Wild
Cotswold Craftsmen at Nature in Art
Bringing together a wonderfully diverse range of disciplines, this selling exhibition will showcase the breadth and individuality of contemporary craft. Visitors can discover printmaking, jewellery, wirework, textiles, willow work, sculpture, painting, resin art and more, with each maker offering their own interpretation of the wild world around us.
From ancient woodland forms and botanical structures to animals, landscapes and the textures and materials found in nature, Wild celebrates the endless ways the natural world can spark creativity, whilst offering a glimpse into the rich and varied work of the Cotswold Craftsmen, whose members create thoughtfully made work across a remarkable range of traditional and contemporary disciplines.
As part of a local environmental week, Nature in Art is showing a selection of paintings by Meg Stevens that are part of Nature in Art’s collection and were last shown in their entirety in 2017.
They are from a remarkable collection of paintings all done in situ by Meg Stevens in and around the Brecons, where she lived. She could be found out in all weather capturing the wild places she loved. These pictures in particular, highlight the flowers in their habitat.
In talking about the series, Meg said: ‘When I find bits (of land) where wild flowers grow plentifully, I want to celebrate. All art makes a statement of some kind about something experienced, emotionally or physically. It may be a proclamation or a protest, a poem or a political statement. I think mine are a sort of celebration’.
However, capturing those celebrations was sometimes a struggle! Meg much preferred painting out of doors taking her equipment out into the countryside on her bicycle. She said, ‘If I find myself painting in places where I almost have to cling on with my teeth, it’s because these are often the only places left where wild flowers can grow in profusion – the way they are meant to be seen.’ Meg went on to say, ‘Every picture is a fight. It wouldn’t be worthwhile, I suppose, if it weren’t. One suffers cold, heat, stiff neck, tennis elbow. Brolly springs a leak, blows away. Easel collapses. Seeds in one’s socks and prickles in one’s pullover! …… I can’t decide if it’s me fighting to find how to say it or the picture fighting to get itself said. That they do get themselves somehow said is not a tribute to my skill but to the beauty which, in spite of all that we do to our environment, insists on breaking out wherever it finds the smallest chance.’
Course details:
Make a magical Christmas wreath. Start a family tradition that you can enjoy year after year. I will bring a wide selection of glass, ceramic, mirror and vintage china, so you can create a wreath to your own colour scheme – richly traditional, silver and frosty, jazzy or shabby chic!
Materials and additional costs:
£22 (cash) to be paid to tutor for materials
Please bring a shoebox size cardboard box to cut tiles into.
Suitability:
Suitable for all
Spaces:
10
Price: £124 / £158
Aurora
Paintings by Nick Jones
This autumn, Nature in Art presents two galleries of paintings by Nick Jones, made between 2015 and 2020 and drawn from his long fascination with landscape, light and the far north. The museum previously exhibited Jones’s Arctic paintings in 2023, and now returns to his work with a further telling of the story — both the aurora that first drew him north, and the optical phenomena that followed.
The first gallery brings together Jones’s aurora paintings, made after a series of trips to Finnish Lapland from 2014 in search of the Northern Lights. Those who have witnessed the aurora have long reached for the language of wonder to describe it; the polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen called it “colour etherealized,” writing that nothing more beautiful could exist than the Arctic night. It was in that same spirit of awe and wonder that Jones set out to paint what he saw. The results are quiet, luminous works that seek to evoke the mesmerising experience of standing beneath the aurora.
The second gallery turns to other optical phenomena of Arctic skies: halos, coronas, parhelia, fog-bows and rainbows (the last increasingly seen as rain becomes more common in a warming Arctic) formed as sunlight passes through the ice crystals, water droplets and mist that fill the polar air. Many of these paintings were made before Jones had seen such phenomena in the Arctic for himself, and developed in the studio out of a growing curiosity about the far north, and in preparation for his 2018 residency in Greenland and Baffin Island.
Across both galleries, Jones’s work traces not just what these phenomena look like but evokes something of the wonder and mystery that those lucky enough to have seen them have long described.
Nick Jones will also give a talk on 24th November, sharing more of the story behind both bodies of work. Book a ticket here
Course details:
Are you interested in decorating your very own piece of bone china using vintage and contemporary transfers? No previous artistic ability is required. One-to-one tuition will be given to assist you in creating your own personal masterpiece.
This is a perfect starting point for further art-related workshops and is especially good for enhancing good mental health well-being and building confidence. Everyone’s an artist so come and unlea
sh your hidden creativity.
Materials and additional costs:
All materials provided
Suitability:
Suitable for all
Spaces:
12
Cost:
£31 / £42 (please note this is a half-day course)
. Nick Jones stands beneath the Northern Lights
An opportunity to view Nick Jones’s exhibition of aurora and Arctic optical phenomena paintings (7pm – 7.30pm), followed by a finger buffet, and then a talk by the artist on the stories and Arctic journeys behind the work. See information about the exhibition here.
Course Suitability: Suitable for all
Maximum Participants: 12
Course Description:
Join artist Jamie Boots for a two-day exploration into the nuanced world of graphite pencil art. This workshop delves beyond basic sketching, offering insights into the subtle techniques that breathe life into your creations. Participants will discover the art of manipulating pencil sharpness, pressure and tones to convey the fine details such as skin textures and expressive eyes.
Materials Required:
All materials supplied within the session.
Price:
£124 / £158
How different was it then to your Christmas today? Many of the traditions we have today were not thought of 500 years ago. Come with us from Advent, through the 12 days of Christmas, to Plough Monday, and find out what Christmas was like in the 16th century! A really entertaining and informative evening with ‘From time to time’.
Doors open 7pm to view galleries. Festive snacks at 7.30pm, followed by the event.