Friday 23 September 2011

A mixed bag of arty events

Warthog by Lynne Chapman


Next Thursday I will attending a 'sketch crawl' at Salford Art Gallery. Here's the blurb:

Children's book illustrator and sketchbook enthusiast Lynne Chapman invites you to join her for a SketchCrawl around the galleries. Lynne will give a talk about her work, and you'll have the chance to chat with her and look around her exhibition 'Llamas in Pyjamas'. In the afternoon Lynne will lead the SketchCrawl, where you can create your own sketches. It doesn't matter how good you are, it's for fun, so have a go! You will need to bring a sketchbook and a pencil 

Lynne's work is wonderfully fun, I'm really looking forward to hearing her talk and getting stuck in  with some sketching. I'll post up what I come up with next week. You can find out more about the sketch crawl phenomenon on her blog HERE

The Irish Girl by Ford Maddox Brown 1860

Another thing I'm looking forward to is visiting the Ford Maddox Brown exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery

As a life long fan of the Pre-Raphaelites I am so excited that there is another show dedicated to one of my heroes! Back in 2008 the gallery held an exhibition of Holman Hunt work which was really fabulous. I left feeling like I knew more about this talented individual than when I arrived and it was fascinating to see his body of work throughout his career. I hope the Maddox Brown show is as successful!

I love the work of the Pre-Raphaelites partly because they worshipped women and I feel the paintings they produced were like the pin up girls of their day: Sexy glamorous and alluring. But also I think the work was revolutionary when it was made. It broke the mould in a time of chocolate box insipidity and safe art, the PRB's paintings were exciting and shocking.


As if that wasn't enough art fun to look out for, Bury is soon to host the Bury Light Night. On the 14th October the town will be transformed into a luminous landscape of creativity and art events including music, performance, workshops and much more. My good pal Brian Allen of Salford FM will be hosting a Musical Memories Tour taking guests back to the Bury of the 1960's. The tour will have music, photos and memorabilia about Manchester's musical past. Brian used to run the highly successful 60's tour at Urbis and is a pro at bringing the excitement and enthusiasm of the era back to life!

To find out more about the event and how to join in click HERE

1 comment:

Gemma Parker said...

Just so you know, Brian's 60's tour is in bury public library between 6 and 7 pm on the 14th Oct. Miss it miss out!