ON NOW
farOpen, first established in 1995, is a collective of diverse and talented artists who work, sell, exhibit and run art workshops in the Forest of Dean, and along the Wye & Severn Rivers. Originally delivering the annual Open Studios event, they now have so many fantastic artist & volunteers keen to provide access to art all the year round, so exhibitions can be seen throughout the year at a range of venues.
The Autumn Exhibition at The George Community Hub Gallery in Newnham on Severn is one of those!
It presents a wide range of mediums and welcomes anyone who wishes to become a farOpen member – whether a beginner or a professional.
I have a soft spot for The George as I am one of a small group of local people that initiated a campaign to buy the beautiful building which was realised in 2021 and has now been refurbished and reopened. Excellent food, wonderful decor and a very special gallery space upstairs. Soon there will be a lift to improve access.
The majority of the works I am putting in this show have evolved from the local landscape.
It is very close to my home so if you want to meet me for a coffee and cake in the George Cafe, or book a studio visit, do get in touch!
More images on Instagram @SevernsideArtist
PAST
Private View : Friday 5th May 5-7pm
Open Daily: Saturday 6th to Wednesday 10th May, 11am-6pm
An exhibition of works on paper, printmaking and drawing, as well as film. They explore human interventions on the landscape and the impact of catastrophic events that have happened, and will happen.
Three artists: Carolyn Black, Melanie Clarke and Nichola Goff create process-led works that are grounded in place and draw on time. The works imagine human relationships with the environment and habitat in the context of climate change. Investigations into time and place are underpinned by a practice that expands the boundaries of printmaking and drawing.
Melanie Clarke investigates the relationship we have as humans with nature; the sometimes harmonious, often antagonistic and exploitative that needs to be rebalanced. Combining the ethereal fleeting with the material solidity of the subject matter she attempts to give a voice to the unseen with an experimental approach to printmaking.
Carolyn Black employs a wide range of media to make works that relate to future flooding of the River Severn. She employs frottage, printmaking and video to envisage imminent changes to this vulnerable landscape. This prospective flooded landscape doesn’t currently exist, but will in around 20 years time. When the hills become islands, what might the Severn landscape look like?
Nichola Goff explores human relationships with place and the natural world in the context of climate change and capitalism. ‘36 days in lockdown’ is a large-scale installation of 36 mapped daily walks from the first Covid lockdown in 2020. Woodblock prints of pathways, printed with local earth pigments, span out over a wall in a grid formation and condense down, layering over each other in a suspended state. The works on paper are accompanied by sound and film playing memories of that time, reflecting on a time when the world stood still and there was time to take notice.
Follow on instagram @time_lapse_23
Email: timelapseground@gmail.com
So pleased to be one of an exciting selection of artists at Black Swan Arts in Frome for their Open 2022
“Am air-punchingly proud of the judges that we have brought together this year. We have spent time with each of them and taken note of their wise advice to make changes to the Open to ensure it is the best ever. This year’s competition will be bigger, more accessible and with greater opportunities to buy than ever before, I guarantee it.
Every available wall at Black Swan Arts will display work chosen for the exhibition: the shop, the café, the Round Tower Gallery and the Long Gallery and even the corridors. Every piece will be for sale and priced up to a maximum of £1000, and with lecture lunches and discussion dinners, buyer’s drinks and opportunities to meet artists, everyone should have a chance to find a work to take home.”
Amanda Sheridan – Curator
I am also delighted to have a had a film selected for EarthPhoto2022. Scroll down the EarthPhoto webpage to view my film Prospecting – Now & Then.
| Photographers and videographers from across the globe submitted their work in the following categories: People, Place, Nature, Changing Forests, and A Climate of Change. A judging panel made up of experts from the fields of photography, film, geography and environment selected the final 56 photos and videos by 35 artists. The Earth Photo 2022 exhibition will be open at the Royal Geographical Society, London, between 17 June and 26 August 2022.A selection of shortlisted photos will be shown on a national tour to Forestry England sites: Moors Valley Country Park and Forest from 11 July to 19 September. Bedgebury National Pinetum and Forest from 20 July to 10 October. Dalby Forest from 12 September to 1 January 2023. Haldon Forest Park from 3 October to 4 January 2023. Fineshade Wood from November to March 2023 Grizedale Forest from 19 December to 23 April 2023 |
Severn Worlding has been a while coming, thanks to the pandemic. Scheduled for earlier this year, it will now be open from 1st-10th July 2022 at SVA, John Street, Stroud.
My film Bev D will be presented alongside works by others, see below.
SVA, 4 John Street, Stroud. Glos. GL5 2HA
Curator: Patricia Brien
“Severn Worlding seeks to contribute to contemporary environmental and social discourse from its own spatial aperture and attunements, to imagine the Afon Hafren/River Severn and its multiple selves, visible and invisible. The works in this exhibition articulate a sense of reciprocus in becoming with the flux of the River Severn and its environs. This exhibition is a fluid and continuing speculation on the lifeworlds, materiality, rhythm, ritual and myth-making and the creative potential of attending to the multiple temporalities of place. “
Artists: Carolyn Black – Patricia Brien – Tara Downs – Su Fahy – Mair Hughes
Poetry: JLM Morton (with Joff Elphick & Oonagh Davies)
FarOpen Studios, across the Forest of Dean 2-10th July 2022
I am delighted to be sharing the gallery space TK Presses, No.56 on the trail, in Severnside B+B Newnham on Severn. It belongs to Tony & Alex Kossykh-Bearman and is a stunning space for art to be viewed on Newnham High Street. Tony, Jenny, Sharon and I offer a range of artworks – hand made glass, pressed seaweed prints, collages, hand pulled prints and drawings.
FarOpen Studios has lots of information on their website, do check out the trails that provide manageable short trips around selections of studios and exhibitions that are close together. And support local businesses, by popping into the cafes listed along the way. The membership just keeps growing, so there is a lot to see. Old favourites and newcomers, you get to choose.
My page is HERE
Download a map and brochure HERE
limited edition of reduction lino-cuts by Carolyn Black
Black Swan Open, Frome
Great selection of artists for this show at Black Swan Arts – over 1000 applications too.
Checkout #BSAopen2022 on Instagram to view the other artists, too many to list.
PAST
Ivor and I worked together on a fantastic immersive sound work he was making a few years ago. Ivor the sound artist and me in the role of Event Producer. It has only been shown once before and is not to be missed. It will make you laugh and make you cry. He recorded stories from people in the Forest of Dean, some about long lost histories, others celebrating the now and the culture of the area. You will recognise some of the groups presented – The George Choir from Newnham, brass bands, local storytellers.
We will provide eye masks so you can focus in on the amazing quality of the sounds Ivor recorded.
And there will also be a screening of some of my River Severn films – never before shown together like this. The films have been seen as part of Earthphoto2020, Trinity buoy Wharf drawing Prize 2020, RWA Open Bristol and Wells Cathedral at Wells Contemporary.
PLEASE VISIT THIS BLOGPOST FOR NEWS ON EXHIBITIONS AND FILM SCREENINGS FOR MARCH/APRIL 2022
A GENEROUS SPACE
Selected for @artistsupportpledge ASPSHow at Hasting Contemporary.
Delighted to be showing in A Generous Space, a physically present exhibition of works by artists selling pieces through Matt Burrows (MBE) excellent initiative that began during lockdown. Instagram is where it all started and I recommend you go there to find out more. And visit my Instagram stream to see new works being uploads for purchase, all less than £200.
Old Passage Exhibition
Kel Portman, artist and founder of Walking the Land, curates exhibitions of works for sale in this historic old in, now a restaurant, on the bank of the River Severn at Arlingham.
Visit the Old Passage soon to see the wonderful artworks, maybe buy one for a Christmas present? Where you see a QR code next to my prints, have a look at the films the images are from. The films have a life of their own, they have been selected for several shows, including Trinity Buoy Wharf; RWA and Wells Contemporary.
While you are there, take a lovely walk and enjoy the excellent cakes and light lunches while you gaze out of the window at the river. What’s not to like?
See preview of some of the works here
Copies available there or on this website
The Edge Conference at UHI
The culmination of almost two years of seminars, blogs and other activities exploring the theme, The Edge UHI Conference will take place online on 15th & 16th December 2021.
I regularly participate in activities organised by Walking the Land. Thanks to covid this Stroud based artists walking group has expanded its boundaries with no limits. We have put together a showreel including several artists in response to the concept of Watermarks.
This is my offering, but do register to attend on Eventbrite – there is a fantastic line up of artists and speakers. Book here.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/611969211
All selected works and installations will be shown in the iconic Wells Cathedral from Saturday 28 August to Sunday 26 September 2021. The exhibition at Wells Cathedral will also coincide with the installation of a new Antony Gormley work that will be exhibited on the West Front of the Cathedral.
When You Call I Shall Come is no.1 on the trail map around the beautiful Wells Cathedral. It is a privilege to have my film installed in the perfect space – when you arrive to see the artworks inside, listen carefully, you will hear the beautiful voice of Eva Rune seeping through the automatic doors. As they open and you enter the space, the film is being screened, welcoming you to this huge exhibition. Sit down on the time-worn stone benches, watch and listen as you witness a film made of the famous Severn Bore, during the spring tides of 2020, in deep lockdown. No surfers, no viewers, just you and the River Severn. Eva’s traditional Nordic calling song captures the sense of longing we all felt, and the imagery reveals the nature of the Severn stripped of human intervention.
The 2021 version has been stripped of the words it originally carried, because there are no words to describe that time and place.
Thurs 09 Sept, Fri 10 Sept, Sat 11 Sept 11:00 – 18:00
Sun 12 Sept 11:00 – 16:00 Royal Manor Theatre Royal Manor Theatre Portland DT5 1LT
Short fiction, documentary and arts films exploring our relationship with farming, food and land. My film 12 Circular Walks was shortlisted. Don’t miss b-side Festival – they have a great programme of temporary works across Portland.
Film loop showing short films from the Harvest Film Festival 2019 exploring our relationship with farming, food and land through its curated programme of fiction, documentary and art films. Nominees for the 2019 Festival were judged by Guy Shrubsole, campaigner for Friends of the Earth and author of Who Owns England?, Dictynna Hood, writer/director of drama features Wreckers and Us Among The Stones soon to premier at the London Film Festival and Adrian Cooper, director of Common Ground and producer of Arcadia.
Coming soon – Bridport Art Centre
A discussion and screening of a number of films relating to women in the landscape.
7th October 2021
Details TBC
Carolyn Black 