FRESH FOR FEBRUARY
I am delighted that Quercus has popped up in Bath this month! I know it has been some time since we had any activity so thank you so much for your continued interest in the gallery. It is a real joy to be reconnecting with artists and clients and exhibiting once again in Bath. I hope QG will be out and about much more this year. I am hugely grateful to Kelly, owner at The Bath Framer, for allowing Quercus Gallery to share her beautiful shop space this month. Also, special congratulations to The Bath Framer for having been selected as a finalist for a 2018 Bath Life Award in the Creative category. All shall be revealed at the awards ceremony on Thursday 1st March!
Work by some new artists features in our first pop-up of the year and I’m delighted to be working with two artists whose work I have long admired: Emma Lawrenson and Lucy Augé, who have both been very generous with the collections they’ve sent for this show. Emma Lawrenson is a printmaker whose work is informed by the shapes, spaces, textures and colours observed in her surrounding landscape. From initial sketches, collages and photographs, Emma gradually fine-tunes her images, adding or subtracting elements and reworking compositions in order to arrive at visual combinations that achieve an understated harmony on paper. Her works all have a beautiful balance of colour, texture and form. Each piece can stand on its own but when put together groupings of works are a real joy to see. It has been highly satisfying pairing works and seeing how the pieces converse with each other in the shop window! Read more about Emma’s work.
I have known Lucy and her work for some time and she would often come to the gallery when it was on the corner of Queen Street and Trim Street. Lucy is an artist and naturalist whose work is a quiet celebration of plant life, growth and form. Her artistic approach is deeply rooted in an awareness and appreciation for the seasons. Her work is often produced on a large scale, many small plant or flower studies making up a whole installation, which echoes how plants naturally grow together in the wild. I remember seeing her first solo exhibition of 500 flower paintings at 44AD in Bath a couple of years ago and being blown away by the strength and variety of the installation. Read more about Lucy’s work.
It’s been really lovely catching up with Elisabeth Barry and Karen Parker for this show as well. At the end of last year Elisabeth moved to a new studio near Oakhill in Somerset and I went to visit her earlier this month. She has transformed an old car garage into a sleek new studio space, complete with underground clay storage in the old garage pit! For the current show there are some of Elisabeth’s new pieces on show including some new small churns with a beautiful deep blue glaze on the outside, some perfect small grey jugs and some new forms in blue and grey glazes. Elisabeth’s porcelain necklaces are proving very popular. They are so beautiful and comfortable wearable and she is constantly evolving new designs. Read more about Elisabeth’s work here.
Seeing Karen Parker at her studio in Bath a few weeks ago was great and she has some stunning new designs in silver and gold, many of which we have on display in the shop and online. New forms include her rivet bangles, rings and earrings, which are formed out of a solid silver wrap with 14ct gold rivet. Her necklaces too are new to the gallery, including a beautiful multilayered ‘Rope of Mussels’ necklace, which continues her collection based around mussel shells and a brand new ‘Dada’ necklace, composed out of textured silver pendant and Lava bead set on an oxidised silver chain. I am always amazed by the beauty and finesse of all Karen’s jewellery. Each piece is unique, completely hand made by a talented maker who is so fluent with her materials and processes.
I hope this pop-up will be the first of many this year and please let me know if you would like any further information about anything you see.
Evie