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We are pleased to welcome coastal artist Diana Booth to Arthub. " I have lived in Modbury in the South Hams, Devon for many years. Some time ago, after a career in teaching, I returned to painting with renewed vision and energy exploring a vibrant approach to painting. The landscape and coastal areas close by are incredibly beautiful filling me with awe and inspiration to paint. " You can view DIana's full profile here. #Arthub #Profile #NewArtist #DianaBooth #CoastalArtist #artist

Oh hi there! You must be here for the Black Friday Deals! Well I've got some good news and some bad news... The bad news is, you won't find any discounts here. We're not slashing prices, doing giveaways or cutting margins so if you've come here looking for a bargain, we're sorry to disappoint. But there is some good news and we are doing something special for the Black Friday Weekend. From today until Sunday, we're bringing back double donations, so for any purchase made online or in the gallery, we'll be donating twice the donation value to the RNLI! So, when you buy, not only will you be supporting a local South Devon artist, you'll also be raising extra money for the Torbay Lifeboat Fundraisers! A great reason to come and join us for Black Friday or alternatively head to our Winter Open Shop online! #BlackFriday #RNLI #TorbayLifeboatFundraisers #erwo19 #artizancollective

Happy International Day of Happiness! Yes, it seems a little odd saying that given the current situation, but maybe we do all need to stop for a second and celebrate positivity. On the world happiness rankings, we (unluckily) come in at 13th narrowly behind Australia who can only possibly be happier than us because of the regular presence of kangaroos. We did have some fun plans for #InternationalDayOfHappiness – all of which are officially postponed not cancelled – but we still wanted to find a way to celebrate. Action for Happiness have unsurprisingly turned their attentions to peoples wellbeing during the global pandemic with a coping calendar so we thought we’d take the opportunity to highlight some of the ways the creative community are coping! Sadgrads2020 This is a community setup to support graduates whose degree shows have been cancelled due to the pandemic and is helping to reduce the isolation students may feel by inviting them to share their work via their platform on Instagram. It’s also a great for everyone else to get a wider appreciation of the work of these graduates! Check it out here. Creativity Toolkits For those seeking inspiration creativity toolkits are popping up everywhere so there’s really no chance of running out of ideas even in the longest of lockdowns. Here’s a collaborative one hosted by artist Alec Finlay and we’ve also been made aware of #CreateToConnect starting March 23rdfor two weeks from 64 Million Artists here. Mslexia For writers or anyone else looking for something meditative, mslexia publish daily writing prompts to stimulate the brain whilst you self-isolate. What we’re doing Next week we’re going to be announcing a number of ways in which we hope to keep people talking and supporting creative conversations online. You can already join us on our WhatsApp group where we’ll be sharing updates from ourselves and partners, but we’ll also be working to setup some one-to-one and group platforms to enable us all to connect even whilst socially distancing. So, if you’d be interested in any of the below, get in touch to have a conversation about how we shape them: WhatsApp Group At the moment we’ve setup one WhatsApp Group in broadcast mode meaning we can send out announcements and messages particularly in relation to the tools that us and various colleagues are trying to establish in this difficult time to keep people connected. If you’d like to see us using WhatsApp in any other ways either for smaller group conversations, social settings or project work we’d love to hear from you. “Virtual” Random Coffee Breaks Inspired by Pedro Medina and developed by Michael Soto and Jon Kingsbury of Nesta UK, Random Coffee Breaks have been used to support socialisation across organisations with large workforces and diverse employees. The programmes encourage people to take 20-30 minutes out of their day for a conversation with another randomly assigned member of that organisation who they may or may not know, in a step which legitimises socialisation in the work environment and breaks down perceived barriers such as departments and management structures. We want to take this a step further for the local creative sector as a whole and attempt to breakdown a more physical barrier, that of isolation as a result of lone working that is so common for those in the creative industry, a barrier that will likely be felt more acutely in the months ahead. Anyone interested in participating will be invited to provide an email address that they’re happy to share and then once a month we’ll randomly pair up individuals from the list and make an introduction. With the current very real need for social distancing, we’re launching these in a virtual capacity, where we’ll encourage participants to take virtual breaks and make contact with their randomly selected partner; you might want to do this via video chat or even just a phone call. Whatever you chose to do, this is intended to be a way to connect and share at a time when it may be increasingly difficult to do so. Livestreamed Events and Workshops With our venues off limits for large audiences and the general public for the time being we want to try and make use of them in a safe way with the technology we have available to us. As such next week we’ll be setting up livestreaming facilities at Artizan Gallery, Lucius Street, with the option to broadcast performances, workshops and conversations in a safe way to audiences online. We’re already thinking about how we can keep things like our poetry sessions going and maybe even seeing if we can replicate something similar to the recent Life Drawing Live event hosted by the BBC. Online Video Hangouts Finally, the online video hangout is likely to become king in the near future as a great way for large gatherings to take place remotely. We hope to launch the first of these next week (possibly with some testers over the weekend) but in the interim we’d like to know how you’d like to see these work. Is there a particular platform anyone prefers, do you want to use them to socialise, problem solve, create? Whichever it is we want you to tell us! With all of this on the table and a ready ear listening to what else you’d like to see happen we hope you’ll all join us by contributing to some creative solutions! #WorldHappinessDay #InternationalDayofHappiness #PositivityPandemic #TakeItToTheInternet #ArtizanTorquay #Covid19

Discover an archive of our booth at CADAF ONLINE 2020. #cadaf20 #kirsteentitchener #martinraskovsky #tracysatchwill #andywalker #iancox #artist #exhibition

We are pleased to welcome the incredible mind of "Doodle Master" Brian Peter Fowlie to the site. Born in Southern Rhodesia to a family of 5 children, Brian Fowlie has lived in Torquay for the past 17 years. At 82, his eyesight is failing, but he still finds pleasure in doodling. You can view Brian's full profile here. #Arthub #Profile #NewArtist #BrianFowlie #DoodleMaster #artist

Artist Statement: Clare has a background in textiles - specializing in carpet design for her B.A. - and began her career based in Kidderminster at the heart of the carpet industry. She now divides her time between designing for manufacturers and working as a fine artist. ‘I enjoy the connection with people in designing products for their homes and I bring elements from my work as an artist to the design process. The interplay between self-expression and communicating with others through making art is fascinating and adds to the creative process’ She has always had a love of drawing and went on to study botanical illustration at Birmingham University, founding the Birmingham Society of Botanical Artists with fellow students. The discipline of observational drawing underlies and informs both her design work and painting. ‘Life drawing is a big part of my current practice – I enjoy working with other artists and the immediacy of this way of drawing. Contrasting the freedom of large scale charcoal or ink drawings produced in workshops with the more controlled pieces I work on in my own studio feeds back into the way I work’ Recent exhibitions include ‘Botanical Inspirations’ at RAMM, Exeter in May 2016, SWAc at Exeter Castle in September 2016, and ‘Power of Three’ at Artizan in August 2017. Clare exhibits regularly in Teignmouth and will be part of 2018’s ‘Devon Open Studios’ at the TAAG Gallery there. ‘My paintings and drawings are a response to my surroundings and my place within them – the beautiful landscape of Devon where I live, the excitement of travelling to other places, the natural objects that are precious to each place. I paint collections of shells and pebbles, plants, insects and fungi, and look for rhythm and pattern within both these and my larger work about the sea, sky, steep cliffs and abandoned boats. I love working in oils, experimenting with the marks, textures and powerful colour that the medium can create, and also work in watercolour, devoting hours to a subject and using the smallest brushes. Part of the joy is the contrast between the two!’ Work Description: ‘Favourite Brushes’ was one of the first paintings I made when I really started to enjoy painting in oils – it hangs in my studio near the little pot of brushes and reminds me how happy I can feel when I’m painting. #TheArtofYou #clarejenkinson #artofyou18

The eager eyed amongst you may have noticed that we’ve been a little bit quiet about our February activities, with no exhibition listed and no announcements about what to expect as we enter the second month of 2018! Well, the time has come, and we can now reveal what to expect at Artizan in just one short week. Firstly, a quick explanation as to why we’re a bit behind on this one! We received a last-minute cancellation in February which resulted in a short notice change to the calendar. We extended our January show for a bonus week – so don’t miss the last few days of this show featuring Arthur Homeshaw and Richard Slater – and set to work on a backup plan. A very speedy call was devised for an opportunity we’ve had in the back of our minds for a while, and thanks to the support of our networks, we managed to get it disseminated very rapidly. Thanks to the kind work of the groups and societies who help us share and promote our opportunities, and some very patient artists who have come on board with this impromptu show, we can now announce our February show “The Art of You”. This explorative show will look at works, objects, pieces of narrative, multimedia submissions, written statements, journals, sketchbooks and a diverse array of other submitted material that explore the identity of the artist that submits them. Submissions have been open to any individual who wishes to celebrate their creativity, whether they are a full time professional artist or last did art at school as a child. This is intended to be a richly personal exhibition that is open to artists, makers and individuals of any level or discipline to submit something which goes to the heart of their creativity. This might be a sketchbook that looks at their practice in its purest form or an object or item of particular relevance to their work. Equally, the submission could take the form of a completed artwork that is in some way uniquely representative of the artists identity. Through this broad call, we hope to present a show that is in part autobiographical, and where visitors are encouraged to focus on the lives behind the works. Through the collective display of personal items, the opportunity to draw interpretations of where shared aspects of creation lie, and where difference and similitude can be found in the homes of individual muses will be available, with scope to explore the raw and unrefined elements of creative process. We view this as an extension of the “sketchbook” or “postcard” model of exhibition which looks at either the process behind an artwork, or a small representation, with our version offering a greater degree of flexibility and wider opportunity for individual expression. The exhibition follows on from a number of other shows hosted at the Gallery including the “Postcard Exhibition” which featured as part of the Gallery’s touring London exhibition, and “The Anonymous Artist”, an open show exploring issues of identity in which artworks were hung anonymously. So, that’s what to expect in February! Please do come along and join us, events will go live over the next few days and will bring you details of exhibiting artists after the final call deadline on January 31st! Want to submit to the exhibition? The deadline for this exhibition is January 31st so there's still time to apply. Head to our calls page to grab a submission form. #2018 #Exhibitions #Artizan #ArtsampCulture #February #TheArtofYou #artofyou18

Artist Statement: I live in Torquay, but work worldwide in tourism, predominantly carrying out Quality Assessments (though also running training programmes). I am not an artist; this is purely a (very long) labour of love! Work Description: In 1987 my parents took me to London for a birthday treat, where we saw “The Phantom of the Opera”. I fell in love with the story, the music and, of course, the Paris Opera. I thought it would be fun to construct a model of the Opera House from matchsticks and started with the façade. It then developed into the whole building. My enthusiasm for the model waxed and waned over the years, and it became an occasional project, but happily I am still at it (and the end appears to be in sight!). There was no template; I simply used images from books (and photographs I took in Paris on a trip). The tensile strength comes purely from the matches; supports comprise a block of 8 matches, surrounding another match which acts as a spindle to bind each block together. Curved surfaces are quite “rough and ready” in appearance, but I think this adds to the visual appeal of the whole. “Glass” in the windows is old negatives from when photographs were taken differently from today. I hope to finish this model this year, but who knows – it’s taken 30 years so far! #TheArtofYou #brianroberts #artofyou18

Artist Statement: Logo, Calligraphy, Typography and Photography are my tools of communication to convey the essence of my expression. Many of my works are commissioned by clients, especially rock/metal bands, but this clientele is expanding and getting more and more far reaching like Rihanna, Metallica. All my work is made with pen and ink on A4 paper and scanned across to my customers/clients. Work Description: All my works are made with ink on paper, they have the same size, A4 framed in a 14 x 11 cm in frame. Each work comes from a pencil sketch which is then developed, inked filled and upgraded using thin pens and pigment liners (all black, sometimes colour). - FAIRY FOREST: because I am always away with the fairies…far in the woods. - WHY: I am always asking “Why you are not responding?” “Why nobody says goodbye?” “Why Circassians have been expelled from SOCHI?” - OPTIMISM: the tree of life. When there is life, there is hope. #TheArtofYou #ChristopheSzpajdel #artofyou18

ASSEMBLAGES and ME. My first knowledge of assemblage as an art form came from studying at Lancaster College of Art in the 60s when still a teenager. I was introduced to the work of Kurt Schwitters, his found object collages and his incredible junk sculpture constructions known as Metz, completed from 1919, and also the characters made by Paul Klee for his son Felix’s puppet theatre. Of course the use of assemblage was well established by the then current Pop Art movement through the work of Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Claes Oldenburg and the sculptress Marisol. It was then that I developed a particular interest in studying Katsinas dolls made by The Hopi Indians of North East Arizona. The Katsinas are known to be the spirits of deities, natural elements or animals, or the deceased ancestors of the Hopi, used in their ceremonies and then presented to the girls in the tribe to be hung on the walls of their pueblo dwellings. I remember my tutor at the time warned me against producing my own dolls, citing Nietzsche as the inevitable negative influence of such a dark study choice! His warning of psychological instability obviously struck home as It was not until the year 2000, forty years later, that I began to work on assemblage figures myself. The pieces on show are as follows: Party Frock. 2001 Little St George. 2013 My phone is bigger than yours. 2018 #TheArtofYou #FGDavis #artofyou18

Artist Statement: Felipe Chavez is a figurative contemporary draughtsman and sculptor, born in Colombia and now working in London. With materials varying from resin, ink and expanding foam, he explores the human’s physical existence through the idea of a tangible form. Felipe finds figurative contemporary art to be perceived as an understanding of the human body’s place in society, how its aesthetics have become so subjective that the original perspective has been lost. His use of materials and the techniques applied primarily depends on the initial vision; then developing an understanding of the work through the gaze of his own body. Work Description: My works are predominately nudes and of my entire body, so when I created this one and only self-portrait it grew to be a very special piece to me. I want the viewer to see me and see my art, I have devoted my mind to understanding my craft and have experienced so many things that I want to carry on telling. This portrait is to showcase my “crave” for art and my devotion to the aesthetic. Many people use art to express an opinion about the world or a political statement, however my works have always been about opening myself and exposing the vulnerable aspect of the form. This piece I believe will fit well in the notion of putting yourself as your Art, with the expression I want the public to see a thirst for needing it and how art to me is to breath. The craving of an obsession #TheArtofYou #artofyou18

Artist Statement: My photographic art is strongly influenced by a fascination with human nature, many years working in the field of psychology and close observation of my own emotions. Often my work starts as a self-portrait and examines just one aspect of human nature or emotion at a time. The combination of photography and digital manipulation offers a way to create a new image that is not captured via one shutter press. I do not hide from the fact that my work is manipulated but instead see it as an important feature of the work. It allows me to break the rules and create impossible images that still appear somehow plausible. Elements that we inherently understand as necessary in our everyday visual reality, such as perspective and direction of light, are maintained to create a believable photograph. #TheArtofYou #artofyou18