COVID-19 UPDATE – Open from 2nd December 2020!

Now that Lockdown 2 has come to an end in England, we are delighted to be able to open our doors again. Our opening hours have returned to normal – Tuesday – Sunday 10am – 4.30pm and it is fantastic to welcome customers back! We will be open right up to and including Christmas Eve. Website orders are being sent out as normal, and the last date for Christmas orders is Friday 18th December, after that we will do our best but cannot guarantee you will have your items before Christmas.

We are working hard on customers’ framing orders, doing our very best to get things finished for Christmas. If you are thinking of giving the gift of bespoke framing this year, make sure you get your orders in before the 13th December, as after that date we will not be able to promise they are completed in time.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our friends and customers for the continued support in this challenging year, it has been invaluable. We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

COVID-19 UPDATE

Following the government’s announcement of a further national lockdown in England, our gallery and retail area we will be closed to the public from Thursday 5th November. We will continue to work behind on the scenes on our current framing orders and will be regularly updating the online shop with new products and Christmas gift ideas.

Now that the gallary has closed its doors it doesn’t stop us from, being able to provide a framing service. Artworks can be dropped off with us and we will offer remote consultations via video where necessary – please call or email to arrange.

For customers who currently have work in for framing – we will contact you when it is ready and collection will be through our ‘click and collect’ service. Payment will be required in advance and collection will take place securely outside the premises. Click and collect is also available for all items from our online shop, just select ‘collect from gallery’ when checking out.

Hopefully this lockdown will not last too long and we look forward to welcoming you all back in the gallery when it is over. In the meantime, please stay safe, look after each other and consider supporting small business in the run-up to Christmas if you can.

COVID-19 UPDATE – Open from 16th June!

We are OPEN! All framing consultations and collections are now by appointment so that we can manage the flow of people in the building and prevent customers waiting during busy periods. Please visit our Appointments page for details on how to book. Our opening hours are back to normal, Tuesday – Sunday 10am – 4.30pm.

Customers are free to visit the gallery and shop without an appointment, just with a limit on the number of people in the gallery at any one time whilst the COVID-19 restrictions are still in place.

We have been incredibly busy over recent weeks re-designing the framing design area and till point to enable adequate social distancing and make things easier and safer for our customers and staff. Increased hygiene procedures will be in place and our new design bench is now a wipeable surface, allowing us to clean it down between customers.

Our frequently asked questions page should answer any queries you may have about how things have changed and what measures we are putting in place to keep everyone as safe as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic. If there is anything that we have not covered that you would like to ask about, please do get in touch, we will be happy to help.

As well as re-configuring the framing design area and shop, we have taken the opportunity of enforced closure to re-decorate the West Barn Gallery. The Gallery is now open and ready to receive visitors. We are offering some out of hours viewings for people who may wish to visit the gallery privately in small groups. please go to the Appointments page for more information.

Important Announcement – Update 24th March 2020

In line with government direction we are now CLOSED to the public until further notice due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Heather will be working on customer framing orders in isolation and contact-free deliveries of completed work will be arranged wherever possible.

We will continue to update the range of gallery items available for purchase through this website and will fulfil these orders in the usual way for as long as we can.

Stay safe everyone and we look forward to welcoming you back to the gallery when it is safe to do so.

Important Announcement

Dear friends and customers,

Like many other businesses we are taking the responsible precaution of closing the public gallery for the time being due to the Covid-19 outbreak.  We will remain open as normal until 4.30pm on Saturday 21st March.

We plan to maintain service to our customers by moving temporarily to a ‘by appointment’ system for framing consultations and collections. Please call us to discuss your requirements and make appointments.  We will regularly review this and let you know of any changes that need to be made to these arrangements.

Our hygiene procedures of hand sanitiser at the door and regular disinfection of door handles, surfaces, card machine, till point etc that we put in place this week will remain in place.  We would ask though, that you only make an appointment to see us if you and your family are symptom free.

We will be working behind the scenes on our framing orders and completed work can be collected by appointment, contact-free at the side of the building or delivered locally. We will contact all clients directly to make whatever arrangements are most suitable at the time.

We are hoping that our exhibition programme will proceed as planned but we will be moving the work online.  As much as possible, all exhibited work will be available to view and purchase on our ‘virtual gallery’.

We will continue to expand the rest of our online offering in the coming weeks by updating our range of greetings cards, prints, jewellery and ceramics.

We are so sad that we won’t be seeing our lovely customers for a while.

Stay safe everyone and look after each other.

Heather and the team at WG&F

Coming Soon – Nicholas Barnham & Hannah Hann

linocut and watercolour artwork of tree entitled 'Wells Oak' by Nicholas Barnham

We are delighted to announce that from Saturday 4th April we will be exhibiting a body of work by two Norfolk artists, father and daughter Nicholas Barnham and Hannah Hann. Nicholas Barnham is well known for his linocuts and watercolours of Norfolk trees (see Wells Oak above), landscapes and boats. Hannah Hann is an established painter based in Norwich. We have been successfully selling her prints for some time, and are delighted to have the opportunity to show a number of her original paintings in this exhibition. Further details will follow soon…. if you would like to receive an email about the exhibition, please subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of the page, thank you.

Christmas Exhibition 2019

a selection of pieces that will be available in the Christmas exhibition

In our Christmas exhibition this year we have a great selection of work from artists old and new, a refreshed range of limited edition prints, ceramics and jewellery.  We opened on Friday 15th November at 6pm with a preview evening, followed by two opening days Saturday and Sunday 10am – 5pm.

Fiona Fawcett

For the first time, we are delighted to welcome contemporary glass artist Fiona Fawcett who works from her Fired Glass Studio in rural Suffolk.   She specialises in kiln formed glass and uses fusing and casting techniques that allow her to manipulate the glass through the processes of heat to achieve 2D pieces and 3D sculptural forms. Cold working processes are used to exploit the optical qualities of the glass and help create shadows and reflections creating an element of vitality and movement. The cast pieces are hand polished and take weeks to make.

Fiona’s glasswork is influenced by the natural landscape and maritime environment. Her work is an interpretation of how the landscape is formed and develops through natural processes.

‘Honister – Green Crag’ (pictured above) is one of a series of pieces inspired by the landscape of Honister in Borrowdale in the Lake District. The form is taken from a piece of Honister green slate and the colours reflect the varying colours and light of the natural landscape.

Becky Munting

Also exhibiting with us  for the first time is painter Becky Munting  who is showing a series of small studies of bugs and bees.  These exquisite jewel-like paintings are simply delightful.

Becky is inspired by the birds, animals and insects of the East Anglian landscape where she grew up and now lives and works.  Working in oils, her work is an attempt to capture the spirit of the creatures she paints, representing them in a naturalistic way.

Nigel Skinner

A regular exhibitor with us here in Walsingham,  Nigel Skinner has recently been working on a series of collagraph and mixed media prints, a selection of which we are thrilled to be showing.

Inspired by the Norfolk landscape in which he lives and paints, these new mixed media works see a return to familiar themes for Nigel.  Elements of the natural world, found objects and textures combine to create these evocative and atmospheric works.
To see more of Nigel’s work please click here

Other Work in the Show

We have a refreshed range of pieces from regular exhibitors such as printmaking from Kate Heiss and Diana Ashdown, sculpture by Carol Pask, including two fabulous new bronzes, ceramics by Jane Bygrave and Rob Wheeler, and much more besides.

To see Carol Pask’s new sculptures please see here

The gallery shop is well stocked with cards, Christmas cards, advent calenders, jewellery, art books and gifts.

The exhibition continues until the end of January 2020 and we will be open as usual over the festive period, only closing for 25th, 26th December and 1st, 2nd January.

 

 

Summer – Celebrating 5 years!

selection of artworks from summer exhibition

For our anniversary exhibition ‘Summer’ we have selected a fine range of works from a number of artists – some gallery regulars, some occasional exhibitors, new, emerging artists and artists who were part of the very first exhibition five years ago.

We are delighted to welcome back Annette Rolston who was with us at the very start.  Her intricate linocuts incorporating animals, figures, landscape and pattern are always a feast for the eyes.  She is an experienced printmaker and printmaking tutor, working in Diss, Norfolk.

 

Carol Pask’s beautifully elegant sculptural ceramics have graced the plinths in the gallery for a while now.  They are always very popular and find new homes quickly.  Her work evolves as a response to the beauty and fragility of the natural world.  She is an expert in smoke and pit firing techniques, seeking a balance between the controlled structure of the work and the chaos of the firing.

 

For the first time, we are so pleased to introduce the sculptural vessels of John Mallett.  Working primarily in metal, he is exploring the possibilities of combining and finding harmony between modern technologies, such as computer design and 3d printing, and the art of traditional bronze casting.  This body of work references the history of ornamental vessels, such as Chinese ritual bronzes and aspects of Japanese culture, such as Kintsugi – the art of repairing broken ceramics with precious metals.

 

Also on show are a number of pieces from gallery regulars, a range of limited edition prints and as always our gallery shop is well stocked with cards, ceramics, jewellery and books.

Art & Framing Industry Awards 2019 – Winner!

Presentation of award and winners logo

The Awards

The Fine Art Trade Guild, which we are members of, hold an annual International Art and Framing Industry Awards weekend.  The awards are for businesses right across our industry from framing suppliers and manufacturers to individual artists and framers.  There are framing competitions that include Best Mount Design and the Guild Framing Challenge.  Framers like me are encouraged to pull out all the stops for their competition entries.  The design must be ambitious, creative, well thought out, meet the entry criteria and be perfectly executed.

I decided to enter this year for the first time, the Best Mount Design: Hand Cut competition.  All entrants were given the same image of an iconic Charles Rennie Mackintosh chair to design and create a mount for.

In March, I was delighted to receive the news that I had been selected as a finalist in the competition along with three other outstanding entries.  Then, at the awards dinner, it was so exciting to hear my name announced as the winner that I couldn’t help utter a little shriek of astonishment and delight!  Nick Murphy from the category sponsor ColourMount,  Slater Harrison,  a leading UK mountboard manufacturer presented me with my award.

winners of the art & framing industry awards 2019 with their handmade glass plates
International Art & Framing Industry Awards Winners 2019

Background to the Design

When the Fine Art Trade Guild announced that the subject for this year’s mount design award was to be the image of a Charles Rennie Mackintosh chair to celebrate 150 year’s since his birth, I knew I had to enter.  I have been a fan of Mackintosh design since my teens when studying art & design at school.  As a family we had strong connections in Scotland.  We lived there when we were young and visited often.  My brother & I were both born close to Glasgow.

I fondly remember searching out the Mackintosh buildings and iconic sites with my Mum in 1990 when Glasgow was the European City of Culture.  I even dreamt at that time of attending Glasgow School of Art, one of Mackintosh’s most famous buildings.  Ultimately, that wasn’t where I studied for my degree, but a fondness for that building remained.  I was devastated to see it destroyed by fire for the second time in June 2018.

The Design

Mount design for image of iconic Charles Rennie Mackintosh chair
Best Mount Design: Hand Cut 2019, winning entry by Heather Green GCF (APF)

My mount design is a triple mount with cut out details within a channel in the second mount that reveal rich coloured velvet squares to reflect the upholstery of the chair.  The uppermost mount combines an oval and straight cut combination with a debossed line to echo the curves in the back of the chair.  The overall design is intended to be reminiscent of the Mackintosh style by incorporating a combination of stylised, organic curved elements with straight lines and geometric shapes.  As in all good mount design, the colours used are intended to enhance and complement the image.

The mount was entirely cut with hand operated equipment as defined in the entry criteria for the category.  A seperate category for CMC (computerised mount cutter) designs was introduced this year.

 

At the end of the evening, they announced the subjects for the 2020 framing competitions.  They are ‘Street Art’ for the Mount Design and ‘Back to the 1980’s’ for the Guild Framing Challenge.  So, thinking caps on!

 

Kate Heiss

Prints by Kate Heiss

Our featured artist Kate Heiss is a contemporary printmaker inspired by her love of nature, especially the flowers and  birds of the landscapes of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.  Her small limited edition prints are dynamic, bold and illustrative in vibrant fresh colours.

Kate studied at the Royal College of Art graduating with an MA in Textile Design in 1997. She then worked as a textile designer across a wide range of fashion brands before setting up her own printmaking studio in 2011.

She works in a variety of printmaking techniques including linocut, screenprint and collage. Often her works combine more than one technique making her collection of handmade prints truly unique. All of her work is handmade in her studios in Ashwell, Hertfordshire and Thornham, Norfolk.

Kate has been showing her work with us for two years now and we are delighted to have a fabulous selection of her work available to buy online and in the gallery.  For pieces that are available online please go to Kate Heiss Prints