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We’re always looking for new ways to improve the work we do here at Artizan Gallery and offer our audience a greater experience and insight into our activity and the lives of the artists we represent. Arthub is one great part of that and we’re beginning to reach a point where we can bring you nearly daily blog updates from our in-house team and contributing creatives. Added to this, our events calendar is really filling up recently with our Acoustic Nights becoming more and more popular, Stanza Extravaganza continuing to be a pillar of the local poetry scene, and Cocktails and Conversation delivering incredible guest talks from the likes of Gordon Oliver, Frank Sobey, Jim Parker and next month, Kate Farmery; we’re in the process of adding two more great events to this line up and when there’s nothing to do at the Gallery we curate a great monthly guide to Torbay events for Beach Hut Magazine. Then we’ve brought back Artist Hour at the gallery, offering a great social opportunity for artists and creatives to regularly meet and reach out to one another. Then there’s our new 360 scans produced by the wonderful Innovate 3 Sixty; these we’re particularly excited about as they are the closest we can possibly get to creating a permanent record of the amazing shows that come through the gallery. These exhibition walkthroughs compliment another new project we’ve been working on in the wonderful realm of video. Its something we’ve been wanting to do for a while, and we’ve got a bit of experience here; I’ve worked on a number of filming projects in the past with other production teams, normally as a camera assistant or production photographer, rarely as a DOP, never on my own projects. So, we decided this year that making video a part of the work we do in a meaningful way was important to us, after all, it’s an incredibly powerful documentary tool and it can be used to tell a myriad of stories. Not wanting to do things by halves, we leapt in with both feet and quickly discovered that we were being incredibly ambitious! Nonetheless, our bimble into the world of film is beginning to deliver some fruitful results and we were excited to bring you our first ever “Artizan Introduces” at the end of March with our exhibiting artists Michael MacDonagh Wood and Veronica Charlesworth. The film was shot in their home studio in Newton Abbott, a beautiful old farm building that they’ve been renovating for the last 12 months. An intrepid and ambitious team (Grace and I) turned up in the van, with far too much equipment and a plan, which we just about stuck to! Veronica and Michael welcomed us warmly and exploring their home there was no shortage of inspiration for shooting; two wonderful studios, work from Michael’s father Peter MacDonagh Wood filling the walls and a small menagerie of characterful animals who were in no way camera shy. We set ourselves up and then quite simply chatted for a handful of lovely hours. We learnt two lessons from the day: firstly, there is no such thing as too much footage; and secondly, there is such a thing as too much footage! This may seem contradictory, but it’s amazing how much ends up being snipped away when you try to squeeze three hours of chatting into a manageable video, and how many shots you wish you’d got when you end up sequencing it all together. Either way, we went into it saying we’d work with what we got, we are after all, treating this as an experiment, but were incredibly pleased to come out with what we hope you’ll agree is an incredibly interesting “Artizan Introduces, Michael MacDonagh Wood and Veronica Charlesworth”. If you haven’t managed to check it out already, please do go and give it a look, its only 16 minutes and Michael and Veronica have some incredible stories and helpful advice. At the end of this week, we’ll be bringing you the second in the series from our current exhibitor Cristina Ulander who we had a chat to in the gallery whilst we set up her show. This one will be a little shorter, but no less interesting! We also have three other artist interviews recorded and in the pipeline that we hope we’ll be able to release in the not too distant future also. In the meantime, you can also check out some new recordings from the Artizan Acoustic Sessions featuring regular performers Robert Spence, Simon Coverdale and Steve Gill. We hope you’ll join us on what we’re sure will not be an uneventful journey as we continue to develop this project and welcome your feedback through all the usual channels. #Video #March #April #VeronicaCharlesworth #MichaelMacDonaghWood #CristinaUlander #Events #Exhibitions #Acoustic #march18

Images from our April Exhibition, works of Cristina Ulander. #2018 #Artizan #MainGallery #Spring #April #Easter #CristinaUlander #april18

Images from our Spring Exhibition at the Cockington Court Kitchen Gallery featuring works of F. G. Davis, Kirsteen Titchener, Jo West and Susan Cavaliere. Read more about the exhibition. #2018 #Artizan #MainGallery #Spring #Easter #April #FGDavis #KirsteenTitchener #JoWest #SusanCavaliere #March #Cockington #KitchenGallery #cockington18

Images from our March Exhibition featuring works of Michael MacDonagh Wood and Veronica Charlesworth. Read more about the exhibition. #2018 #March #Artizan #MichaelMacDonaghWood #VeronicaCharlesworth #MainGallery #march18

Images from our February Exhibition, The Art of You. The collection brings together exhibits from across the United Kingdom and abroad ranging from audio-visual studies on identity, to childhood works of now professional artists, to sketchbooks that capture the seeds of ideas and creative manifestos that dig deep into them. All exhibition images will are available to purchase as prints. Read more about the exhibition. #2018 #February #TheArtofYou #Artizan #artofyou18

Images from our May Exhibition, works of Raw Art Forum. #2018 #Artizan #MainGallery #Spring #May #RAWArtForum #JenniferJayarajah #SteveNeill #AidanCooper #FergusCooper #nutopia18

Original Article at: http://www.harbourhouse.org.uk/g18-icfgd.shtml George (FG Davis) and Ian have exhibited previously with paintings that sit well together. Their shared passion for colour and surface is well represented in this joyous, uplifting and sophisticated exhibition of paintings and mixed media works. Ian Carr Ian’s paintings refer mainly to landscape, exploring colour and surface. My paintings are responses to the environment. When you paint something so much is removed - scale, movement, sound, smell, touch, so you are left with having to communicate all that through the remaining sense. I aim to paint the experience of looking at something rather than recording figuratively what I see. I like to analyse what qualities are holding my attention and explore the visual elements that will enable me to share that experience. Ian studied at Chester School of Art, Leeds College of Art and Manchester University. Most of his working life has been in art education in schools and colleges in the UK and Zambia, as well as working as a copywriter, gallery director and mural painter. He has exhibited widely throughout the UK and since moving to Devon in 2007 has shown at Harbour House, Birdwood House and The Ariel Centre in Totnes, Dartington Hall, The Crypt Gallery St. Ives, and the Bunker Project which he organised from 2011 - 2013. F G Davis: For me colour and surface quality are two essential building blocks in the process of making any work. They form an individual language which can tap the essence of emotion and inspire the imagination. Through this instinctive process of observing, remembering, interpreting and dissecting a subject the painter reduces concrete existence into pure elements of light, space and volume. Intellectual and emotional responses are combined to re-interpret perceptions into a newly ordered reality, both for the artist as well as the viewer. A successful painting can take them both on a journey revealing a new way of seeing and understanding and this is often achieved most effectively when integrity and passion are transmitted through the work. Trained in graphic design, exhibition display, interior and environmental design, fine art and art education, George retired six years ago from teaching to concentrate on painting. He has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad and has work in private collections worldwide. Passion for Colour will be on display at Harbour House, Kingsbridge from Tuesday 22nd May - Sunday 3rd June #FGDavis #IanCarr #Exhibition #Kingsbridge

Images from our June Exhibition, works of Sue Luxton. #2018 #Artizan #MainGallery #Spring #June #Summer #SueLuxton #TimLuxton #greekisland18

Images from our July Exhibition, works of Alan Price-Roberts. #2018 #Artizan #MainGallery #Summer #July #AlanPriceRoberts #july18

Good evening everyone! Wow, it is certainly Summer now isn’t it…is everyone with us when we say that the heat is making work super dull!? We’re pretty busy in Gallery-land, so we just wanted to bring you a quick update on what’s coming up over the next couple of months as we speed through the Summer calendar. Between now and the end of August we have (count them) 5 exhibitions! As I’m sure you can imagine, that makes our schedule look a little bit hectic, so we just wanted to let you know how we’re going to keep you all updated and give you a quick summary of the calendar. So, are social media will look a little different and it might get a little busy. However, if you want to keep in the loop without all the clutter, we’ll be releasing a daily (hopefully!) summary blog each day which will go out on all our platforms. As well as this we’ll be living in our Instagram quite a bit and we’ll share the occasional post through to twitter and Facebook too. As well as this there’ll be some automated posts which role through. Our newsletters will be bi-weekly and again these will basically offer a summary of what we’re up to, which artists are coming and going and what you can expect from us. But for now, here’s what to expect between now and the end of August! Portraits to Abstraction – Works of Alan Price-Roberts – July 2nd – 21st - www.art-hub.co.uk/july2018 This one’s already underway and we’re loving it! Alan is an immensely talented, multifaceted artist with work spanning a range of styles through abstraction and portraiture. A diverse career has seen his work exhibited across Europe with fine art training under Romeo di Garalamo, Terry Frost and John Piper. His solo show with us at Artizan features a diverse range of his representational abstraction as well as recent and retrospective portraiture, and additionally a selection of his prints will be on display at our Summer Open Exhibition on Fleet Walk. Exhibition Walkthrough (Live 9/07/18): art-hub.co.uk/july2018360 July Flash Exhibition – Works of Lynsey James – 23rd – 29th July - www.art-hub.co.uk/lynseyjames2018 You won’t want to miss this short, sweet show, but blink and it’ll be gone because Lynsey James is only joining us for one short week. The Exhibition focuses on her current body of work comprising a collection of original abstract acrylics on canvas. The series is inspired by the harmonious energy of the natural world particularly the movement of oceanic waters. Deep blues, indigo, violet and turquoise mingle with lighter hues to create a rich palette reflective of the many and varied moods that is characteristic of our planet’s oceans. You can also find Lynsey’s work with us at Fleet Walk as part of our Summer Open show. Aspects of Abstraction – Works of Douglas Bardrick – 4th August – 24th August - www.art-hub.co.uk/august2018 Continuing a summer of abstraction, August will welcome artist Douglas Bardrick to the main gallery. With an extensive background in design, Douglas has held a long-standing international career in the arts, and additionally has played a part in developing some of the South West’s best-known arts spaces. Now retired, he paints from his home in Devon. August sees him bring a collection of his recent works to Artizan, following several successful 2017 exhibitions. Also this month, join us for the exclusive launch of this show when we’ll welcome Torbay MP Kevin Foster to join us for Cocktails and Conversation. Cocktails and Conversation: August 2nd // 18:30-20:30 // www.art-hub.co.uk/events-1/august-cocktails-conversation Artist Preview: August 4th // 18:00-20:00 // www.art-hub.co.uk/events-1/august-artist-preview August Flash Exhibition – Works of Creative Coverage Members – 26th August – 31st August www.art-hub.co.uk/creativecoverage2018 Finally, we’ll wrap up this hectic two months with a short group show of works of Creative Coverage members. This arts focused PR agency represents some of the South West’s finest talent, showcasing their work at national venues. We’re privileged to have a selection of them joining us here for this short exhibition. Artizan Summer Open Exhibition 2018 – Celebrating Visual Arts in Torbay – 12th July – 16th August - www.art-hub.co.uk/summeropen2018 And then, throughout it all, there will of course be the Artizan Summer Open Exhibition 2018! This exhibition is always a big deal in our calendar but this year, its bigger than ever. As we head out with the exhibition on tour, we welcome more than 100 artists to join us at our pop-up space at the heart of the high street for a 4-week long spectacular displaying more than 100 works!! This exhibition is not one to be missed and we’re indebted to the support of sponsors and partners including Edinburgh House Estates, Torbay Culture, Aesthetica Magazine, The Debonair Group, The Training Partnership Ltd. and many more, who have made this show a reality. If you’d like to support the exhibition grab our special social media profile picture here to show your love, and remember to like and share our posts and content. Exhibition Walkthrough (Live 18/07/18): art-hub.co.uk/summeropen2018360 So that is the what to expect for the next two months. We’ll keep you in the loop as much as we can, and we’ll be shouting about Summer Open progress as we count down to launch night Thursday 12th. Remember to check out all the above links for more information and keep an eye out for exhibition scans going live for walkthroughs of the spaces. And if you fancy it give this post a share to help us reach everyone with the exciting news! #ArtizanSummerOpen2018 #ERSO18 #julyflash18 #july18 #august18

It’s Wednesday, the day before we launch the Artizan Summer Open 2018 exhibition at our incredible Fleet Walk venue. I’m sat in the space now (6 days in and we finally remembered to bring down some chairs and a desk!) writing this and looking around at the transformation of what this time last week was just another empty retail space on the Torquay high street… And what a transformation! It’s been a lot of long nights, many cups of a coffee (and a few beers we’re not going to lie) and having Greggs next door is going to absolute ruin us for the Summer…but, we’re nearly there. Today and tonight comes the final push. So, when we last updated you the work was steadily flowing in. We’d just celebrated the launch of our other incredible Summer Exhibition, Portraits to Abstraction up at the main gallery which is now its second week, and we were just coming to the end of our maintenance on the space. The weekend saw most of the art finish arriving. We got some great responses from the artists as they delivered and saw how the maintenance had gone, and we sent everyone off with fistfuls of invites to distribute on their travels; some are even making it as far as Cornwall! On Sunday night, we started to hang the show. This was the first of the late-night stints and we left at 2am with a lot of layout prep done and the first work going onto the walls. Monday we were then back in bright and breezy at 10am for more art deliveries and we really knuckled down to the final layouts. As Tuesday rolled in we enlisted the assistance of a good friend of ours Mark Hoyle, who very kindly gave us use of his trailer to get some furniture down to the space. Three trips in total to do the job; plinths, sideboards, easels, browsers, chairs and a desk are now all in and roughly located and its amazing how much more this feels like a space now… We also had the wonderful Ziggy in during the day, a local poet who often joins us for our events at the gallery. He stopped by a couple of times to assist us with the hang and it makes an amazing difference having an extra pair of hands to help pass wires and artwork up the ladder. The result was a slightly earlier night, and we were all back to our beds before 1am miraculously. With no artwork due in this morning we also had a slightly later start to the day. The team reconvened just after 9 this morning and partook in some more Greggs coffee as we set out the final list of jobs before launch tomorrow. Which brings us to about here. I’m sat in the venue, with just one side of A4 in front of me holding the few final jobs before we open. It’s definitely going to be another long night, but the end is in sight, and we can’t wait to welcome you all tomorrow evening! We are of course also still celebrating the exceptional exhibition of Alan Price-Roberts work up at the gallery. His show is really keeping our spirits up; as we run on sugar, caffeine and very little sleep, the sanctuary of our gallery and Alan’s work is some of the best medicine we could hope for, we really couldn’t have asked for a better show right now. You can find Alan’s work in the Summer Open Exhibition too and its also over at the Devon Art Society Summer Exhibition until the end of this week; he’s everywhere this Summer! Following Alan’s show we’re also gearing up for three more Summer exhibitions. Immediately after, you’ll have just one week to catch Lyndsay James in the gallery, definitely not one to miss (more info here)! Then we’ll move on to our August show with exclusive new abstracts from Douglas Bardrick (for his exhibition head here)! And finally we’ll wrap up August with a short group show from Creative Coverage Members, an exceptionally talented agency of artists from across the UK (and there information can be found here). And that is us about up-to-date. We launch tomorrow so make sure your keeping your eye on our social media and hopefully we’ll see you in one of our two Summer spaces soon! #ArtizanSummerOpen2018 #July #AlanPriceRoberts #DouglasBardrick #LyndsayJames #CreativeCoverage #ERSO18

Time to start another week, perhaps this one will be a little less crazy! Thus far we haven’t got any 3AM finished pencilled in, so we’re hopeful that we might start catching up with ourselves… Last week was of course worth the long hours, late nights and, we’ll be honest, slightly overwhelming pressure at times. We got the Artizan Summer Open 2018 off to a spectacular start at our launch event on Thursday as we welcomed more than 250 people through our doors over the course of the night and celebrated visual arts with our 100 selected entrants and the kind words of Mayor Gordon Oliver. Most importantly, pretty much everyone was in agreement that the space was looking incredible, and it was extremely gratifying to see the reaction of artists who had joined us at the start of the week in a faded magnolia box that was somewhat lacking in character. We need to take this opportunity for thanks once again because there’s so many people who have made this possible. We’ve said it many times already, but it really mustn’t be forgotten that this whole event is only possible thanks to our venue sponsors Edinburgh House Estates. Their vision in allowing us to use the space has been incredibly refreshing and we’re privileged to be working with them. Locally, the Fleet Walk Management team who run the units have also been incredible as we setup into the early hours every night, their security team always checking in on us and have overall been exceptionally supportive as we’ve come into the space. Then our two funding sponsors Torbay Culture and Torbay Development Agency, both of whom have provided financial assistance for the work we’re doing to support local arts and deliver additional opportunities over the coming month whilst we’re in the space. Also, Friends of the Gallery, The Debonair Group and The Training Partnership Ltd have made donations to the work we’re doing so thanks to them also. Local arts organisations Torre Abbey and Cockington Court have very kindly provided us with contributions of display surfaces and installation equipment which have helped make the space look as professional as it does, so thank you to everyone here. Also, a huge thank you to our partner art societies Creative Coverage and Torbay Guild of Artists who have assisted us with exhibition PR and judging commitments. And then there’s a long list of individuals who need special mentions so here we go! Builder Paul McCann who got the space ready for us in record time. Mark Hoyle who very kindly spent two days ferrying furniture from various sites to the exhibition venue for us. Ziggy, our poetic pal, who assisted with the hang on several days and has now joined us in the space every day to steward and support. Vikki Harvey, who grabbed a late shift with us before launch to help install our beautiful ceiling display. John Tomkins of Emberlense Productions for filming our preview event and continuing to support the work we do. Hollie Dennison who joined us in the final mad rush an hour before launch to tie up all the loose ends. Mayor Gordon Oliver who kindly launched the event for us. Alan Price-Roberts and Susan Cavaliere who helped us judge entries and narrow down the huge number of submissions we received. Julie and I also both need to thank our respective partners Brian and Grace who not only put a huge amount of work into the space with us but also generally put up with us working ridiculous hours, being stressed, and all together not keeping on top of day to day life. Finally, of course, and we’ve said it before, thanks to all the artists who took the time to submit work to this show and have helped to shape an incredible exhibition. There would quite clearly be nothing to show without your hard work and you did not let us down with the quality of pieces entered, with a diversity of art now on display that can’t fail to deliver something for every visitor who comes through the space. We’ve probably rattled on long enough so all that remains to be said is remember to check out our full calendar of Summer exhibitions across both our venues this season. We’re now coming into the final week of Alan Price-Roberts show at Artizan Gallery which has attracted some wonderful responses as visitors have tracked his work across three July exhibitions he’s taking part in! You can now view his exhibition on our 360 page so make sure to check that out! #ArtizanSummerOpen2018 #July #2018 #ArtistPreview #AlanPriceRoberts #ERSO18