Frome Open Studios 2017: Mount visits a selection of studios in Frome.
17 year old Tom Holborn was with us during Frome Open Studios week doing his work experience. We tasked him with visiting as many open studios as he could fit in and write up his findings.
Words and pictures by Tom Holborn.
This year we decided to visit various studios, focusing on artists of whom we have been working with.
Starting on our home-turf, we looked around the Silk Mill studios visiting fashion designers such as Hayley Trezise with her “Raggedy” collection. A series of unique, wearable art, comprised of old, unwanted and recycled clothes, bits and bobs.
Then we spoke to Marie-Louise Millinery, a designer specialising in fine hats which are hand-crafted using various objects such as fake cheese and fruit. She has made hats for the likes of Jenny Bond, Meryl Streep and has been featured in Vogue, The Guardian and many more national papers and magazines.
Further along the trail, we visited the Vicarage Street Gallery, and spoke to Caroline Walsh-Waring as we have framed lots of her pieces previously. Her mix of oil paintings, drawings and watercolours inspired by surreal natural landscapes.
It was great to see her work framed and all together and we managed to get in a quick question;
What are your influences?
I started painting landscapes but I always wanted something more. I started to see things in nature that are so surreal and in my head I picture women in dresses, different themes and emotions, which I later translate into my work. When I see something beautiful in nature, I take a photo of it and when I paint it no one can believe it’s real. But it is! Everything is so surreal and amazing and I break it down, analyse it to get deeper.
It was great to see Alan Overton’s vibrant acrylic street scenes and landscapes…
We work with Anna Shuttlewood to make scans and giclee prints of her characterful children’s illustrations. Anna’s work is inspired by her love for animals, nature and people. She is a children’s book artist, so her work blends in well with her gentle illustrations.
We looked at a series of oil paintings by Anthony Jones which are inspired by the power and wonder of the ocean.
A bit further on along the trail we visited the Enigma Studio, where we looked at Lizbeth Spurgeon’s paintings. Lizbeth’s work (framed by Mount) always sells well, and it’s no wonder! Her work is a collection of colours and shapes in nature. Her paintings come from her imagination and memory of places she has visited.
Back along the trail, we went to Rook Lane Chapel to see Alexandra Brown and her “Into the Forest” collection: her series of paintings and drawings of wonderful creatures and magical trees throughout nature.
Up along Catherine street we visited various artists such as Stina Falle, Boann Lambert and Helen Langford at ARC studio. We worked with Stina and Boann in preparing pieces for this exhibition. Boann’s work is comprised of inks, hand stitching, drawing, watercolour and textiles. Stina uses mixed media to create her work, including artists books, prints and textiles. For this show we collaborated with Stina to produce a number of scrolls. We scanned photographs and etchings Stina had made, and then printed them in a long continuous line. Our framemaker then fixed the long prints to large bobbins that Stina had collected to create a unique scroll-style book.
(photo by Mount)
We also took a look at Helen Langford’s collection of wonderfully chunky but opulent jewellery. Inspired by the spirals of nature, Helen handcrafts these jewels beautifully.
Our trails continue on to Kobi & Teal… keep a look out for Tom’s next write-up.
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