Mill Yard Studios repeats popular Small (and beautifully affordable) exhibition (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Mill Yard Studios repeats popular Small (and beautifully affordable) exhibition

9:10am Saturday 7th January 2012 in Art By Adrian Mullen, Arts correspondent

MILL Yard Studios winter exhibition finishes on Sunday, January 15.

Small (and beautifully affordable) features 12 contemporary artists assembled at Staveley’s Mill Yard for the repeat of the studio’s popular winter show, showing a range of paintings, drawings, prints, collages, ceramics and sculpture.

Included are potter Sue Bartholomew’s new glazes and chunky clay pieces, which mark a fresh and exciting departure in her work.

Lynda Gray’s beautifully crafted and subtle collages marry her own handmade papers, found papers and prints from her Indian drawings and her daughter Nancy Gray, reflects on her Indian travels in work which combines oil-painting with found materials.

Pauline Lawton (new to the studio but mentored in the past by gallery co-owner David Penn) is inspired by her beloved Dentdale as well as subjects much further afield, and Tina Mabey’s porcelain pinched sawdust-fired vessels are beautifully restrained.

Sophie Martin exhibited in the winter exhibition a couple of years ago as a new graduate. Since, she’s developed a successful career as an illustrator. Small features some of her artist’s books and original drawings.

Also in the frame is work by David William Morris, a master of oil painting bringing extraordinary control of vivid colour to his mysterious landscapes; Jac Scott’s small sculptures are incredibly thought-provoking and Mill Yard Studios regular ceramicist Sally Toms’ figures and assemblages contain strange human histories told with humour and pathos.

Ian Walton shows several pieces made especially for the exhibition. Dark and brooding, his smaller pieces offer the opportunity to acquire work by an artist with an international reputation.

Pam Williamson takes the viewer on walks to remote points from which she can study Lakeland’s highest fells for her series 36 ways to see Scafell Pike and last, but not least, David Penn’s uncharacteristically small and enigmatic pieces tell more Falkland tales.

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