Vidya Wolton

My exhibition continues in the Rope Store at Quay Arts and today I witnessed a sudden influx of visitors, much to my delight. Firstly, youngsters with behavioural and medical problems were having a session with one of the gallery educators. They were then joined by a group of adults with learning difficulties who were guiding one another around the gallery. I looked on in wonder and await further feedback from those who were there. It would be gratifying to find that some profound learning was taking place for these most marginalised of groups. Bar the Private View, for which quite a lot of planning took place and was well attended, this has to be the next best thing – a public viewing en masse!

Yes, my exhibition at Quay Arts has finally come around, or at least from saturday when it officially opens. I have been installing the work this week, a culmination of several years activity in the studio. It is hugely gratifying to see paintings go up in the gallery space of the Rope Store. I was last there five whole years ago and it all seems like a long time in the making. A few brutal decisions had to be made in the selection of the work, although those decisions were largely governed by the space together with quite alot of forethought and preparation. I’m hoping for some positive feedback at the Drinks Reception next thursday. The dates are as follows:

Sat 24 April – Sat 5 June with Drinks Reception Thur 29 April 6-8pm

The festival ‘Art in Woodstock’ is currently running in Oxfordshire until 31st October and provides venues for 39 artists’ work around the village. I’m showing an assemblage of artboxes and wall-based work at the Marlborough Grill, which provides the main venue for the festival. Upon arrival to set up I leapt at the opportunity to show my boxes in the recess, providing yet another permutation for how they could be grouped. I hope to  follow the trail to seek out others of the 39 exhibitors when returning next sunday.

Studio box set

Yes, yet more boxes which have been piled high on my desktop (real not virtual). I’ve utilized a reclaimed timber unit as a framing device. Nature meets urban street themes for this eclectic mix.

art boxes and books

I’ve been looking for a potential venue to install my boxes and think I might have hit upon something at Jolliffe’s cafe and gallery in Cowes. This newly opened cafe is playing host to the work of local artists. It has an authentic Art Nouveau facade and the cabinets are the original wood for a building which was once piled high with shoe boxes. I’m now installing boxes of a different sort and this is effectively the first public space where my boxes can be seen since I started making them in earnest about a year ago.