This season's mind provoking exhibitions from some of the region's most exciting artists...
Drawings and Monoprints by Donald Wilkinson. This exhibition brings together a selection of Northern landscapes from Cumbria including Solway coast and Lake District by renowned artist Donald Wilkinson. Capturing the movement of light and weather upon a landscape with direct mark-making, Wilkinson’s drawings have an energy and emotional connection to place. Born in Keswick in the 1930s and now living near Hadrian’s Wall in Cumbria these images explore places Wilkinson has returned to many times throughout his life.
Places, and his relationship with them, are of the utmost significance to Wilkinson. One feels he knows them like the back of his hand or the soles of his walking boots. Yet he is not a “topographical” artist, a kind of illustrator of various visited and explored landmarks, an artist-tourist. His sense of significant place goes deeper. It is in his roots. It is highly individual… His places hold all kinds of personal memories. In his drawings, however, they have also become places of imagination, regardless of precise definitions of geography or locale. They have a universal meaning to anyone who relishes rocks, waves, snow, sunset, storm clouds, even the bleakness of wild land. And anyone who relishes the scudding, sliding, percussive, slashing, wandering marks on paper that are this painter’s syntax and language. This is where invention and memory as well as observation are involved. Christopher Andreae, Introduction to Stains of Light catalogue, Tullie House Art Gallery
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Printer’s Pie* presents a medley of original prints from Northern Print.
Northern Print is a printmaking studio in the Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne that works with regional, national and international artists. This exhibition presents a selection of original prints including works by many leading printmakers working in a variety of processes including woodcut, etching and screenprinting.
Selected artists include: UK-based artists Sarah Duncan, currently nominated for the Queen Sonja Print Award and Katherine Jones whose work was included in the exhibition earlier this year Hockney to Himid: 60 Years of British Printmaking. International artists Fusako Yoshikawa (Japan) and Ellen Heck (USA) and regional artists including Joanna Bourne, Janet Dickson, Bridget Jones and illustrator/printmaker Sara Ogilvie.
*Printer’s Pie – In the days when typographic print such as newspapers were set using individual metal letter, ‘Printer’s Pie’ referred to jumbled and unsorted letters.
An digital exhibition of the best photos from the 2021 competition
Explore the awe and majesty of the world's weather in all its beauty and diversity in this brand-new digital display from the Royal Meteorological Society's Weather Photographer of the Year competition. Over 30 powerful photographs will tell the story of the earth's dramatic and ever-changing climate.
Curious clouds, majestic haloes and rainbows, rare lightning sprites, floods and magical mists are just some of the fascinating photos you will see. This exhibition showcases the very best entries from the winners and finalists of the 6th year of the competition, which attracted more than 8,900 photographs submitted by over 3,300 photographers from 114 countries.
Displayed in a video format with insights from meteorologists and photography experts, visitors will leave the exhibition with a deeper understanding of how this force of nature can affect our planet and what we need to do to protect it.
A new exhibition rooted in identity and the natural world by artist Sue Moffitt.
Having had a break from painting due to ill health, this first exhibition for some years from the renowned Northumbrian artist Sue Moffitt is rooted in nature, nurture and narratives told through text and paint. Sue says: “These paintings are rooted in my identity, my culture, my respect and reverence for animals in the natural world, and my hope that humankind can live in greater harmony with them. “We are each born into some sort of ‘family’ culture which underlies our identity, having a profound effect particularly during our early years. Our identity gives us our sense of belonging and informs our responsibilities, beliefs, values, and intentions; and being born into farming life surrounded by animals, wildlife and the countryside has a profound effect on who I am. Being in nature, with nature, is my home – my safe place. My respect for and connection to farm animals and wildlife reside in my inner being, and living on a farm was truly a privilege to me, dairy cows in particular playing a huge role in my life and my work. It is a pleasure to be able to paint and show my work again after a long break, and I hope this work touches audiences as deeply as it has me as I have worked on it.”