MEMBERS of Green Door, the region’s leading artists’ collective, are returning to a favourite venue.

The exhibition at Upfront House near Penrith was created by 35 of Green Door’s 115 members. ‘Green Shoots’ includes almost 100 pieces of work across a variety of mediums including paintings, prints, photography, textiles, wood and stoneware.

“During lockdown It was difficult for me to find the time to paint as I had my children at home and elderly parents to help out,” said artist Catherine MacDiarmid.

“Then Sky Arts Portrait Artist started a spin off show called Portrait Artist of the Week where celebrity sitters sat live for a past winner and invited everyone to join in. It was a great excuse to demand two-three hours each Sunday to paint. The joy of painting a portrait within a set time scale is that it really loosens you up and the marks you make have to be more decisive and meaningful. It is especially liberating if you tend to fiddle and not know when to stop painting. Each week the judges chose a top three portraits and they chose my portrait of Judge Rinder as their first choice in week five. These portraits for ‘Green Shoots’ are a selection of the portraits I did for the show.”

The exhibition will run from December 15-January 31.

For opening times visit: www.up-front.com