If writing these articles for Beach Hut has taught us anything, it’s that there’s really no shortage of things to do on our doorstep in Torbay! Easter was no exception, and we had a fantastic April taking in Speakeasy at the Toorak and having some “mudless” festival fun at Grinagog. We thought it was going to be difficult to top this month, but we were wrong; here’s your May culture roundup! We’ve already spent far too much time in Torre Abbey since it reopened (we’re considering moving in!) but there’s yet more excuses to visit. As well as their permanent displays and the historic building and gardens, until June 4th they’ll be exhibiting “Thread”, an exhibition of contemporary quilts from the Quilters’ Guild Collection. We popped to see this in March and there are some stunning examples of contemporary and traditional methods in the displays. On 6th, Ageing Well Torbay will be hosting A Symposium of Ideas at Central Church. This event will offer talks, workshops and drop-in sessions for over 50s to find out what’s available in Torbay. We’re involved in the judging of an art competition for the event and can’t wait to see the entries! Over in Brixham, as part of the Marine Conservation Day on 30th, there’s a chance to enter a photographic competition with the theme of, you guessed it, Marine Conservation! Deadline for entries is 10th, more details on their website. Finally, a quick music roundup. The popular Speakeasy series continues with the Joy Ellis Quartet at the Toorak on 17th, don’t miss this one, and we’ll be continuing our Acoustic Nights at the gallery with The Boys from Melbourne Street joining us on 29th. And that’s all we can squeeze into this one, but there is loads more going on. If your still stuck for things to do, come and join us for a coffee in the gallery for our May exhibition with artists Charles Somerton and Jo West and we’ll give you some more ideas! #BeachHut #CultureUpdate #ArtizanTorquay #May #2017 #TorreAbbey #CharlesSomerton #JoWest #SpeakeasyTorquay

Hopefully there won’t be too many April showers to dodge this month and meanwhile we’ll pretend that a quarter of 2017 hasn’t already disappeared! We had a lovely March in the gallery, with exhibiting artists Jim Doran and Paul Ansell providing spectacular shows; you can still checkout the exhibition on our Facebook page so give it a look. This month we welcome Anna McDermott to Artizan with her exhibition “Presence”. But that’s not all you can expect from Torbay for arts this month, because April is looking good for anyone wanting to get their culture fix. Firstly, we can’t not mention Grinagog(!) a three-day festival of electronic, urban, indie rock, electro swing, world music and much more in venues across the Bay. We’ve got our tickets and we can’t wait (7th-9th Apr)! And if you want yet more music, Speakeasy Torquay brings you two great performances this month from the soulful Joanna Cooke (5th Apr, Toorak Hotel) and the ambient vibes of Big Bad Wolf (19th Apr, Toorak). Or, pop along to Artizan on April 17th for an acoustic night with Simon Coverdale and other local performers. And once your ears are tired, it will be time to take in some visual art from a group of Torbay’s best local artists at the Torbay Guild of Artists 50th Anniversary Exhibition (12th – 23rd Apr, Spanish Barn). Many of our past exhibitors will be appearing there and we wish them a great show, make sure to go and give your support. Our friends at Torquay Museum continue their series of talks and this month there’s a historical theme as Phil Badcott discusses “The Transportation of South Devon Convicts to Tasmania”. And sticking with the Torbay Museums, Torre Abbey officially reopened at the end of March; we’ve already stopped by to explore and we can tell you the building and grounds are looking as beautiful as ever! That’s your April Art and Culture fix, see you next month! #BeachHut #CultureUpdate #AnnaMcDermott #ArtizanTorquay #April #2017 #JimDoran #PaulAnsell #Grinagog #SpeakeasyTorquay

In 2017 we renovated and launched our Basement Gallery, a warm cosy space beneath our Main Gallery to display sculptures, crafts and 3D works. With one wall benefiting from large, bespoke display shelving and the room being laid out as an inviting salon, this is an exciting new space for our customers to explore and enjoy, and potentially spend time in enjoying a coffee and a book from our library. The space is available to exhibit in all year round and we welcome artisans and craftspeople to bring us their creations for consideration. The Basement Gallery is also available to hire for dedicated exhibitions and pop-ups. If you're interested in displaying, please get in touch with juliebrandon@artizangallery.co.uk or pop into the Gallery! #gallery #exhibit #coffee #art #3D #artizan #opportunity #call #exhibiting

“Painting is a lot like fishing. Stick your brush in the water and wait. Hope for something big (or at least funny looking…) Read the paper. Eat a sandwich. Think about painting. Call Baselitz (no answer.) Read “Hunger”. Crossword Puzzle. Whistle. Paint. Curse God. Go home.” Joe Bradley Having studied in Brighton, Sam now lives and works in Torquay. His series ‘Torquay Paintings’ will be on display in Artizan’s Main Gallery for the first month of our 2017 Solo Series. The exhibition will run from 9th – 29th January with an opening view on Thursday 12th January. About the Work This body of work continues to be an embodiment of my place in time and where I find myself in this particular moment. My paintings are a series of non-representational spaces and objects that echo a familiar environment but are not easy to pin down. They are created through fortuitous events caused by rupture and displacement of the surface, but are controlled by the decisive shapes, forms and brush marks I apply. I want to evoke the physical presence in the painting, the engagement and freedom I have with the paint and the intuitive and visceral marking of the surface. It is through the act of painting itself and the time spent with the paintings that I uncover their subjects. These paintings subjects derive from notions of the everyday, split second chances and the brief little moments we have the pleasure of existing within. #exhibition #artizan #soloseries #2017 #abstract #local #torbay #samregan

Hello and Happy New Year! Welcome to 2017 and welcome to The Beach Hut’s new arts column from Artizan Gallery. We’re excited to bring you a monthly update on all things arty in the Bay, covering everything from exhibitions, to shows, to workshops. We’ll give you the scoop on the galleries we’re hoping to visit and events we won’t be missing so that you can get your fill of Torbay’s culture. This month though, we want to tell you a little bit about ourselves and why we care about the local arts. We’ve been running Artizan for nearly three years now(!), working with hundreds of artists from across Torbay and Devon to bring local art out of the nooks and crannies of our coastal towns and onto our venues walls for everyone to experience. Our family-run gallery has now curated over 30 exhibitions and we’ve been privileged to work with the wealth of talented artists living and producing in Torbay. 2017 is a huge year for us; not only will it mark our third Birthday, but it will also see Artizan bigger and better than ever. We’ve got two new gallery spaces with our Garden and Basement Galleries officially opening and there’s an incredible schedule of exhibitions for these already booked. Not only this, but we’re excited to be part of the Belgravia Galleries group, with The Gallery (Kevin Cowell) and the new Torbay Gallery (Andy Reed), which promises to be a big step for the art offering of Lucius Street and Belgrave Road. This month, we’ll have a solo exhibition from local artist - and coffee enthusiast - Sam Regan (you may know him from Calypso on the Torquay high street), who’ll be bringing his large, contemporary, abstracts to the main gallery (9th - 29th Jan, Launch 12th Jan). We’ll also be kicking off our Poetry (23rd Jan) and Acoustic (30th Jan) evenings with some great headliners. #BeachHut #2017 #January #Article #CultureUpdate

The idea for Arthub has come from nearly three years of experience in promoting and running a gallery in Torbay. That’s three years of working with artists, art groups and art businesses; three years of running art exhibitions, art projects and arts campaigns; three years of great work, with incredible talent in amazing venues. And in those three years we’ve learnt some valuable lessons from a sample of over 200 artists, all of whom are out their promoting themselves and their work; here’s just a few of those lessons: Artists are the best people to promote their work. No matter how hard we try, we will never be able to sell your artwork as well as you can. Buyers and collectors love to hear about your work from you. Artists often dislike talking about their work. We see it at all our launch events. Many artists hide themselves in the corners as far away as possible from their work because their nervous about discussing it! Online marketing is essential. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out, the internet has changed how we go about our day to day lives. This applies to everything we do from banking, to socialising, to how we shop, and that isn’t just isolated to ordering the groceries online, it applies to buying art too! Whether its Torbay or London, the tools at artists’ disposals to promote themselves online at a local or national level are lacking. There are some exceptions with sites like Art Rabbit offering a free, functional and stylish service to promote art exhibitions nationally, but its potential to reach people locally in small towns and cities is limited. Many local promotion sites are overcomplicated, inflexible in the way individuals can add events and difficult to navigate for visitors trying to find things to do; they’re often run by councils with limited funds and time to dedicate to them or as add-ons to sites with other primary purposes; none are dedicated to the arts. Disjointed and inadequate digital promotion sites make online marketing a full-time job. We should know, we’re doing it every day, fighting our way through a mess of local newspaper sites, radio pages, events listings and social media to best promote the exhibitions we run. It easily takes up two to three days every week for us! Artists are better together. Whether it’s affordability of opportunities, division of labour or simply having a louder voice, artists are more successful in numbers. When we think about the art group we believe it’s important that collectives are not just made up of artists but of arts businesses too and that connections are nurtured between these individuals to benefit each other; after all, we’d be out of a job if it wasn’t for artists! #promotion #artists #online

Artists often have different attitudes to online marketing. Some tentatively explore social media platforms and build an online following; some fully embrace it, listing themselves on numerous gallery and sales sites, setting up their own website and everything in between; others see it as a break from tradition and that the online market place can never offer what a physical gallery offers. We believe the importance of the online marketplace as a supporting tool for artists is indisputable; online promotion through social media is a must for any professional artist looking to make a living from their work, and a website with digital portfolio and CV are often equally necessary for maintaining a credible image. Many will even take on the burden of running their own online store, an undertaking which is both time-consuming and expensive. Regularly producing content for blogs and all manner of social media outlets can often take up more time than producing the work these tasks aim to promote! So, if it can't be avoided, we want to make sure the process of being "online" is as painless as possible, without being ineffective. And we'll tell you how Arthub aims to solve that, in our next blog post! #online #artists #ecommerce

[Archive: Another early blog post from our original site.] Whilst the sun continues to shine outside and as we have now moved into July, it is time for another mixed media exhibition at the gallery. This one entitled ‘Summer Breeze’. Again, we have a diverse mix here – something for everyone. Our Private Views continue to be well attended and we are getting lots of repeat visits to the gallery as people get to know what we are about and that here is a space that is constantly changing. Even in such a short time the gallery has exhibited work from 27 artists, all from Devon and most from Torbay. Torbay is considered a cultural ‘cold spot’ and it really should not be because we have an abundance of artistic and creative talent here. One of our latest exhibitors is Roz Woodhead who designs and makes stunning silver jewellery mounted with sea and dichroic glass. She will be with us throughout the summer. This week we also hosted a ‘Comedy Workshop’ as part of the ‘Riviera Fringe Festival’ and our thanks go to Richard James for running and performing at this event for us. We have reached the half way mark for our ‘Life Drawing’ classes so there is still time to come and take part. They take place on a Wednesday evening between 7pm and 9pm and the cost is £10 a session. In between customers we are busily upcycling some of the furniture that we have inherited and the room below the gallery will soon be able to offer a range of second hand books for sale. We have a few on sale already, but hope to expand on this over the next few months. In between times this lower room can be hired for workshops of all types so if you are creative yourself then please get in touch and arrange to come and take a look at what the space can offer. Exhibitions planned for later in the year will include glass, textiles and one on a tribal theme so watch this space for more news of these. #2014 #artizan #archive #exhibition

[Archive: Another early blog post from our original site.] Gosh, where has the time gone as we move into the third exhibition at the gallery which focuses on photography. I love the way that the space here changes and hope that all our visitors do too. The cafe is getting busier now and we are still getting lots of lovely compliments from people who come in, either to browse, buy or stop for a drink. Our Life Drawing classes have started and we are really pleased with how many have come along to take part in it. The music nights on a Monday are still taking a while to pick up but I am sure as more people get to hear about them our numbers will grow, as what could be nicer than to sit and listen to some music on a lovely summers evening? Today we were busy hanging all of the pieces for the exhibition which starts tomorrow and I am very grateful to Inja from Germany who has come to help me and will be with me in the gallery and cafe for about 6 weeks. This latest exhibition features four great but very different photographers: Julia Finzel, Toni Parks, Vicki Gardner and Pippa Todd. In addition we have hung onto Gesche's beautiful bowls for just a couple more weeks as they have proved so popular. We also have some pieces in the gallery and cafe by local printmaker Emima Higgins plus some beautiful hand painted pebbles by a lovely near neighbour of mine called Jan. So if you are looking for an extra special gift or just fancy treating yourself then you may just find it here. This exhibition runs until Saturday 5th July so plenty of time to come and take a look. #2014 #artizan #archive

[Archive: Another early blog post from our original site.] The Private View went really well on Saturday night with the gallery, cafe and garden buzzing. Plus we ha d some great music played by ‘SULU’, a jazz/blues duo. It was great this week to see the gallery and cafe being used for various meetings: Jenni Pentecost met with a fellow artist in the cafe, St Luke’s Residents Association had a meeting to discuss an event that they are planning and Torquay Town Centre Community Partnership also had a meeting here on Wednesday evening that was well attended. We sold some pieces at the Private View and today, Saturday, have sold quite a few more so it looks like people are getting to know that we are here. One of the artists who will be exhibiting next came in to take a look at the space and there have been a few other visits from artists during the week with another one signing up for the July exhibition. So as far as wall space goes, the gallery is pretty much fully booked now until October. We will be starting Life Drawing classes in a few weeks time so if anyone is interested please contact the gallery. Loopy Art has been out and about painting this week, she has donated some paintings to Palm105 fm who will be auctioning them off but they are here in the gallery if anyone wants to come and take a look. Met a lovely guy this week, Robert Ruddy, who popped into the cafe for a cup of tea, he is a horse dentist, never knew such a job existed, fascinating guy, on his way down to Cornwall for his honeymoon but had stopped off here as his wife had been involved in the restoration of Torre Abbey and was attending a ceremony there. In fact there have been lots of lovely people coming into the gallery this week, not only loving the gallery but saying how good the whole of Lucius Street is looking. On Monday evening 7pm-9pm we are offering ‘Tarot for a Tenner’ so why not pop along and see what the cards have to say for you. #2014 #artizan #archive

[Archive: Another early blog post from our original site.] It has been a couple of very busy weeks at Artizan with one exhibition closing and another starting. Last Monday the gallery was a hive of activity with the new artist here putting up their work and meeting each other. Lots of great networking with the more experienced artist sharing and helping the newer ones. I have been contacted by many artists either via email or by calling in to see me, and spaces for future events are filling up fast which makes me realise just how much a space like Artizan is needed in the Bay. The customers that have come through the gallery for a coffee, browse and to buy have also given me some great feedback and tips for moving the space forward. Thanks especially to Alison Hernandez who took some pictures and popped them on ‘FourSquare’ on Facebook. There is lots happening here today (Saturday), we have Michael McCloud who is sketching portraits and a language workshop in the room below the gallery, plus this evening we have a Private View for this new exhibition and will be having some live music to add to the atmosphere provided by local duo ‘Sulu’. The website is really taking shape and we have added some new features and have some great offers to help promote local artists such as a £10 life membership of the gallery which gets your bio plus two images on the site. If you click on the ‘artist’ page you can get an idea of how this would look. I have also decided to extend the hanging space into a part of the cafe so that we can offer some community space here. The latest exhibition is very different to the last, more great local talent on display, full of colour and well worth a look. See our flyer for details of artists exhibiting. #archive #2014 #artizan

[Archive: Our second ever weekly blog post back in 2014.] Week two culminated in the official opening of the gallery by Torbay Mayor Gordon Oliver, but let’s just rewind first. Sunday and Monday the gallery is closed so I took the chance to make some purchases for the garden area of the gallery and get plants planted up. It is a great little space with some sun and some shade to sit in and relax over a cup of coffee. Kevin Cowell popped into see me who has a gallery just around the corner and we talked about the idea of putting together a booklet showing all of the creative spaces/galleries in the Bay. On Tuesday my dear friend Mark kindly picked up and delivered a table and chairs for me, so now the garden is ready to be used. George Davis called in with the pieces he will be exhibiting next month and we both agreed that they are going to look great. Lots of visitors on Wednesday: Gesche Bueker who is doing a piece on the gallery for her ‘Beach Hut’ magazine came in to discuss what she needed from me and to find out why I had decided to open Artizan, Liz Westcott, brought me in some of her honey products to sell in the cafe - she makes all of them herself from the pure honey produced by her very own bees in Brixham. Liz will also be at Devon County Show this year. Finally Andrea came around with some flyers for an exhibition taking place at the Spanish Barn later this month and into June. This will involve several artists and is called ‘Flying Colours’. I hope to get along and take a look. Thursday and Friday I had a steady flow of customers including an American photographer now living in Torquay – I invited her to the opening. The press photographer from the Herald came around to take some pictures to go with the article the Herald are doing on the gallery and this will hopefully appear next week. Friday evening I had invited several people along to an official opening of the gallery and I am glad to say that many of them pitched up. It was a great evening with about 30 people here, we made a couple of sales and several new contacts and it was good to know that there is much support for what we are trying to do here. #2014 #archive #artizan #events #artistpreview