ARTS & EXHIBITIONS

STATE OF THE ART

Homecoming: New Paintings by Sally Stafford, Clifton Contemporary Art, until 13 May

The wetlands of the Somerset Levels have harboured wildlife and people for millennia. They resonate with myths, bird calls and the prevailing South West wind. It is this exposed yet sheltering place that Sally chooses to embrace and paint, after some years dividing her time between the UK and rural Spain. Returning to England to experience every season has been an inspiring creative homecoming, where the interaction of her paints on canvas mimic the flow and patterns of nature. Sally's latest work harnesses the energy of this quietly dramatic phenomenon, which is itself a daily homecoming – a return to safe haven before the sun rises again. This deeply personal, life affirming new collection encapsulates the true essence of the Avalon Marshes, where water and air interact like a form of alchemy to create something precious: a timeless sense of place.

• cliftoncontemporaryart.co.uk Image: Alchemy by Sally Stafford

Our House, Lime Tree Gallery, until 31 May

Over the last two years the familiar contents of our homes have provided comfort and contentment during stressful times. Our House contains work from a broad range of artists across a wide range of media and a good range of locations. This interesting and varied exhibition is uplifting and full of colour. Exhibiting artists include Denise Heywood, Phil Johns, Jane Kite, Ollie Le

Brocq, Irene McCann, Lucy McKie ROI, Rory McLauchlan, Morag Muir, Sigrid

Müller, Anna Perlin, Jackie Philip, Philip Richardson, Mats Rydstern, Vivienne Williams RCA.

• limetreegallery.com

Exhibitions at Arnolfini, throughout May

Arnolfini welcomes you to venture into the extraordinary imagination of Dame Paula Rego RA, one of the leading figurative artists of our generation. Rego makes a welcome return to Bristol (almost 40 years after her first exhibition here in 1982-83), creating an opportunity for a new generation of visitors to explore the artist’s rich and imaginative world. Elsewhere at the gallery, Arnolfini is currently showing CUEVA DE COPAL, a new and immersive site-specific installation by Donna Huanca, a celebrated, rising star of the international art world. Drawing on painting, sculpture, performance, choreography, video, and sensory interventions, Huanca’s interdisciplinary practice focuses upon the human body, exploring our physical relationship to the world around us. Huanca builds her experiential installations around the architecture of each new site, with CUEVA DE COPAL plunging audiences into a cocoon-like space. Award-winning documentary photographer, Polly Braden, in her latest exhibition, Holding the Baby, creates a portrait of the strength and resilience of single parent families facing austerity.

• arnolfini.org.uk

Seeing Beyond The Gate, All Saints Church, until 13 May

All Saints Church, in Clifton is currently hosting an exhibition of watercolour paintings by Charles Sutton, part of a wonderful yearlong celebration of art at the church. Charles Sutton is primarily a self-taught artist who has attended Master Classes delivered by many of the current leading British Watercolourists. Having started with technical drawing, whilst at school, he became increasingly interested in creating drawings and work that could be more subjectively interpreted. Within these paintings he makes use of the transparent and luminous effects of watercolour on paper.

A significant work included within this exhibition is a view of the Cuddesdon

Rectory Gate that lies open providing a glimpse of the garden beyond. The exhibition contains a number of works that ‘look beyond the gate.’

• allsaintsclifton.org

Image: artwork by Charles Sutton

111th Annual Paintings Exhibition, The Bristol 1904 Arts Society, 3 – 12 June

The Bristol 1904 Arts Society’s artistic roots run deep into Bristol's creative history. In 2020, the society rebranded itself with a new name and new activities more accurately portraying their current interests as well as the enduring ones of painting, music, magic, poetry, storytelling and fellowship, progressing from an all male society to an open, diverse, inclusive and welcoming one. The society encourages new membership with artistic or musical talents or none and guests of members are very welcome. Within Bristol 1904 Arts there are also active birdwatching, walking, photography, and classic car groups as well as a chorus and they also put on informal music and creative events open to the public at other times throughout the year. The society meets on Wednesday evenings in the hall built in the style of an old tithe barn adjacent to the Red Lodge in Park Row Bristol where their major artistic event, the Annual Paintings Exhibition, is being held. This major annual event, the 111th Annual Paintings Exhibition, runs from 3 – 12

June and is open to the public every day from 10am to 4.30pm. Paintings by the society’s team of talented artists will be on sale. Works by other local artists will also be on display.

International Photography Exhibition 164: call for entries, Royal Photographic Society, open for entries until 17 May

The Royal Photographic Society is delighted to announce the 2022 call for entries for the 164th edition of the International Photography Exhibition (IPE 164). The world’s longest running photography exhibition celebrates contemporary photography from across the globe. The open call welcomes submissions from new, emerging, and established photographers of all ages and working in any subject or genre. New approaches, alternative photographic processes and experimental work is encouraged. Selected photographers will be offered exclusive opportunities. A £4,000 prize fund will be awarded to standout entrants, including the IPE Award, Under 30s Award and a £1250 commission to create new work. 100 images, chosen by a guest selection panel, will form a group exhibition at the Royal Photographic Society, UK in January 2023. Selected photographers will also be featured in the award-winning _RPS Journal_ and across the RPS digital channels. Entry is free for one image, and up to four images can be submitted for £18 – £30, as a series or as individual images.

• rps.org

Image: Yevhen Samuchenko