The bright colours of summer are in full bloom at Village Studios. New work by Kate Hyde and Thomas Aitken highlight the whimsy of the summer clothes line. Susan Belyea's Smartie coloured wine cups will make any glass of wine sing and artists Amelie Lucier and Julien Mongeau of AJ Glass & Ceramics Studios in Montreal make cooking a pleasure with their line of kitchen vessels. Shown here are their mortar & pestle, a variety of oil containers and an orange glass and wood salt pig.
Local sculptor, Glenn Elliott, has turned his hand to the card table and has created a deck of oversized playing cards out of mild steel with picture overlays. Using very small earth magnets the cards can be assembled into a variety of sculptural works based on traditional House of Cards patterns. The pictures above show some of the designs Glenn has created but the possibilities are endless. You can create your own House of Cards sculptures at home using the steel deck of cards, supplied earth magnets and hinges and a helpful book with a number of patterns. It is a perfect interactive art work!
We have a wonderful new selection of Scott Barnim pottery including a new celadon glaze with a gold leaf highlight. Scott has also done some bowls in a red glaze with the gold highlight. Of course we also have a number pieces in his well known fish and flower patterns, including bowls, platters, mugs, teapots, cream and sugars and some baking dishes.
We have some great new handmade silk purses by Toronto artist, Cathy Chown. Cathy's purses and eyeglass cases are inspired by artists of the past and present and Cathy's own whimsical interpretations of nature. Here you can see her hand painted and embroidered Picasso purse and eyeglass case as well as one of her women in art bags.
We are pleased to be introducing Hugo Didier's line of porcelain pottery, not made in china, to our customers. There are soup bowls, rice bowls, serving bowls, mugs, oil bottles and a variety of porcelain glasses all stamped with his not made in china logo. Hugo is from Montreal and we are sure that his pottery will bring a smile to your face every time you use it.
An interior view of the store as we got ready for the Leslie Watts New Work opening and then a look at some of the many people who turned out for the opening on Saturday night May 8th. It was a great evening and a number of Leslie's new paintings sold. We do have work by Leslie that is still available and we have a number of new pieces by all our crafts people arriving weekly. We will try and highlight some on this site in the days to come.
A reminder that we will be opening the Leslie Watts New Works show on Saturday evening, May 8th. Leslie has twenty four new paintings on canvas and board in three genres, landscape, still life and interiors. Leslie will be at the opening on Saturday night and on Sunday afternoon. The show will be on view until May 21st.
Thomas Aitken and Kate Hyde, both talented craftspeple and artists on their own, have recently started to collaborate on a series of objects that bring together Thomas's strong skills as a potter and Kate's interest in surface decoration. This winter they have worked on a number of pieces that reflect Kate's strong interest in costume and colour and also the playful beauty of the tulip. Shown here some examples of their new work. We are fortunate to currently have a number of the floral jugs and vases and several pieces that reference the theatre.
