making and 3D work.

 

Natalie Parsley 'Blow Torch' 2016 Monoprint and ink

The show has work by Jenny Barron, Andrew Davey, Faye Dennis, Gordon Faulds, Gordon Field, Liz Gregory, Natalie Parsley, Michael Tarr and Scarlet von Teazel. Working with subjects such as tools, ladders, discarded boxes, old utensils and modern technology has led the participants to create some quirky and mysterious compositions, constructions and installations.

 

This is the first group show this year at The Old Brick Workshop which houses a new gallery space and a set of self contained studios, created by owner Alison Cosserat for use by Somerset artists.

The event is sponsored by local business West Country Foods of Wellington and will be open from 11am until 4.30 from Sunday 19^th June to Saturday 9^th July, closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Look out for the RED Signs to the Exhibition

You can expect more info, images and reflections on the exhibition from myself, here on the blog over the course of the next few weeks.

 

One thing is assured...There will be tools!

 

I look forward to seeing you there! 

 

Enquiries to natalieparsley@yahoo.co.uk Or visit

 http://www.theoldbrickworkshop.com



Keep on Swarming!

September 23^rd 2015 marked the release of my own version of an artist-led visual arts zine, ‘Swarm’ #1. Here are some of the responses so far...

“...a fascinating compendium of cool!”

 

“The book has been beautifully produced and I am delighted to have been part of your enterprise.”

 

“It's really good, love the way you've assembled it!”

 

“It's always good to see the variety of work produced by a disparate group of artists (or, similar but not the same as you say), so that in itself is fascinating.”

 

“I've been showing it off to a select few people and they've all thought the whole thing was amazing!”

 

swarm (n)– a temporary collection of bees, containing at least one queen that split apart from the mother colony to establish a new one; a natural method of propagation for honey bee colonies.

 

Through a competitive, megalomaniac driven act of plagiarism, 'Swarm' visual art zine was born. A shameless hybrid off-shoot of its 'sister' zine 'Hive'! 'Swarm' is a compact version of 'Hive' in which a group of artists are united together in producing a visual art zine of their work to a set theme proposed by the editor (in this example, me). Each invited artist produces X number of copies of their page (X = total number of artists taking part) and sends them to the editor who compiles the zines and sends each artist a completed copy back in the post.

 

Maybe I got greedy, maybe too ambitious, but being part of 'Hive'* had feverishly inspired me and that what the art world was missing was, well more art! The aim was therefore to make my own zine with friends whom I'd met/known over the years who could 'Swarm' together and celebrate each others work! On a perhaps more sentimental level it was also an opportunity to showcase the talents of my peers to whom I owe a great debt of admiration and thanks for continuing to inspire me.

The theme for ‘Swarm’ 1# is ‘similar but not the same’ and features the creative juices of the following: (as pictured left to right, top to bottom) Chris Chapman, Phil Kingslan John, Mike Calver, Helen & Ama Gatland, Sue Hazelwood, Paula Forster, James Marsden, Elizabeth Earley, Erin Awon, Mike Cawthorne, Faye Dennis, Scarlet von Teazel, Natalie Parsley, Claudia Haffner and Graham Seaton.

 

 

 Each participating artist also received a 'Swarm' badge (pictured above) and there are only 15 copies of the zine itself as it isn't designed to be reproduced or sold. The physical copy exists as a way of owning and participating in something that is unique and quite intimately special. To those involved its purpose to provide a fun outlet to make work, share it and discover new artists! However for the first time I have also uploaded an online version so as to share the zine to a wider audience. The quality of image and printed feel of the physical 'real' book of course cannot be reproduced digitally but I hope it will perhaps inspire others for what I hope will be a future edition of Swarm! 

 

You can view the Online version of Swarm 1# by clicking here: http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/p/swarm.html

 

* Previous Post about 'Hive' on: http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/here-are-my-bees.html)