FOUR ELEMENTS

The Station, Richmond. 'New Arrivals' - 6 Ryedale Artists

2009-05-16T15:31:00.000-07:00

New Arrivals Make Tracks for Richmond.

A brand new group of professional Yorkshire artists is making tracks for one of the county’s most unusual art galleries.

The ‘New Arrivals’ are due into Richmond railway station… …but 40 years after the last train left. That’s because the station has been converted to an award-winning art and community centre called The Station Gallery.

The new arrivals are six Ryedale artists on their own exciting journey examining different ways of looking at our landscape in an exhibition of mixed media which runs from May 15^th to June 12th

“What we all have in common – apart from being friends and fellow Ryedale artists – is a passion for showing how lines flow through the landscape, sometimes metaphorically, but sometimes quite literally… as you’ll see at the exhibition,” said Maria Silmon.

With tree lines as her recent focus, Maria portrays unseen earth energies - collectively known as ley lines - and energetic hubs such as those that great cathedrals and churches are built on.

She says she finds endless inspiration from her surroundings in the North York Moors National Park where she lives and works.

Ian Mitchell’s ‘Linescapes’ are his unique delineation of the landscape based on a stripped down reality celebrating the Yorkshire Coast and Countryside. Fittingly for the railway venue, Ian’s work pays homage to the early 20th Century travel posters while being described as contemporary, refreshing and very calming.

Jackie Lunn’s inspiration is ancient architecture, tribal dwellings, mud huts and wooded structures as well as symbols relating to religious beliefs. Her textiles range from large hangings to smaller framed pieces and three-dimensional work including felt-making, hand- and machine-stitching, fabrics and sometimes, handmade papers and paper threads.

Stef Mitchell aims to make connections with unknown and at times hostile landscapes through drawing, photography, film, printmaking and painting.

Her abstraction of the landscape expresses balance, scale, space and silence using ritualistic drawing, photography and note making, before the final pieces are produced in a response to the memory of the landscape. These aerial mappings record human encounter with the landscape.

Sue Slack draws her inspiration by going out to sketch the beautiful landscape that surrounds her before developing her paintings in the studio: accentuating colour, simplifying shapes, reflecting rhythms of the land to reflect her passion for colour and the influence of the expressionist artists of the twentieth century.

Christopher Ware is a representational watercolour painter, but also the country’s first professional Artist in Residence on a steam railway - the NYMR which runs from Pickering to Whitby. He works in the heart of the North York Moors national park at his Open Studio at Levisham Station in Newtondale.

Chris said, “I paint the landscape in a way people recognise, but in a style that should draw an emotional response,” he said. “But like the others, I use my work to share with viewers the way the lines in our landscape communicate with our emotions.”

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A1 Summer Art Exhibition

2008-10-21T15:02:00.000-07:00

THE PEOPLE HAVE DECIDED >> Artists from throughout Yorkshire and the North East submitted over one thousand pieces of work for the first A1 Open Summer Art Exhibition.A distinguished panel of 7 judges met in June to select their favourite 250 works for inclusionin the show.Now the People's Choice has been decided.Photos of A1 Open Artwork - Tomas Kratina
Tel: 01748 850123

A1OPEN »
People's Choice Winners »
The Judges' Winners »
Judging »
The Station »
The A1 Open Summer Art Exhibition is a fascinating glimpse of what’s currently happening amongst the painters, printmakers and illustrators of our region; a region linked together by Britain’s most famous highway – the A1.
The exhibition took place in Richmond’s recently converted old railway terminus, The Station. It ran from Monday, 14th July until Sunday, 31st August.
Artists from throughout Yorkshire and the North East submitted over one-thousand pieces of work for the first A1 Open Summer Art Exhibition. A distinguished panel of seven judges met in June to select their favourite 250 works for inclusion in the show. View selected pictures »»
Nine pictures in the exhibition were chosen by the judges for their excellence and their creators have shared £4,250 for their achievements. View the winning pictures »»
Three pictures were chosen by visitors to the exhibition as 'The People's Choice' View the winning pictures »»
Richmond is only four miles off the A1. If travelling from the North, use the Scotch Corner exit and follow the signs. If you are coming from the South, exit onto the A6136. Follow the signs to Catterick Village, Brompton-on-Swale and then on to Richmond.
The Station is just a ¼ mile from Richmond Market Place.
Tel: 01748 850123

art@a1open.co.uk

art@a1open.co.uk

24 April 08

2008-04-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

NOW SEE ALSO: link: http://nyos08mariasilmon.blogspot.com/

The installation is up & running now and only needs to be switched on in the mornings and it runs all day.

There are many configurations as to ways to show it, but this one, projecting from the purpose built box in the middle of the room works well as it is.

With a bigger budget!! I could see it being projected so as to fill the whole of each wall, and we would have surround-sound, probably at head height around the space. I thought a square room with the projections totally covering each wall would work best, and you would stand, sit or lounge on a giant bean bag!! in the centre so as to be 'immersed' in the imagery.

I have had many comments and have made some changes. I have slowed down 'Earth'. The layers were fast-moving and slow suits it better. It is possible to see more shapes & faces & beings in the mirror imagery when slowed down. And, I'm re-editing 'Air' tonight too - adding more content, but more spaciousness at the same time (I had looped this one quite a few times so the images were quite repetitive and it flows better now).

Some interesting research (on YouTube):

Charles Sandison - Video Artist
Moodwall
Adobe Creations Interactive Display
& of course Bill Viola

Today Tom Dalton came in to 'play' in the space and did a great rendition of the Four Elements - see video ..

Four Elements Video Installation

2008-04-22T04:29:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

21 April 08

2008-04-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

21 April 08

2008-04-21T11:24:00.000-07:00

2008-04-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

18 April 08

2008-04-18T12:14:00.000-07:00

It has been 'fully rollin' today. Most of the tweaks have been done. I made another DVD of Earth, but containing all four soundtracks and it worked fine. I later remade it to get the audio levels more harmonious.

Not so many visitors to the museum as yesterday, but still - a few people came in for the 'experience' and made some nice comments; one lady said she was mostly drawn to the Earth vid and was fascinated to understand how I'd made it. A guy said that his mind was busy enough already, and thought Earth only made his mind busier but he felt tranquil & peaceful looking at Air.

Friends - Liz & Steve came in and sang & strummed and added some beautiful ambiance to the gallery. Great acoustics in there!

17 April 08

2008-04-17T07:17:00.000-07:00

There has been more of a buzz happening today; all 4 screens were running and the lights were low. It seemed the darker the space the more people were intrigued to see what was going on! A couple of visitors were quietly singing in the space which was a nice addition!

The other night I remembered a relevant chant, which goes:

Earth my body
Water my blood
Air my breath
& Fire my spirit

and I thought it might be an idea to record someone singing this over & over among the projections! Today, a vocalist said he might do just that! (Be careful what you wish for - as it usually happens!!)

The children have been enjoying guessing which element is which, and they seem pleased to have discovered a new phenomenon - the elements themselves & what all that means!

The plan is to have it all in order by the weekend. I'm getting the sound sorted out today as well as positioning the projectors & the wiring.

So far there has been no sound and one of the options may be that I need to go and shop for a few jack plugs. As an alternative, tonight I have re-edited 'Earth' with 2 minutes of each elements sound tracks. So I'll try that out tomorrow. We should be fully rollin tomorrow!!

Wednesday 16 April

2008-04-16T06:36:00.000-07:00

Sorted out the DVD burn probs! and we are 'gettin this show on the road'.

Today is a day of positioning the projectors so that we achieve the optimum size projection and getting the angles right.

Tuesday 15 April 08

2008-04-15T13:54:00.000-07:00

Today we finished painting and getting the gallery space ready.

I had more computer stuff to do, resizing the videos to post online, etc.

Had some welcome news last night when I got home; Jeremy Buxton of BBC Radio York had left a message to say that he'd given the show a mention on Sunday morning and also, that they would be interested to show my work on 'The Big Screen', Hull, and possibly Big Screen, Leeds too. When I first found The Big Screen on the web I thought it was such a cool idea so I'd love it if my work was shown!! Jeremy had the idea to show it in a 4-way split-frame context which would suit the work perfectly as it is, in its original context, a 4-screen installation .... with the idea of creating an elemental environment!

I had some complications in that the DVD's I'd made on my laptop were not compatible with the DVD players in the gallery which was a bit of a bummer - but a challenge to be overcome! (IWouldn't it would be a great idea if there was a universal disc & player configuration one day!!)

Four Elements Video Installation, Open Season, The Gallery at Ryedale Folk Museum

2008-04-14T06:32:00.000-07:00

FOUR ELEMENTS

Video Installation

OPEN SEASON

The Gallery at Ryedale Folk Museum

13 - 27 April 2008

The plan is to set up a 4-screen installation to show work on the four elements which I shot primarily in my neighbourhood here on the North Yorkshire Moors.

As part of the Open Season at The Gallery, I have a two-week slot in which to develop my ideas of how to show this work.

The 4 pieces as one installation naturaly pose various configurations of how it could be shown, ie: to run all four simultaneously,one at a time, etc. This is what I will be exploring and experimenting with over the next two weeks.

Today we have hung the 4 digital prints representing the elements and are readying the space before setting up the projectors.

link to Myspace videos:

AIR URL:
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=30175149
Earth URL:
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=30198508
FIRE URL:
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=30177720
WATER URL:

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=30199367

VENUE
The Gallery
Ryedale Folk Museum
Hutton le Hole
Nr Pickering
York
YO62 6UA

Open daily 10am - 4.30pm

Tel: 01751 417367

link: http://www.ryedalefolkmuseum.co.uk/

link: http://nyos08mariasilmon.blogspot.com