Arts & Antiques

Academy showcase for Laura

LAurAShaw, a Year 12 student at Frome College, has had this photograph selected for the highly prestigious royal Academy Young Artists’ Summer Show.

Thousands of pieces of work were judged by art professionals with selected works displayed online and onsite at the royal Academy of Arts until August 8th.

Artists celebrate

CompTon Dando Art Group is hoping to resume painting in September, but before then members met up to celebrate the group’s 16th anniversary over coffee and lunch.

The celebration included some of the original members pictured (l to r) Trish Baker, Barbara Hooke, Sonia priest, Jean Harnaman, mary Shaw, artist, molly Griffiths and maureen Baker.

Archive project wins anniversary funding

Artistic heritage: (l:r) Philippa Forsey, creative wellbeing manager, Sarah James, director, and Pete Crooke, the charity’s longestserving trustee

CreATIVITY Works, the arts and health charity based in radstock, has received a national Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £7,000 for a project to mark its 40th birthday.

The project focuses on the preservation and sharing of the oral histories and memories from previous project participants, partners, artists, and volunteers from the past four decades.

Creativity Works runs high quality arts projects, increasing health and wellbeing for those living with mental health challenges, and from disadvantaged sectors of society. now the charity would like to hear from anyone who has been involved in any previous projects either under its current name or when it was known as Wansdyke Arts Council, north east Somerset Arts or nesa to get in touch.

The aim is to collate oral histories and memories which can be used to inspire future arts projects, curate a free public exhibition and a new online archive. Sarah James, Creativity Works director, said: “We are thrilled to have received this support thanks to national Lottery players.

“The 40th year feels like the right moment in time especially coming out of a world pandemic to share how our local community came together 40 years ago to improve conditions for local people (as they did in the pandemic) and the power of creativity to increase positive mental health.”

History of Frome

Frome Society’s Yearbook, its 24th since 1987, has been published, full of fascinating stories about the town and its history. one article looks at the evidence that Shakespeare might have spent a night in Frome. The book is available from Frome museum and Winstones Hunting raven bookshop.

Hands go up for clocks and watches at Mendip Auction Rooms

KILLenS are seeing a good attendance of potential buyers on viewing and sale days at the mendip Auction rooms with many enthusiastic to see a return to normality. Killens are encouraging those attending to show consideration to others in wearing face coverings and observing social distancing.

During July, three successful sales were conducted with over 2000 lots having been offered. Victorian and Later effect Sales continue to provide buyers with an opportunity to purchase more modern items including household effects whilst the monthly Antiques and Collectables Sale attracts buyers from across the world.

At the July Antiques Sale, jewellery and silver continued to be in demand with excellent prices achieved. There are also regular buyers as well as private individuals seeking quality clocks and watches and the auction rooms tend to offer a good number.

The highlight in the clocks section was a late 19th century oak bracket clock by Winterhalder and Hoffmeier, marked “A W pridham, 8 Stann’s Square” which attracted strong bidding and achieved £1200.

An 18ct gold fob watch, London assay mark, and requiring some restoration made £580.

Valuations can be undertaken on a drop-in basis at the auction rooms between 10am and 3pm each weekday and Killens have professional valuers and experts on hand to advise.

Contact the team at Killens on 01749 840770 or email enquiries@mendipauctionrooms.co.uk for further assistance

Summer paintings in Somerton

A SerIeS of intriguing paintings by Yorkshire-based artist Jackie Waring is to go on display in Somerton in August.

Jackie is fascinated by myths and mysteries arising from the natural world. She frequently makes small plein air studies which capture a sense of place and space experienced locally and on her travels. These,

Green Man of the Hedgerow

together with drawings from the life model, contribute to larger images in oils creatively composed to explore narratives, ideas, the human figure, or the possibilities of paint itself.

Jackie takes cues freely from various art traditions whether traditional or modern , and is open to inspiration from many other artists.

Her exhibition runs at the SomArTon Gallery, in West Street in Somerton, from August 17th–22nd.

Collected the world over

THe Somerset Guild of Craftsmen is proud to announce its maker of the month for August is ceramicist Heidi Warr. The guild’s gallery in Broad Street in Wells Ceramicist Heidi Warr is the ideal place to see a selection of Heidi's beautiful ceramics, in a special display throughout the month.

Heidi, from South Somerset, creates individually hand built and hand thrown earthenware vessels and decorates each piece using traditional methods, for example, fine slip- trailing, sgraffito, incising and various brush and masking techniques using layers of under- glaze colours, stains and oxides and the careful detailed application of lustre. each stage of decoration is a lengthy meticulous process, creating complex intricate patterns and designs.

Heidi's ceramic designs have been very well received by collectors, galleries, and museums at home and internationally.

New businesses in Axbridge

AxBrIDGehas two new businesses – ripley Antiques has welcomed The Hidden Boutique Company, a high-end fashion boutique, while the Almshouse Café now also has a bookshop.

Louise Cooling, from ripley Antiques, said: “Axbridge has so much potential to become a thriving and innovative hub for small independent businesses. There are so many creative and talented people in the town.

“Working against us is the fact that many of the small independent shops have long been turned into private houses and sadly it is doubtful that this will ever be reversed.

“Therefore, creative business owners are forming exciting collaborations which complement each other perfectly.”

The boutique company’s founder, Claire Warren, is one of many to decide on a career change during the pandemic and is ploughing all her efforts into what she loves – and that is shopping, styling and making it feel oh so very special!

She can be found in the town’s medieval square, where there are also two pubs, two hairdressers, a fantastic museum, a beautiful church, a post office and lots of free parking.

Axbridge Square @ Ripley Antiques A gorgeous little clothing boutique, pre-loved and new with tags, labels, designer and vintage.

OPENING SAT 4th SEPTEMBER AT

Come and meet Claire and relish in a unique shopping experience.

1966 and all that –back to the Swinging Sixties

ASshe embarked on her journey to international stardom, I wonder if it occurred to Diana ross that she might one day be compared to a fork? In the unlikely event that it did, then 1965 would have been an auspicious year for her as that was when Design magazine opined that it would be a “great day when British furniture and cutlery learn to swing like the Supremes”. of all the decades of the 20th century, the 1960s still exerts the most powerful grip on popular memory. Think of the design of the period and it’s the usual suspects – minis (cars and skirts), Beatles album covers and psychedelic posters – which hog the limelight.

Less well remembered is the impact the decade’s dynamic creativity had on the home – a glaring omission given this was the decade that “design” as we know it arrived in British homes for the first time.

With near-enough full employment, young people enjoyed unprecedented levels of disposable income. They had money in their pocket, took their fashion tips from Carnaby Street and the audience on Top of the pops and, when the time came to set up a home of their own, they had no intention of copying their parents’ regency stripe wallpaper.

British manufacturers quickly realised that if they wanted to get on, they had to get with it. Long established firms like poole

With CHRIS YEO

pottery and Whitefriars Glass kept their fingers on the pulse, recruiting graduates from the art schools who translated the trends of Carnaby Street and the artistic avant-garde into material form with the result that a teapot, vase or table can be as evocative an expression of ’60s style as a mary Quant mini dress.

Sixties design is now back in a big way, thanks to the popularity of all things mid-Century, so take a fresh look at your ’60s heirlooms. You could be in for a pleasant surprise.

Whitefriars “Banjo” vase, 1967 – current value £700-1,000