Visual Arts News

Anglian Potters Spring Exhibition

In its 40th Anniversary year Anglian Potters will once again be mounting a fullscale exhibition of members’ work at the The Undercroft Gallery in Market Square, Norwich. Over 50 exhibitors will show an amazing display of ceramic work from sculptures and wall hanging pieces to studio pottery and domestic ware. Everything is for sale and entrance is free. The Undercroft is a huge space under the Memorial Gardens outside the City Hall and its cavernous space is transformed into a magical grotto by the display lights and the multi-coloured work in the show. Pottery is alive and well and Anglian Potters has more members than ever, making it the largest such regional organisation in the UK The exhibition opens on Saturday April 8th and runs every day until Sunday April 23rd (10am-4.30pm). anglianpotters.org.uk

4-Ways Art Exhibition

The Spring Art Show

The Spring Art Show at the Forum, a staple event in Norfolk’s art calendar, will return for its tenth anniversary this April. The exhibition will gather together an eclectic mix of artists from across the East of England, working in a range of art forms and styles. Organised by Norwich artist Brian Korteling the exhibition runs from April 5th-9th. Brian Korteling said: ‘We aim to put on a diverse and inspiring exhibition of artwork so this year we have introduced a selection process for the first time to give us more curatorial control. Hopefully this will make for an even better exhibition.’ Annually attracting thousands of visitors, the original artworks and prints on show will all be for sale. www.springartshow.co.uk

From April 6th-23rd, The Handa Gallery at Wells Maltings is home to a group exhibition for four artists from four different places. Each of them creates a sense of place and time through their visual art. Dave Mercer’s inspiration comes from the North Yorkshire moors where he lives. He paints acrylics and mixed media and also creates digital art. Caroline Murtagh is an oil painter who lives and works in County Cork where she is surrounded by beautiful landscape and seas. Caroline’s work has increasingly moved towards abstraction. Carol Pairaudeau is a print maker and a painter. Vandy Massey paints predominantly in watercolour and mixed media. Her work is inspired by the natural environment and often features trees and plants. Carol Pairaudeau and Vandy Massey will be running workshops in gel plate printing and watercolour painting on Saturday April 15th and 22nd. Bookings can be made via wellsmaltings.org.uk

Three Painters, One Sculptor

Running until April 16th, at Stapleford Granary near Cambridge, this exhibition presents 48 paintings and sculptures by four artists. Tom www.staplefordgranary.org.uk

Benjamin’s landscapes are painted swiftly outdoors as the light changes, capturing a moment of sun on water, dappled shade on trees or dusk over the city. Philip Maltman’s vivid flowers suggest the wild and untouched. The addition of his spidery and graffiti-like handwriting on the paintings is suggestive of urban wastelands where nature finds a way to co-existpoignantly, stoically - alongside man-made structures. Ian Turnock’s sculptures are inspired by patterns formed by trees against the sky and the empty spaces left between leaves and branches. His silhouettes are cut digitally into large circular discs of steel, aluminium and copper, compressing the subject matter into a flat two-dimensional form. Susan Laughton’s landscapes reveal the world as if seen through a half-glimpsed mist or from the windows of a train. Barely-there outlines of farm buildings, trees, rooftops and power lines are subsumed in cool early-morning tones, lending an ethereal quality and a delicacy to their everyday functionality and solidity.

Three Make Art: celebrating decades of making art in Palgrave

In April & May, Mike Webb, Jenny Goater and Jane West host a joint exhibition at Longs Farm Palgrave, near Diss (IP22 1AD). Mike Webb has lived in the village since 1969 and is most famous for his cartoons in the Diss Express that have run for a staggering 50 years. He has exhibited throughout East Anglia and has had a regular bi-annual show at the Corn Hall in Diss. His beautifully observed watercolours focus nostalgically on rural East Anglian life, though more recently he has veered to a freer, more whimsical style. Jenny Goater is renowned for her animal sculptures in mixed media. Jenny developed a technique whereby plaster or concrete was worked onto an open armature, but slowly the armature took over leading to her present method of free sculptural wirework. She has recently been commissioned by a magician’s friend and created a 9ft giraffe, life-size alpaca and

Norfolk Life in Cromer

From March 18th - April 4th, The Gallery Norfolk in Cromer is hosting an exhibition of work by the talented Sam Robbins. The exhibition, entitled Norfolk Life, mark Sams’ new move into figurative work, looking at people’s behaviour on the beach, without any special focus on faces. The paintings convey the colours and the vibe on the beach from adults chilling out staring at the sea, to children wriggling as the Factor 50 gets put on by a parent. There is a lovely feeling of spontaneity. Sam sketches tiny works whenever he is on the beach then develops a chosen few as soon as possible thereafter into a larger work, the final piece is very closely linked to what he has observed that day. Sam’s fascination with Norfolk light and landscapes has turned to the times and locations where the environment and people collide or collaborate, creating these hugely atmospheric paintings. There is a timelessness to his art.

www.thegallerynorfolk.co.uk baby elephant, and a large cobra aiding his master. Jane West has been making art for 20 years and creates ceramics, prints and sculptures. Much of Jane’s work is figurative, producing thoughtprovoking pieces as well as those that raise a smile. She will be exhibiting in the Raveningham Sculpture Trail again this year. The exhibition is open on April 29th-30th, May 1st, 6th-7th,13th-14th, 20th-21st, 27th-28th and 29th from 11am-5pm.

Artist Profile: Ricky Minns

Known to many as Ruddy Muddy, painter of vans, Ricky Minns is actually an artist of exceptional talent and diversity.

As you’re driving around Norfolk, you may be lucky enough to spot Ruddy Muddy’s van, sporting one of his amazing works of art on the back.

Ricky uses current events to inspire the mud paintings he painstakingly undertakes. They are intricate, topical and often breathtaking.

He’s come a long way from doodling colleagues in his previous job as a delivery driver.

‘I’ve always loved drawing and would often draw pictures of my colleagues when we were on our break,’ he says. ‘Art was a hobby but nothing more.’

As the driver of a white van that easily became muddy, Ricky would often find rude words scrawled on his vehicle. One evening, instead of wiping the words off to hide them from his children, he decided to doodle over the top of them.

That snap decision was to ultimately change the course of his life. He started painting mud pictures on his van whenever it got dirty enough.

‘It wasn’t long before the lads at my golf club started commenting that I should set up a Facebook page for my van drawings,’ says Ricky. ‘I was getting stopped quite often at petrol stations too.’

Then one evening a producer from Look East drove past Ricky’s van. The rest is history.

‘I found myself on the TV and the subject of many newspaper articles,’ says Ricky. ‘ I even appeared on The One Show, painting three vans during the course of the programme. That was tricky as they weren’t muddy so I had to find a way of putting the dirt on them myself.’

Ricky created the persona of Ruddy Muddy as his Facebook followers went through the roof.

The success of his van paintings ignited a flame in Ricky.

‘I signed up for some art lessons which was the best decision I ever made,’ he says. ‘I’d always been able to draw but now I was able to learn the fundamentals of painting. They taught me the techniques I was missing to make the most of my skills.’

Since then Ricky has honed his art, working mainly in oils. His paintings are beautiful and accomplished.

‘I have done many scenic paintings but I also love figurative art. I love detail,’ he says. www.ruddymuddyart.com

He’s also worked out a way to lift his mud paintings to get a print and now sells a range of merchandise through his website and Facebook Page. He is also available for commissions, including pencil drawings.

Ricky is holding an exhibition of his work at Harrods of Hingham for the month of August.

While Ruddy Muddy’s van paintings are amazing, it’s clear that Ricky is a diverse and talented artist who deserves far wider recognition.

Facebook: Ruddy Muddy art

Sean Scully at Houghton Hall

Smaller Than The Sky

World-renowned artist Sean Scully is staging a major exhibition of outdoor sculpture at Houghton Hall

This spring one of the world’s most celebrated artists Sean Scully will take over the grounds and historic interiors of Houghton Hall in Norfolk for an exhibition that will showcase the full range of the artist’s sculpture. In the Hall and Contemporary Gallery, the artist will also show a significant group of paintings and works on paper. Sean Scully at Houghton Hall - Smaller Than The Sky will open on April 23rd and run until October 29th .

Houghton Hall was built in the 1720s for Britain’s first Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole, and the 2023 exhibition will showcase Sean Scully sculptures in a wide range of materials sited in the Palladian house and around the extensive formal gardens.

Several new works will be included in the exhibition including stacks made of sandstone, wood, glass and marble. The sculptures range in scale from small maquettes to monumental open structures in steel, such as Crate of Air, and a new Wall of Light sculpture, constructed from locally sourced limestone. The exhibition will be a showcase of Scully’s outdoor sculptures in dialogue with works in other media.

The exhibition will also include a selection of paintings and works on paper made over the past few years but with key reference to works from earlier in Scully’s career. These works will be displayed in the grand rooms of the house and in the North Colonnade and the Contemporary Gallery.

Smaller Than The Sky is the latest edition of Houghton Hall’s celebrated series of contemporary exhibitions that have featured James Turrell (2015), Richard Long (2017), Damien Hirst (2018), Henry Moore (2019), Anish Kapoor (2020), Tony Cragg (2021), and Chris Levine (2021).

Sean Scully’s concern for the environment and his focus on nature is reflected in the title of the exhibition. An important component is his book, Endangered Sky, a collaboration with the poet Kelly Grovier, focusing on the plight of bird life, memorializing those already extinct and those which are close to it, which will be launched at Houghton and will be shown in vitrines as part of the exhibition.

The exhibition is curated by the art historian and museum director, Sean Rainbird, formerly Director of the National Gallery of Ireland (2012-2022) and a Senior Curator at Tate.

Sean Scully said: ‘England, as we’ve seen from the fabulous paintings by Constable, is a country very informed by sky. People talk about the sky all the time. They talk about the weather, or the clouds, the wet. So, it’s a source of inspiration.

When you put sculptures outside, you are aware that the sky is illuminating them, and conditioning how they look. Whatever you put out there is always humbled by the bigness of the sky.’

Lord Cholmondeley, owner of Houghton Hall, said: ’As a long-time admirer of Sean Scully’s work, I feel extremely proud to be able to bring this major exhibition to Houghton. Scully’s paintings and sculptures often evoke landscape and architecture, and will look sensational against the backdrop of the house.’

Born in Dublin, Sean Scully came to prominence primarily as a painter in the early 1970s, evolving a distinctive form of abstraction in the course of the decade. This led him away from the geometric purity of minimalism to an expressive, multilayered abstract painting. The works with which he gained

Murano glass, 270 x 108 x 108 cm

85 x 75 in. (215.9 x 190.5 cm) international recognition comprise coloured bars and horizontal beams, some with inset or relief elements.

Scully established himself in New York, where he moved in the mid-1970s. The artist currently lives and works in New York and between several European cities, including London. He is widely celebrated for his watercolours drawings, pastels and prints, as well as for his photography. Increasingly over the past two decades, he has made critically acclaimed sculptures including the monumental Opulent Ascension installed at San Giorgio Maggiore for the 2019 Venice Biennale, which drew over 360,000 visitors. More recently, Oak Stacks was created from historic local Danish timber to stand in Bertel Thorvaldsen’s Square, Copenhagen for the start of that city’s 2023 designation as the World Capital of Architecture. Scully exhibits internationally, and his work is held by many major museums and galleries across the world. www.houghtonhall.com

The exhibition is organised by the Houghton Arts Foundation with the support of Lisson Gallery and Thaddaeus Ropac gallery and key assistance from the artist and his studio. A fully illustrated catalogue will include a text by Sean Rainbird.

The Houghton Arts Foundation continues to build a collection of contemporary art at Houghton Hall, including a number of site-specific commissions. With links to colleges and public institutions across the region, the Foundation’s aim is for Houghton Hall to become a focus for those who wish to see great art of our time in an historic setting.

Outdoor Sculpture at Helmingham Hall

From April 28th Helmingham Hall, one of the country’s finest Elizabethan stately homes, plays host to a stunning exhibition of outdoor sculpture in the award-winning gardens designed by Chelsea Gold medal winner Xa Tollemache.

The sculpture exhibition - running until September 17th - is raising money for the care and cure of breast cancer. ART FOR CURE is one of the UK’s most successful breast cancer charities, raising money for vital breast cancer research and support services, through the sale of contemporary art, ceramics and sculpture with 30% of all sales going directly to their non-profit, voluntary fundraising.

The exhibition is a unique curation of sculpture from over 50 eminent sculptors in the UK including deeply human and expressive figures by Carol Peace and Beatrice Hoffman, hanging, mesh wire sculptures by David Begbie and seated figures by Rachel Ducker. Also including Suffolk-based Paul Richardson’s Chelsea and Hampton Court Flower Show sculpture, including ‘Falling Leaves’ and favoured bronze stags, hares and dogs by Tanya Russell and Andrew Kay authentic in the backdrop of the spectacular deer park. Contemporary ceramicist Emma Fenelon’s intriguing terracotta towers work as well indoor as outdoor.

Alongside the exhibition is an opening 3-day exhibition of contemporary paintings and ceramics (April 28th-May 1st) inside the historic interior of the Hall, usually inaccessible to the general public.

A new collection from over 30 artists with contributions from eminent figurative painter Henrietta Dubrey whose strong and beautiful women are always first night sell-outs. Stylish painter Penny Madden, wife of Marigold Hotel film director John Madden will launch a new theme of botanical works with successful painter Kate Giles expressing her intimate interpretations of the rural East Anglian landscape.

Sophie Cook, Kate Reynolds and Laura Hutson who reside in East Anglia and exhibit work on an international platform will fill the 500-year-old historic home with their colourful, contemporary ceramics.

artforcure.org.uk