Martin Newman

Martin is the cartoonist for the Henley standard. I will be exhibiting his cartoons for sale in the gallery for three weeks. Martin translates what he sees in to a pictorial form. His work strongly reflects his joy of seeing. I hope you will celebrate his art with us on one of the many events lined up. A cartoon workshop see www.venusgallery.co.uk and he is part of the Venus Kenton Theatre external event on the 29th. I sell dance shoes. You might find this strange in an Art Gallery. Freeds of London who supply shoes for Strictly Come Dancing have let me be the first non dance or shoe shop to sell there dance shoes. But I explained that I want you to express yourself. Dance is a great way to relax and be creative. I very much want people who paint, draw, make sculptures of dancers to come forward with their work so that when you pop in for a pair of dance shoes you might be tempted with a work of art or visa versa. So back to the point on the 29th there will be Martin for 20 mins talking about his cartoons in his new book followed by 20 mins of dance and 20 mins of poems and music from local people. Post show there will be a chance to get a signed poetry book or cartoon book and then a free 20 min dance lesson and of course purchase a pair of dance shoes.

Exciting New Year

I'm happy with the birth of Venus. My Harp evening on the 7th Henleys late night shopping was a wonderful first night in house event to show Henley the artists on their doorstep. I have exciting new year events and exhibits lined up. As mentioned Lynda is doing a water colour soluable class on the 8th and the 22nd see www.venusgallery.co.uk. In February she will also be doing a knitted Doughnut workshop. It is important that people pont out my spelling mistakes. One of the girls in the Barber Shop kindly pointed out that my sign above the door was spelt wrong. And a nice chap told me that Donuts has a u in it. Looking at it now I'm not so sure about the g or h. I also have a workshop where you have help photographing your favourite pair of shoes and then I print this on to canvas during your stay. I have one chap signed up for this who loves his doc martins who knows this may lead to an exhibition!

Rupert

works magic with his lens. He has some great shots of some of the oldest trees in England. He lives in Maidenhead. By the way Claire lives in Henley. Ted and Steve in Wargrave. Polly and Christianne Henley.

Claire

Claire brought in one of the best life drawings of a male nude that I've seen for some time. His hand rests on her name. He is framed in a walnut frame, the drawing is relaxed like the study. Claire is doing a water soluable pen workshop on the 10th. www.venusgallery.co.uk

Another Steve

I saw in the exhibition space behind the town hall Steve's photographs and liked his photo of the Temple in Henley on the Thames it was wonderfuly different which I asked if I could exhibit and has recently sold to an equaly exciting customer.

Ted

Ted brought his paintings to Venus Gallery on the 7th of December. He has been painting for 13 years and still enjoys the challege of a white piece of paper.

Christianne

I'm very sorry if I have spelt this wonderful ladies name wrong. Christianne's work truly embraces Venus Galleries joy of seeing. Part of me is conditioned to still believe that talking about someones age is rude. However another part of me wants to take my hat off to anyone post sixty. This wonderful artists used to teach deaf children art. She has been retired for some time but radiates great energy and enthusiasm she has been very supportive and encouraging and I love having her paintings and cards on sale in the gallery.

More Artist

I was visited by two mature post graduates of fine arts. If anyone has done a degree or doing a degree in art straight from school you may have come across perhaps parents or disenchanted workers who want to carve themselves a new an improved or a more chosen path. I am such. We can be a bit of a pain on such courses we can question things a bit too often but I hope you agree we can at times make some prity interesting art for we have seen. Anyway. Leslie dressed shop windows and I think that is why her work has great placement. Even her abstract work has great balance. Many might think abstract is easy. But have a go and most people would not know when to stop. I agree during the making you might think this is looking fairly good but it is always the last blob of paint that spoils it. Leslie has the gift of stopping when the painting is still naratetable (sorry spell check can't help me with this one). Polly who lives in Henley looks at the magic in the world around us and I think you should pop in to the gallery and see what she has captured on paper.

My sister

My sister Elaine lives in Devon. She has not seen the gallery yet. Only the outside. It's not that I won't let her in she has just been very busy. And I did not have the keys when she visited. Ok so we did fall out for a few weeks. I have a canoe which I put a motor on and I wanted to pull a blow up crocodile to the pub but there was mutiny on the boat and her kids got out of the canoe and said they would rather walk back so I let them (in their teens I must add). However she has followed my progress and made a comment about the pole dancing pole I have in the gallery. To me dance is very very important. The one thing you should know about dyslexia is that the mind is very active. It is hard to concentrate. It jumps around. It looks for the next thrill. By that I mean it is a thirsty sponge. However in my case it gets so loaded it becomes useless so I dance to empty declog. Getting back to Elaine. I explained to her that not many people know that pole dancing is an art form. It can be so graceful. She asked if I would be dancing on it and I said no. And she said it was probably good idea not too as baring my inner soul on a blog page was probably enough.

I have the wonderful gift of dyslexia

Doing a diploma, BA fine honours and pgce has without a doubt improved my spelling. Prior to this further education my readers would often go blue in the face with lack of punctuation. I have always loved writing and wrote neighbourhood reports for the Oxford Times along with a few book reviews obviously someone edited it first.

Lynda

Whats wonderful about Venus gallery for me is that I am already achieving some of the goals I have set out to achieve. I first viewed 54-56 Bell St and I liked it's vibe. I wanted a bit of Bohemia, a place for the arts for poets, writers, musicians and dancers to drop in to. Lynda popped in and showed me her beautiful drawings of dancers as I had advertised in my local paper for work around the on going themes of water, bodies and dance. The drawings are themselves somhow very rhythmical by that I mean the work is very free flowing, Lynda draws with soft lines, non geometrical and the eye as it works it way around the image like a dance hops and skips over the wavy lines. Some of the images are from a book of poems called the sea of suprises which is on sale in the gallery. Lynda preformed / sung and read some of her poems on a poetry evening held in the gallery. I have to say it was a magical evening Lynda wrote and played the music on guitar and piano. We were all very moved when she sung one song which she wrote for her husband who was in the audience. A friend of Lyndas also read poetry that he had written. Lynda is doing some workshops in the gallery see under events www.venusgallery.co.uk

My concept is to provide origional artworks. I've started by inviting local artists to submit work for viewing. My first three artists to bring work to the shop were a local art teacher, a photographer and a painter. Andrew paints beautiful oils on canvas. He studied at Ruskins. I am attracted to his work as he has a Vermeer quality. Each of the several paintings I am exhibiting are bathed in beautiful observations of light falling on the subject he is painting. Andrew's work embraces is the embodiment of www.venusgallery.co.uk joy of seeing. Lizzie's work expressed the joy of creation, you can seemingly feel as well as see the artist work with her textured mark making. Steven a travel photographer presented fresh contemporary photos I very much liked his photo of a man diving into a pool. The exhibition soon started to expand.

I have the gift of dyslexia so I may spell a few words and have bad grammar.

Setting Up Venus Gallery

I opened my doors in October. 54-56 Bell St was previously an office. The carpet was a bit stained so I put a black strip / border in to the carpet to act as a distraction to past and future stains. I shopped localy for all my bits and bobs. I sought local companies tohelp me with printing and web sites.

Venus Gallery Bell St Henley

By the way I have the great gift of dyslexia so I do tend to make a few spelling mistakes.