Visit to #StockportArtGallery

We had been meaning to visit this gallery for a while now and even went a few weeks ago, forgetting that it was closed on a Monday.

​I had an exhibition there about 18 months ago and was impressed with the way the gallery was organised. The exhibitions change monthly and are very diverse, as was the case on this occasion.

​In the left gallery, as you enter was the 'Pursuing Pattern' exhibition by Janet Mayled. She says her compositions "Explore complex pattern and colour balance". They featured still life, urban landscapes and  allotments.
​These were impressive and certainly brightened up the room.

 In the right hand gallery, was the work of another Northwest artist;  'Head in the Clouds' by Jessica Owen. This exhibition featured big brooding skies with a strong concentration of light and dark. They were certainly a contrast from the other gallery. Again these were impressive in a different way.

The gallery was busy with a pastel workshop with Paul Pigram. Here, a group were following along as he demonstrated a landscape scene. As they worked, he walked around giving advice.  

​They were engrossed in their work and we felt a little uneasy wandering in the gallery looking at the exhibition, although nobody minded.

​This is another excellent facility offered by the gallery.

,As we wandered to the community gallery it was good to see some paintings from the  local             
St. Matthews C of E primary school. You could notice the creativity in the work and it's great to see that they have been given a chance to show their work in such a prestigious place. They had been  studying the Chinese story of the Willow Pattern found on Chinese plates and using ink and collage they created their own versions of flowers.  As you can see from the middle photograph, the children also looked at the work of Mondrian. We particularly liked the creativity of the collage of the viaduct. Here, the lollipop people were inspired by L S Lowry. I'm not sure the lines from the famous song; 'and he painted, lolly pop cats and dogs' would have the same ring to it though!

Upstairs was the 126th Annual Exhibition of Stockport Photographic Society. Here the walls were split into sections featuring Portrait, Natural History and Pictorial scenes amongst others. The standard was very high and showed how seriously the group took their photography. Sue did notice one scene our daughter had photographed near Snowden and decided that hers was just as good.  Sue herself had taken a sunset on our visit to Whitby that wouldn't have looked out of place on the wall.

An enjoyable afternoon and we even bumped into Katherine Rosati, the curator, who remembered me from my exhibition, and we had a good chat with her.

​Like all galleries this will have had it's funding cut, i  suppose, but by finding ways around this they still have a fantastic range of exhibitions and because they have three galleries available every month more artists have a chance to exhibit there. Also having the small gallery on the corridor, schools, local people and artists looking for their first exhibition have a chance to show their work.