Welland Valley Art Society Spring Exhibition 2015. A Personal View.

Light streaming in through the windows of the Wilfred Wood Gallery at the Stamford Arts Centre. Walls full of row after row of great art and plinths teaming with exciting sculpture. Must be the spring exhibition of the Welland Valley Art Society!

In this blog I will tell you the winner and commended artists, my favourite pieces and some very interesting statistics. I'd love to read your thoughts so please leave me a comment in the comments box at the bottom! Thanks.

As a member I did my stint of stewarding yesterday fueled by a cheese sandwich from the cafe.
This isn't a very arduous job,
Just chatting to who ever comes in and helping people when they wish to purchase a piece of art, which they did.
Two of us usually hold the fort and so the time passes quickly with a lot of chat about art, this exhibition, a bit of gossip and life in general. Thank you Gerry for a very pleasant afternoon!

Another nice thing about stewarding is that you get to see the artworks for much longer. A private view is great but it's full of so many people and although a lovely social event you can't always get to the art for a better look.

Overall winner was an untitled resin bronze sculpture by Will Illsley. A very tactile object with a touch of Barbara Hepworth about it.

Commended: 
Barbara Allen "At Florians", an oil painting, full of subtle light.
Deborah James "Buttercup Meadow", a strong coloured oil painting. One of my favourites.
Judy Merriman "Still Life with Pot". It was good but I absolutely adore her African portraits.
Alan Oliver "Time to Go Home" a charming beach scene in acrylic
.
And now for my favourites:
John Lincoln: "Overgrowth at Swaddy Well" a fine fibre tip pen drawing, and sold as well. It had a touch of the 19th century about it and was very accomplished.
Mark Green "Autumn Sunshine" another beautiful Cambridgeshire landscape painted en plein air and it shows for all the right reasons.
and Helen Kempton "Down Town" which I liked because it was bold and uncompromising and was a painting of what she liked and admired.

Helen Kempton
underneath her painting
"Down Town"

Some interesting statistics:

In the exhibition there were 

132 works of which

40 were oil paintings

16 watercolours

21 acrylic

18 3D pieces

16 mixed media
7 pastel
5 drawings
and 23 square works of art! (I find this interesting as I often paint in a square format)
It would have been interesting to know how many works were submitted, perhaps I'll ask the question next time.
If you'd like to add to my thoughts please leave a comment on the box below!