York

york shambles

lesley birch

Had a lovely day off in York yesterday.

...we were going to coast but weather overcast so caught train to York. Beginning to get know city a little ... coffee, lunch and art. Wanted to find Priestley's, a new art gallery, which is offering exhibition space for RAW (Rydale ArtWorks) artists, so went there after coffee. Lovely exhibition  by York artist lesley birch, who paints in scottish style of joan eardley:also reminiscent of Georgie Young, a pittenweem artist whom I like and some of my own work.)

georgie young

         

rosi robinson

joan eardley

Made me miss going to Pittenweem arts festival in last 2 years after being there previous 5.... also not going to iona this year (after previous 3 years) ....and leaving IOM etc. etc..... but doesn't time fly!! We were invited to preview that evening and met lesley and gallery owner and friends etc. I showed them my coastline work in new RAW brochure on phone, and they seemed quite impressed ..... i liked my work too. Think because i'm tired from the move, thought my work wasn't that good .... but now know it can hold its own placement in galleries. Priestley's, white room gallery is in the basement of an upmarket 'housy' gift shop and although not a huge space is well lit and feels ok. It is only a few yards from the refurbished york gallery, which is due to open soon and area having a makeover as well, so probably a good place to exhibit.

Also came across small, new exhibition at blue tree gallery - nice exhibition/shop, interesting ceramics, across road to priestley's. All felt a little lightweight, book illustration category; perhaps because works not that large, or was i hungry?!

 Priestley's website looks much more professional than blue tree galleries..... need to think about this when looking for exhibition spaces.

alex echo

After lunch found castle galleries, which had a commercial prints shop next door (which we didn't bother to go in) and was across from st. mary's, which was closed and sometimes used for art exhibitions. (this is where an installation work was from that mark and i discussed during recent seminar; breathing space by caroline broadhead.) .... was sorry that it was closed, but still advertised bruce naumen from 2013. Not sure if i like work in castle galleries, but it has a very good website and is a chain of approx 30 galleries across uk and work is qute expensive. Was attracted to a couple of pieces by Alex echo, but not so impressed on further scrutiny of his work .... it seemed to lack soul... be too lightweight commercial? However, at this point in time, I am drawn to very shiny plastic finish.... but think my acrylic panels are more stylish :) Maybe I need to start a dialogue with this gallery? ..... need to work on updating website this week as my address is in new NYOS and RAW brochures/websites.

alex echo

I was tired with aching feet when i got home as it was almost 8pm and we had left by 10am in morning. I enjoyed seeing more green yorkshire landscape from the train, met some interesting arty people, seen some interesting art and had my confidence in my own work boosted and bought a couple of art mags.

It was good tohave a break from research ... and i felt quite strongly that although i need to record my 'art/science' findings, i need to take a break from it. It will soon be time to start my exploratory project and i have decided to revisit my art photobooks i made a couple of years ago. I so want to look at them, but will wait until I start the project as initial ideas/response will be important to project.

This week I will update my website; work a bit more on my essay; adapt my PPP in line with tutorial notes; tidy my room so that it's ready for new project start; catch up with backlog of notes for this blog.