Preparations for London

 We are getting ready for Battersea Affordable Art Fair so the upstairs gallery is a confusion of lists, bags and paintings.  There is organisation buried deep within the bubble wrap...honestly!

 If you look at the top picture you can see two very long wrapped works of art, they are magnificent drawings by Miles Heseltine, one of which is already sold and coming up to London with us in the van.  The only problem is how to get them out of the upper gallery, down the windy staircase and round a corner into the lower gallery and into the van.  They are nearly 3 meters long!

 So its all hands on deck...out of the upper gallery, out of the window onto one flat roof...

Everyone out onto the roof, get a ladder down to the next flat roof and lower the paintings down...

 Paintings safely onto the second flat roof, one of us pops back into the gallery and runs down stairs out of the front and down the side alley while the other two begin to lower the paintings down to the next level...

 Into the alley below...

 Then they dash back up the ladders and back into the back window, down the stairs and out of the front door, round the back and we all carry the paintings into the front of the gallery.

 Its all in a days work for our fantastic gallery team.

If you are in or around London next week, 25th to 28th please come and visit us on stand H5 at the Affordable Art Fair, you will be able to see one of these beautiful drawings and much more, and now you know what lengths we go to in the name of art!

Chris Rigby. "Force of Nature"

Eshaness Volcanic Cliffs
1019mm x 1224mm. oil on board £6,850

Chris Rigby paints the power of nature.  The cliffs he paints are monumental, solid and unforgiving.  The seas are alive, foam and waves pounding relentlessly against crags and rock.  The light he represents is delicate, grazing the very edge of clifftops, shimmering through rock arches and briefly illuminating ephemeral salt laden spray.  These paintings pulsate with life.


Shetland Arch II
710mm x 610mm.  oil on board £3,250
 

They are the remote landscapes, the edges of our world, places where few feet have trodden and fewer hands have touched. They are landscapes that inspire respect and speak to our most distant memories. 
Chris Rigby is a hugely talented plein air painter and produces small gouache and watercolour paintings perched on top of windswept cliffs or wedged between rocks.  With these paintings he captures the very essence of the wild, windswept nature of Shetland, Southern Ireland and hidden corners of Tresco.  They then serve as reference for the larger works.

In the Long Grass, Alachai Mor. Co. Kerry.
308mm x 570mm watercolour and gouache.  £875

He is much more that a painter of place, he is a distiller of souls, the souls of these remote and exciting landscapes, the battered and uncompromising edges of our islands.  Places that remain constant and represent what will always be the most honest habitat that we have ever known.  Places that our ancestors would have gazed upon with the same feelings of awe and respect.
It is an awe inspiring collection of work and well worth a visit, come along and enjoy a very exceptional talent.
10am Monday 15th October until Sunday 21st October.

A Day's Journey

A Day's Journey

"Zennor is one of my favourite places. Walking along this coast path feels close to flying, looking down on the aged fields and the vertical cliffs; it has an isolated atmosphere which is completely unique." -Amanda Hoskin

 
Path to Godrevy- 850 x 675mm, oil on paper £2250

Journeys are a recurring influence in Amanda Hoskin’s paintings; and for her Special Collection, she has taken herself on another expedition. On what may have been one of the only bright and clear days of the summer, Amanda set out with her sketchbooks to walk the coastal path from Zennor Church. The result of which can been seen in this new collection of breath-taking works of art.

Since her first show with Beside The Wave back in 2001 we have seen Amanda's work adapt with nature, sparkle with the sea and change with the tide. Following four years’ of trekking the entire Cornish Coast in 'Colours Coast & Sea', we saw Amanda take a different turn in her next solo in 2011. 'Working With Nature' was created in and inspired by gardens. Earlier in 2012, in her solo 'Homecoming' we saw Amanda journey back to the places she had enjoyed painting most, and where her career first started. In returning to the north coast, this collection of paintings, with additional small works from the days walk, makes clear the influence of being out in the elements in her work.

One of our favourite pieces is Godrevy Lighthouse painted as the day draws to a close and the rain begins, the atmosphere is magical, as we stand before it we witness the lighthouse being shadowed by the violent weather.

Rain Clouds sweep across the Sky, can just see Godrevy Lighthouse- 690x1000mm, oil on canvas £2900

 

 

 

A Cornish Path- 760 x 815mm, oil on board £2500

This collection combines all the artist ability and integrity that Amanda has gained in over a decade of painting in Cornwall, and represents a body of work that truly showcases her talents: from the weather consumed shorelines of Godrevy to the delicate foxgloves in the fields surrounding Zennor Church. Her paintings really are something to behold.

'A Day's Journey' opens at Beside The Wave at 10am on Saturday 5th October.

Don't miss it.