Open sesame
Spotlight on the creative and cultural folks who will be part of the Open Studios event in Scarborough this year – including a converted a barn at Potter Brompton farm off the A64 now a gallery.
I f we build it they will come – that was the message that inspired husband and wife artists Andrew and Helen Wrigley.
When they learned there would not be an Open Studios event in Scarborough this year they decided to go it alone – and converted a barn at their Potter Brompton farm off the A64 near Staxton into a gallery.
They and three other artists – Speth Milnes from Scalby, Adam King, based in Scarborough, and Atty Dickson, of Barton-le-Street – will display sculptures, paintings and installations at the gallery and in the garden from Saturday June 23 to Sunday July 1.
Signs on theA64 direct visitors to the farm where the gallery is located.
“We were keen to attract others as we know from experience that such collaborations are really fruitful,” said sculptor and painter Andrew.
His wife Helen, also a sculptor, said: “We have been amazed and delighted by the response.
“Paper, plastic, fabric, driftwood, wire, stone and trees from our woods have all been turned into a wide range of interesting pieces to compliment the pictures prints and photographs that will be showing.
“The enthusiasm is obvious and infectious. The creative process is on-going, but the range and quality of the work produced to date promises much,” she said.
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The artists displaying their work are:
Andrew Wrigley: Brought up in Argentina where his family have farmed for generations, Andrew has painted since his student days.
He studied physics – “quantum cosmology the same as the late Stephen Hawking but not quite so good,” said Andrew – at the University of Buenos Aires.
“Halfway through my physics degree I saw a picture of Van Gogh in a copy of Readers Digest and realised I did not know who he was. I started going to drawing classes in the evening and never looked back.”
Then economics interfered with physics and art and Andrew had to take charge of the finances of the family farming business.
He and his wife Helen have lived at the family’s Potter Brompton farm for 13 years.
As well as the barn which acts as a gallery, the couple converted another outbuilding in to a studio and administrative office.
It is from there, that Helen and Andrew paint, sculpt and carve. Andrew is also turning his hand to welding.
One of the nine sculpture he has done so far – that of a bull’s face – will be one of the exhibits in the garden at the front of the barn-gallery.
Helen Wrigley: Until a year ago Helen was driving a tractor on the farm that has
been in Andrew’s family for 100 years. It has now been parked in a corner of a film and she has turned her attention fulltime to art be it drawing or sculpture.
“I have always one art,” said Helen, “Including fashion design, photography and drawing.” She has been making sculpture from aircrete which she can carve easily and quickly.
One of her next projects is a course in Dorset where she will be learning to use Portland stone.
Adam King is based in Scarborough and until this month was programme leader of fine art at Harrogate College.
He will have more than 20 paintings on display. His work is distinctive and is known for his ‘fish and fisherman’ series.
These include the ‘fish series’, a new series called hobby horses and a few from his classic series including Medusa and Zeus.
“They are a combination of patterns and composition incluidng tattoos which are very current,” said Adam. “They are still very stylised.
“They are very simple but a lot of contemplation and thought have gone into each one,” he said,
To create each picture he paints an abstract painting first and then pulls out an image.
“You have this chaos and then this tightness. When you look at the marks underneath, they show the work that has gone into the picture and the tex-
ture of the paint,” said Adam.
Adam has exhibited across the region including Ripon Cathedral and at Scarborough Art Gallery and at Woodend in The Crescent.
He now runs workhops and classes from his studio in Gladstone Lane, Scarborough.
Speth Milnes: until 2005 Speth, who lives in Scalby, was a nurse. She has always had an interest in art and in 2000 did a degree at what was University of Hull Scarborough campus.
“My husband had died and I decided I had to do something. I was felt there was a painting with a three-inch brush inside me.”
Speth took herself off to Scotland to specialise in oil painting with artist Eleanor White in Ullapool.
Her oil paintings on paper featuring Scottish scenes will be on show.
“I moved away from Scotland back to Scalby and am transferring my style to the North Yorks Moors,” she said.
Speth will also be showing her work with her neighbour and printer Michael Atkin as part of Scalby Fair on Saturday June 23.
Atty Dickson: has been friends with Helen and Andrew for many years and the idea for the exhibition was the result of dinner party conversation.
“Because North Yorkshire Open Studios is not happening this year, we said ‘let’s put the show on right here’.” he said.
Now a consultant, Atty was a chartered surveyor in York until the office he was running was taken over. “I changed from being a hardworking chartered surveyor to ‘playing’ full time.”
Atty is experimenting with all forms – from a series of cartoons of musicians with such titles as Knickerbocherini to garden installtions made from ash and a fisherman’s float.
He has also made birds from foraged fencing wire and driftwood and signs from a saved roof slate.
“It is an eclectic mix of things. I am just experimenting and enjoying myself,” said Atty.
“It would be fantastic if art could be a big part of my life. I am now putting more effort into it,” he said.
“This exhibition has seen us all working together, everyone doing different pieces and feeding ideas of each other. It has been very exciting,” he said.