Venue address: Forge Gallery, The Street, Walberton, BN18 0PQ
We have an exciting group of local artists exhibiting in Forge Gallery during the Festival - Bridget Woods watercolours, Carol Naylor textiles, and prints by Mitka Brindley. Ceramics by Mike Copley, Jessica Jordan, Vidya Thirunarayan and Linda Farr, with metal sculpture by Steve Rickman.
Mitka Brindley
Mitka is a printmaker and textile artist based on the South Coast of England, inspired by the beauty and movement of nature. She works with lino printing, textiles, ceramics, and watercolour, using traditional techniques to capture the essence of the natural world. and sharing her passion for handcrafted art.
Through creativity, she aims to bring the outside in, creating pieces that reflect the stillness and energy of the landscapes and wildlife around us.
Mike Copley
Mike Copley makes functional stoneware, thrown and slab work in his pottery behind Forge Gallery. He mixes and develops his own glazes. His wish is that his pots should be handled and used daily in the home.
Facebook: ForgeGalleryWalberton
Linda Farr
When Linda retired from her business as a Landscape Gardener she turned her attention to a long held desire to work with clay. Her preference is hand building. She has had many commissions ranging from house names to animals with hats!
“Many of my pieces can be kept inside or outside. The techniques I am usually drawn to are slab and pinch building. I use mainly Stoneware describing my style as either fantastical or based on the natural world with a twist.”
Facebook: Shebee Ceramics
Email: shebeeceramics@gmail.com
07977654104
Jessica Jordan
Jessica Jordan is a ceramics artist from West Sussex, who lives close to the Downs and the sea. Aerial images of the surrounding landscapes inform her work.
Corroded surfaces that have been weathered and broken down from natural erosion and the patterns and texture found on stones, wood, glass and metal, are reflected in her work. The effects of farming on the land are mirrored in the patterns on her clay.
Jessica makes decorative sculptural vessels, wall hangings and bowls, slab built out of stoneware, decorated with underglazes and oxides.
Instagram: jessica_jordan_ceramics
Facebook jessicajordanceramics
Email: jess@jessicajordanceramics.com
Carol Naylor FSDC
Carol Naylor is a contemporary textile artist who specialises in machine embroidery. She creates unique, one off textiles by stitching directly onto painter’s canvas using a variety of rayon, cotton, woollen and metallic threads. Her stitched textiles range from small intimate pieces to large scale hangings.
Carol’s work has been represented in many group and solo exhibitions in the UK and abroad.
As well as exhibitions and work for galleries and private venues her work has been commissioned and collected by public, corporate and private clients.
Steve is a metalworking artist with the vision to transform what most would throw away into captivating works of art.
He combines his welding expertise and experience of handling materials, with an eye for detail to create visually striking artworks. Beautiful in their own right, each piece invites the viewer to look more closely to see how, and from what, it has been made.
Instagram: @stephens.art21
Vidya Thirunarayan
Dancingpots- Contemporary handmade ceramics and sculptures inspired by Indian dance. ‘Working with clay is a happy place of play—a space to explore ideas old and new , experiment with form and function, and embrace the unexpected. I hope my creations energize, spark curiosity, and gently provoke, while sharing the tactile, sensory stories that only clay can tell!’
Instagram : @tccdancingpots
Facebook: Vidya Thirunarayan
Bridget Woods
Exhibiting for 51 years and teaching for forty-six years, self-taught watercolour painter and author, Bridget Woods is still passionate about her favourite medium.
"Honed skills and a love of jeopardy allow me to respond directly and physically in the moment to the rhythm and texture of life: an absorption where ego and separateness surrender to a sense of universal connection - an unconscious sigh, a breathing out.
If a flicker of that magical sensation transmits to a viewer or student of watercolour I feel deep joy. My aim is not to capture but to savour and share that golden moment”.
FORGE GALLERY
Facebook: ForgeGalleryWalberton
Tel: 07771 535278