As a birthday treat my husband took me to visit Ruthin Craft Centre. The Centre is in Ruthin Denbighshire. It has three galleries where contemporary applied art exhibitions are regularly held and on site makers studios. The gallery building is very light, airy and welcoming.
The three exhibitions that I saw were by Simon Carroll who is an expressionist Potter,southern lines and northern lights which was work by a selection of designers and Pamela Rawnsley who did silversmithing and jewellery.
When I first walked into the gallery that was housing the Simon Carroll pottery exhibition and saw his work I thought I did not like it. However, as I looked closely at his pieces I could see pattern in it and that the colours blended into one another making lovely textured surfaces. I think I didn't like this work at first because it seemed very big and clumsy but I did like the texture, colours and pattern. It was sad to read that Simon Carroll had died at an early age.
Pamela Rawnsley was a silversmith and jeweller. She lived in Wales and most of her work was inspired by landscape. I liked this exhibition very much. The pieces were displayed in a lovely natural light filled gallery. Pieces were in glass cabinets,some free standing and there were some framed pieces. It was very interesting to see some of her sketchbook pages which had been framed and collograph print. I was able to get closely up to these and they interestingly they were quick drawings of marks. They reminded me of some of the first mark making exercises on this course. I think there was obviously a lot of thought and work that went into Pamela Rawnsley's work and the simplistic look is very attractive but deceiving as to what went into it. My favourite pieces were some of the jewellery she had made. Particularly the brooches. Again they were of a simple design and were beautifully made. The bowls and vases were very interesting shapes and I particularly liked the small bowls that had patterns on them as if they had been drawn on afterwards. I liked this set of work as it was modern and I could see where the inspiration for the work had come from. I could also see it standing the test of time. When I read up about Pamela Rawnsley I was very sad to read that she had died last year. Her husband is keeping her website up to record and celebrate Pamela's work.
The third gallery housed an exhibition southern lines and northern lights which is a view of design practices in Wales. It explores the ideas and understanding of materials needed to illuminate them. It looks at design in production and reproducing by hand. There are pieces exhibited by seven artists. Next to each piece was a clear explanation and the inspiration for it. There was also a separate leaflet for each artist containing a short explanation of their background and inspiration together with photographs of some of their work in the exhibition. There were two artists work that I was immediately attracted to. The first, my favourite, was Sian O'Doherty. Her current collection is Print, Stitch, Cut, Sew. The pieces on view were framed. They attracted me because they looked very tactile and neat.They were not very colourful but she had used black, white, greys with flashes of red. Not a bright red. The red was in the same hue as the greys so stood out but at the same time merged in with the rest of the work. The pieces appeared to be layered printed fabrics machined in rows at intervals then cut and hand stitched in rows s that the fabric was lifted and gave a glimpse of the fabric underneath. I really liked the overall effect. I wish I had seen this exhibition before completing Part 3 of my course. I found Sian's pieces very inspiring.
Another artist exhibiting whose work I liked was Sian Elin. There were printed fabrics hung next to lampshades made from printed fabric. The patterns were quite geometric and the colours ranged from teal and grey to peach and orange. There were a couple of black and white patterned lampshades that were very striking because of the shapes used and the negative areas that brought up different patterns on them. Rolls of the patterned fabric were also displayed. What attracted me about Sian's work was the colour. I have realised that this is what attracts me to pieces first and then the texture.
The on site makers' studios are very accessible and the makers can be seen working. There are many events and workshops held at the Centre and I shall certainly be keeping my eye open for possible workshops.
I thoroughly enjoyed my birthday treat visit to the Centre. Most of all I found the exhibitions interesting and inspiring and was introduced to artists I had not previously heard of but also because I had a lovely lunch in the Centre's very nice cafe!
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