Private View

Silver jubilee for Wylye Valley Art Trail

THE millennium was not only the dawn of a new century, locally it marked the launch of a new celebration of visual art. Wylye Valley Art Trail, the brainchild of Crockerton-based artist Nick Andrew, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, from Saturday 3rd to Sunday 11th May. In the quarter-century since the launch, this eight-day…

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For the love of trees

THE Arborealists, a group of professional artists – painters, print-makers, photographers and sculptors, united by a love of trees – have their first Dorset exhibition at the Market Yard gallery at Sculpture by the Lakes, the atmospheric watery sculpture park near Tincleton, a few miles east of Dorchester, until 19th April. This is The Arborealists’…

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After Sedgemoor

THE last pitched battle fought on English soil took place at Sedgemoor – the aftermath, which included the infamous “Bloody Assuzes” of Judge Jeffreys, is the subject of the major spring exhibition at the Museum of Somerset. Remembering the Monmouth Rebellion will be on show until 6th July. The exhibition is part of the museum’s…

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From the trees to the lakes

ONE of the country’s most scenically beautiful visual arts venues, Sculpture by the Lakes, at Pallington near Dorchester, hosts an exhibition by The Arborealists, from 22nd March to 19th April, the first time the group has exhibited in Dorset. The Arborealists group, which was founded in 2013, comprises 50 professional artists, who celebrate trees in…

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An extraordinary portrait of a remarkable man

JACK Dickson, a member of the art department at Bryanston School, Blandford, was featured on a recent edition of Bill Bailey’s BBC series Extraordinary Portraits. The programme featured Jack’s portrait of a remarkable, life-saving, railway worker, Rizwan Javed. East Londoner Rizwan, who works for London Underground, has saved 29 people from taking their own lives…

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Somerset women in the Second World War

THE big spring exhibition at the Somerset Rural Life Museum at Glastonbury, on until 8th June, is Strength and Resilience: Somerset Women in the Second World War, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, by focusing on the lives of four women who played their part during the conflict and…

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From the city to the sea (at Poole)

CONCEPTUAL artist Ben Oakley is bringing a collection of work by ten artists, From The City To The Sea, to the gallery at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre, opening on 7th March and running to 19th April. Ben explains: “After creating the Ben Oakley Gallery in 2010 as a platform for emerging artists, we have now…

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Restless Earth at Sladers Yard

IT would be hard to imagine two artists whose work is more different than landscape painter Anthony Garratt and wood engraver Howard Phipps, but their very different styles – Garratt’s massive colour-saturated canvases and Phipps’ intricately detailed tiny prints – are oddly complementary. Both are artists at the top of their game – and they…

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Howard Phipps at Bovey Tracey

HOWARD Phipps, the distinguished wood engraver, who lives near Salisbury, is the featured artist in the 87th annual exhibition of the Society of Wood Engravers, which opened at London’s Bankside Gallery,  and comes to Make South West in Bovey Tracey from 1st March to 21st April and later at galleries on Merseyside, in Oxford and…

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