BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.4.7//EN TZID:Europe/London X-WR-TIMEZONE:Europe/London BEGIN:VEVENT UID:10525@artinliverpool.com DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London;VALUE=DATE:20250527 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London;VALUE=DATE:20250615 DTSTAMP:20250414T094907Z URL:https://www.artinliverpool.com/events/arthouse-gallery-from-both-sides -now/ SUMMARY:ArtHouse Gallery: ArtHouse Gallery: From Both Sides Now DESCRIPTION:From Both Sides Now\n\n27th May – 14th June 2025\n\nThe Ar tHouse\, 65 Eastbank Street\, Tues thro Fri 10.00 – 15.00 and Sat 11.00 – 16.00.\n\n \;\n\nA joint exhibition by talented local artistic sis ter and brother\, Carole &\; Martin Dawber will open at The ArtHouse in Southport at the end of May\, with a display including stitch\, collage and ceramics\, each reflecting their individual perspectives on contempo rary arts and crafts.\n\n \;\n\nNow living in Birkdale\, both are gra duates of the celebrated Liverpool Art School (now Liverpool John Moores U niversity) from the 1970’s - a time when former student\, John Lennon’ s initials were still in evidence carved into the Lecture Theatre desks.\n \n \;\n\nCarole describes her time at Liverpool as ‘magical’.\n\n  \;\n\n“All I did all day was draw and paint\, work with fabric\, de sign clothes and be pioneering by taking risks and having fun. The most in spiring artists\, tutors and musicians surrounded me. It was awesome. Ther e were no limits to imagination.  I met such amazing people\, all of whom just loved creativity for the idea of invention.”\n\n \;\n\nEducati on was also key to pointing Martin towards the right path.\n\n \;\n\n “I owe where I am today to my six formative years in art education.  It subsequently spring boarded me all over the world and I would always urge anyone to stick to their dreams and do the same.”\n\n \;\n\nDuring the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977\, Carole’s research into fabric dyi ng from natural sources\, while still a student at college\, earned her th e accolade of being awarded a lifetime Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts.  Carole’s final garment collection at Liverpool was subsequently put on display in London at the Dickens and Jones store in Regent Street a nd was applauded by fashion editor\, Prudence Glynn\, in a TIMES’ editor ial.  However\, she confesses that her lasting memory will always be sell ing knitwear samples at the ‘INDIGO’ trade fair in Paris to none other than the Yves Saint Laurent Couture studio.  “I loved every minute of it!”\n\n \;\n\nAttention to colour has always played a vital role i n Carole’s design ethic.\n\n \;\n\n“I love the alchemy of colourin g cloth through dye. Even before undertaking my journey through Art School I learned to stencil and print images on my own clothes.  Using my mum ’s twin tub washing machine (causing a myriad of tints in the weekly whi te washing load!) I experimented with very rudimentary tie-dye techniques.   The Aladdin’s cave that the Dye Lab opened up at the Art School was j ust further encouragement in my need to colourise fabrics for my art prac tice. The training I received in mixing commercial dyes\, and extracting a nd experimenting with natural dye stuffs\, has lead to a life long passion of transforming yarn and fabric into jewel-like colours.”\n\n \;\n\ nAs a freelance fabric designer during the 80’s\, Carole regularly exhib ited at trade fairs in Europe.  “Dying my own yarns rekindled my love for the inner glow that Acid Dyes brings to wool and silk fibres. The lumi nosity in the shades of colour that emerges within the fibres is so intens e that it often takes my breath away. Often in a week of dying I would bec ome addicted to what would emerge from the next dye test.  It was at this point that I finally let go of the rulebook and allowed instinct and\, pe rhaps experience\, take over.”\n\n \;\n\nCarole has now thrown off t he commercial demands of industry and believes she has discovered her ‘ own’ artistic voice that allows her to unrestrictedly articulate her pe rsonal concepts and ideas.\n\n \;\n\n“Composition and content have b een a struggle because design training focuses on pattern\, rhythm and rep eat rather than allowing a single unified image the indulgence of its own space. In developing ideas I usually work within linking themes.  Often t hey overlap\, or emerge from previous stimuli\, that I have exploited thro ughout my creative journey.”\n\n \;\n\nFor her exhibited stitch piec es on display at The ArtHouse Carole advises:\n\n \;\n\n“My startin g point as always has to be revisiting my previous painting and collage re search. My go to style of work when painting is always that of abstraction to convey feeling and mood more than reality. The trigger also must invol ve assessing earlier artwork and finding elements that can be developed fu rther and accomplished in new ways. For reference\, although I rely on p revious sketchbooks\, colour experiments and computer ideas\, by not slavi shly following them I’m letting the fabrics dictate their own form in lo ose landscape constructs so that the viewer can find their own story.”\n \n \;\n\nShe further explains: “My process for this recent series o f work has been to create a palette of newly invented silk cloth\, felted using a dry felting embellisher\, that turns some of my vast range of dyed silk via fusing and felting into fabric sheets. I then employed these as fabric collages to shape the fractured Vorticism influenced landscapes. Us ing this technique helps drive and inform the dynamism of these freshly ab stracted landscapes. The quick mark making achievable with paint I am able to translate through free machine stitch to create a distressed stitched line that generates less surface visibility by being buried in the constru ction of the pre-fabric. This allows me to ‘draw’ the rhythm of the co mposition but only hint at what ‘could be’ in the landscape for the vi ewer.”\n\n \;\n\nMartin\, best known as the international author of over 10 books including the BIG BOOK series (www.amazon.co.uk/martin-dawbe r) that he describes as ‘a type of Yellow Pages of inspiration for arti sts and practitioners”\, also says he owes a lot to his initial trainin g.\n\n \;\n\n“Opting for art at the Grammar School in Wigan was a no t viewed as a serious career pathway\, and it was only when I went on to L iverpool Art School and subsequently to The Royal College of Art in London \, that I felt that I was in any way being taken seriously. My years in ar t education pointed me in the right direction.  It never ceases to amaze me what a trigger that proved to be.”\n\n \;\n\nEntering the world o f ‘art’ from a sheltered and traditional academic background threw a l ot of unpredictable surprises his way.\n\n \;\n\n“The shock of being offered a drink of tea in a glass jam jar at my Art Foundation interview in Liverpool through to drinking a different beverage five years later wit h the likes of David Hockney at the RCA in Kensington Gore are memories th at I will always hold dear.”\n\n \;\n\nAlthough now ‘officially ’ retired\, Martin has no signs of letting up from his heater-skelter e xistence that has seen him conveying his skill across the world\, from exh ibitions across Europe to academic work at institutions in Istanbul and Si ngapore.\n\n \;\n\nCurrently\, he has swapped his pen and paper for th e modeling tools and wet clay on offer at Southport Contemporary Arts Cla yWorks workshops which he attends weekly and where has generated the deco rative bowls and vases that will be on display.\n\n \;\n\n“Although I don’t possess any traditional training in ceramics (throwing on the wh eel\, etc) I enjoy the tactile and almost therapeutic value of working wit h your hands in wet clay.  My hand-crafted bowls and vases\, featuring co ntemporary patterning and glazing\, could equally be well employed as wine -coolers and for housing fresh fruit or cut flowers”.\n\n \;\n\nFrom Both Sides Now will be on display 27th May – 14th June 2025 at The  ArtHouse\, 65 Eastbank Street\, Tues thro Fri 10.00 – 15.00 and Sat 11.0 0 – 16.00. ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.artinliverpool.com/wp-content/upload s/2025/04/MARTIN-in-ClayWorks.jpeg CATEGORIES:Exhibitions LOCATION:ArtHouse Gallery\, 65 Eastbank Street\, Southport\, Sefton\, PR81E J\, Southport\, United Kingdom GEO:53.645169;-3.004323 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=65 Eastbank Street\, Southp ort\, Sefton\, PR81EJ\, Southport\, United Kingdom;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TI TLE=ArtHouse Gallery:geo:53.645169,-3.004323 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250330T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR