Monday 11^th October to Saturday 16^th October  ~ 10am - 4.45pm daily

An exhibition of work by painter and sculptor Ken Gill. For more information see Ken's website: kengill.co.uk

Monday 18^th October to Saturday 23^rd October  ~ 10am - 4.45pm daily

The work will be mainly images of the human figure, but not straight representation; I play about with the images. Art from different cultures, prehistory and children's art appeal to me. I use simple, direct images and an approach perhaps universal.

The work will mainly have been produced during lockdown and uses cardboard from online deliveries and basic materials that were to hand. The work includes paintings, prints and cardboard constructions.

Sunday 24^th October to Saturday 30^th October  ~ 10am - 4.45pm daily

We are three friends, Liz, Jan and Mel, with a common love of all things textile. As experienced stitchers we constantly seek to explore new ways to embellish cloth with colour and stitch. This exhibition collates our work and celebrates the many ways of taking plain fabric and turning it into colourful and covetable textile art.

Dying methods including, Procion dyes, cyanotype, eco and rust dying start the fabric transformation with further layers of colour added using paints, inks and printing techniques. As stitchers we embellish with both hand and machine embroidery to highlight design details acknowledging the beauty of the natural world around us.

Our theme, Sewing the Seeds of Love, may have started singing along to the chorus of a Tears for Fears song, but captures our love of nature in our daily lives. Foraging from hedgerows, eyes down beach combing, heads up bird watching, or sat with a coffee watching the bees, there is a lifetime of inspiration.

We hope that our wall art, home accessories, books, bags, purses and cards will convey how passionate we are about our art and how much fun we have working together.

Come and see how we blend our colours, techniques and materials to reflect our individual styles and express ourselves in stitch.

Monday 1^st November to Saturday 6^th November  ~ 10am - 4.45pm daily

The Members of Torbay Woodturners Club are delighted to be able to display their craftsmanship and skill here, at Birdwood House, for a second time. Like everyone else, we have had to endure the ravages of the past two years, though thankfully without too many casualties! The benefit of a hobby like woodturning in the current pandemic is that by-enlarge, we work alone. One or two members have been exceedingly prolific throughout 2020/21!

The range of work that can be produced on a lathe is astonishing. From a simple spinning top to a segmented hollow form, pens to lamps, a drawer handle to a piece of fine art, woodturning has something for everyone.

There are approximately 45-50 members on the books of TWC, from most age groups and backgrounds. We meet at 7:15pm on the first Tuesday of each month in the hall at The Church of the Sacred Heart, Cecil Road, Paignton. Where we enjoy the skills demonstrated by Professional or proficient woodturners about 8 or 9 times a year. The other few times we amuse ourselves by having a ‘hands on’ night where several members, occupying a lathe each, try to reproduce a piece of work whilst answering questions and helping the ‘beginners’ to get a good idea of how its done. If you fancy having a go at turning, come along to Birdwood House Gallery, have a chat, handle some of the woodturning, we look forward to seeing you.

Sunday 7^th November to Saturday 13^th November  ~ 10am - 4.45pm daily

Formed in 1967, the 21 Group of Artists is now one of the longest established groups of exhibiting professional artists in the South West. In 1963 the painter Harry Pye organised the first of a series of Open exhibitions at Torre Abbey in Torquay. These annual exhibitions, entitled simply VISION, showed selected work by artists from all over South Devon. The more committed painters whose work was invariably selected included, amongst many others, Beryl Clark, Elsie Holliwell, Kenneth Fernee, Jane Prout, Joyce Earle, Colin and Rosemary Bigwood, Christine Raikes, and Vincent Wilson. In 1967 the Vision exhibition confined itself to invited artists only and this led directly to the creation of the 21 Group of Artists itself.

From its inauguration the Group decided to limit itself to a maximum of 21 members in order to maintain high standards and preserve the opportunity for creative dialogue between its members. Since its early exhibitions at Birdwood house in Totnes, the group now exhibits more widely across the South West including shows at Exeter Arts Centre, Dartington Arts Gallery, and the Penwith Gallery St Ives.  More than 50 years on, the 21 Group still places experimentation in painting at the cornerstone of its ethos and mounts and average of two exhibitions a year.

Current Members of the 21 Group of Artists are Tony Aldrich (Chairman), Richard Allman, Lar Cann, Jean Coombe, Sonia Fynn, Jill Goodman, Mary Gillet, Dorothy Hanna, Alexandra Jacobs, Val Jones, Wendy McBride, Robert Mountjoy, Clark Nicol, Teresa Pemberton, Jenny Pery, Ley Roberts, Rita Smith, Richard Sowman, Richard Sunderland, Kevin Tole and Yana Trevail

November 14th-20th open 10:00 -17:00 on Monday to Friday

Sunday 14th 11:00-19:00 (refreshments available) and

Saturday 20th closing at 16:45

(Earlier or later appointments to view the work maybe arranged by contacting the artist directly (annchesterking.co.uk))

The body of work for ‘An Ocean Apart ‘is a result of six years’ exploration of the wider issues and themes of freedom, faith, migration and horizons, both externally and internally.

My work has used the journey of the Mayflower as a springboard to explore the experience both then and currently of leaving familiarity for ‘the unknown,’ and finding oneself estranged in very different cultures and environments. 

The Passengers of the Mayflower have often been hailed as high minded, brokers of democracy and seekers of religious freedom.  On a deeper examination they are a group of individuals holding a wide range of differing values and ideas and not infrequently in conflict with their fellow passengers who came from many different walks of life. They exhibited personal failings and weaknesses as shared by the rest of humankind. Their struggles and challenges reflecting current journeys made by us all literally and or emotionally.

The work includes a hand bound artist book of prints, portraying children and what items they might have carried on board., paintings both figurative and abstractive, prints, photography, and ceramics all express different aspects of humankind's shared experiences.