Latest News
Best Window Display - Christmas 2011
Popped in to see Louise at the shop and the mayor and his wife came in to present us with a bottle of wine and a certificate for best dressed window from Swanage Chamber of Commerce - how cool is that - apparently they thought it was very elegant.
Christmas 2011
If our fabulous selection of original artwork, prints, ceramics, jewellery and greetings cards aren’t enough to tempt you in for a spot of Christmas shopping, how about a glass of mulled wine while you look around? We’ll be handing them out to customers every Saturday in December, just to take the edge off the pressure to find the perfect presents! Also, it means you all stop to chat with us, which warms our festive hearts. There will be charity Christmas cards on offer too, so come in and buy in bulk for a good cause.
We’re proud to admit that here at the Gallery we don’t just do what it says on the tin... Art is at the heart of our business, but it comes in many forms. There are bowls that make you stop and stare, cushions that make you smile and notebooks that make you reach out to touch them. That’s what we look for from stockists nationwide, so that at Christmas you have a sparkly and special array of beauties to choose from.
We’ve got some exciting new collections coming in, so if you’re in need of ideas, perhaps consider the following:
Greengate DK:
Scandinavian homewear with oodles of cosy charm.Crockery, cushions and throws.
We look at the catalogue and think ‘I want everything in there!’ So instead we’ve ordered the best bits so that you can give them to your favourite people.
Emma Bridgewater:
Ditto wanting everything.
Inspired patterns on things for the kitchen, sitting room or bedroom. Good quality, cheerful home-wear sporting polka dots, Labradors, love hearts and starry skies; selected best bits at the Mulberry Tree now!
Shruti:
Makers of beautiful leather-bound notebooks, address books and visitors books.
Poppy Teffry has also designed a lovely selection of leather journals for Shruti too. We’ve got them so that you can have them.
We stock original and one off designs from dozens of artists in textiles, ceramics, jewellery, sculpture, stationary, photography and glassware.
If you’re looking for are looking for art, remember you can also order online in our webshop.
Happy shopping and we hope to see you soon!
"A Summer in Purbeck"
Ben Spurling Solo Exhibition
22nd October - 12th November
"A Summer in Purbeck" will be Ben's first solo exhibition. It's the culmination of many days spent painting on home turf, as he stops to capture a moment in nature when out for a walk or a bike ride.
Living by the sea has always been an important part of Ben's life and this is reflected in his paintings. He is best known for his calm and uplifting interpretations of stunning coastal scenes and familiar countryside characters.
Ben is happiest when he combines his two favourite pastimes: walking the Purbeck coast and countryside and painting from his portable pochade paint box. This allows him to work from life in oils, his preferred medium, capturing the tones and colours from a direct study in situ. These sketches of a subject or moment are invaluable for studio work or stand-alone final pieces.
We would like to warmly welcome you to the opening of Ben's exhibition on Saturday the 22nd October - join us for a glass of whine while you browse the artwork.
Swanage RNLI Raffle Winners - £5,000 raised
We are thrilled to announce the winners of our Summer Raffle and to let you know that we've raised £5,000 for Swanage RNLI - fantastic news and a big thank you to everyone that bought a ticket and to Robin Tiller and his team for selling so many!
1st Prize: Mrs Coakes of Bournemouth
2nd Prize: Mr Green of Hounslow
3rd Prize: Mrs Ashton
The gallery commissioned nationally acclaimed Dorset artist, Rebecca Lardner, to produce one of her famous harbour scenes with hints & nods to well-known Swanage landmarks, including the Lifeboat Station and lifeboat.
The original oil on box canvas is worth over £2,500 and was the 1st prize in The Mulberry Tree Gallery's RNLI Fundraiser.
Summer Mixed Exhibition 23rd July to 31st August 2011
Come and join us for a glass of Pimms on Saturday 23rd July and a mooch around the gallery.
Our major summer exhibition will be showcasing the work of 10 talented
artists including:
Jane Colquhoun
Sophie Harding
Rebecca Lardner
Emily Morgan
Paul Liggins
James Newton Adams
Tony Chance
Judy Tate
Jane James
Neil Tregear
Alongside the exhibition we will be running a major fundraising
event for the RNLI.
The gallery has commissioned nationally acclaimed Dorset artist, Rebecca
Lardner, to produce one of her famous harbour scenes with hints &
nods to well-known Swanage landmarks, including the Lifeboat Station
and lifeboat.
The original oil on box canvas is worth over £2,500 and is the 1st prize in The Mulberry Tree Gallery's RNLI Fundraiser.
The gallery is hoping
to raise over £5,000 by the 3rd September when the raffle draw will
take place.
Inspiration Exhibition and Purbeck Art Weeks Festival: 21st May - 12th June 2011
This
is our first exhibition of 2011 and we're really excited about the work we will be showing. We will exhibiting new work by:
Ben Spurling
Richard Hooke
Antonia Phillips
Annie Campbell
Seb McEwen
Paul Allen
Lucy Young
Sarah Ross-Thompson
Come and join us for a glass of wine on Saturday 21st & 29th May, a mooch around the gallery and be inspired by the work of these brilliant artists.
Purbeck Art Weeks Festival
The show will run through the Purbeck Art Weeks Festival which is an annual Festival showcasing the work of local artists through open studios and exhibitions of visual arts, combined with music, film, poetry, dance and lecture.
The
Festival actively involves local people of all ages and want the Festival to fire a passion for artistic excellence. The Festival is becoming more adventurous and even leading edge so as to stimulate as well as inform our audiences and artists.
Everyone can visit open studios and Rollington Barn where many group together. Events this year include:
Meridian Brass who will perform with Trinity Laban Dancers on 28th May in Swanage
Gabrieli Consort who will play their Monteverdi violins on Monday 31st May in Swanage
Natalie Clein with international musician friends and
Actor Samuel West who will give concerts in Corfe Castle, Swanage and Kingston 3/4/5/June
Illustrated talks include ones on Mary Spencer Watson and Augustus John
There is also a lively Fringe at the Square
and Compass, Worth Matravers
Enter our Raffle in Support of Swanage RNLI and win a Rebecca Lardner Original worth over £2,500
Each year we try to support a local charity and this year we are pulling
out all the stops with a target of raising £5000 for Swanage
RNLI.
The first prize will be a Rebecca Lardner original worth over £2,500!
All you need to do is buy a £5 book of raffle tickets (5 tickets
in a book) to enter the draw which will take place on 3rd September
2011.
All the proceeds from the raffle will be going to Swanage RNLI. We
have several friends who are crew members of the Lifeboat and we would
love to raise a whole lot of money for these amazing people and the
charity.
Raffle tickets are available from the gallery shop, on-line at
our webshop
and various shops in and around Swanage. So please do give generously,
the RNLI rely on voluntary donations for their income and being a
seaside town we thought they would be a great choice of charity for
us this year.
We also want to extend our thanks to Rebecca for undertaking the painting
and also allowing us to produce a small print run from the original,
with an additional donation going to the RNLI with each one we sell.
Please note that the image on the left is an example of the artist's
work and not the painting for the raffle. An image of this will be
posted when it is finished.
Easter Window
We've
dedicated our Easter window to the irepressible and fun loving Sam Toft.
Born in June 1964 Sam’s earliest ambition amongst others was to work in a post office; luckily for art lovers, after inspired tutelage at Liverpool Community College, Sam decided to "give it a go" with her pictures.
Feeling ready to create a new body of work Sam has created an exclusive collection.
The sixteen limited edition prints feature Sam’s now infamous characters, "The Mustard’s", Ernest Hemingway Mustard and his dear lady wife Violet along with their much loved eccentric friends and pets.
Using mixed media, pencil, oil pastels, coloured inks and her own idiomatic techniques, Sam depicts a seaside world of faded ice-cream colours where the breeze is always blowing and life is utterly delicious.
Sam's work is available to purchase through our on-line webshop
Mulberry Tree Gallery - Greetings Card Range
We're
really excited to announce that in the next few weeks we will be launching
our very own greetings card range. The range will be available in
the gallery, on-line (min order £10) and throughout the UK in
shops and galleries!
The range will start off small with images from some of the galleries favourite artists including:
Sasha Harding, Sophie Harding, Jane Colquhoun
Ben Spurling, Hannah Cole, Paul Allen
Paul Liggins, James Newton Adams
We will continue to expand the collection as new works are turned into cards and if you are an artist yourself or know someone whose work you think would look great as a greetings card then do email us at info@mulberrytreegallery.co.uk
See the entire range at www.mulberrytreecards.co.uk
What's New
We've
recently returned from the annual Spring Fair at the NEC in Birmingham
- THE trade show for the Art and Framing industry.
It's a great opportunity for us to seek out new work for the gallery
as well as a time to meet the publishers and artists.
We're pleased to have been able to obtain new work from some gallery
favourites including James Bartholomew (now doing hares, dogs, cockerels,
sheep and horses as well as new seascapes), Anna Pugh, Iain Faulkner,
Kate Wyatt, Mia Tarney and Rebecca Lardner.
You can view and buy their work in secure online webshop
We've
sourced new artists for the gallery including the well known Sam
Toft who has produced 16 new exclusive limited edition prints.
They feature Sam’s now infamous characters, "The Mustard’s",
Ernest Hemingway Mustard and his dear lady wife Violet along with
their much loved eccentric friends and pets. Using mixed media, pencil,
oil pastels, coloured inks and her own idiomatic techniques, Sam depicts
a seaside world of faded ice-cream colours where the breeze is always
blowing and life is utterly delicious.
Creatures, great and small, are the focus of Kate Leiper's
immaculate mixed media works in ink and pastel on a variety of papers.
Using mythology, legend, poetry and ballad as her cue, Kate frequently
casts the feathered or furry in character role. Sometimes at rest,
in sleep or musing, these images convey a peace and certain contentment.
Other times alert and bright of eye, ready.
Kate
Leiper graduated in Aberdeen (BA Hons - Fine Art) in 1996, since then
exhibiting her work in London and throughout Scotland, gaining a loyal
and enthusiastic following. The works she creates have a style all
of their own, instantly recognisable and highly desirable. During
travels in Canada, in 1997, Kate became involved in theatre set design
and painting.
The influence of this is evident in the extensive colour palette,
design element and 'staging' of her work; rich materials and pattern
frequently form the backdrop for the characters observed. 
Born in 1969, Madeleine Floyd studied Fine Art and Illustration
at Camberwell College of Art, and has achieved great success in both
fields.
She works from her studio in London and is fast becoming one of Britain’s
best-loved artists. Madeleine’s creative talent is one of remarkable
depth and variety. She paints, she draws, she writes and she illustrates.
This versatility allows Madeleine to produce hugely successful exhibitions,
and write and illustrate her own books including the recent classic
‘Birdsong’, published by Anova Books.
Her illustrations are informed by a strong draughtsmanship that captures
the essence and emotion of the subjects she chooses, combining a timeless
sensitivity with a gentle humour. With only a dip pen and a pot of
ink she is able to capture the essence of a subject with the most
minimal and elegant use of line. Her work is both accessible and sophisticated,
immediate and engaging.
This collection of prints celebrates one of Madeleine’s great passions
– British birds; their songs, characters and diversity. “ I have
always loved birds. There is a humble fidelity in their presence that
consoles. Their ability to find something to sing about reminds me
that our existence, whether happy, flat or turbulent, is nothing short
of miraculous.”
“Why do birds sing? I would love to know for sure? In fact I lie:
I’m delighted that we don’t know for sure and I hope we never become
so informed as to fully understand that mystery. I like to think birds
sing for the same reason that they fly, quite simply because they
can. I hope we can take inspiration from their simplicity, and as
humans do what we can with what we have, and if we feel moved to warble
along in life, all the better.”
You can buy their work through our online webshop
March Window
Richard
Adams spent his early years in Wiltshire, he studied illustration
at Leicester Polytechnic and on graduating he moved to London.
He worked there as a freelance illustrator for several years working
for clients as diverse as the Radio Times, Penguin Books and BP and
during the 1980s won many awards for his illustration work.
In 1995 Adams moved to East Sussex where he still lives and since this time has devoted his time to works for exhibition.
The port of Rye and the Sussex countryside feature heavily in his work as does the Cornish coast where he holidays and the Cotswolds, familiar from his childhood.
Adams' work continues to be inspired by his long-held loves for English
vernacular architecture, British history and our native flora and
fauna. Yet the true subject of Adams' work is the imagination; through
his flights of fancy he carries the viewer into an unreal world peopled
with colourful characters in simple, domestic and rural pursuits.
Whilst Adams embraces the supernatural or darker side of life in his
detail-rich narratives his view is ultimately optimistic and life-affirming.
Likened to the eccentric visionaries, Spencer and Dadd his work follows
in a tradition of British image making which he refreshes with his
unique wit and subtle humour.
You can buy his work through our online webshop
February Window
We've
gone cow crazy....... This month we will be displaying the work of
artist James Bartholomew.
James is a member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists (RSMA) and
a member of The Manchester Academy of Fine Art (MAFA). He works full
time from his studio at the Mill House Gallery in Parbold, Lancashire
and his cow pictures were a bit of a departure from his normal landscapes
and seascapes.
The pictures reflect the cows quirky personalities and as James says
"I find them full of character. From their matted coats and
inquisitive eyes, to the steam and saliva around their noses. I must
admit, these paintings have been an unexpected success; they were
initially just a personal indulgence, I never expected interest to
have been so high!"
You can buy his work through our online webshop
Valentine's Day
We'll
be displaying the work of artist Sophie Harding in time for Valentine's
Day.
Sophie Harding was brought up in Swanage, in Southern England; the
elder sibling in a brood of seven, she was encouraged to take up her
career by both sides of her very artistic family. She made London
her home for eleven years before moving to the coast.
There, Sophie indulges her passion for swimming in the sea (summer
months only though) and sells her paintings, which have found a market
since her 16th birthday. She gained a diploma in General Art & Design
and, subsequently, a BA Hons degree in Fashion and Textiles at Central
St. Martins.
Her word paintings are full of symbolism depicting love, wishes, needs,
hopes, dreams, luck and happiness. All these paintings are heartfelt
and come from her soul. Her embroideries and pebbles depict the simplicity
of love and all will may great gifts for your loved one this Valentine's.
We've also got some lovely new pottery pieces from Emma Bridgewater,
including the new "Big Love" Mugs in both 1/2 pint and small
sizes - they'll make great gifts!
January 2011
Iain Faulkner was born in Glasgow in 1973 where he was raised and educated. He graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1996 with a BA (Honours) Degree in Fine Art. From the onset of his professional career, the fashionable and trendy routes of contemporary and conceptual art, adopted by many of his peers, was not an option.
Iain chose instead to follow the more difficult and demanding path of figurative painting wherein clear, concise yardsticks of competence, draughtsmanship and painterly skills can be measured and judged, warts and all. At the age of twenty-nine, the result of his endeavours during his relatively short career has brought a considerable measure of success with his last four shows in London and New York selling out which is clearly indicative of the public's appreciation and interest in his work.
Faulkner's paintings are concerned with the portrayal of strong and
powerful images relying on visual impact as there is rarely any narrative.
They are about capturing calm and contemplative moments, intimate
exchanges, solitude, sometimes melancholy, heightened in their resonance
by the use of chiaroscuro. Faulkner's use of this technique gives
a stark contrast between the light source and the often dark tonality
found in his paintings. There is a stillness in the everyday themes
which conveys a sense of inner-reflection. This is accentuated by
the formality of his young self-engrossed characters and emphasised
by the light and shadows reinforcing their emotional detachment.
You can buy his work through our online webshop.
