Christmas Studio Sale

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We will be open Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th, 11am - 5pm

Ruth Gibson will be open  Saturday 12th, 1pm - 5pm and Sunday 13th, 11am - 4pm

Parker and Arrol will be open Saturday 12th, 10.30am - 4.30pm

We hope you will come and say hello. Old friends and new are all welcome. Please feel free to tell your friends or bring them along.

Next weekend- 12th-13th - we will be exhibiting at
Shrewsbury Christmas in the Quarry as well. It promises to be a fun event. 
(Hmmm we might have to rope in some help...)

Exhibition at Wem Town Hall

On the 19th of November 1995 the interior of the Wem Town Hall was completely destroyed by fire. The structure was rebuilt through lottery funding and now serves as a community arts centre. Twenty years  almost to the day, Linda and I have a Sunny Side Art exhibition in the Town Hall Gallery.

Emma Powell, assistant entertainment and marketing manager for the Town Hall saw the potential of exhibiting Sunny Side Arts prints, ceramic and textiles in the ground floor gallery and contacted us.

A couple of weeks prior to the exhibition, we explored Wem and found many interesting buildings along and nestled behind High Street. We discovered that the unusual name Wem comes from the Saxon word Wamm, meaning a marshy place. Linda began to sketch her way around the town and on returning to Shrewsbury, promptly designed a Sunny Side of the Street illustration of Wem which features in the exhibition.

One of the most fascinating and enjoyable requirements for the illustrations is researching the places Linda features in her designs. The buildings and people all have stories to tell and it's tapping into these that inspires us.

Recently we started setting up for the exhibition. Linda began a window painting of a Wem street scene on the gallery's High Street facing window while I hung the framed prints. The gallery has a fair amount of natural light and plenty of space. Here's a few words from Linda about the window painting:

"Painting on the window is tricky because everything has to be reversed! I used a template for the writing but the buildings were drawn freehand. Just take a deep breath and go for it!"

  

On opening night, Emma (a true Wem Gem) on behalf of the trustees of the Town Hall provided refreshments. Our first sale was a framed print - the Wem drawing.....nice.

  

The exhibition will continue until 21st December. come along and discover Wem's secrets for yourself.

Linda with Shrewsbury Market Hall Limited Edition Print

Limited edition print in blues detailed with hand applied gold leaf, to commemorate the halls golden anniversary. An edition of 50 prints to coincide with the market halls 50th birthday and the clock tower's 50,000 bricks! And an open edition print in yellows. On sale at The Van Gallery.

Linda makes the news!!

Happy Birthday Shrewsbury Market Hall

If you go down to the Shrewsbury Market Hall, you will find a celebration going on. This year, the iconic sixties building is half a century old. Open for trading in 1965, the hall replaced the crumbling Victorian market hall.

Today, fifty years on, there's a real vibrancy and buzz happening. The celebration coupled with an exhibition about the market hall, is also about how lucky we are to have this amazing, personal shopping experience in the town center.

Linda was so inspired by the market hall and clock tower, that she did an illustration of the building. The Van Gallery(situated on the balcony) asked if they could display the illustration on the stairway approach to the market as part of the celebration. The Van Gallery also have some limited edition prints of Linda's market hall design, detailed with hand finished gold leaf....very nice. Also checkout the stall holders portraits. It's these characters that make it all happen inside the heart of the market.
Part of the celebration included roof top tours. Linda and I were lucky enough to get on one of these. Always interesting to see where you live from above. Lot's of architecture through the ages all nestled in quite nicely in this lovely town.

The clock tower (composed of fifty thousand bricks and built by two brothers) stands impressively. In the original plans, a roof top cafe was drawn and built, as yet empty. What a wasted opportunity! You could call it "Birds Nest Cafe" Just an idea.

 While we're on the roof top, the very top of the lot is the 37ft aluminium finial. As part of their contribution to the anniversary, Keith Ashford and Liz Turner of Sculpture Logic, have built a life size replica of the finial. They were able to use the original plans and also watched footage from Pathé Newsreel of it being built. Amazing!

Theres a lot going on in and around Shrewsbury Market Hall. Here's to the next 50 and welcome to all the new university students some of whom will have digs in Mardol House at the north end of the market hall. Cheer's!!

Welsh Border Life magazine

We are in this month's Welsh Border Life magazine! Every month they have a feature on artists who live in the Marches. In the August issue I talk about Shrewsbury and how living in Shropshire is so inspiring. 

Above is my drawing of Shrewsbury: 'Life can be so sweet, on the sunny side of the street, in Shrewsbury'. Do you know the old song? I have lived here for about 25 years. You might get lost wandering through the winding streets and 'shuts' in the old town centre. There is such a variety of architecture. I love the shapes of the buildings. The initial inspiration for this drawing was the street names; Wyle Cop, Dogpole, Bear Steps, Grope Lane. They are so evocative. The town sits within a loop of the River Severn. It's a powerful river that can be so tranquil and serene but when it is in flood it's another story. (during one flood we lost two cars in half an hour - drowned!)
Of course Shrewsbury is Darwin's birthplace and he lived here during his schooldays. The tree picture is Darwin as a boy interwoven with a quote from The Origin of Species, though I can't claim to have read the whole book! He was fascinated by pigeons as a boy, so I have given him some to talk to in his tree.

I've also made a series of drawings of some of our favourite places in Shropshire. The place names are brilliant and the landscape so varied; hills, meres, rivers and valleys. 'This is where we love to stray, over the hills and far away in Shropshire'.

We make mugs and cards and art prints from my drawings. They are available from lots of lovely shops in Shropshire - please see our stockist list here. Compost & Gooseberry in the indoor market has the full collection of prints to browse through. If you are not in Shropshire we are currently working on our online shop. I will post here when it is ready!

Life can be so sweet...

"On the Sunny Side of the Street" (1930)
Music composed by Jimmy McHugh,
lyrics by Dorothy Fields. Ted Lewis
is the vocalist on this version although
many artists covered the song over the years.

The upbeat melody and lyrics make you feel good. The tune, etch a sketch and Linda's illustration inspired me to do this short animation.

HURRAH !!!

Today I became an author on Linda's blog.