The Art Shop, Abergavenny is curating regular exhibitions at the Michelin starred restaurant, the Walnut Tree Inn, showing works by some of our most dynamic and creative artists. Come and enjoy innovative and delicious dishes by one of Britain’s finest chefs, Shaun Hill, and sit amongst art by young, emerging artists and more established stars. An atmosphere brimming over with creative energy.

Please ask at either the Walnut Tree or The Art Shop to see a complete catalogue of artwork including full artists statements and prices. For all enquiries contact The Art Shop.

01873 852690   admin@artshopandchapel.co.uk

Arts Council of Wales Collectorplan scheme available. More information via the link below.

 

JOHN MACFARLANE – (Shown with kind permission of the Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff). John was born in Scotland and studied at the Glasgow School of Art. He was awarded The Leverhulme Prize on graduation. He received an Arts Council of Great Britain Trainee Designer award and spent some time as Resident Designer at the Young Vic Theatre in London.

For the first fifteen years of his career he worked mainly in dance with many of the major international companies. John has also designed for the classical ballet repertoire: Swan Lake in Munich, Giselle(Royal Ballet) and Nutcracker (Birmingham Royal Ballet/Australian National Ballet)(nominated for Olivier award) both with Sir Peter Wright, and Le Baiser de la fee (Birmingham).  In 2010 he designed Cinderella for Birmingham Royal Ballet to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the creation of that Company.

Latterly John Macfarlane has focussed on opera where he designs both sets and costumes. He works regularly with the German producer, Willy Decker, and with Sir David McVicar, Richard Jones and with Francesca Zambella,.Hansel and Gretel, his first production with Richard Jones for Welsh National Opera won an Olivier Award and was re-mounted by the Met in New York at Christmas 2007. Their second production, The Queen of Spades won the Royal Philharmonic Award. They worked together on Euryanthe for Glyndebourne Festival Opera; the second part of The Trojans for English National Opera; Lady Macbeth of Mtsenk (Olivier Award) and a double bill of L’Espagnol and Gianni Schichhi for the Royal Opera House.

Forthcoming works include a new full evening ballet with Liam Scarlett (Royal Ballet), and  Tosca (Metropolitan Opera, New York).

In addition to his opera and dance work, John Macfarlane exhibits regularly as a painter and print maker in the U.K. (Martin Tinney Galleries, Marina Henderson and Fine Art Bond Street), the U.S.A. (Maya Polsky Gallery) and Europe. His works hang also in many prestigious public collections including the National Museum of Wales; the V & A in London; the Albertina, Vienna; Hunterian Museum, Glasgow; the Archive of l’Opera, Paris and the Collection of the Metropolitan Opera, New York.

John was created a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2006, is a judge of The Linbury Prize for Theatre Design, and is a Fellow of The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

 

KUMAR SARAFF – ‘The Making of the English Landscape by WG Hoskins is a book that I discovered on the shelves of a secondhand bookshop. The book would already have been over forty years old at the time and to me it was like a religious text, confirming and developing my beliefs about how humankind has etched its marks on the landscape. From the earliest forest clearing tribes, through the grand gestures of royals or the unlawful digression from pavement of the unlanded, to municipal planting schemes and the fast food outlet.

These paintings arrived from my interest in ‘landscape archaeology’; the ceaseless making and remaking of the land. Painted marks disappear beneath painted marks, only to reappear like ghosts of their former existence. The continuous manoeuvres of the painting process echo the actions of humankind on the landscape, witnessed and assisted by the ceaseless rhythms of the sun and the moon, the wind and the rain.’

Kumar studied Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University, going onto study painting at the Royal Academy Schools. Here he won several awards and prizes, including the David Murray travel scholarship for landscape painting and a silver medal for excellence in painting. His paintings have been exhibited in numerous galleries and venues in England and Wales, and can be found in both private and corporate art collections in the British Isles and abroad.

 

CATHERINE BAKER – ‘My interest is in what forms the essential essence of a landscape that sticks in my mind – perhaps just a fragile transient moment observed that takes on a strong significance for me. Personal memories, associations and traces of the history of a place are important to me. I’m looking for poetic rhythms, echoes: some kind of resonant statement.

Drawing is massively important to my practice, both directly from nature and in my studio work.  Life drawing provides a great framework in which to play, explore and experiment. In this way, it can enhance and feed into my other painting and drawing.

Catherine studied in London at Kingston Polytechnic (1979-82) and gained her postgraduate diploma at the Royal Academy Schools (1992-5). She has exhibited her work both in the UK and abroad, including the Burlington Gallery, Mall Galleries and the RA Summer Show in London, The Royal West of England Academy in Bristol and in Lithuania and the Czech Republic