Painting of the week - St Bees by Malcolm Wilson

Malcolm Wilson is an architect who has his head in the clouds. By day he is busy running a practice in Carlisle designing cutting edge buildings and developing sharp modernist schemes. In any spare time he can find in his hectic schedule, he paints cloudscapes. A quiet modest man, he has designed a beautiful modernist house for Michael and I, but it was only recently that I discovered his secret paintings of clouds.

An artist's role is to change the way see things and Malcolm has certainly made us cloud watchers. We can even put names to some of them now and have only bumped into things a few times while gazing upwards. It took patience and a lot of persuasion before he brought four small oils to the gallery a few weeks ago and as soon as they were hung, they were snapped up. And now the bigger ones are emerging. This oil of St Bees is magnificent. We have some new little ones as well.

Come in and see them before our Summer Exhibition ends on 5th September. We are open Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays. Don't forget we are open Bank Holiday Monday 10.30 - 5.00. I'll be in the gallery that day as well as on Saturday. We do enjoy seeing you all so drop in. The Summer Exhibition is changing all the time.

The Silence is Broken

The silence is broken. I have been in writing purdah. But now the next book has gone off to the publishers and I can live again! I have been head down and working like crazy on the incredible story of Percy Kelly - the man who couldn't stop drawing. Not sure of the title yet but hoping the publishers will get it printed by Christmas. There will be a Cumbrian launch and a London launch so it will cover a wide spectrum. Percy wanted to be famous AFTER his death which was 18 years ago and I think I am fulfilling his wishes.

What is the magnetism of Percy's work? I call it THE KELLY EFFECT. I see it happening to people who have never seen his work before and have never heard of him. They sleep-walk into possesing one. It is a compulsion.

The summer exhibition is roaring alomg with new things arriving as fast as other things go out. A new batch of work by Karen Wallbank is now at the framers, some new landscapes by Helen Tabor arrived last week and we have some large oils from a new artist, Malcolm Wilson who is fascinated by clouds.(there are some tiny ones as well). He is an architect in his day job but occasionally has his head in the clouds. I will get those on the web site soon for you to see. And of course we do have just a few Kellys.

We are open Bank Holiday weekend - Friday, Saturday and Monday as usual and it will be great to see you if you are in the vicinity - or decide to make a trip. We have an excellent B&B only a few doors away at 6 Castlegate. There's always so much going on round here but then you can escape into the hills. It's not raining at the moment!

Summer Exhibition

The jewel of our Summer Exhibition which opens on Friday is this beautiful painting by Winifred Nicholson titled Lily of the Valley St Bees. Her eldest son Jake was at St Bees School during the war for a time. Winifred visited him there and made several paintings looking across the Irish Sea to the Isle of Man. There is a still life of irises on the back of the canvas so it is a case of two for the price of one. She sometimes did this. This work was exhibited at The Lefevre Gallery in April 1946.

Winifred died thirty years ago and her work is increasingly in demand. Recently a similar sized oil, Sea Treasures, came up for auction in London and fetched a staggering £147,000. This one is a fraction of the price . - a bargain then?

As I write other work is coming in for the Summer Exhibition. Let's hope we have a summer to go with it.

Karen Wallbank is back on form. I just received three large odd shaped parcels wrapped in wallpaper and gaffer tape. It's always exciting opening Karen's mad offerings because we never know what we will find. This one is treasure - full of misty landscapes on canvas and flocks of sheep on card. We've had a scramble to get them framed. She will be in the gallery on Saturday if you want to meet her. She has a droll sense of humour so there will be much laughter I imagine.

Alistair Tucker, who is a printmaker and painter, has contributed an interesting selection of work. There are some delicate porcelain pots from Sue Paretskove and new pots from William Plumptre. We are awaiting some new work from Sarah Carrington who hasn't exhibited with us for some years. She has been producing children not paintings and moved to Ireland but she is now back on form with some Irish seascapes and coastal landscapes to add to her studies of Scotland. I will put her images up on the web site www.castlegatehouse.co.uk as soon as I get them.

We hang on Thursday so hope to see you this weekend or during the summer - It goes on until 5th September.

PAINTING OF THE WEEK

'Be careful, the paint's still wet!' was the warning as Marie Scott came through the door last Sunday. Fresh from her easel, the painting to the right still has no title - it may evolve or it may stay as Untitled 42. (or it may come to rest on our wall as so many other Scotts have done.) She propped it up on the sideboard and we ogled it as we drank a wee glass of champagne. It's the best she's done for some time so it came home with us where we are enjoying it a lot. It will hit the gallery wall next weekend though it's tempting.....

COCKERMOUTH LIVE!

Where will you find a live artist, live music and a sonic garden this Saturday? Cockermouth of course

Douglas Davies - our current exhibitionist - will be in the gallery meeting people and talking about his work. He has just got back from France where he does much of his painting. See his work on www.castlegatehouse.co.uk/exhibitions

And - I hardly dare write this in case it upsets the Sun God again - there will be more live music in the garden depending on the weather of course. There will be music all over the town; in Wordsworth House, Jennings' Brewery, The Memorial Gardens and Toy Shop Alley (not to be confused withTin Pan Alley!) to name a few venues for Cockermouth Live! There will be no escape. There will be a Sonic Garden in the Market Place 11 - 4.00 when you can experiment in making music yourself. - sounds interesting and noisy? There will be something for everyone in the town including the tone deaf.- erm especially for the tone deaf maybe.

We begin at the gallery with ambient jazz by ESP at 1.00, vocalist Annemarie Quinn at 2.00 and accoustic rock with Kitchie Wood at 3.00. There will be a bar. More details on www.cockermouthfestival.org.

Jazz on a Summer afternoon last Sunday was sadly relocated in the Kirkgate. Despite erecting a gazebo in the garden to protect the band, the sky was black and foreboding - and it was cold. Organiser Bob Pritchard who works so hard for the town was determined it should be in the garden but was overruled by the band when they arrived who insisted they needed to keep their instruments dry. They were proved right as it got colder and a bit drizzly as the afternoon went on.

Douglas Davies

Think of a summer afternoon in an English garden with the heady smell of old roses, a Jazz band and sculpture on the lawn. Combine that with a great new exhibition of paintings inside in the gallery. Provided the sun shines, I can't think of anything much better than that so I am keeping fingers crossed for good weather. The gallery is open 12.00 - 5.00 and the jazz begins at 3.00.

Douglas Davies was once head of ceramics at Glasgow School of Art - a prestigious post which he gave up to pot and paint full time. He had a few exhibitions here at Castlegate House in the past but he is now just painting and loving it.

In the true Scottish tradition he revels in colour. He travels extensively in Europe so in this solo show, his first here for some years, he is showing Scottish landscapes combined with Paris, Brittany and Spain. Have a look on the exhibitions page of our web site www.castlegatehouse.co.uk. you'll see what I mean.

Having hung the show we are off to Liverpool to soak up more culture. The primary incentive is an exhibition of photographs by Don McPhee, a guardian photographer who died in 2007. His marvellous collection of specially selected highlights of his work has been gifted to Liverpool Hope University and we are off to the opening which gives us the excuse to see what else is on offer in this city of exceptional tallent and imagination. It's not all football and Beatles!

IT'S OFFICIAL - IT'S SUMMER!

This weekend will be the last chance to catch the excellent Patricia Sadler exhibition. She suffered a little at the beginning by following in the wake of Percy Kelly - we sold all but three of his show and a few more as well - but she is now catching up fast. It is well worth taking a look. All her work is on the exhibitions page of our web site www.castlegatehouse.co.uk

Cockermouth's Midsummer Festival starts Friday 17th June with an opening by broadcaster and writer Stuart Maconie. It just rolls on from there through the summer solstice with loads of attractive and exciting events all week. The gallery will host JAZZ ON A SUMMER AFTERNOON in the garden at Castlegate House on Sun 19 June at 3pm with Mike Lovell's 6 in Bar which is one of the most sought-after jazz bands in the North West.

I heard a whisper there might be Pimms as well. Heaven! Can't think of anything better than Jazz and Pimms on the lawn among the poppies, irises and old roses. Bring a rug and cushions if you wish. Otherwise there are benches and chairs. Like last year it will be relaxed and informal. If it happens to rain (heaven forbid) it will transfer to the Kirkgate but I think it will be a lovely summer afternoon in the garden - I feel it in my bones.

Many of the newly refurbished shops will be open that Sunday 12 - 4 including the long awaited Percy House (and us of course launching a new exhibition by Douglas Davies).

There are many more events all week. Please come and support us all - a lot of hard work has gone into the organisation. See www.cockermouthfestival.org/programme for more information.

The Poppies are out at Castlegate

Everything's early this year. We also appropriately have a splendid new Fedden oil called Orange Poppies 30 x 22 inches dated 1989. It is a particularly good one - a mad clash of vibrant reds and pinks. You may have seen it before - we sold it some years ago - and now it has come back on the market. Thereby hangs another story - but you will have to wait for the next book for that.

Mary Fedden is just coming up to her 96th birthday and sadly Altzheimers has affected her badly in the last few years - she no longer recognises me or anybody which is sad. I have known her since our days in Bristol in the seventies. She has now become a National Treasure and her work, particularly that done in the Eighties, is cherished.

The Patricia Sadler exhibition opened quietly and is moving slowly. This is nothing to do with the quality of work which is excellent but more to do with following the hectic four weeks of Percy Kelly frenzy. Patricia herself is modest and quiet but don't overlook her show. It is worth seeing and a refreshing contrast to the ebullient Kelly.