Xhibit @ Priory House
Xhibit is a series of art exhibitions at Priory House - Mid Beds District Council’s new home near Shefford.
Mid Beds has a wealth of professional and non professional visual artists, who live or work in the district, and Xhibit is one of the ways that MBDC can help them to promote their work. The large reception area at Priory House makes it an excellent setting for large scale exhibitions.
Priory House opening hours are:
8.45am – 5.00pm (Mon – Thurs)
8.45am – 4.45pm (Fri)
For the next 12 months or so, Artists Network Bedfordshire (ANB) has taken on the task of hanging artworks that have been created by artists who live or work in Mid Beds. All of the work is for sale.
Current Xhibit @ Priory House: Iris Collett & Gilly Chegwyn (Ends 17th September)
Iris Collett has been painting professionally for twelve years. Self-taught, she combines her knowledge of flowers and plants to create paintings of charm and beauty. Her work has been widely recognised and appears as greetings cards published by many international companies.
As well as for her floral subjects Iris is also in much demand as an animal portrait painter, working closely with owners and their pets and livestock to capture the character and spirit of a much loved animal companion.
Dogs and horses are her usual subjects, but chickens, sheep and cows also make appearances. She admits to becoming dewy-eyed whenever encountering anything four-legged! One of Iris’s paintings of two German Short-haired Pointers can be seen in the collection of the Kennel Club in Picadilly.
Gilly Chegwyn is a teacher specialising in Art and also Design Technology who also has a degree in psychology and an HND in Design and Ceramics.
She says ”Clay is a remarkably versatile and stimulating medium. I usually start with words and then find a way to express them, although I have no idea where the Smoking Giraffe or the Hunting Trophy came from. Sometimes it just feels like there is an idea fighting its way out of a ball of clay and I just have to surrender and let it come.
People describe what I do as ‘imaginative’, ‘poignant’, ‘quirky’, ‘funny’ and ‘a bit bonkers’ My ideas come from my interest in people, language, the arts, reading, other artists, my allotment and words……so far”.
Xhibit Forward Schedule:
- Victor Steadman: 17th September - 29th October
If you would like more information about the series, or if you are an artist or art society based in Mid Beds who would like to book a place in the Xhibit schedule, then please call 01462 611244 or email artslink@midbeds.gov.uk
Artists Network, Bedfordshire
Contact AN,B’s marketing manager:
karen.cameron@artsnetbeds.org.uk 01525 714943
