60th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

The Forge Open Studios 2017

6th & 7th May 11am - 4 pm

Digswell Arts, a thriving artists’ community based in the heart of Digswell on the site of the old forge, is opening its doors to the public for its 60th Anniversary Showcase which will include work by studio artists and printmakers.

This two day event is a visual celebration of the creative process and offers visitors an opportunity to meet and talk to the artists and explore their private studios and purchase their work. Each artist takes a unique approach to their practice and exhibits widely.

Artists at The Forge

Hideki Arichi is a British born Japanese artist who works with painting, drawing, printmaking and ceramics and has exhibited internationally in Iceland, Japan and the United States.

Award winning printmakers at The Forge include Sally Tyrie who runs monthly workshops and supervises weekly Open Access sessions. Sally’s work was awarded the Best Applied Arts prize at ‘Eastern Approaches’. Artist Mary Down creates beautiful hand made prints on the large press at Digswell Arts, Itziar Olaberria and Suman Gujral who makes monoprints which are playful and painterly and is studying a Masters in Fine Art specialising in printmaking and Anne Houghton, a new print member, who was an Artist in Residence at the Luton Hoo Walled Garden Art Project.

The eloquent visual diaries of Jane Glynn in the upstairs studios at Digswell reflect the rhythms of passing time and work alongside the emotionally revealing work of Julia Holt who has sold work to a private collector and is currently exhibiting in Edgware and at the Upstairs Gallery, Berkhamsted in June. Mandy Wax who has been working on projects associated with psychoanalysis and mental health has recently sold work to Hertfordshire Partnership Foundation NHS Trust. She has also curated an exhibition showing in London in March 2017 on ‘Transgender, Gender and Psychoanalysis’ and has a piece in the Tavi Open Exhibition this year.

There is also a chance to see the mixed media work of Caryl Beach who won best video prize awarded by Elstree Heritage at Eastern Approaches exhibition. Caryl will be showing work at the Courtyard Arts Open Exhibition in spring 2017 and in 2018 where she will be exploring landscape themes with Cathy Smale at Fenners studios.

The expressive abstract paintings of Sandy Campbell reflect her ongoing fascination with materiality. Sandy will once again be the feature artist at The Foyer Gallery in Letchworth later this year.

Anton Psaks beautiful works of art deal with illusion and appearance. Anton follows quite closely a quote from Gerhard Richter, “Life is not what is said but the saying of it, not the picture but the picturing”. Artist Dave Nelson creates mixed media landscapes that evoke a memory of place and are built up in layers using found materials that invite closer inspection.

Digswell Arts: digswellarts.org

Open Studios at The Forge, Hertford Road, Digswell, Welwyn AL6 OBU

Open weekend: 6th & 7th May 11 am - 4 pm

For more information please contact: Julia Holt 07917 759 456

julesholtart@gmail.com

Nearest Station: Welwyn North. 10 minute walk.