'The First' Gallery's Xmas Show

Sat. 13th - 20th November 2004

Pearl Anniversary

The Xmas Show is 30! It's also our 100th event ever
(and - we've just remembered!! - the Gallery, as an "available any time by appointment" set-up, was 21 in July)
We've got a lot to celebrate

H. M. CLARKE JACQUELINE MAIR TIM ROBINSON (paintings /collages /prints) HANNE CHRISTENSEN * RUTH FACEY * REET GILDAY * JANET PONTIN (jewellery) JOHN MALTBY PETER MARKEY ROBERT RACE JEFF SOAN (automata) See end of page for Artist details	There is also work by: ALVIN BETTERIDGE CLIVE BOWEN MARIA ANDREWS MIKE DODD LOTTE GLOB SARAH PERRY (ceramics) OLIVER HAWKINS DAVID McDIARMID DAVID ORCHARD SUZIE MARSH (animal sculpture) LYNNE & ALEX HUDSON TOVA LENKIEWICZ* ELIZABETH NASH (fabrics) WILLIAM WALKER (hand blown glass) and a few DREAMTIME SPIRALS from Australia
* = new face at 'The First'

Image © Copyright Ian MacDonald

"It's always a pleasure to come to your gallery, a great piece of initiative and enterprise. I'm an admirer of years standing" (Dr. David Brown 9.11.95) Oughtn't YOU come and find out why? [Dr. Brown was Assistant Keeper, Modern Collection, Tate Gallery 1975 - 95. His bequest from his own private collection to Southampton City Art Gallery, featuring a substantial body of the work of the St. Ives School (on which he was an impassioned authority) is currently on show there until 9/1/05]

PreView 6 - 9pm Fri. 12th November
Exhibition runs 2 - 7pm daily, incl. Sunday (or by appt.) until Sat. 20th
Festive Open Morning 11am - 2pm Sun. 21st Nov.

# Pots # Pictures # Sculpture # Wood # Glass #
# Jewellery # Automata # Novelties #

A selection of our 180 or so exhibitors since 1975, some of whose work prompted Dr. Brown's enthusiasm (underlined ones are in this show, though it's by no means an exhaustive list - there are over 30 - see above).

Alvin Betteridge Svend Bayer Clive Bowen HMClarke Richard Eurich Lotte Glob Keith Grant LSLowry Jacqueline Mair John Maltby Peter Markey Suzie Marsh Eric Meadus Sarah Perry Janet Pontin Robert Race Ralph Maynard Smith William Walker Takeshi Yasuda

Without grant aid, we have quietly flown the flag for the careers of less-recognised artists who we think merit wider exposure. We were early supporters (in a practical way: by buying work!) of some who have now become luminaries in their fields. Our ethos is to foster rigorous standards while remaining small and personal.

Hallmarks of our shows are an unusual approach, second-to-none quality and inventive hanging or display. Nowadays it's not so rare to have an art / craft show in a private house. In 1968, when we first did this, it certainly was! Given that, during shows, we live among the works in the Gallery, that is pretty unconventional. Come and see why we're still "the most unusual gallery in the South" (BBC South).

Show Preview

Jewellery by Hanne Christensen Bangle, near middle, and necklet with wire ball are both £50 ea. and are the top price of these items, which start @ £19. Both sets of earrings at lower left (£30) and right (£39) include boxes hand-decorated by Tim Robinson.

Otter by Suzie Marsh (£290). Glass by William Walker. All glass is hand-blown with encapsulated gold / silver leaf. Wine glasses £44 ea. / £80 pr. (1 sold, but can be ordered); dish £35; jug (£160: see separate photo on right) in ruby glass with oxidised silver leaf. Pedestal bowl, to right of otter, by Maria Andrews (£39). Wooden snails on left side of window-sill by David McDiarmid £19.50 ea. / £36 pr.(see also fireplace photo)

Stained glass panel by Melanie Howse 79 x 44cm This specimen £3,900. Similar commissioned work may exceed this, due to site visits, etc.

Suzie Marsh sheep on the mantel piece @ £44 (& £54 for the lamb and ewe). David McDiarmid wood creatures in the hearth (pigs both sold, but more could be ordered @ £24 ea. / £45 pr.) All animals from £19.50 - £24 ea. / £36 - £45 pr. Vase on left (£39: this specimen sold, but others available in similar style) by Reet Gilday, shows her glossy glaze on matt surface, typical of the work here. On right is "Thrush's Nest" by David Orchard (£295).

Hilda Margery Clarke's gift bags (nearest and furthest, on slope); Reet Gilday's ceramic jewellery in HMC's bags (made of 1920s / 60s metallised fabrics, £28 necklace and bag) on the front slope, HMC's butterfly party hair-slides (£4 ea.) on the top of music-stand, with Elizabeth Nash's painted silk specs- / mobile phone-cases (£12 ea.: only a few left) on the lower part of it. Peter Markey's cut-out cards on the leftmost flat upper portion. Cards by Mel Howse and Jacqui Mair on r.h. flat surface. The picture on the wall is "St. Anne's Lace" by J. David Clegg (£210).

Framed fabric pieces by Rachel Reynolds (£95 - £195) on wall; "woodcut" (£39: this one sold, but several others like it, strating at £25) by David McDiarmid, on left of piano; on right, David Orchard's "Red Deer Hind and Calf" (see detail below, £195). On music stand (see detail below) are 2 mounted embroidery / appliqué images by Ethna Brogan (£22.50 ea.) with a G & M Hayduk jigsaw between. Most of the pots in a line on the keyboard are by Sarah Perry (from £27 - £58.50, for landscape elliptical pot in centre). Small tube vases are by Lotte Glob (£9.50 ea. 2 sold only 3 left, and probably no more, ever). Mixture of stuff on table, prominently turned wood by Malcolm Wiggins, incl. dried flower vases (£21) and lidded boxes (£14.50 - £19.50). Wall plates by Lotte Glob (flat down, £40 ea.) and back left, letter-opener in form of a fox (£35) by Perry Lancaster, the last of our stock of his (partly blocked by a Jeff Soan fish, now sold and taken away). Left of shot, Sarah Perry oval vase (£75), 2 sets of ear-rings on marine theme by Janet Pontin (£30 ea.), and small slab pots by Sarah Perry (£16 - £18). Below that, selection of her porcelain jewellery, mostly between £10 - £20. On return wall above it, enamelled copper dish by Iris Wallace [not in our exhibitor list], from the Balnakiel Craft Village, late home of Lotte Glob.

2 mounted embroidery / appliqué images by Ethna Brogan (£22.50 ea.) with a G & M Hayduk jigsaw between.

David Orchard's "Red Deer Hind and Calf" (£195).

Tova Lenkiewicz rugs

Artist Details

• Maria Andrews - ceramicist and mosaicist, having shown here in various guises since about 1997. Currently part of All Fired Up, a ceramics collective based at the Westbourne Studios, W. London. Changing fast, most of the work here has moved on from her work shown at the Westbourne Studios in July. They host a Christmas Art & Design Sale 27 - 28 Nov. 12noon - 6pm www.WestbourneStudios.com

• Alvin Betteridge* - has shown his pots and / or ceramic scuplture here in almost every event since the 1975 one which launched this sequence of 30 consecutive Xmas shows. Still teaching part-time, he used to be Head of Ceramics at Southampton Institute of Higher Education (SIHE), and now lives in Warminster.

• Clive Bowen* - needs no introduction to pottery-fans. He set up his North Devon workshop in 1972, after an apprenticeship under Michael Leach (son of Bernard) but was also part of Michael Cardew's firing-team and circle of friends, thus absorbs two great ceramic traditions (the Orient and Africa) into his own work. He initially trained as a painter, in which capacity we have shown him twice. Our second earliest exhibitor (after Alvin Betteridge), in about 1978.

• Helena Bowen (1 piece) - daughter of Clive. Makes vigorous small ceramic animal sculptures. First time exhibitor

• Ethna Brogan (2 pieces) - textile artist, based in Ireland. Semi-abstract images, using embroidery and appliqué. First showed here last year.

• Hanne Christensen - jeweller in silver, often with tiny porcelain accoutrements. She graduated in Denmark and has been based in London since 1995, making and designing jewellery, textiles and painting. She is inspired by her surroundings e.g. architecture, nature, or even just simple objects like a can or a piece or rope. Her main interest is combining different materials that will 'speak to various aspects of my personality'. Connected with members of the Westbourne Studios. Another new face at 'The First'.

• H. Margery Clarke* - founder director of the Gallery, showing paintings (her main "serious" creative outlet) and imaginative toys, these mostly from the 70s and 80s. See more expansive biog. elsewhere on the site.

  J. David Clegg - Slade-trained artist in pastel, watercolour and oil, he shares with us a 30th Anniversary this year, as his own Annual Exhibition of work has always taken place at his Swanmore home at this season. For health reasons, his show is not happening there this year, so we have a small selection of new work here. There are a few earlier oils to view by request.

• Mike Dodd (3 pieces) - widely respected ceramicist, much in tune with his natural surroundings, using locally sourced glazing materials, etc. Past resident of many regions, including Cumbria and Peru, since setting up his first pottery in Sussex, following a medical degree- course. First showed with us in about 1987, we held a very successful one-day showing here for him in 1990.

  Karen Donnelly (1 piece) - see photo of "Craze-y" (right), her broken mirror with lambswool additions (£150). Born on the Isle of Wight and moved to Southampton to follow an art foundation course. Unable to decide where to specialise, she ceased formal education and started making clocks and mirrors, selling in Harrod's and Liberty's. After that, she worked in a New forest pottery modelling intricate replicas commissioned by various clients, incl. the British Museum. Currently working as an adult education teacher within the art / craft arena. Loves working with glass and broken mirror, developing mirrors, chandeliers, etc. that combine different materials. Her first outing with us.

  Below see Long platter (£39) by Reet Gilday, the automaton "Kissing Couple on Sofa" (£54) by Peter Markey, subject of a full exhibition (paintings and models old and new) here next September, to celebrate his 75th birthday.

• Sara Drake (3 pieces) - makes zany papier-mâché fish. First showed here in 2002.

• Ruth Facey - fine jeweller in silver and some gold, from Andover. A first showing with us, hopefully not her last. As part of Test Valley Artists trail, taking place from now until Dec. 19th, her studio is open the first two weekends in Dec., along with work by Liz Nash (q.v.) See her website www.ruthfacey.co.uk

• Reet Gilday - another member of All Fired Up, the London potters group. Works in earthenware (vases, plates) and stoneware (jewellery). Examples of all these in this show.

• Lotte Glob* - ceramicist of Danish roots, now living on the North coast of Scotland (and has done for 36 years). First showed in the South in 1985, courtesy 'The First' and has appeared here regularly ever since. She has just moved from her Balnakiel Craft Village studio to a new home further round Loch Eriboll. Another potter completely at one with her surroundings (even more so than Mike Dodd) even aged 60+, she spends much time away from her wheel up in the mountains with a bivvy-bag (no tent!!). There she absorbs the landscape (often for days at a time) prior to transmuting it into her ceramics, mostly now sculpture, rather than vessels.

• Oliver Hawkins (1 piece) - intriguing and highly creative artist in wood, especially assemblage, first showing here in 2003. Lives in Arundel and participates in that town's Festival's Artist's Trail, producing a new array of pieces for it each year. Just retired from administrating Shoreham College.

• Gill & Mike Hayduk (2 pieces) - of Hungarian descent, thay make exotic jigsaws in exotic woods. The two on display here are small and 2- D, but their range includes a 3-D cup of tea with a biscuit in the saucer, and another of a spilt drink! They live entirely by making and selling these at craft-fairs. First showed here 2002.

• Melanie Howse - stained glass artist, first showing here in about 1997. Set up under the Prince's Trust over 10 years ago, she moved to her present premises near Chichester around 1999. Winner of many awards and prizes: latest claim to fame is curating 30cm², a collection of 57 x 1' sq. panels by members of the British Society of Master Glass Painters, now on at the Cochrane Theatre Gallery, Southampton Row, London WC1 (nearest Tube: Holborn) 10 - 6 Mon - Fri until Mon. 22nd Nov. [poss. being dismantled ON that day, so best not leave it until then!] Or catch up with it at the Ely Stained Glass Museum 1st Feb. - 1st Apr. 2005. Mel is usually too busy with commissions to produce speculative / private work, but she likes our ethos, so this is a very rare opportunity to see / buy small-scale work.

• Lynne Hudson & family - multi-talented designer in fabric, paper and other materials. Trained in (?)Textile Design at SIHE, her range includes small witty knitted novelties, cards, lo-tech jewellery and gift packaging. Her younger son, Alex, is keenly into fabric, becoming our youngest exhibitor last year since these shows started in 1975. He and his brother, David, helped decorate the glass ball oil-lamps produced specially for this year's show.

• Perry Lancaster (1 piece) - sculptor in small-scale wood, recommended to us by Malcolm Wiggins [q.v.] A former technician at the John Fox Studio (JF developed the "Peeping Tom" cat sculptures), Perry enterprisingly bought out the concern, while only in his 20s, on the premature death of its eponymous founder, and continued its traditions, gradually introducing his own designs. We first met him in about 1988.

• Tova Lenkiewicz (2 pieces) - Israeli-born textile artist, living in England since 1972, following training in photography, graphic design and architectural drawing, work in which latter field she continued after her move here. Having been surrounded by ethnic folk crafts in Israel, she took up weaving at evening class as soon as she arrived here, eventually taking a Creative Textiles diploma at London College of Furniture 1983 - 87. She has taught tapestry since 1986. Has worked in India, where her designs have been manufactured for the world market. Inspired by the many cultural influences of her background (Arab, North African, East European) she is fascinated by landscape and its changes of colour and pattern, though her years in the architectural world rub off, too. Showing 2 woven rugs (see photo). Our connection is through the Westbourne Studio artists. First exposure here.

• David McDiarmid - Liverpudlian sculptor in many simple, often found, materials, resident in Southampton for about 20 years. Worked extensively with Andy Frost, but full of original ideas. Showing wood animals, designed at Frost's workshops for children, plus his own intriguing "woodcuts", [not prints, but] plant-form sculptures, shaped in only two dimensions, not three. Also, outdoors, two stone pieces first shown at the Water Show here in July. First showed here in 2000.

• Jacqueline Mair - mixed media artist, now also illustrator, and lecturer, trained at Bristol, then an MA in printmaking at the RCA. Associated with us for about 15 years, she is showing several studies and medium-sized acrylics from the 80s (in a style / palette she no longer uses) plus new canvases (two featuring her "hallmark" birds), giclée prints and some gift stationery.

• John Maltby* (1 piece) - ceramicist, but periodic maker of moving models, partly in homage to Sam Smith. Our piece is a celebratory one of these. About 7 years ago, heart-trouble enforced a radical reappraisal of his working-pattern, and he now produces only smaller-scale sculptures for a tiny circuit of galleries. One of our earliest non-family exhibitors, in about 1978 - 79.

• Peter Markey* - leading automata-maker, virtually the grandfather of the recent revival of the form. A life-enhancing individual, along with Paul Spooner he was the creative impulse behind Carousel, the Falmouth shop / gallery that was to become [the late lamented] Cabaret Museum of Mechanical Theatre in Covent Garden. The four new pieces we have cover the range of his concerns, featuring noise, the sea, birds, and his famous "kissing couple", in their new guise seated on a sofa. Paper cut-out (and wooden kit) versions of his models sell all over Britain and beyond. Sept. 2005 sees his 75th birthday, and planning is in hand for a celebratory show of his paintings and models. First showed with us in about 1982.

• Suzie Marsh* - animal sculptress, acknowledged leader in her field (portrayal of the domestic cat). The few pieces in our 1984 Annual Show were probably her first exposure after her degree show in 1982. She was the Special Feature in the same event in 1986 and has participated frequently in almost all relevant exhibitions since. From a comfortable background, she has resolutely stuck to making her name on her own terms, without the 'safety-net' of parental help, a brave stance through some difficult times. Four sheep (a new development for her) are on show, all one-off maquettes for the sculptures shown in Walford Mill's Nature in Clay exhibition earlier this year. Also some of her cold-cast bronze cast pieces, including an otter (photo), two ducks and two hippos.

• Eric Meadus* (1931 - 70) - draughtsman, painter and multi-talented creative: the raison d'être of the gallery. He shared the stage, such as it was, of our first two Xmas shows in 1968 / 69, which were the first tentative efforts at holding exhibitons at 'The First'. His premature death put a stop to them, but the revival of the idea in 1975 (of which this show is the 30th embodiment) was really prompted by the goal of eventually establishing his reputation as a minor master, untramelled by his local connections. 'The First' is the guardian of the bulk of his oeuvre, with a permanent Meadus Alcove kept stocked with small works of his, a feature of the Gallery, whatever the exhibition. A national tour is in preparation.

• Elizabeth Nash - printmaker and painter in many media. Trained in Bristol in the 60s, she exhibits and demonstrates widely in the South and occasionally further afield. Silk painting is a recent fascination, and nature / folk myths a perennial subject. She's especilally known for her bird imagery, in which capacity she was first seen here in Flights of Fancy (2002).

• David Orchard* - woodcarver and pyrographer, uniquely recognisable. Depicts mostly natural subjects, especially birds. In most people's minds, pyrography = "hot needle" work (= fairly rough): in David's hands it becomes a masterful method of adding texture and applying "colour" just in black-&-white. A stalwart of our shows, health problems have limited his production of late, so some of the pieces are a few years old. Even so, we have a New Forest Red Deer Hind and Calf, made this year. Author of Woodcarving Techniques, published by Batsford (poss. no longer available). First exhibited here in about 1980.

• Sarah Perry* - ceramicist with an enviable facility for throwing stoneware wafer-thin (a material not usually associated with this approach), learned from her tutor and mentor, Lucie Rie. An early member of our canon, Sarah first showed with us in about 1980 / 81, and has regularly supplied us with pots, tiles and jewellery for our Christmas (and other) Shows, and done more than one "Meet- the-artist" day here. A ready experimenter, her style has developed, from bronze-&-white ware, into lustres in the late 80s and many more pure colours more recently. Many of these glazes and shapes are being copied by other "fashion"-potters, so her work seems to be more ubiquitous than it really is. This is odd, since copies are usually made by young makers who haven't escaped the shadow of their tutors... but Sarah is unique among our regular England-based ceramic exhibitors in that she doesn't support her career by teaching, in any form (not even summer pottery-camps, etc.): she lives solely by making and selling pots.

• Francine Plunkett (1 piece) - one of the original members of the 2D-3D sculpture group that formed around SIHE's Sculpture Course intake of about 1980. Over the years, we have shown examples of several course participants and, due to her meditative methods, it's a long time since we've seen anything of Francine's. Her current offering is a handmade book for children, but like no other book you've ever seen. Artistically an excursion (exploration, even) into the world of letters (typographic ones), it also includes the unusual idea of a book within a book.

• Janet Pontin (3 pieces) - enameller, of Scottish extraction, erstwhile resident of Southampton (worked for So'ton Museums) and now in Laos (in the Far East). She left us all her stock of her stylishly designed and packaged jewellery before she left for warmer climes in about 1999, and we've been gradually selling it ever since. We don't know if she's managing to produce [craft-wise] out there (since she produced a baby more than a year ago, it's doubtful) but we continue to feed the demand. "While stocks last", as they say.

• Robert Race (2 pieces) - another of the stars of the automata world, he all but pioneered the use of driftwood in this field. A science-teacher until bitten by the moving-toy bug, his knowledge informs his wide range of work, developing many traditional mechanisms with his trademark wit. Owner of a huge collection of traditional toys from all over the world, he's now in such demand that it's rare to get pieces out of him. The only living maker to have had three solo shows here (even Margery Clarke, the director, hasn't yet achieved that accolade!) the first in about 1994 / 95. He must have first shown work here a year or two before that.

• Rachel Reynolds - recently graduated fabric artist, in an almost non-pictorial style. Media shown here includes padded and stitched textiles, felt and combined hessian and string. Lives less than 2 miles away in West End, another suburb of Southampton. Her first outing here.

• Tim Robinson - trained artist, working for over 30 years as a fine art restorer in Romsey, after a spell running a prestigious design agency in Sydney. Still constantly producing artwork, much of it collage, uncompromising without being inaccessible. A melange of influences, mainly the pantheon of later 20th-cent.British masters, he brings his own calm touch to his work, very reflective of the man himself. 'The First' staged his first ever sizeable one- man show earlier this summer. This time round: two collages, one flower-painting and a selection of hand-decorated boxes suitable for jewellery, etc. (and crazily cheap @ £1.80 each)

• Cara Sandys - maker of acrylic jewellery. Has shown here for about 8 years. She has homes in Wales and Australia, plus a local family connection, and spends half of each year in each hemisphere.

• William Walker* - excellent glass-blower, whom we found in the 1980s. A star student at the RCA, he set up in Wimborne in about 1977, specialising in layered glass encapsulating metal leaf. After a disastrous move to Poole Pottery, which he eventually walked away from, we lost touch. Last year, an internet enquiry caused us to run him to earth, at his new base in Tollard Royal, Wiltshire. Phoenix-like, he's risen higher than ever in the field, having not long ago completed the commission to restore the windows damaged in the Windsor Castle fire. This involved blowing glass in the method of 13th-century artisans, into a deep square-section oak vessel, yielding four small panes of flattish glass. Despite our lengthy absence, he willingly let us have some work off his shelves, and - many elevated clients notwithstanding - would have made something specially for us, had we not rung up to fix a visit only for later the same day!

• Sonia Watson (3 pieces) - potter in stoneware and porcelain, part of the All Fired Up group at Westbourne Studios.

• Malcolm Wiggins* - woodturner, one of our original exhibitors, first showing here in about 1980. We've never, before nor since, found anyone with his combination of simple, elegant design and superlative (not over-shiny) finish. Soon after we started showing him, he took on a major loan to purchase an industrial-grade machine, meaning he had to abandon small-scale production to pay for it!! A few years ago, he was still at work, but finding there's little demand for turned wood, and back-problems meant he couldn't produce on a large scale. We'd dearly love to encourage him back to the small stuff, for which he obviously has such a feel. A much neglected talent. What's on show here are the vestiges of our 1980s stock, including lidded boxes still as tight-fitting as the day we bought them. One light-pull is made in lilac, from a tree grown here.

• Jayne Wilson (2 pieces) - blacksmith, probably no longer producing. The two candlesticks are typical of her flowing lines and date from about 1988.

* = what we might call our "Silver Service" exhibitors: not all of them have been with us for quite 25 years, but they've made "sterling" efforts for us for very nearly 20. We tried to incorporate as many of our early associates as possible into our 30th Anniversary Exhibition, but many are now so eminent that we can't get new work out of them and are represented by pieces from our stock.

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