Previous exhibitions
Trace Lines Exhibition at Darlington Town Hall
Monday 20 January 2020 - Friday 13 March 2020
We traced lines through history, culture and community, making personal connections through the act of creativity. The community of Darlington having had creative opportunities from April 2019 through to February 2020 have produced some wonderful material, taking inspiration from local and personal histories, thinking of place and space, linking festivals and celebrations. The exhibition at the Town Hall shows the breadth of the work they have made, showing the quality of their skills and the relevance to their lives and their town.
Artist Adrian Moule, Trace Lines, Pedlin Prints, and Working it Out have been connecting with people sharing print making, conversations and hospitality. More than 300 hundred people took away a print from the Pedlin Prints, doing outreach in four places in Darlington. People inked up a ready cut lino print to experience what print making is, they got to take this signed limited edition print home. During this engagement Adrian asked them questions about using Crown Street library and what kinds of things they would like to do there.
12 people, many who had never made a Reduction Lino Print before, exhibited their work at Green Door’s International Print Exchange in Derbyshire. This was the skills development part of the project with workshops lasting 15 hours over five weeks.
4 participants supported Adrian Moule to make a large Lino Print by cutting out from his plan, the image shows various parts of Darlington with events taken from news cuttings, the Sax player at the Music Festival, or BMX Bikers in South Park and the African Grey.
28 people made Bee prints at the Farmers’ Market, where we talked about food security, health and wellbeing. Another 22 people made Bee and Flower prints at the Darlington Bee Keepers Association exhibition and 18 people made flower prints during the Festival of Thrift exhibition. Throughout the workshops we asked questions about the possible future use of the libraries, the town and the barriers to engaging in cultural activity.
Five Schools and ten workshops, just shy of 540 young people, made bee and butterfly collagraphs and mono prints.
Throughout the project over a thousand people have made more than 3,000 prints, some big drawing, a mandala, and two mobiles. People aged 3 - 84 took part sharing their visions and outlook for the town, Crown Street Library and Darlington Indoor Market.
It doesn’t stop there … A group of local people who have formed Working it Out and are engaging the community in making and creating from the Working it Out Community Space, currently in the Cornmill Centre.
Trace lines Facebook page [external link]
Can I call it ART?
Photography and painting, Neil McKee
Monday 25 November 2019 - Friday 17 January 2020
Hello, I am significantly past retirement age and have been an amateur photographer since the age of seven when my mother bought my first camera which cost something like 30p! With my new camera, and relatively new brain, I photographed all manner of things, despite this sometimes being called ‘wasting good film’ by my mum. I think mum’s idea of a good picture was a group of people dressed in their Sunday best, grinning at the photographer.
Today I have an advanced camera along with the essential computer program to process my own prints, allowing me to change the way an image is presented. I recently decided to try and paint some of the pictures I was making. I’ve explored painting (other than decorating at home) as a creative activity for the first time. One of my objectives was to paint only the part of a photograph which interested me most. I’ve also taken the opportunity to enhance or completely change colours from the photographs in the paintings I’m showing here.
What has this exercise taught me? I learned to look at things afresh and to focus my vision and question my ways of looking at things. For instance, ‘trees and grass are green’, really? I took another look! I explored composition and understood that I can leave things out (waste bins), or put things in (trees with autumn leaves) as I see fit.
Observing the way light works has influenced me. I now see more clearly that some of my subjects would look much more attractive to the eye if the light was stronger, or perhaps coming from a different angle. I now know, that if the light which is available on a day is not particularly good, like on the day we were in Pisa, I can take the picture of the leaning tower and I can paint it anyway I like when I get home!
Darlington Society of Arts
Monday 7 October 2019 - Friday 22 November 2019
Darlington Society of Arts was founded in 1922 with the prime object of stimulating interest in and appreciation of art in Darlington and the surrounding area.
Darlington Society of Arts now meets on Wednesday evenings 7-9pm at Hummersknott Academy. There is a themed club night programme to inspire and give support to anyone who enjoys painting and crafting in a friendly setting.
The Society exhibit on a regular basis, which provides an opportunity to showcase members’ work and to reflect the diversity of their creative talents. New members are welcome, beginners or experienced, to join the society and enjoy their upcoming workshops.
Further information including contact details can be found on the Darlington society of arts website [external link]
Ephemeral Light
Elaine Vizor MA (Photography), ARPS
(Associate of the Royal Photographic Society)
‘Ephemeral Light’ is a series of images by Elaine Vizor that capture the fleeting, short-lived moments of the patterns and movements of light at night, moments otherwise transitory and forever forgotten. This series was initially inspired by large-scale artworks that Elaine saw at Tate Modern in August 2011, where on huge, white, floor to ceiling canvases, rivulets of red paint flowed. This free running and swirling of coloured paint on canvas gave rise to experimenting with 'Painting with Light', on the black canvas of night, in motion and breaking some rules of photography, such as not keeping the camera still and not using a tripod to capture light trails.
In this series, the camera, always set on long exposures, is hand held and allowed to move with vehicular vibrations and the natural rhythm of the road. The patterns of lights at night are immense and varied and can be changed further by zooming in and out to alter their shape and form as they pass through the lens to be captured as images upon the digital canvas.
Elaine discovered another reference point for this work in November 2016. She visited the Chicago Institute of Art and viewed work by László Moholy-Nagy, who, many years earlier, with colour slides had a similar pursuit but on foot. She was further inspired to continue with this series and ‘Ephemeral Light’ now includes images created whilst walking or standing still, allowing the camera to move with the rhythm of feet, heartbeat and breathing, as well as capturing lights while in motion.
This series was initially inspired by large-scale works of art viewed at the Tate Modern, August 2011. On huge, white, floor to ceiling canvases, rivulets of red paint flowed. This free running and swirling of coloured paint on white canvas gave rise to experimenting with 'Painting with Light', on the black canvas of night, while in motion and breaking some rules of photography, such as not keeping the camera still and not using a tripod to capture light trails. As Picasso is alleged to have said, 'learn the rules like a pro and break them like an artist’. At this point I thought I’d coined my own term for this practice.
I already had a fascination with long, still exposures and lens movement to create abstractions but this viewing took me into another realm, from daytime into the night. Instead, in this series which I originally called ‘PAINTING WITH LIGHT, DRIVEN TO ABSTRACTION’, the camera, always set on long exposures, is hand held and allowed to move with the vehicular vibrations and the natural rhythm of the drive; the curves and swerves; the acceleration and slowing down; the bumps and undulations of the road creating impromptu movements of their own. The patterns of lights at night are immense and varied and can be changed further by zooming in and out to alter their shape and form as they pass through the lens to be captured as images upon the digital canvas. I had no other reference point for this work for some time and believe that serious yet playful and meaningful photography can take place when we experiment without preconception or constraint, just trying things out intuitively and imaginatively.
In November 2016 I visited the Chicago Institute of Art and viewed the work of the famous László Moholy-Nagy. Pleasantly surprised to find that Moholy, many years earlier, with colour slide photography had a similar pursuit, I was further inspired to continue with this series, adding another dimension to it. Moholy also had found fascination in the movement of light at night, capturing squiggles of colour that filled the blackness, creating abstractions by twirling the lens during long exposures on a hand held camera. Moholy practiced this form on foot, hand holding the camera on a long exposure, capturing fast-flowing traffic on Lake Shore Drive, Chicago. ‘Ephemeral Light’ also includes images created whilst walking or standing still, allowing the camera to move with the rhythm of feet, heartbeat and breathing, whilst capturing the lights that move and dance before it.
Moholy used colour slide film and never printed a paper photograph of his light paintings, believing printing then to be of poor quality. He showed his work in lectures as slides only. Today printing is more accessible and more consistent. In addition we can push the boundaries further in the digital darkroom and extend the art and abstractions with digital tools to adjust an image. We can also pursue the traditional metaphors of art and painting by printing on canvas, as I have done with this selection, where light flows down or across canvases as paint flowed in the Tate Modern.
‘Ephemeral Light’ is a series of images that capture the fleeting, short-lived moments of the patterns and movements of light at night, moments otherwise transitory and forever forgotten.’
Elaine Vizor MA (Photography), ARPS
(Associate of the Royal Photographic Society)
Darlington Mind Art and Creative Crafts Group Exhibition
Darlington Mind Art and Creative Crafts Group is a safe and supportive environment where people with mental health issues can go to rediscover old talents and learn, develop and explore new skills; to express themselves creatively. It is also a place to go, to make friends and escape the loneliness and isolation that can be experienced. It is a place we come to have a laugh, a chat and find a voice in.
The Group promotes confidence building as we practice self-sufficiency and resilience. It is somewhere we are comfortable and free from judgement so we can open up to find our true self. And, perhaps, produce art work to be proud of.
Although we still have our issues, we are able to lead a better and happier life thanks to support of the Darlington Mind Art and Creative Crafts Group.
Some work in the exhibition is for sale
For further information contact:
Darlington Mind Ltd,
St Hildas House,
11 Borough Road, Darlington, DL1 1SQ,
or telephone 01325 283169.
www.darlingtonmind.com [external link]
Place of Interest
25 February – 19 April 2019
An exhibition of photographic prints from a variety of local and international locations
The photographic prints featured in this exhibition have been created by Year 1 photography students from Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College in Darlington. The collection displays personal project work based on the places of interest with a variety of approaches such as: rural landscapes, urban structures, natural scenes and coastal environments. The imagery exhibited represents the work students have recorded, manipulated and presented using technical and aesthetical skills developed whilst studying on the A-Level photography course. The collection of work featured in the exhibition was captured in a variety of locations including: Darlington, Newcastle, Newton Aycliffe, Weardale, Redcar, Lake District, London and Venice.
The course provides students with a fantastic opportunity to capture the local and surrounding areas but also discover destinations outside the UK to experience and document different cultures, art influences and galleries. Students are able to explore both digital and hand rendered editing processes through guided workshops and this is followed up with individual inquiries enabling students to develop skills relevant to selected themes.
Students who have work featured in the exhibition are as follows:
Scott Allison, Lewis Andrews, Naryse Cox, Daniel Geddes, Kieran Graham, Will James, Ellie Kavanagh, Sam Pounder, Atticus Powell, Tom Snowdon, Laurence Squire, Noah Sykes, Rhiannon Walker, Caitlin Wheldon and Becky Whitehouse.
For more information about Art and Design courses or enquires about other courses available at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, please contact - [email protected]
Almost A Memory' Photographs by Chris Walker
Monday 17 December 2018 - Friday 22 February 2019
Almost a Memory' is a sequence of images, photographed over a period of four years. They show a now abandoned farmstead north of Darlington. Before the industrial revolution and the coming of the railways Darlington was at the centre of a rural economy dominated by small farms like this one. Now they are being re-absorbed by the nature that originally gave them purpose and meaning.
