Nailsworth has several galleries and the Ruskin Mill College. In the Nonsuch Bookshop I bought a book of Greg Tricker's Catacombs paintings as a present for Diana. These are paintings and stone carvings centred around early Christianity and inspired by the wall paintings in the catacombs beneath Rome. Tricker is a local artist, living in Nailsworth itself. Also in Nailsworth I saw examples of the work of the Welsh artist Sara Philpott whose neo-romantic paintings celebrate the mysteries of motherhood and creation.
Painswick hosts an Arts Festival throughout August which included the Painswick Centre Open Studios and an exhibition by the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen. Work that I found of particular interest included that by milliner Sarah Cant, ceramicist Ann James, and printmaker Christopher Noble. Guest artists at the exhibition came from the Artist Blacksmithing course at the Hereford College of Arts. Nadine Angela was among these and exhibited two Ritual Bowls; vigorous, sensual swirls which by being broken communicated their iconic as opposed to utilitarian nature.
In the Behold exhibition at the Arts Festival, I saw some wonderfully quirky sculptures made with found objects by Edwina Bridgeman that had a real English eccentricity but which were all based on biblical themes. The largest was a Madonna and Child but there was also a piece based on the Songs of Songs and another on the passage from Isaiah about the lion and lamb lying together and a little child shall lead them.
Bridgeman writes that she makes:
"figurative three-dimensional sculpture from found wood, often driftwood, and found objects. The work is narrative and I use words and stories as a starting point. Although I make work on many different subjects, often working to commission, journeys are a recurrent theme. I have made work about the voyages of saints (St Newlyn and her children, St. Brendan and the sea monsters) to secular journeys, Laika clambering aboard her rocket and the giraffe Zarafa travelling down the Nile on a barge. My work is often described as joyful and I am keen to create an atmosphere of optimism and a sense of moving forward. Humour is also an important element. Found objects support not only the humour but bring their previous lives with them giving the work depth and, hopefully, create a piece with which one would want to engage."
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Noah And The Whale - Blue Skies.
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