Susan Ogilvy started painting bird nests almost by accident. One day, while tidying up her garden after a storm, she found a chaffinch nest – a strange, sodden lump on the grass under a fir tree. She carried it inside and placed it on a newspaper; over the next few hours, as the water drained out of it, the sodden lump blossomed into a mossy jewel. She was amazed, and dropped everything to make a painting of the nest at exact life size.
Join us for an online talk with documentary photographer Sophie Green as ‘Showtime’ her first solo show opens in our Wiltshire gallery.
Sophie Green will be interviewed by our director of photography Dr Julie Bonzon.
Green’s photographs celebrate the joy, uniqueness and eccentricities of under-represented subcultures in Britain, often in playful and humorous ways.
MESSY MAKERS SATURDAYS – Clay sessions for children and their adults to come and create together
Saturday Family Potter’s Wheel
Date: Saturday 23 October
Tutor: Bridget Timoney
This is an opportunity for the whole family to see how you get on with the potter’s wheel.
Join us for the preview talk & tour of 'Showtime' by documentary photographer Sophie Green, her first solo show in our Wiltshire gallery. Sophie Green’s photographs celebrate the joy, uniqueness and eccentricities of under-represented subcultures in Britain, often in playful and humorous ways. Merging portraiture and still life images, Green’s photographs are imbued with a feeling of surprise and a love for the unexpected. Her work pushes the boundaries of traditional social documentary with a balance of spontaneous realism and styled constructions. A selection of photographs from the series ‘Gypsy Gold’, ‘A Day at the Races’ and ‘Dented Pride’ will be combined in an original display designed to offer a glimpse into her colourful and refreshing photographic practice.
MESSY MAKERS SATURDAYS – Clay sessions for children and their adults to come and create together
Saturday Family Potter’s Wheel
Date: Saturday 23 October
Tutor: Bridget Timoney
This is an opportunity for the whole family to see how you get on with the potter’s wheel.
Hugo Tagholm leads the national marine conservation and campaigning charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS).
The charity Surfers Against Sewage takes action from the beach front to the front benches of Parliament, where it unites a voice for the ocean through its Ocean Conservation All Party Parliamentary Group. It mobilises over 100,000 community beach and river clean volunteers annually and has been instrumental in helping introduce and enforce new government legislation to protect our seas.
Porcelain Christmas decorations workshop for adults
Date: Thursdays – 28 October and 11 November
Making: 28 October 10.00 – 12.00
Glazing and decorating: 10.00-12.00
Tutor: Bridget Timoney
£85 (cost of materials is included)
Come and join us to make some gorgeous porcelain Christmas decorations to help add a uniquely creative twinkle to your festive home.
Other musicians from the Bridgepoint Ensemble return to perform a recital of Elisabeth Frink’s favourite music during the Frink ‘Man is an Animal’ exhibition.
Elisabeth Frink’s artistic and cultural interest was as broad as it was deep and of all the artforms that fascinated her, music was perhaps the most enduring. Frink would play music while she worked and an archive of records and tapes discovered in her studio display an eclectic taste that spans Bach and Albinoni, to Kodaly and William Walton, via Gershwin and Stephane Grapelli. She loved baroque styles, chamber music, symphonies, opera and jazz.
Elisabeth Frink Sculpture day
Tutor: Finn Bush
The brightness of white earthenware clay fits perfectly with Elizabeth Frink’s magical Snowy Owl pictures. She returned many times to the theme of owls which are among the most beautiful depictions of these noble creatures. Sculpting with an expressive textural style you will be encouraged to create the spirit-like atmosphere of Fink’s owls but also sculpt your ideas of how an owl should look. Should its wings be outspread? Should it be at rest or just taking off? Has it turned to look at you? This is a chance to sculpt using paperclay one of nature’s most enigmatic animals.
Throwing Day
Date: Sunday 31 October
Tutor: Jo Taylor
In this workshop concentrating on making pots for domestic use Jo would like to introduce pottery work to complete beginners or offer an opportunity for more advanced students to expand their existing skills. In this session you will have the chance to throw forms such as bowls, platters, and beakers and immediately apply slip decoration by brushing, banding and trailing whilst still on the wheel.
