Spoilt for choice ...

The Christmas exhibition is now starting to come together and everything should be looking great in time for tomorrow night's preview.

The show features paintings by fifteen different artists, some regular exhibitors at Bianco Nero and some brand new ones.  Among the regulars are some works by Emma Holliday (http://www.emmaholliday.co.uk/), full of life and vigour and all completed "on the spot".  Included in the show is one that Emma describes as her coldest painting ever, entitled "Sandsend, High Tide" and completed on Sandsend beach with a nor'easterly blowing straight from Siberia.  Emma certainly suffers for her art!  I came across her sitting on a bench in Stokesley Market Place one cold but bright day last winter while she was working on one of the paintings in the exhibition - "College Square, Stokesley".  It really captures the individuality of the lovely Georgian town houses but also the energy of a bustling market town.

Other works in the show include some wonderfully evocative landscapes by Robert Newton (http://www.robnewton.co.uk/), some jewel-like still lives by local artist Susan Dugdale and some fun and vibrant paintings by Jane Kitching from Crathorne.  Among new artists to Bianco Nero are Lancashire-based artist Patricia Haskey Knowles (http://www.phk-art.co.uk/) and Emerson Mayes (http://www.emersonmayes.co.uk/), both of whom will be having exhibitions in the gallery during 2012.  Emerson has sent along some of his beautiful hand-coloured drypoints of birds including "A very fortuitous fielfare" pictured below.

There really is a very diverse range of visual treats in the gallery at the moment!

New Jewellery for Christmas

It's feeling like Christmas already in the gallery!

The deliveries for the Christmas show continue to come in thick and fast and I get the pleasure of opening up the parcels to see the treasures inside.  On Friday Sara Lusvardi delivered her latest jewellery selection and she has made some really beautiful pieces.  Sara, from just up the road in Great Broughton, originally trained in textiles but was inspired by some coral beads she saw while on holiday with her husband in his native Sardinia, and couldn't resist buying some.  She started making jewellery on her return and she has passed on her obsession to her young daughters who have their own jars of beads to make things with.  In years to come I could be showing work by a whole family of Lusvardi jewellery makers!

Other jewellery in the Christmas show includes stunning pieces by Kate Wood (http://www.glintjewellery.co.uk/) and also a great selection of new work by Thalia Tomlinson from Stokesley.  Thalia's work is always popular and this time we have some of her latest hand-felted pieces.

With prices starting at under £10 there are lots of great ideas for Christmas presents (or even just a treat for yourself if the man in your life doesn't take the hint!).

Christmas preparations

The current exhibition of paintings by Winfred Hodge is on show for one more week and is definitely worth a look if you haven't already seen it.  In the meantime new work for the Christmas exhibition is arriving daily.  Today the new ceramics by Helen Beard will arrive (http://www.helenbeard.com/) and some beautiful baskets from the Norfolk Basket Company (http://www.norfolkbaskets.co.uk/).  The baskets have a slightly checkered history as the original baskets intended for the Christmas exhibition were stolen from the van they were being transported back from an exhibition in Belgium in and had to be remade.  Hopefully no misfortunes will befall them on their journey to North Yorkshire today!  More work by glass artist Charlotte Sale (http://www.charlottesaleglass.com/) and ceramics by Rowena Brown (http://rowboatlondon.co.uk/index.php?id=8&image=23) are also due this week and will all be included in the Christmas exhibition which starts on 18th November.  More information on exciting new jewellery and paintings to follow soon ...