Secrets unveiled at art show

A NEW exhibition just opened at The Bingley Gallery, Telling Secrets: New Work from Aire Valley Arts, takes as its theme the telling of secrets.

The artists are all members of Aire Valley Arts. The West Yorkshire group aims to be adventurous in their creativity. One of their ways of encouraging artists to step outside their normal genres, and comfort zones is to set an exhibition title or theme to which all have to work towards. After several, often frivolous and soon abandoned ideas, the theme of telling secrets was settled on and the result is a remarkable variety of offerings.

Kate Stewart’s work combines watercolour and embroidery on fabric and she has three studies of conversations in the show. Karen Rowley has delved into an exploration of communication in the animal kingdom. Can inanimate objects share secrets? Under the brush of Martin Cosgrove, even a bowl of pears take on a conspiratorial air.

Jane Fielder’s atmospheric watercolours are instantly recognisable and the location for her Secrets on the Tow Path is Five Rise Locks, near her home in Bingley. Anne Marwick explores the emotions of keeping secrets hidden. Paul Hudson’s offerings include etchings, ink pen and painted work based on folk law’s suggestion that Ravens overhear human private conversation and reveal people’s secrets to others. Jan Whittock’s work picks up on the traditional belief that birds hold stores of knowledge.

Other artists in the include Judy Sale, Helen Shearwood, Sue Strange and David Starley. The show runs until June 2.