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Whilst we’re not quite walking through a Winter wonderland just yet, December is here, and with it comes all of the excitement, anticipation and, let’s face it, stress(!) of Christmas. With the Gallery open right up until December 23rd that doesn’t leave us much time to do our festive shopping, so believe us when we say, we understand the pressures of planning at this time of year. There’s no time and the shops never have what you want in stock, making it all too tempting to take the easy way out and resort to shopping online. With this in mind, we thought we’d offer a helping hand to everyone else working hard right up to Christmas Eve. This month, our Beach Hut article brings you all the must have tips on local, ethical, Christmas shopping! One of the best places to grab creative gifts is a good old Christmas Fayre, and there’s a handful of these in Torbay! Our two top tips are the Brixham Heritage Museum Fayre on December 2nd and Torre Abbey’s Winter Fest running for two days from December 2nd to December 3rd. Both promise to be magical, with Winter Fest seeing Torre Abbey filled with craft stalls in the beautiful setting of the museum. We’ll be here with some of our crafty friends, so pop along to see some of the Artizan collection and maybe take home a little something local for Christmas. Alternatively, why not have a makers Christmas? A talented friend of Artizan, Steph Pillinger, will be running a jewellery making workshop on December 2nd from Torbay Artspace. She’ll be teaching a relatively new technique using eco-friendly metal clay, and at the end of the day you’ll take away a beautiful handmade piece for yourself or a unique gift for a loved one. Finally, we must not forget Torbay’s wealth of independent retailers, all well-stocked for Christmas. If you’re a keen crafter, head over the Purple Valley Design and get knitting those festive Jumpers. Or, for those who like us are creatively challenged, you can still shop local. Cloudberry Lily over in Babbacombe have a gorgeous Christmas display and loads of beautiful gift ideas. The Cockington Court Craft Studios are all abuzz with activity and with bonus Christmas festivities on the first three weekends of December, it’s well worth a visit to the village. Our fellow Muddy Stilettos Finalists, Tooth and Claw should also not be missed over in Brixham if you want something a bit more niche, with luxurious home accessories imported into the English Riviera from alternative designer names. And if you’re looking for the kids, get their toys locally from our Lucius Street Friends at the Action Model Centre! Of course don’t forget to stop by and see us! We’ll be breaking out the mince pies at Artizan for our final exhibition of the year, our HUGE Winter Open (November 28th to December 23rd). We’ve got over 50 artists joining us here for this one with an exhibition that promises to be so big, we’re holding two Artist Preview evenings (December 1st & 2nd 18:00-20:00). So, join us and all our creative friends this Christmas. That’s the December Cultural line up, all that’s left for us to do is wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in January! #BeachHut #CultureUpdate #December #2017 #December2017 #Cockington #PurpleValley #WinterOpen #TorbayArtspace

With mince pies well and truly on the supermarket shelves now, it’s beginning to look a lot like…but let’s not talk about that! Instead, lets enjoy November for as long as possible and put off thoughts of present wrapping and turkey stuffing and charades. SpeakeasyTorquay have got a double special this month, kicking off with Munjenta Café November 1st – a Latin Jazz Quintet led by saxophonist Charlie Hearnshaw – and wrapping up with Sunsplash Quartet November 29th – led by pianist Philip Clout known for his work with ZubopGambia. (Both take place at Toorak Hotel and tickets are available at speakeasytorquay.com) Top of our list this month is the continuation of Torquay Museum’s Explorers Season which will run until February 2018. As well as “The Lost City of Z” Exhibition, which focuses on Torquay-born explorer Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett and his search for The Lost City in the Amazon Jungle, November will host two talks as part of the exhibition. November 11th, award winning filmmaker Jessica Pearce will be talking about her time documenting women explorers in “The Space Outside” and how film can act as a powerful communicator. November 18th, Ordnance Survey GetOutside Champion Belinda Dixon will talk on exploration near and far in a multi-media session which will inspire its audience to “make their own discoveries” with a message that exploration can be occur no matter how far you travel. Make sure to keep an eye on this exciting season on the museums website. Our own exhibition at Torre Abbey continues to run until November 19th, originally hosted as part of the International Agatha Christie Festival. This small show curates local and national artists engaging with legacy of Agatha Christie, her love of travel and explorations in the middle east. If you missed this year’s festival, we hope that this modest collection will give you a glimpse of what a fantastic week it was. That’s all we can cram in for this month, but if you’re looking for more things to do, make sure to head to www.art-hub.co.uk where we curate a list of all things cultural in Torbay. #CultureUpdate #BeachHutMagazine #Artizan

Despite continued efforts made by the weather to the contrary, it's now officially Summer! Torbay’s June Airshow confirmed this as, despite inclement weather, across the three towns turnouts were strong on promenades, beaches and balconies to enjoy the aerobatic entertainment. This month, Artizan will be officially declaring the Summer season started as well, with the launch of the Artizan 2017 Summer Open. This annual exhibition has become the highlight of our exhibition calendar and it started completely by accident back in 2015. Following a last-minute cancellation in September, we were struggling to find a way to quickly pull an exhibition together for the end of the Summer; having been open not much more than a year, the prospects of losing valuable show time at the height of the season was a scary thought for such a new business. Then one evening, as the chances of finding a solution were seeming less and less likely, our thoughts turned to the recently closed Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, with its 1100 works spread across four galleries from a diverse range of talented artists. And then it occurred to us, why couldn’t we do that? We’d never done an open exhibition before, this could be a good time to start! And so, the Artizan End of Summer Open came to be. We started small, just a two-week long show. Our call time wasn’t much longer than this either, but we were still inundated with submissions to our first ever open! The exhibition has now been carried on year after year and for 2017 the show has been transformed into the Artizan Summer Open and runs for a full month at the height of the season! As usual we’ve been overwhelmed with submissions and we’ll be showing work from a huge number of talented Torbay and Devon artists, so this month our little gallery may just be the best place to take in the talent that Torbay’s visual arts has to offer. We look forward to seeing you at the exhibition which runs from 3rd July – 29th July, with an Artist Preview on 7th July. #CultureUpdate #BeachHutMagazine #Events #What39sOn #2017 #July

With lighter mornings and longer evenings – and the fact that we’re already writing our sixth culture update for Beach Hut – it’s becoming very clear that we are well on the way to Summer and with it, Torquay’s busiest season. So, we thought we’d change it up a little bit this month and rather than just give you an event round up for June instead let you know about three great venues which will keep you busy for the whole Summer! Firstly, Cockington Court is hardly Torquay’s best kept secret, but its Kitchen Gallery might be. Complementing the Sea Change and Stable Studios, this quaint gallery with original fireplace has gained a growing reputation for exhibiting international artists as well as emerging local talent. In the beautiful setting of the historic estate, it’s well worth a visit as part of a day trip to the village and over the Summer period will be showing a supporting exhibition for the gardens Sculpture Trail. Next, nestled in Abbey Gardens, is the lovely One World Café. By day, this tucked away little café with lush gardens is nicely off the beaten track, offering a quiet haven from the hustle and bustle of the seafront. But by night, this unassuming venue is transformed into one of Torbay’s best music spots. With regular DJ sets offering everything from Motown to reggae to funk, toss in some late Summer sunshine and One World’s extensive selection of world lagers and you may well forget you’re in the UK at all! Finally, Torbay’s oldest theatre, The Palace in Paignton, offers the chance to take in a show in spectacular historic surroundings. Renovated in 2005, this truly community theatre now offers a packed calendar of shows from national tours through to local and in house productions. And there you have it, three great venues to fill your Summer calendar with art and culture! Remember to check out our website for weekly updates, as well as our own full calendar of Summer events! Current Art at Artizan #CultureUpdate #BeachHutMagazine #Events #What39sOn #2017 #June

Winter is nearly over and we’re looking forward to Spring, well, springing! We’ve had a great February in the gallery, with a wonderful retrospective of fused glass artist, Tim Long (1941-2015). We also played host to Claire Austin, as she launched her new collection of bridal headpieces which looked incredible in the gallery! Getting out and about, we visited Paula Kendall’s stunning exhibition over in Totnes and took in the launch of a group show featuring favourites Paul Ansell, Tony Homer and Sue Williamson; we’re excited to say that Paul’s work is now with us at Artizan so do pop in if you’re a fan! So, what’s on in March? First, we want to tell you about Torbay Decorative and Fine Art Society, part of a national network of charities organising a programme of lectures from some of the country’s top experts. We joined them in February to enjoy a lecture on Buckfast Abbey given by Mark Cottle and had a lovely time with the very welcoming group. In March, their programme continues with Michael Swift’s talk, “Stained Glass: Crown Jewels of the South West”. They’re a fab little society, delivering an interesting and professional quality programme, so well worth checking out (March 9th, St Mathias Church, 2:15PM, tickets £8)! For the poets out there, Cockington kicks of POETSFriday again for 2017. These quarterly events welcome local poets to come and write and read on a theme with this month being “Ancient Myths” (24th March, Resource Room, Seachange Studios, 2-4PM). You can also catch more poetry at Artizan with guest set from Nick Kitto (20th March, 19:30)! For March’s Exhibition in our 2017 Solo Series, we’re excited to bring you a collection from Jim Doran, with his series of ethereal Dartmoor landscapes (Feb 28th – Mar 30th). We’ll also have Sarah Yeo, Exeter based singer songwriter, performing at our monthly Acoustic Night (27th March, 19:30). That’s your March Art and Culture fix, we’ll see you next month! #CultureUpdate #JimDoran #Christmas2017 #BeachHutMagazine #Artizan #Cockington

Congratulations everyone, we made it through January! It’s been a busy start to the year for the team at Artizan but we’ve had a very enjoyable first exhibition from Torquay artist Sam Regan. Thanks to everyone who came along and visited, we’ve got plenty more planned for 2017! With February looking to be cold and dreary, we’re going to make sure that there’s plenty in your cultural calendar to keep your spirits up, so here’s what you’ve got to look forward to this month. If you’re looking to get your fill of art, one of our favourite artists will be featured over in Paignton. Kim Freeman will be displaying in Sands Road Gallery this month, and her fantastic mixed-media abstracts, which combine elements of photography, collage and pattern making, will definitely brighten any winter blues. And of course, pop down to Lucius Street to see who’s on display at Artizan and Torbay Galleries. For music lovers, there are some real treats. Classical enthusiasts get your tickets for Lupton Houses, Cello, Violin and Piano Recital with Greg Vorster, Yulia Northridge and Ekaterina Shetliffe, 19th February. Or for those preferring a jazz influence, Speakeasy’s second event of 2017 is the place to be, with La Vie En Rose performing an eclectic mix of gypsy jazz inspired, western swing infused, blues and rock charged music, at The Toorak Hotel, 22nd February. And not forgetting, Artizan’s very own laid back Acoustic Sessions with guest performance from Michael Baker, 27th February. Finally, in the world of theatre and lectures there’s two you won’t want to miss. Torquay Museum continue their programme of talks with Antiques Roadshow Specialist, Marc Allum in discussion on pieces from his own personal collection, 3rd February. And over in Paignton, the Palace Theatre plays host to a performance of Alan Ayckbourn’s, Confusions, a series of five interconnected one-act plays on the theme of obsession and isolation. That’s your February Art and Culture fix, we’ll see you next month! #BeachHut #CultureUpdate #2017 #February #KimFreeman #SandsRoad #SamRegan #PalaceTheatre #Article #ArtizanTorquay

After visiting Contemporary Art Fairs, Reading last year as well as the Chester Arts Fair, we're excited to confirm that you'll be able to visit Kirsteen Titchener at CAF Surrey at Sandown Racecourse in March. The Fair will feature works from around 160 of the UK’s and Europe’s leading contemporary artists and galleries and with her award-winning photography on display we have no doubt that Kirsteen’s pieces will prove to be one of the highlights of the Fair. Included in the work that she will be showing will be work from her latest series of work, most  recently shown at the Artizan launch last month. For more information, visit the Contemporary Art Fairs website here.

We are pleased to welcome landscape artist Chris Pitman to the site. "I aspire to transform moors, hills, water, sand, buildings, and people into compelling scenes, finding a constant source of inspiration in the fluctuating light of the seasons." You can view Chris' full profile here. #Arthub #Profile #NewArtist #ChrisPitman #LandscapeArtist

It’s March, and finally, miraculously, Artizan Gallery is back! After a far too lengthy absence, in the middle of February we managed to reopen our doors and officially start our 2019 with the help of some wonderful guests who joined us for the grand launch. And with that milestone safely under our belts, we can look forward to the rest of the year and we’re sure it is going to have plenty to offer. And it’s already been a busy year in fact. Our relaunch exhibition has passed as we got to enjoy the work of our five Artizan artists, Kirsteen Titchener, Jo West, F. G. Davis, Martin Dutton and Susan Cavaliere. And this wasn’t even the first exhibiting opportunity of 2019 with both Martin’s and Susan’s work also being on display in the Riviera Art Fair at Torre Abbey’s Spanish Barn. The societies exhibition was a great success, with collaboration between Devon Artist Network, Torbay Guild of Artists and Brixham Art Society for the second year running. We attended the preview afternoon to meet the award winners, who included Tracy Fox (collecting the Cavaliere Cup), Pauline Talbot (who took away the Elisabeth Bovil Trophy) and Julie Smith (winner of the June Urban trophy), with Martin and Susan also picking up awards. In the same breath, applications for this years Cockington Sculpture Trail were launched and have recently closed, for the third-year building on the exciting event hosted in the grounds of the court. Watch out for the launch of this in May. As well as this, we were pleased to celebrate the news that the Torbay Culture Ambassadors are back. The volunteers network, which was piloted back in 2017, was relaunched in February with the addition of a new training programme and hosts network to better connect individuals with local opportunities; hopefully there’ll be a few hosted with Artizan Gallery over the Summer. We're now looking forward to the rest of the year which we’re sure is going to have plenty to offer. March sees us setting up and running our second show of 2019 featuring two North Devon Artists, Jenny Smy and Gill Jones so still plenty of time to pop in and see us for this one. We’ll leave you with one final bit of news, a teaser really. Make sure to keep an “eye” on eye-view.org.uk. We look forward to telling you more on that next month! #BeachHut #CultureUpdate #March2018 #KirsteenTitchener #FGDavis #MartinDutton #JoWest #SusanCavaliere #TorbayGuildOfArtists #DevonArtSociety #BrixhamArtSociety #TorreAbbey #PaulineTalbot #TracyFox #TorbayCulture #TorbayCultureAmbassadors

We had a busy year on social media last year and we're always excited to see the posts you LOVE! So as we build up to relaunch, we took a look back at our 5 top Facebook posts of 2018 as part of the Artizan 2018 rewind, to find what you thought our best moments of 2018 were... Number 5... Serendipitously, number 5 takes us back exactly one year, to our February exhibition last year. The Art of You was an incredible exhibition where we welcomed individuals from all walks of life to celebrate their creativity whether it was in the form of a still life or a doodle! It was also the first time we had the pleasure of meeting Artizan Artist Kirsteen Titchener. Number 4... And Kirsteen wasn't the only artist we introduced last year. In fact, we worked with nearly 500 artists in total across 2018, but one group we're particularly excited about is the Geopark Ambassador Artists, part of our associate partnership with the English Riviera UNESCO Global Geopark. This talented bunch will be exhibiting with us throughout 2019 as the help us celebrate the geological and cultural heritage across the numerous sites of significant scientific interest across Torbay. Number 3... It barely seems like five minutes ago that we were getting ready for the Artizan Winter Open exhibition (it certainly feels cold enough still!) You loved this exhibition almost as much as we did, attending in your thousands to our pop-up venue for some Christmas shopping with the Artizan team. Number 2... Proving video content is still king, the second favourite post of 2018 was a short clip from our Summer Open of the wonderful Jayne Farleigh delighting high street crowds with live painting outside our Summer Open Exhibition. "Sunset Estuary" (the piece she painted) later went on to be exhibited in our Winter Open Exhibition later that year, and Jayne of course couldn't resist a bit of live painting again despite the less than temperate weather conditions... Number 1! Who would have guessed that so many people would like a picture of our tired old mugs after a week of sleepless nights! Our post-preview Summer Open selfie definitely didn't capture our best sides, but after such a wonderful evening celebrating with all our arty friends it was certainly a great memory! #2019 #2018 #TopFive #Facebook #Social #Review #ArtizanTorquay

I spent Christmas in Bristol at the end of last year, it's becoming an annual tradition as I housesit for relatives who migrate to warmer climes in Winter; personally, I don't see what's so festive about firepit cooked lobster on icing sugar beaches, surrounded by palms, turtles and emerald waters but to each their own. Regardless, it's a great excuse for what is proving to be a much-needed annual break, in a city I hold a degree of nostalgia for having studied at Bristol University. Each time I’m reminded that four years ago when I graduated, I swore I would live nowhere else and was convinced that returning to Torbay and its distinctly slower pace, could only ever be a temporary situation. Each time I’m reminded of the vibrant cultural offer that I love the city for; its abundance of music venues, independent, artisan highstreets, high calibre museums and galleries, and mind-bending public artworks. Each time I’m reminded that it’s always a real struggle to leave… Now I have the dog in tow, I’m even discovering Bristol has a comparable number of green spaces that pepper the city, softening what was already a reasonably tame urban environment for a Dartmoor lover like myself. It just about ticks every box. Extending our Christmas break, we headed back to Bristol in the middle of January to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition which is currently being hosted at M Shed. Flipping over my ticket as we queued for the crowd drawing gallery, I was surprised to see something I recognised: “Coming Soon to M Shed, Tattoo, British Tattoo Art Revealed”. The promotional image was immediately recognisable, having been so prominently seen around Torbay last year when the very same exhibition had been hosted at Torre Abbey. And soon it would be here, in the very gallery where we were about to enjoy what is perhaps the most prestigious photography awards series on the planet. Seeing these two events sharing space on the same bit of card as I scanned my entry into the exhibition reaffirmed for me why I have chosen to stay in Torbay. I certainly didn’t take #TorbayTattooTales for granted when it was here; we visited the exhibition on several occasions during its stay at Torre Abbey, and raved about it to all who would listen, even then knowing this was a big deal for Torbay. But it’s rare to see so starkly how this significance sits in the bigger picture, that the very same show would go on to huge city venues where crowds are much easier to come by. Perhaps it’s unreasonable to expect Torbay to compete with a city like Bristol, the two clearly operate on completely different scales. But there’s a part of me, the part that wakes up each morning excited to be working on the English Riviera, that thinks maybe in fact it’s not unreasonable at all and maybe we might have something that gives the big city a run for its money… #BeachHut #CultureUpdate #Torbay #Bristol #TorbayTattooTales

Contemporary Art Fairs were originally established in Windsor in 2005 and now run across three cities in the UK, offering spaces for artists and art lovers to meet face to face. Operating in Windsor, Surrey and Reading, the organisation aims to deliver a relaxed, informal fair, offering affordable works direct from leading contemporary artists and award-winning galleries. In a couple of weekends time, the Contemporary Art Fair Reading will welcome over 160 artists to the Rivermead Leisure Complex, and we’re excited to say that two of them are friends of Artizan! South Devon artists Jo West and Kirsteen Titchener will both be a long way from home in Reading on April 21st and 22nd, but they certainly won’t be out of place as they offer their exceptional work to this forum. Jo first exhibited with us back in 2017 as she introduced her uplifting colour changing resin works to the Bay. Inspired by the beauty of nature, works sparkle (literally!) with life, each finished with dried flowers, semiprecious stones, and gold and silver leaf to create truly lavish decorative pieces. Floral landscapes, sunsets and whimsical woodlands are, quite simply, charming with a naïve style and bright palette. Kirsteen, joined us for the first time in February of this year when she exhibited her work “The Grip” as part of our explorative showcase “The Art of You”. Working in contemporary photography, she uses photomanipulation and composite techniques to create beautiful and unusual portraiture works and scenescapes, with every element used from her own original photography. Each work offers an arresting reality, impossible compositions captured with subtle but perfectly executed digital techniques to create flawless illusions, with many pieces gaining awards recognition. But not all is magic, as, drawing on a background in psychology, Kirsteen uses the works to reflect the depth and fragility of human emotions. Both artists are currently exhibiting with us at the Cockington Court Kitchen Gallery, where their work will be on display until April 23rd. For those who are attending Contemporary Art Fair Reading, we would encourage you to go and experience the works of both these artists to whom we wish the best of luck for the weekend! #2018 #ContemporaryArtFairReading #ContemporaryArtFair #Reading #ArtFair #April #KirsteenTitchener #JoWest #Cockington #Exhibition