From 8-11 March we will be taking part in the first Joze Art Fair, at the Old Library in Battersea. Just six galleries were invited to take part and show work in this amazing space.

We will announce shortly details of the artists we will exhibit, but in the meantime please download this "E-vite" for the event with details of where it is and the other participating galleries.

See you there!

3 February 2012

On Saturday we received the new series of stoneware Valentine pots by Josse Davis.

The range included individually painted dishes, bows, teapots, vases and mugs. Many have titles such as "Making Whoopee", Give us a Kiss", "Be Mine!" and "Happy Lovers" as with this teapot illustrated with both a happy couple and a pair of love birds.

Reminiscent of his father, Derek Davis's drawings, these pieces have a sense of romance with humour and style!

A selection of the Stoneware pieces & Raku Valentine series can be found on our Facebook page.

The perfect gift for your Valentine!

23 January 2012

Here is John Zimmer and James Stewart a the Civil Partnership and Wedding Fair held at the Lansdowne Hotel, Brighton on 22 January.

It was a busy day making contacts with other wedding suppliers and possible clients.

The purpose was to promote our Wedding Gift List service, where friends and family can contribute to a fund allowing the couple to choose a work of art to have with them forwever.

Find out more about this service, also available for big birthdays and other celebrations here.

23 January 2012

During 2011 we had 10 exhibitions including five solo shows, three small group shows and two mixed shows (Summer and Christmas). Works included some of our popular figurative and landscape painters, as well as the more difficult abstract expressionist artists, which many people do find more challenging.

Although much of our sales were to existing clients/collectors we welcomed many new customers in 2012, and were helped in this by the on going provision of Own Art (Interest Free) Loans supported by the Arts Council of England and Wales.

Solo shows started with Gary Goodman, with a show opening with his reading some of his own poems at the preview to an eager crowd. In this exhibition we introduced his new series of three screenprints, produced with Artizan Editions in Brighton. Although figurative, many people find his naïve/narrative style to be simple/childlike. We would subscribe to both views: they are not mutually exclusive. Gary Goodman’s works hide a complexity both in the narrative and the application of paint which is not immediately apparent to the viewer.

Piers Ottey’s “London Seen” exhibition followed this in April, the response to which was phenomenal; we sold all the paintings in the show. This has only happened once before here (with Derek Davis in 2005). Piers Ottey followed this up with the exhibition of several paintings in a group show at the Medici Gallery, Cork Street where he also sold well. Look out for his new work to be shown here in November 2012, after two further appearances in London during the current year.

Over the Easter weekend we showed “Patrick Caulfield and Others” a short exhibition of great printmakers, which also included Jim Dine, Terry Frost and Jake Chapman. Due to the positive response to this we have planned a similar show for an extended period from February into March in 2012, also to include works by Tracey Emin, Betsy Dadd and Tom Hammick.

Then in May, we had one of the highlights of the year for me, “Out of Drawing”, a show based around drawing: one of the fundamental elements of any work, in any medium and something we can all do. Tom Hammick and two of his former pupils Betsy Dadd and Laura Carlin, produced a wide variety of work including monoprints, paintings and ceramics all of which had their basis in drawing. For the Private View invitation they each collaborated on three works for three versions of the invite printed in newspaper style. In addition they all contributed to a wall of drawings: 100 works on paper, simply placed on the wall, seemingly random and exciting to view.

Our Summer of Art, mixed summer exhibition always attracts new people to the gallery because of the wide variety of artists’ work on display. This year we welcomed back Chris Lewis to show a large ceramic urn and birdbath in the garden, alongside a new “Garden Angel” by Christopher Marvell. Kate Boxer’s large dry points created an impact because of their scale and compositions, “Blue Wolf” and he Cowboy themes in particular.

The Summer Show ends just before the Arundel Festival, during which we were pleased to show drawings and paintings by the late Yankel Feather. We were lucky to have had two exhibitions with Yankel Feather before he died in 2009, in which we showed his Cornish landscapes and still lifes. For the Festival exhibition this year we tried to link the works on show to different periods of his life. So we had people milling around art galleries and museums to show the early part of his career when he would spend time perfecting his craft; dance halls to represent his time in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s in Liverpool, when he ran a nightclub frequented by the Beatles, Cilla Black, Brian Epstein and others; and finally sheep on the Downs to represent his later years living in Brighton.

On the second Saturday of the Festival, we had a one-day event “St Ives Comes to Arundel”. Anthony Frost and Bob Devereux showed paintings and performed poetry on a market stall in front of the gallery to entertain passers by. It was a fantastic day: Bob Devereux was originally going to perform on the hour, but it seemed as though he did not stop all afternoon, such was the appreciation of the assembled crowds!<

Anthony Frost’s appearance during the Festival in August was a good teaser for his solo show in the gallery in October. The show was titled “Sublime Frequencies” and many of the works related to music: either bands, record companies or song titles. He said that he wanted the exhibition to be like an album, with the individual works being the tracks. We also included some of his new screenprints with woodblock and monoprints. This is the third time we have shown Anthony Frost’s work and each time we have been able to introduce this abstract expressionists work to new collectors.

During November and for our last solo exhibition of the year we showed “New Forest” paintings by Katharine Le Hardy. These mainly large-scale works on canvas, and smaller paintings on board showed the New Forest’s tree lined paths, clearings and waterways in Katharine Le Hardy’s unique painterly impasto style. Bold paint strokes, clever use of colour and perspective are all elements, which have the ability to draw the viewer into the works. Katharine Le Hardy is becoming collectable and will be busy in 2012 with many exhibitions planned up and down the UK.

The year ended with our Christmas Mixed Show: we had a wall of smaller works as well as larger pieces. As always we also showed ceramics by Karen Bunting, John Leach, Nigel Lambert and Lilia Umana Clarke and sculpture by Giles Penny and Paul Amey. Featured artists on the wall included Barbara Macfarlane, Nick Bodimeade, Phil Tyler, Kate Sherman and Matt Bodimeade, all of which will feature in solo and group shows during 2012.

In March we take part in the Joze Art Fair at the amazing Library Space in Battersea, London, SW11. There are just six galleries taking part and we are lucky to be one of them. This will be a chance for us to show some of our favourite artists to a wider audience, although we would also welcome some familiar faces from Sussex too!

Our 2012 Exhibition Programme is now online, and we look forward to welcoming you to the gallery duriung the year ahead.

12 January 2012

Our Christmas Mixed Exhibition is now up including our wall of small works by a number of artists including Phil Tyler, Katharine Le Hardy, Nick Bodimeade, Barbara Macfarlane, Kate Sherman and Nicholas Wriglesworth.

In additon we have large works on paper by Matt Bodimeade, print by Kate Sherman and a range of ceramics and sculpture by Karen Bunting, John Leach, Chris Keenan, Lilia Umana Clarke, Nigel Lambert, Paul Amey and Giles Penny.

So do drop in before Christmas to find that unique gift for someone or just yourself!

9 December 2011