Our new exhibition at The Bingley Gallery takes as its theme the telling of secrets. The artists are all members of Aire Valley Arts. The West Yorkshire group aims to be adventurous in their creativity. One of their ways of encouraging artists to step outside their normal genres, and comfort zones, is to set an exhibition title or theme to which all have to work towards. After several, often frivolous and soon abandoned ideas, the theme of ‘Telling Secrets’ was settled on. – a decision that led to much uncertainty as to how to paint, stitch, weave, print or mould the process of conveying confidences. The result is a remarkable variety of offerings.
The Exhibition will run from 2 may to 2 june 2024 with 14 artists ; Kath Bonson, L. Amy Charlesworth, Martin Cosgrove, Jane Fielder, Caroline Hardaker, Paul Hudson, Anne Marwick, Karen Rowley, Judy Sale, Helen Shearwood David Starley, Susan Strange, Kate Stewart, Jan Whittock.
DO JOIN THE ARTISTS FOR OUR LAUNCH: 7-9PM WEDS 1 MAY
Kath Bonson
After many years working in a family business, Kath studied Fine Art at Bradford College, graduating in 2010. During these studies, she rediscovered her schoolhood love of ceramics. Since then, she has developed her own characteristic style and her work has been successfully shown across the country. The work is inspired by the upland landscape of Pennine Yorkshire. New works for the show include box forms containing Kaths chosen Ted Hughes poetry.
Kath-Bonson
Kath Bonson KB2704 ‘Shadows and Traces 4 – if only the stones could speak’ Stoneware with glazes and oxides £150
Kath Bonson KB2703 ‘Shadows and Traces 2 – if only the stones could speak’ Stoneware with glazes and oxides £150
Kath Bonson KB2702 ‘Shadows and Traces 1 – if only the stones could speak’ Stoneware with glazes and oxides £100
Kath Bonson KB2245 ‘Double Topstones’ Stoneware with textured glazes and oxides £120
Kath Bonson KB2243 ‘Topstone’ Stoneware with textured glazes and oxides £75
L. Amy Charlesworth
Amy is a Bradford born painter with a BA fine art degree from Leeds Metropolitan University who has worked and exhibited her hyperrealist paintings in Bingley, for many years, building up a reputation as a distinctive and original artist.
Working primarily in oils on canvas, Amy covers an amazingly diverse range of subjects from landscapes to botanical, architecture to animals and birds, figurative to industrial machinery, and pretty much anything in between. Her work is highly representational. As she puts it “I like things to look like they look”. This does not mean that the work is without her own twist. Frequently a more dramatic feel is brought out by the use of strong shadows and light, but the resulting work is always instantly recognisable as hers.
L. Amy Charlesworth AC026 BOOKS, A JAR AND A LIGHTBULB, MAKE OF IT WHAT YOU WILL. £200
L. Amy Charlesworth AC130 ‘What you doin’ 41.5 x 30cm £130
L. Amy Charlesworth AC0137 ‘Who’s Chair is this’ 50 x 50cm £180
Amy Charlesworth – painting
Martin Cosgrove
Under the brush of Martin Cosgrove, even a bowl of pears take on a conspiratorial air. Martin can trace his roots in Bingley and Harden back to the 1700’s and so has a long attachment to the region, but he’s not primarily a landscape artist and prefers to work around concepts often re-working masterpieces have attracted and mystified himself. Euan Unglow’s ‘In the Shadow of the Cyprus’ and the colour field works of Mark Rothko are amongst the art that receive this treatment in the current show.
Martin Cosgrove MAC08 ‘Interpretation of Euan Uglow’s In the shadow of the cypress’. Oil on canvas. framed to 57x31cm £400
Martin Cosgrove MAC10 Conference of Pears. Oil on canvas on board. framed to 44x43cm £400
Martin Cosgrove_MAC09 ‘Thin Blue Line 3’ Oil on canvas board 57x67cm £250
Martin Cosgrove
Jane Fielder
Jane Fielder’s quirky and atmospheric watercolours are instantly recognisable, even if her usual washing line is missing, the location for her ‘Secrets works’ is Five Rise Locks, near her home in Bingley.
Jane Fielder ‘In Another World’ Watercolour. Framed to 74x35cm £298
Jane Fielder Secrets in the Moonlight Five Rise Bingley’ Watercolour and Pastel. 38x54cm £390. Also available as a Ltd. Edn. Print
Jane Fielder ‘Secrets on the Tow Path Five Rise Bingley’ Watercolour and Pastel. 63x52cm £390
Jane Fielder JF813A ‘Secrets on the Locks, Five Rise, Bingley’ Watercolour and Pastel. 56.4x46cm £390
Jane Fielder
Caroline Hardaker
Caroline has taught Art, ceramics and Life Drawing in schools and at Bradford College, but restricts tuition to a few adult art classes. Her work tends to be focused on landscape, particularly moorland, with its changing moods and seasons and fascinating textures.
Caroline Hardaker CH04 ‘Shh’ Watercolour framed to 42x53cm £300
Caroline Hardaker CH05 ‘Secret Conversations’ Watercolour and Ink 47x59cm £300
Caroline Hardaker CH06 ‘Don’t tell Anyone’ Watercolour on Tissue. Framed to 28x34cm £180
Caroline-Hardaker-CH07-‘Secret-Spaces’-Acrylic-40x102cm-£300
Paul Hudson
An ex-art teacher in Leeds, Paul Hudson continues creating and showing his work with Aire Valley Arts. For the telling secrets exhibition he will have number of pieces on show ranging for Etching, pen and ink and paint. The great title of the show was in face harder to satisfy than as first thought. Who’s secrets, who are the tellers, eventually the themes used were archeology, storytelling, the birds and the hidden stories from pages of books.
Ravens, collect secrets in the day and share them in the evenings when back at their roosts, take care when in the garden or near an open window what you are saying.
Raven, Raven telling secrets, Words foretelling future strife.
Raven, Raven telling secrets. Often deaths but sometimes life.
Raven, Raven telling secrets, listen as they roost tonight.
Raven, Raven telling secrets; whispers in the failing light.
Paul Hudson PH13 Raven 1 ‘ Pen and Ink £40
Paul Hudson PH14 ‘Raven 2 ‘ Pen and Ink £40
Paul Hudson PH15 ‘Telling Secrets, Keeping Secrets STONE’ oil on canvas £250
Paul Hudson PH16 ‘Telling Secrets, Keeping Secrets ULURU’ oil on canvas £200
Paul Hudson PH17 ‘Found words- Meteors must Converge’ £18
Paul Hudson PH18 ‘Found words- Candlelight fairytale’ £18
Paul Hudson PH19 ‘Found words Peter found Love’ £25
Paul Hudson PH20 ‘Found words- Manhatten’ £18
Paul Hudson PH21 ‘Secrets of the land Limestone bides its time while history leaves its mark Watercolour £50
Paul Hudson PH22 ‘How De Do Man. The Listener’ Etching £125
Paul Hudson PH23 ‘Whisper to the Mountain’ £45
Paul Hudson Photo
Anne Marwick
Anne is a Ben Rydding based artist and a member of the Aire Valley Arts Group. Her works often feature painted paper which is cut into strips and woven to produce bright geometric forms. Recently the complexity of the works has been increases adding folds to the weaving and painting.
For this show, Anne’s produced 3 paintings The work is done in oil pastel and gouache.She was interested in how the listeners hear our secrets in this 1st painting.Then the relief that comes from unburdening ourselves after shedding secrets. Finally the 3rd one is secrets that remain hidden.
Anne Marwick AMW04 ‘Hearing Secrets’ oil pastel and gouache 20×17 £220
Anne Marwick AMW05 ‘Shedding Secrets’ oil pastel and gouache 16x20in £220
Anne Marwick AMW06 ‘Hidden Secrets’ Oil pastel and gouache 25×19 £280
Karen Rowley
Karen Rowley was one or the original members of Aire Valley Arts back in 1995. For this exhibition she has delved beyond human secrets into an exploration of communication in the animal kingdom. focusing on the unique ways animals convey hidden messages to each other as well as to humans. As she explained. “In some cases, our pets’ faces reveal secrets they would rather not tell!” Two of these, ‘It Wasn’t Me’ features dogs whose expression suggests otherwise.
Karen Rowley KRO02 ‘It Wasn’t Me’ 8x8in oil on Canvas
Karen Rowley KRO03 ‘It Wasn’t Me 2’ 8x8in oil on Canvas £85
Karen Rowley KRO04 ‘What the……’ 8x8in oil on Canvas £85
Karen-Rowley
Judy Sale
Born, brought up and educated with a BA in Art in the USA, Judy is now a British artist who has lived/worked and exhibited in 8 different countries and travelled to many more. The past 15 years, Judy has lived/worked in Haworth W. Yorks. but her artwork can be found in public and private collections across the world.
Talking of her drawing ‘The Monk is Drunk’ …. As an abstract painter, I have never been particulary interested in figurative work. But feel it is always good to try something new outside one’s comfort zone. One day,at a life drawing class a model dressed as Santa Claus holding a wine glass, which reminded me of a monk in flowing robes. In years past I worked amongst monks in Cyprus when I formed a foundation to restored an ancient monastery with the intention of making it into an international art centre. One elderly monk in particular had a bit of a drink problem which he liked to keep secret.
Judy Sale JSA03 ‘The Monk is Drunk’, charcoal drawing framed, 2024, 82 x 54 cms
Judy Sale JSA04 ‘Justice 1 and 2’, Collages £100 for 2
Judy Sale
Kate Stewart
Manningham based Kate Stewart’s truly exquisite work combines watercolour and embroidery on fabric. She is a great observer of people and the way they communicate and has three studies of conversations in the show. Do these concern long-held secrets? We’d like to think so.
Kate Stewart KS19 ‘Harecroft Conversation’ Watercolour and fabric 32×32 £180
Kate Stewart KS20 ‘Brighton Conversation’ Watercolour and fabric 50×37 £180
Kate Stewart KS21 ‘Oxford Conversation’ Watercolour and fabric 50×37 £180
Kate Stewart
Helen Shearwood
Helen is a British/Australian artist with a 20+ year background in design, fascinated by the transformative effect a shift in perspective can make, having discovered beauty in the most unexpected of places at a time she believed there wasn’t any left, anywhere. Helen photographs ordinary everyday objects like lampposts and rubbish bins, marvelling at the way they transform into vibrant abstract art when viewed in a new light, tangibly demonstrating the power of looking at things in a different way. These photographs form the basis of her art in which she explores various media and themes, including the power of perspective, the beauty in the ordinary, the psychology driving our behaviour and the freedom to be found in questioning labels and seeing with ‘new eyes’.
Currently based in Western Australia, Helen joined AVA when she spent three months in West Yorkshire in 2019.
Images coming shortly
Helen-Shearwood
Helen Shearwood HS100018 ‘Pools of Jewels’_Acrylic on photograph framed to 47.5x33cm £70
Helen Shearwood HS100020 ‘Molten Lava’ Acrylic on photograph framed to 47.5x33cm £70
Helen Shearwood HS100021 ‘Aquamarine Dream’ Acrylic on photograph framed to 47.5x33cm £70
Helen Shearwood HS100028 ‘Mist In The Valley’ Watercolour Collage unframed 15.5x28cm £55
Helen-Shearwood-HS100028-Mist-In-The-Valley-unframed-15
David Starley
David, the proprietor of the Bingley Gallery, first studied art at Sydney University whilst working in a steel foundry, but then chose to follow a career in archaeology, before becoming a professional artist. Oil paint is very thickly applied (impasto) with a painting knife to produce a three-dimensional, almost sculpted, image. This not only adds great depth but produces a surface that responds subtly to the changing light of the environment in which the work is displayed.
David Starley is an artist who frequently paints woodland. In one impasto oil painting a tree reveals its own secret; it is the home for a tawny owl. His other paintings draw on his earlier career as an archaeologist and feature monuments and finds that have stories to tell about our distant ancestors.
David Starley ds697Forest Secret. 20x30in £320
David Starley ds698 ‘Whispering in the Wind’ 20x30in £320
David Starley ds695 Roseisle Goosie Pictish Symbol Stone-30x30in £420
David Starley ds696 ‘Stone Rose. East Riddlesden Window. 30x30in £450
David Starley
Susan Strange
Several of Sue Strange’s paintings are based on overheard conversations, but otherwise she was keeping tight lipped about the thought process behind her work – a secret indeed.
Susan Strange SS03 ‘Secret Path To My Heart’ Acrylic on Canvas 30x40cm £315
Susan Strange SS04 ‘Fragments of a conversation I’ mixed media on linen 29x29cm £200
Susan Strange SS05 ‘Fragments of a conversation II’ mixed media on linen 29x29cm £200
Susan Strange SS06 ‘Fragments of a conversation III’ mixed media on linen 20x20cm £80
Susan Strange SS07 ‘Fragments of a conversation IV’ mixed media on linen 30x30cm £185
Jan Whittock
Jan has recently been exploring the printmaking techniques of collagraph and gel printing. The collagraphs have been produced using stiff card, which has been cut iand added to, with different textures.
Gel printing, provides the opportunity to build up images using many layers of pattern and colour with acrylic paints. Some of the resulting prints, for example, the figures, have been left as they were made. Other pieces have been cut up and added to the collagraphs to build up collages.
“The title of the exhibition is TELLING SECRETS and I’ve tried to think of ways that we use the idea of secrets in the titles. For example, A LITTLE BIRD TOLD ME. I’ve also chosen to use gold ornate frames, as well as gold leaf on some of the finished pieces, to convey the idea that secrets are often precious.”
Jan Whittock JW30 ‘A River Runs By ‘ Collagraph plate framed to13x16in £80
Jan Whittock JW31 ‘A Little Bird Told Me’ Collagraph Plate Framed to 13x10in £80
Jan Whittock JW32 ‘Hidden Depths’ Collagraph plate-framed to 13x16in £80
Jan Whittock JW32 ‘Secret Saltaire ‘ Collagraph plate framed to13x16in £80
Jan Whittock JW34 ‘Secret garden’ Collagraph and Collage framed to13x16in £90
Jan Whittock JW35 ‘A Bird in the Hand” Collagraph and Collage framed to13x16in £90
Jan Whittock JW36 ‘Reflections’ Gel Print framed to 13x16in £90
