All of us at the gallery sincerely hope that you, your families and friends have stayed safe and well during these strange and difficult times.

 

We would like to invite you to visit our exhibition ‘Seeds of Hope’

 

All of the artworks on display have been chosen by our guest artists Taz Pollard, Paschale Straiton and Paul Lewin, from our permanent collection. They were asked to choose pieces which give hope and make people feel happy.

 

Gillian Ayres; detail from Xanadu Woodcut on Unryu-shi Japanese Paper, 2013

 

This image is part of a huge print by Gillian Ayres, a famous abstract artist (Born 1930-Died 2018) It is the first artwork you see as you enter the exhibition space.Gillian absolutely loved to paint and print joyful bright colours and shapes. Someone once asked her what her artwork was all about, and she just listed a whole bunch of things like seaweed, cakes, hats and icecream!

 

Have a go at making your own abstract art by cutting out random shapes from coloured paper

 

1. Find some scraps of coloured paper

 

 

2. Cut out random shapes

 
 

 

3. Arrange your shapes on a flat surface and when you are happy with it, you could stick it onto a piece of paper or just take a photo and re-use the paper.

 

 

We would love to see your abstract cut-outs. Share yours on our Facebook page with hashtag #abstract

 

This cut-out technique was used by artist Henri Matisse (Born1869-Died 1954)

 

 When he was in his late sixties, Matisse became ill and could no longer paint so he began to cut into painted paper with scissors to make huge collages.

 

Maybe you could research these two artists. Can you see any similarities/differences between the work of Gillian Ayres and Henri Matisse.