'Five Years' at Devonport Live

From the 21st to 27th April I had a short solo retrospective 'Five Years' at the Devonport Live studio space in Plymouth. The exhibition showed a selection of my work from the past five years, linked to the music of David Bowie.  The accompanying exhibition texts, which include links to the relevant Bowie tracks, can be viewed here.

The exhibition was extended from an original three days to a week and we had some interesting visitors, including a woman who had worked for Bowie at Mainman in the early 1970s. Here are some photographs (click to see larger):

'Performing' as a fan (not a great stretch)

Old Folkies + Bruce Kirkby Sculpture at Totnes

It's been almost a month since I last posted - partly because life has been busy, partly because of blog weariness ... Anyway, I thought I'd give blogging another go but refocus a bit, so that it isn't so time-consuming. That means fewer hyperlinks and less uploads to YouTube. Who has the time to do that when you have to use the dismal service provided by Talktalk?

In the past few weeks I've seen John Renbourn & Robin Williamson playing the Phoenix and Joan Baez at the Plymouth Pavilions. Both were ok, but for me both performances were a bit disappointing - perhaps it's just that we are all getting older and it's depressing! Anyway I'll post some photos etc from these gigs in a while.

Renbourn and Williamson

 Bruce Kirkby at Totnes

However, for now I'll kick off this blog restart with photos of some great wood and stone sculptures that were on show at the Birdwood Gallery in Totnes a couple of weeks ago. They are by Bruce Kirkby, who worked as a geologist before training at Weymouth College of Stonemasonry and becoming a stonecarver.

Bruce's website explains that his panels are based upon folded quartz veins seen in exposed rocks, on the coast of Devon and Cornwall or further afield in Nepal. Although they are based on a small scale geological feature, they mimic large scale features such as rivers seen in satellite imagery.

The wooden sculptures containing pebbles are inspired by the forces of coastal processes. The sculptures involving aligned slate are inspired by sorting and alignment of particles by either water or ice.

Bruce Kirby provides masonry, carving, sculpture, restoration, lettercutting, and stone work for Acanthus and their website showcases the full range of his skills.

Carole Whelan - Coast at Birdwood House, Totnes

I was in Totnes yesterday and took the opportunity to call in at the Birdwood House gallery, which is at the top of the High Street hill, on the corner of the market square.

This week Carole Whelan is showing the results of two years photographing the beaches of Devon and Cornwall. The pictures are a mixture of wide views, reflecting the scale of the land and seascapes, and of more abstract photographs focusing upon the different textures and patterns of the beaches, the sea and the coastal rocks.

It is a small but fascinating exhibition - I was tempted to buy but don't really have the space to hang large prints. You can see some of Carole's pictures which did not make the final cut in her workbooks at Birdwood House and you can see more of the pictures on her website (but they are better when you see them close-up).

The work is on show for this week only but if you are in the Totnes area, it is well worth a look.

While I am posting, there are a couple of other exhibitions which you may be interested in and that I plan to get along to in the next couple of weeks. The first is The British Art Show 7 which is on a tour of four cities in the UK and includes the work of 30 artists at a number of venues in Plymouth. This runs until December 4th.

The second is the 4th Museum of Everything which is exhibiting at Selfridges in London, rather than at its usual Primrose Hill address. The Museum is known for its quirky Outsider Art but this time the exhibition focuses specifically on work from people with disabilities from across the world. This exhibition showcases a huge variety of work but finishes on October 25th (digital show here).