events
2025
'The Lost and Left Behind' Exhibition
3rd February – 30th March 2025
Bailiffgate Museum and Gallery, 14 Bailiffgate, Alnwick, Northumberland
This exhibition titled ‘The Lost and the Left Behind’ explores connections and memories that are accumulated, embellished, diminished, and sometimes lost and even rediscovered over time. Whilst the work represents and honours our collective heritage, our ancestors, and those who have come before us, we are also invited to view ourselves with the same curiosity and reverence as those we hold dear. What if we were to create/recreate (and even imagine!) stories that are familiar and celebrate our uniqueness – to connect with ourselves, our memories, and our human experience?
Through this body of work, I explore the lost and found, connection and heritage, and the past and how it has shaped us. As I previously worked as a Reminiscence worker with older people, I have a fascination with our own personal stories where the seemingly ordinary is made extraordinary. Living in Northumberland for the past decade, I have found a great deal of inspiration in the people, industry, and landscape of our local area. This particular body of work has been an ongoing journey for the past several years.
‘The Lost and Left Behind’ Exhibition opens 3rd February and will be on display through 30th March 2025 at the Bailiffgate Museum and Gallery, 14 Bailiffgate, Alnwick, Northumberland NE66 1LX.
Please visit the Bailiffgate Museum and Gallery website for additional information.
Irish Anthology - Creating a Collection of Artist Books
Saturday 31st May to Sunday 8th June 2025
The Titanic Hotel, Belfast, Northern Ireland
I have always loved books and, in recent years, have found making artists to be a lovely companion to my main practice of painting. I was gifted a box housing the tiniest books imaginable as a child. A set of fairy stories, all housed perfectly in a small, purpose-made container. Though they contained only the briefest summary of each story, with tiny illustrations, they were precious to me. These memories led me to imagine a set of artist-made books housed within a house – books that allowed the capturing of memories from a particular place in a particular time. The humble book form is so familiar to us. Yet books can be art, sculpture, a container for recording what we see and experience and all we can imagine. A wonderful way to remember a journey to a land such as Ireland.
We will sketch the places we visit—the landscape, castles, and buildings of Belfast—to capture inspiration for both the container and the various book forms.
This Art Escape includes:
- Five days instruction from Gillian
- Eight nights accommodation at the Titanic Hotel based on double occupancy
- All meals except for one lunch and one dinner
- Visit to Belfast Castle, The Ulster and Titanic Museums
- Some supplies
For more details, please visit Bellissima Art Escapes.
Evocative Landscapes – Oil and Cold Wax Painting in Scotland
Sunday 8th June to Sunday 15th June 2025
Inverness, Scotland
Join me in Inverness, Scotland 2025, for an Evocative Landscapes workshop using oil and cold wax. The atmosphere of place is always at the heart of my landscape paintings—I seek to go beyond pure representation or replication and evoke a sense of place, memory, and emotion. Through multiple layers of colour, texture, and value, almost as much paint is removed as is laid down; this process can render the most beautiful and unexpected results.
Immersing ourselves in the landscape on our trips out, we will sketch the places we visit—the landscape, castles, and surrounding areas of Inverness – an evocative, soul-enriching place that will inspire the colours and atmosphere of our paintings.
This Art Escape includes:
- Five days of instruction from Gillian
- Seven nights accommodation at the Leonardo Hotel based on double occupancy
- All meals except for one dinner
- Visit to Loch Ness, Urquhart Castle, Dunrobin Castle and Gardens, Culloden Battlefield and Museum
- Some supplies
Please visit Bellissima Art Escapes for more information.
Evocative Landscapes – Oil and Cold Wax Painting in Scotland
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