The Bristol Guild on Park Street is hosting a new show of ceramics and paintings inspired by nature…
‘Earthen’ opens on Saturday November 4 at the Guild Gallery, Bristol Guild, 68 Park Street, and runs until November 25 (Tuesdays to Saturdays, 1030-1730).
“We’re inviting people to contemplate nature,” is the modest intent of four creatives behind a new exhibition in Bristol from November 4 to November 25.
There’s a story behind that intent, which emerges in the range of their work: from mesmerising abstractions of Cornish coasts and rocks to snatches of birdsong captured in oils, and from Scottish skies as broad as they are deep, to serene and timeless ceramics.
What brings the artists together in a grouping called the Far Flung Collective is a common concern with, and sense of awe at, the natural environment.
“In our own ways,” they say, “we try to capture an emotional response to the skies and the land, to what lives there, and to what lies beneath. Our work is about the sense of awe that we encounter in the natural world – and thus, of course, the need to treasure and preserve it.”
These themes are shaped partly by the backgrounds of the four creatives who are working together for the first time under the banner of The Far Flung Collective. One of them is a former geologist, influenced by that discipline in her themes of time and space. One taught for many years in prisons, with students deprived of natural light and sound. Another, who trained as a graphic artist and has been a cover artist for books, has moved over time from large cities to a rural setting. And the ceramicist, of course, works with the very stuff of the earth.
“Three of us met at the Newlyn School of Art,” they said, “and when we saw Bethan’s ceramics work we knew she had to be the fourth member of our group. We are far flung – from Devon, Cornwall, Bristol and the North East of Scotland – but we converge right here in the city, so we are very excited to be having our first group show here.”
The Guild, too, seems an apt place for these four creatives. Its full name is the Bristol Guild of Applied Art and it was founded in 1908 as a place for artists and craftspeople to work and sell together. It was inspired by the ideas of William Morris, and remains a venue for creatives from Bristol, the south west and more far flung places.
The Far Flung Collective are: Bethan Jones (ceramics); and landscape artists Bev Campbell, Mary Scott, and Briony Jenkins.
Image top: Stacking bowls by Bethan Jones
The Floating Circle 