Simon Liddiment Pictorial contrasts 6th February- 3rd April.

In Gallery one is the first of the two consecutive solo exhibitions that demonstrate some very different approaches to the conventions of the landscape, created by Simon Liddiment.

Simon Liddiment was born in Gt Yarmouth 1964, and he later went on to study at the Gt Yarmouth School of art and design in 1980. He soon went on to bigger things at the Goldsmith’s college in London in 1982-1985. He now continues to work and live in London.

Liddiment’s strong ideas and well-driven work starts from both the hands-on approach towards his materials. The art pieces are all based upon ‘raw’ materials. This new collection of artwork (Pictorial Constructs) shows his work with the physical and spatial exploration of a single plane. The base of each piece is a single plywood sheet; to show Liddiments method as on of the subtraction. He works carefully with the plywood sheets and shows a repetition pattern, by the gradual woodcutting. Which is sawn incrementally in ever decreasing widths to reach a destination of a ‘horizontal line.’ Creating a visual illusion of a landscape.

His art shows originality and a creative concept to his imagination, as each piece differs in it’s own way. For instance- Some are a lot more modernised, giving a slightly paler subtler ‘edgy’ look, which symbolises the 21st century. Yet he has some other more ‘classical’ pictures which present a more traditional ‘landscape.’ In which the contrast in subtle colours create the perfect illusion for a landscape. Each and every composition is uniquely rendered, to show Liddiment’s high quality of his artwork.

Simon Liddiment will be in Conversation with Michelle Cotton Curator, from CUBBIT london.It's on Thursday the 18th of March, at 7pm at The Town Hall Galleries.It’s £2 at the door, and the doors open at 6:45 pm, come along to find out more about Simon Liddiment’s extraordinary interpretation behind his beautiful selection of artwork.

Gallery 3 Colin Moss 1914-2005 Artist & Teacher.

Colin Moss was described as a great teacher and journalist, but most of all a great artist, as Gallery one has shown with his new exhibition –‘Colin Moss 1914-2005: Artist and teacher.’ In this it shows his honest depictions of ordinary everyday life in his colourful, emotive and richly toned variety of art works. As you explore through his artwork, it shows great detail and characteristic in how he interpreted the things he drew.

Born in 1914 in Ipswich, he showed incredible skill, as he grew older, he studied art at Plymouth, and soon got a scholarship to the royal art college. Later on in life he did murals, and camouflage work during the war, following on to becoming a senior lecturer at the Ipswich School of art, where he taught many talented artists such as Maggi Hambling, famous for her North Sea paintings.

As you enter, it shows a beautiful array of his artwork. The gallery presents a large variety of paintings, sketches, pastel work, and even some mixed media, that he produced in his lifetime. Starting with ‘the last supper’ a slightly darker piece, as it’s use of harsh colours give it good contrast, however, the rich tones highlight Moss’s religious side. The gallery also shows a classic, ‘the dustbin’ which even one of his famous students, Maggi, recommended. As she said “He became the subject he painted, whether it’s people drinking in a bar, drilling a drill or even a dustbin, there’s a very lively picture of a dustbin, which I think everyone should come see.”

The picture does give a much more realistic approach; still a very rich toned painting, but more subtle colours. Anyway, as you work your way along this spectacular selection, you get a feeling of Moss’s great talent and characteristic. It even shows his phase of studying nudity, where he shocked the public with his incredible pastel drawing of ‘the girl washing her hair.’ In which, it pictured nudity in an ‘everyday’ scene, instead of most artists choice of the ‘classic’ nudity, in which the model is posed.

Moss could easily capture every day life, just like in ‘the man with a drill’ (also mentioned by Maggi Hambling) and ‘the bar’ and ‘the man with his shovel’ all of which where thick, detailed oil paintings; just like the titles, the image was simple, yet constructive, detailed pieces of art. All of his pictures were full of effective, forceful brush strokes, and a slightly ‘edgy’ abstract feel to them. His watercolour work, had bright colours and including his ink and pastel drawings, the over all effect provided an abstract look, being based upon the line of realistic and unrealistic. His piece the ‘soldiers playing cards’ showed that he could work in a very different approach of how he observed things, with it’s use of collage to add the unusual difference between the painting and the cards. As he was such an inventive artist, the gallery shows how he could capture those moments in oil, watercolour, prints and drawing, the work on display reveals a different approach to Moss, and the diversity of him as an artist, of how he interpreted his observations of life. With the gallery providing such a wide variety of artwork, it creates a different atmosphere for each one, making them unique and different, yet giving a interesting visual experience.

THG Annual Open Exhibition Wildlife – Ipswich 28 November – 9 January 2010

Many previous annual exhibitions had posed themes of inviting a range response about the ‘changing’ face of Ipswich, ‘impressions’ of the town and it’s people. This year Town Hall Galleries held the exhibition based on the ‘wild side’ of Ipswich.

The theme involved the idiosyncratic characters that lurk and inhabit around the streets and the arbitory animals and creatures that everyone observes everyday, either living or adorning in built surroundings.

Interpretations were brought from across a wide variety of artists, from all generations, who managed to bring together a extraordinary display of around eighty pieces of artwork, of everyone’s own interpretation of their observations of wildlife in and around Ipswich.

The exhibition had a wide yet significant range of Artwork and media; some were beautifully done in a traditional approach to the natural form such as drawing, painting, sculptures and printmaking, as well as modernised contemporary and experimental or new interactive methods, including detailed graphic design, new media, and performance.
The annual exhibition provided fantastic opportunities for the public to view the range of local talent we have among us in our midst.

GET WITH THE PROGRAMME: IP(switch)T.V.

Ipswich Borough Council’s Town Hall Galleries had a fantasic time welcoming visitors old and new to its temporary DIY TV studio in a new project GET WITH THE PROGRAMME: IP(switch)T.V. a concept derived in collaboration with lead artist Harold Offeh.


Artists led a series of free, scheduled events to develop links with the community and young people while generating media content and artworks along the way. Traces of activities were available for visitors to see, and documentary material is available on the project blog, http://getwiththeprogrammeipswitchtv.blogspot.com/.

With open access to facilities the interactive space had also invited further intervention from the local community to present or deliver their own activities in response to the project’s televisual theme.

THG would like to thank all the artists, groups and individuals that have participated in GET WITH THE PROGRAMME: IP(switch)T.V. For anyone who unfortunately missed any of this and would like to find out how to get involved in the developing  projects like this please contact the gallery.

http://getwiththeprogrammeipswitchtv.blogspot.com/.

Launch Event - Get With The Programme

On Saturday 3rd October between 2.30 and 4.00pm, Harold Offeh is kick starting Get With The Programme in the Gallery with a lively introductory presentation looking at approaches to TV in artistic practice showing clips from television shows and his own work.

For the full list of events and more information about the project, check out our sister blog on http://getwiththeprogrammeipswitchtv.blogspot.com/

Or follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/THG_IP

Get With the Programme: IP_switch_TV

□ 7 weeks of stuff happening in and around the Town Hall Galleries to get people involved.
□ providing practical opportunity to produce and feed in content and material.
□ asking and reflecting on who we all are, what we do and how we do it through

Fashion/Dance/Media/Performance/Words/Activism/Hip-Hop/Africa/Diaspora

TBC : activities and workshops for young people to get involved with (video, artmaking, fashion, photography etc), at least one a week.

We will also be showing film by artists working around ideas of youth.

For more info, check out our other blog http://forbutnotabout.blogspot.com/ or follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/THG_IP

Happy Anniversary Curwen Studios!!!
By Jodie Clarke (year 11)

No one would believe that Curwen Studio’s has been running for 50 years. Yes its old but still not showing its age, as the Town Hall Gallery shows off an exhibition of cool modern art, by a brilliant selection of many different, yet talented artists, each with an individual and unique idea of what art really is. Here you can find a variety of art, paintings, drawings, prints, 3d, 2d, big, small, you name it and I am pretty sure there is a work of art here for just about everyone, and for proof I stuck my nose in the book where other people write their opinions on the current exhibition, a few opinions are. “Really stunning.” “Wonderful array of talent.” “Thank you very much for making me smile.” “There should be more of this type of art.” A man who had travelled all the way from Norwich told us. “It was well worth the trip.” Unsurprisingly I was unable to find any negative feedback and as I look around the exhibition myself I understand why.

Noel Myles, a photographer who’s work appears in the exhibition, has an interesting, and unique way of presenting his work. His photographs are of simple shapes, such as leaves or boats, however the images have been jumbled and muddled up, almost as if it has been cut up into squares, and then put back in the wrong order. Very clever.

Another one I quite like, is Rosie Corcoran’s, drawing of a tiger’s face. It is very detailed, and I love the way she has drawn the different textures. I wish I was that good. There is also a detailed drawing of a unicorn, by G.Mill. This one is great as you can see the imagination that has been absorbed into it.

Josie McCoy’s portrait Audrey home, automatically captured my attention. Although the colours are not bold or bright, the soft pastel effect gives a life like feel to it.

For those of you who don’t like any thing too complicated or confusing, then check out Stephen Walter’s road signs. It is as simple as it sounds, an A4 sheet covered in tiny road sign. Yes simple, but it still looks great.

Dale Devereaux Barker is not one that stands out at first, but is one that must be looked at carefully. At first glance, it seems to be a random pattern of hands, however the hands are in the foreground while the body trails behind. Perfect finish, and super heroes, are both presented. I love them both. Two of my favourites.

One of the main attractions is exciting, fun; pop arty, colour genius, Thomas Martin, who uses bright, bold and fun colours, in funky, wacky shapes. He has a jazzy, modern twist to his art as it doesn’t represent anything in particular, but instead gets people to use their imagination, to what his work might possibly be. For example, when some people may see flowers, others may see bubbles, it really depends on how far your imagination will go. He has also done some 3D work, which also is fun and colourful that really does catch your eye. He has work that lights up, moves, and some that just stand still, but all are utterly fantastic. Despite all his work being similar colours, shapes, and patterns, all are individual and different.

Overall it is a superb exhibition, it is inspiring to any art students of any age. It is great encouragement for all young artists-to-be, and I strongly advise everyone to visit town hall gallery, and see this exhibition before its too late!!! It has certainly persuaded me to come again to see future exhibitions, and I am looking forward to seeing what wacky, arty ideas, will be featured in the gallery next time, Unfortunately I am going to have to wait and see.