Culture

By Karen Bate

newsdesk@westdorsetmag.co.uk

A rich mixture of music and theatre is coming to rural communities in village halls across West Dorset courtesy of charity Artsreach, which has launched its exciting spring programme.

n Company Gavin Robertson - Done to Death, By Jove! Thursday, February 17 at 7.30pm in Wootton Fitzpaine Village Hall For more details ring 01297 560948 Holmes and Watson meet Poirot and Miss Marple (alongside the usual suspects) in a spoof homage – who murdered Lady Fanshawe? A cast of six set about bringing a group of suspects and sleuths together to discover whodunnit, and how… except four of the actors are stuck in the van by the side of the motorway, and only those two knights of the Theatre, Sir Gavin and Sir Nicholas, have managed to get to the venue; but ‘the show must go on’!

n The Devil’s Violin - The Beast in Me Friday, February 18 at 7.30pm in West Stafford Village Hall For details ring 07968 633834 Sunday, February 20 at 7.30pm in Drimpton Village Hall For details ring 01308 867617 Imagine a world where the lines separating humanity and animals

HEART-WARMING: Oskar’s Amazing Adventure and, inset below, Pinnochio from the Norwich Puppet Theatre Oskar winner in supporting role for a new season

have blurred, in which dark forests contain refuge as well as danger, and where blood is not always thicker than water. The Beast in Me is a masterfully woven tapestry of stories from long ago about our perception of beauty and the value of kindness. Epic narratives are evocatively brought to life by master storyteller, Daniel Morden, and with sublime stringed accompaniment from virtuoso musicians Sarah Moody (cello) and Oliver Wilson-Dickson (violin).

n Theatre Fideri Fidera - Oskar’s Amazing Adventure Monday, February 21 at 3pm in Burton Bradstock Village Hall For details ring 01308 897421 An original, heartwarming and entertaining play for young children and their families, full of good humour, adventure, music and song. Funloving puppy Oskar leaves the snowbound little house on top of the mountain to try to find a friendly animal to play with. But where are all the animals? This original play performed by Theatre Fidera Fidera, an Anglo Swiss children’s theatre touring company, uses a rich mix of storytelling, physical theatre, clowning, puppetry and music to tell the tale of a puppy’s search for friendship in the wilderness of the Alps.

n Norwich Puppet Theatre - Pinocchio Sunday, February 27 at 3pm in Wootton Fitzpaine Village Hall For details ring 01297 560948 Join Pinocchio on a journey packed with hints of danger, slapstick humour and a playful exploration of identity, suitable for young audiences. This fast-paced adventure is full of selfdiscovery as they try, fail and try again to find their heart and become a real person. A highly visual production featuring puppetry, illusion, and object theatre plus a lively soundtrack...and a very big fish!

Young artists working together to

By Sara Hudston

newsdesk@westdorsetmag.co.uk

Want to catch a glimpse of young artists at work before they gain wider recognition? Head down to Bridport Arts Centre for an intriguing collaboration between four future stars. Luminous landscapes, shimmering ponds, figures in dream-like settings and bright, bold faces fill the walls of the Allsop Gallery this month. These are the results of a studio residency between Bridport-area artists Grace Crabtree, Theadora Brazier, Angelica Pownall and Jessie Wybrew. Their aim was to encourage each other to explore new themes and techniques and to ‘crosspollinate’ their creative practice, as the title of the exhibition suggests. Bridport Arts Centre lent them space to experiment as part of its work to support young, local talent. Theadora says the residency has prompted her to try different types of media: “I think that being here for two weeks, being in the same place as other artists and having their feedback, their ideas about where the work could go, was helpful. However hard you try, you do get stuck in a certain way of approaching your work and you have your own ideas of how to do things, which are always completely different from other people’s.” The quartet began their collaboration with several group exercises. In one, they each chose a few words that resonated with them individually, and then created images from their responses. Grace Crabtree chose “fragment’, “colour”, “light” and “narrative” and sketched an abstracted landscape fizzing with colour and energy. She used pastel and gouache instead of her usual medium of egg tempera. Egg tempera is one of the oldest painting techniques, used on Egyptian sarcophagi and widely adopted in mediaeval times before the invention of oil painting. It requires a subtle layering of translucent pigment, built up in washes, worked over and scraped back. Grace has produced a series of small landscape paintings in the medium, alongside charcoal sketches. “In some of them, I’ve been following the thread of an idea of aerial landscapes and of mapping out,” she explains. On other pieces, she has focused-in on an enlarged section from a landscape and concentrated on showing fine details. “Often when I go into detail, there’s an element of abstraction and I’m quite interested in what happens when you allow

WHAT: Cross Pollination, a cocreated art exhibition WHERE: Allsop Gallery, Bridport Arts Centre WHEN: Feb 8-Mar 5. Open 10am-4pm Tuesdays to Saturday. Free entry ON THE WALL: Theadora Brazier with some of her works for the Cross Pollination exhibition and, above, detail from life drawing in pastel on canvas by Theadora. Below: Work by Angelica Pownall for the exhibition in the Allsop Gallery (oil, gouache, oil pastel and wax crayon on dyed linen)

explore new themes and techniques

ARTIST AT WORK: Painter Grace Crabtree at work in the Allsop Gallery and, below, the pastel and gouache sketch by Grace produced in response to a word prompt exercise and, right, detail from her landscape in egg tempera Pictures: SARA HUDSTON

the hand to follow the form, scratch back into a painting and find a path through it. I’ve been thinking about narratives through a landscape.” Grace was particularly inspired by words and narratives during the residency – she also produced a series of sketches responding to a 1920s meditative prosepoem by Virginia Woolf called Blue and Green. Woolf builds a word picture of colour by considering the mental images arising from a ray of green light. Grace’s interpretations of Woolf’s writing give a fascinating glimpse of the creative process as the artist reacts to material arising from a prompt. The overall success of Cross Pollination is even more heartening for it being achieved despite disruption from covid. Theadora tested positive at the beginning of the second week and had to go into isolation and then Jessie tested positive a week before the show opened. The arts centre’s youth development worker Bryony Moores O’Sullivan, who curated the event, also had covid, which meant the exhibition opening had to be postponed by almost a week. Bryony admits that the delays have been tough for everyone involved. But she says the artists managed to continue working from home during isolation and kept the process going by sharing photos. “To some extent we’re so used to a fragmented way of working now that everyone takes it in their stride. And artists and makers are used to working on their own, which makes the time they have together even more precious of course,” she says. As Grace adds, “this show is a chance to see the trials of the artist. “You see work in progress rather than fully-formed and can trace the progression of ideas.” It will be interesting to see what the four artists do next.

By the time you read this, Theadora will have left the UK and be at university in Argentina studying a BA in plastic arts with a specialism in painting. Grace graduated from the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford back in 2019 and is currently enrolled on the Turps Banana Correspondence Course. Jessie recently completed a BA in fine art at Plymouth University and is making mixedmedia works in the open air, and Angelica (who took a BA in Fine Art Painting at the University of Brighton) is concentrating on themes derived from observations on society and self.

n A Beautiful Walk by S Rose n A Tranquil Spot by A Ballantyne n Colours of Summer by K Hallsworth

n Dusk at the Rookery by A Martin n Early Morning Light by K Hallsworth n No 10 Bar, Bridport, by J Cross

n Eype Beach by E Butcher

n Low Tide at West Bay by R Zink n Rhiannon Beached by R Zink Artists in frame for summer show

By Karen Bate

newsdesk@westdorsetmag.co.uk These are just some of the stunning pieces of art produced by members of the Bridport Art Society and showcased at their summer exhibition. Bridport Art Society has been established for nearly 60 years. Founded in 1956 as Allington Art Club, the small band of 15 members met at The Studio in Haydon Guest House in West Allington and the first annual exhibition was held in 1957. Since then, the group have met at various locations in and around Bridport and grown exponentially, now boasting 120 members meeting at the Bridport Christian Fellowship in East Street. Every year the society stage a Summer Exhibitions, usually held at the Bridport Arts Centre, although in 2021 it was hosted by Sou’-Sou’ West Gallery at Symondsbury. This year the Easter Exhibition will be held at the Salt House in West Bay. Charles Hallsworth, chairman of Bridport Art Society, said: “Bridport has grown over the years to be a good centre for artists with available studio space and a thriving community of painting, drawing and general arts enthusiasts. The society is strongly supported by a membership of over 120.” n See bridportart.com

n Ridgeway Flowers by A Martin n Sea Surge by V Ravenhill n Stair Hole by M Brightwell

n Sudden Storm by M Pender n The Hollow Way, Symondsbury by A Walker

n The Pinnacles

n A Summer Story by J Bryant

n Langdon Woods by J Tett

n Phyllis, a Local Lady by A Walker n Songs of the Sea by S Lock