Events

I’m delighted that we had so many submissions to this years Open exhibition here and that it will be a truly open one, with work by all seventy artists included. There is such a wide range of responses to this years theme ‘one thing that was important in lockdown’: from the humorous or poignant to the political and surreal. Most are paintings on paper or canvas and include work by artists familiar to Town House – Doreen Fletcher, Eleanor Crow and Melissa Scott Miller, but the exhibition also includes new artists and other media: ceramics, sculpture, stained glass and there is even one piece of jewellery.

I am hoping that we will be able to show all the works together, but if there is a particular work or artist that is of interest, please check with us that it is on display before visiting as we may need to rotate works. Details, including images, of all the works in the Open will be on the website from 10th July.

Here are the artists taking part (listed alphabetically by surname):-

Sonia Ali	Henrietta MacPhee
Ian Anderson	Jonathan Madden
Nadeem Baghdadi	Jess Marley Clarke
Belle Benson	Pippa Marsh
Nicholas Borden	Ruth Martin
Peta Bridle	Richard Mason
Sarah Brownlee	Mark McConnell
Christy Burdock	Anne McNeill Pulati
Trevor Burgess	Elise Mendelle
Louise Burston	Alex Morrigan
Deric Ch’ng	David Nix
Rosamund Coady	Philip O’Dwyer
Martin Cox	Julian Palmisciano
Eleanor Crow	Julie Price
Emma Davies	Dave Rees
Robin Dixon	Arabella Ross
Lauriecell Du	Diana Sandetskaya
Lucy Duke	Melissa Scott Miller
Isabella Dyson	Bex Shaw
Peter Elwell	Susan Short
Doreen Fletcher	Natalie Singh
Bonnie Gibbons	Jane Smith
Marc Gooderham	Stewart Smith
Rowena Hamilton	Alison Stirling
Lia Hattersley	Richard Swallow
John Hobbs	Rob Thom
Mandy Hudson	Chris Thompson
Peter Illingworth	Lydia Thornley
Kay Kante	Linda White
Rachel Larkins	Steve Wilde
Marie Lenclos	Shelagh Wilson
Jes Liberty	Gertie Young
Rachel Lindsey Clark	Jane Young
Soozy Lipsey

 

The Lockdown Paintings of Nicholas Borden

The video of this exhibition has now been posted on Youtube:

Exhibition at Town House 19th June – 4th July, booking not required to visit the gallery

Town House welcomes Nicholas Borden back to the gallery here for an exhibition of his lockdown paintings. He always works from life, taking his easel out with him in rain or shine and he continued to work this way during lockdown, with added views from his windows. So of necessity, many of his subjects in Wishful Thinking were painted locally in East London where he lives – although he did occasionally venture further afield.

This way of working always lends a vibrancy and immediacy to Nicholas’ work that combine to convey a sense of ‘being there’ to the viewer. The works in this exhibition have a particular intensity however, perhaps the result of the circumstances and isolation imposed by lockdown, but also perhaps a response to a more urgent need he felt to record what he saw around him during the pandemic.

What Nicholas recorded in paint was what we all experienced in lockdown: going for a walk, visiting parks and looking at gardens whether from outside or in, the Wishful Thinking of the title for those who had no access to their own outdoor space.

Nicholas Borden’s exhibition ‘Wishful Thinking’ will be on sale at Town House in Fournier Street and on the home page of the website from Saturday 19th June – Sunday 4th July. Please note we will be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays while restrictions remain in force. No booking necessary

Town House is having an Open exhibition again this summer! We had lots of visitors to our first one last year and I’m hoping this one will be even more popular.

I’d like to encourage as many artists as possible to submit as I want to have a wide range of artists’ work here over the summer, with many different interpretations of the theme: one thing that was important to you in lockdown. It can be a person, place, object or idea, just something that really helped over the past year, with an explanatory statement of up to 500 words.

Please tell anyone you know about it who might be interested….

It is open to residents of the UK who wish to submit an original painting in oil, acrylic or watercolour  up to A1 in size (including frame), or an original (portable) sculpture. Submission ends on 16th May and for more details and the submission form see

http://bitly.com/THOpen21 

 

An exhibition to accompany publication of the book of the same name featuring over eighty of Eleanor’s watercolours from the book, including some new ones

At a time of momentous change in the high street, Eleanor’s witty and fascinating personal survey champions the enduring culture of Britain’s small neighbourhood shops. Eleanor’s collection includes eighty of her watercolours of the capital’s bakers, cafés, butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers, chemists, launderettes, hardware stores, eel & pie shops, bookshops and stationers. Her pictures are accompanied in the book by the stories of the shops, their history and their shopkeepers – stretching from Chelsea in the west to Bethnal Green and Walthamstow in the east.

The watercolours are £150 framed (A5) and larger ones are £210 framed.

The exhibition opens on the 3rd October with a book launch and signing that evening 6 – 8pm and the exhibition continues at Town House until Sunday 20th October.

I first came encountered David Stuart as a writer on garden history many years ago and was delighted to discover last year that he has now taken to paint . As a result I’m happy to announce that the summer exhibition at Town House shows recent work by David – botanist, author and now artist. Much of his work uses plants as a central motif and though treated with great expression, all are based on an intense knowledge of plant design and an equally intense love of their beauty.

David has always loved plants. After frequent painting trips to Kew Gardens as a child, he became a botanist studying plant structure and relationships and has a PhD from Edinburgh University, working at the Royal Botanic Garden. Thereafter, he spent many years as a writer and journalist specialising in gardens, garden history, plants and their influence on all our lives.

He has had columns in national newspapers and has published fifteen books, many hugely well reviewed. They include Georgian Gardens, Plants that Shaped our Gardens, Dangerous Garden, and Classic Garden Plans. Recently though, he has returned to painting and print making.

Exhibition runs at Town House 18th May – 8th September