Exhibition: 'Going Green'

Saturday 6th March 2010 – Monday 19th April 2010

The Mill Gallery's spring exhibition, entitled "Going Green", showcases a quartet of west country artists who use recycled materials to create their art. Taking what other people might consider rubbish, they use their imagination and inventiveness to transform throwaway objects into something beautiful.

Veronica Gosling works with sculpture, assemblage and pottery decoration to create humorous, quirky artworks that are a real talking point. Born in 1931, Veronica was schooled in America and England, before working as a journalist, bringing up 5 children, and publishing 5 novels. A move from London to the Forest of Dean prompted her to forge a new path as an experimental artist, establishing her own gallery along the way to encourage other artists in their creative pursuits. Of her work Veronica says, "I don't go out to get ideas, they are already there, revolving, visually undefined, but lively. I go to places that seem promising and look for materials and objects that could give form to these ideas." Veronica's exhibits include Waterbirds, a work made from an upturned mattress and scythes, Jungle Lamp which is made from a recycled bird-cage, and a range of painted mugs and tea-pots.

Jane Perkins describes herself as a "re-maker" with a love of the fun and unexpected. Her custom-made "Memory Brooches" use collected memorabilia in unique pieces for the wearer to treasure, whilst her sought-after Pop Art-style portraits of iconic personalities, from Barrack Obama to Madonna and the Queen, are composed of thousands of bits of bric-a-brac foraged from recycling centres. Having previously worked as a nurse, Jane gained a First in a textiles degree before launching her artistic career. Her initial creations were richly decorated brooches inspired by Ecuadorian festival head-dresses, before moving to larger scale artworks with her assembled portraits. Her works are composed of anything from broken plastic toys and jewellery, to shells, beads and buttons. For this exhibition, Jane is showing portraits of David Beckham, Madonna, Boris Johnson and Alan Titchmarsh, as well as a selection of her brooches.

Lauren Ballard creates 3D sheep from plastic bags, wire and willow, highlighting the environmental impact of discarded rubbish. She says "The shock of witnessing a sheep in a field, here in Devon, eating a plastic bag (May 08), lead me to create the first Plastic Bag Sheep. A small flock quickly manifested, as I continued to collect potentially deadly stray bags from the streets, and was donated others - by people who admitted they had a store at home, sometimes forgetting to take their own reusable bags. The flock continues to grow as more plastic bags are unnecessarily produced, used, and discarded." Lauren's flock has been widely exhibited throughout Devon and Somerset. Lauren is showing several of her sheep, alongside her bumble-bee sculptures, also constructed of polystyrene and wire. As part of the exhibition, she is running a sheep-making workshop at the Mill on Sunday 11th April from 11am to 1.15pm (call 01395 568521 for details and to book).

The fourth participating artist is Amy McCarthy, a mixed media and stained glass artist, who is exhibiting a new series of mosaic-like pictures of sea-life entitled "Zoo Plankton". Amy's interest in using found and recycled objects began as a Textiles A Level student when she made all her art pieces from throw-away materials due to lack of funds. After a career as a specialist mental health worker, she studied stained glass techniques and now runs a successful stained glass business. In Amy's mixed media work, she combines waste glass from her business with found objects such as broken jewellery and fabric to create artworks that are visually stimulating, boldly coloured and textural. Her work is inspired by a love of the stylised forms of the Art Deco period, as well as the countryside, coast & natural environment. Her mixed media work is backed on waste wood salvaged from skips.

As a Gallery, we are delighted to host such a stimulating and exciting body of work from these outstanding local artists. We hope visitors to the exhibition will find this a thought-provoking and inspiring experience, as well as appreciating the beauty within the art. As ever, this exhibition at the Mill reflects the wealth of creative talent that is found within the South West.

The exhibition runs from Saturday 6th March to Monday 19th April and is housed within the exhibition space of the Mill Gallery on the first floor of the historic Mill building.  The artworks are displayed against the backdrop of the ancient Mill workings.  Entry is free. 

For more information, call the Gallery on 01395 568008.