Fife's Coast and Landscape is Picture Perfect!

Colin Carruthers - Midsummer Landscape, Fife £1250

We have been lucky enough to receive a large collection of work from Artery regular Colin Carruthers. A regular visitor to Scotland, Colin paints these scenes based on places he has visited, from the islands such as Islay to the East Neuk.

Colin is most noted for his beautiful contemporary seascapes - taking his inspiration from the Scottish coastlines. This new collection has many of his stunning coastal paintings, but now also includes some landscapes based on our local scenery.
Colin has based some of his new oil landscapes on the area surrounding St Andrews and Cupar, featuring the stunning Fife countryside. This new genre still captures Colin's serene and peaceful mood which is seen in his seascapes. He has also included some smaller works in this series, making it easier for visitors to take away a painting of Fife.

Colin's paintings are on display in our gallery on South Street, St Andrews, or view all his work past and present at http://www.arteryuk.com/artists/Carruthers,Colin/

Unique Ceramic Bowls and Vases

Open Leaf Bowl by Sally Mareike £30

What a busy week at Artery Gallery! We have had several new artists join us, and lots of new items delivered by so many different artists.

We have had two new deliveries of handmade ceramics from two different artists - Sally Mareike, and Jenny Barlow.

We have had collections of work from Sally in the past - including her pretty, seashell-imprinted vases and 'atoll' dishes - so summery, it's like a walk on the beach! Sally's new work is totally different to her summer work, but she still features a seasonal theme. Her ceramic bowls and designed in the shape of inter-woven and over lapping leaves, glazed in earthy, Autumnal colours. To get a realistic and unique effect, she collects real leaves and imprints them into the ceramic. This collection features mostly bowls, but she has some pieces which would be useful over the festive period such as cheese plates and biscuit plates.

Jenny Barlow is a new artist to us, who features stunning crackle glazes on her work, combined with a unique effect - wrapping wire around the ceramic work, and then firing, to melt, distort and oxidise the metal wire. As the wire melts during the firing process, it drips and runs into the glaze, creating a molten stream of colour around the piece of work. Her collection includes candle holders, little pots, bowls and big, bold vases, which would make stunning centre-pieces.

Short Pot by Jenny Barlow £40

Both Sally and Jenny's collections can be viewed on our website, along with all our other ceramic work - a really diverse collection!

Take a look at www.arteryuk.com

Paintings of St Andrews (with a funky new twist)

St Andrews, Winter £140

St Andrews is one of the most painted towns of Scotland, with artists of all genres favouring the town's beautiful West Sands beach, or the famous 18th Green of the Old Course.
One of our artists, Martin Devine says that St Andrews is one of his favourite subjects to paint, but with his unusual technique, and different outlook of the town, it gives the traditional St Andrews paitnting a fantastic modern twist.

St Andrews is a town which is steeped in history and tradition, and paintings of St Andrews often follow the traditional route, favouring golf scenes, lush greens and fairways, or images of the town's castle and Cathedral. Martin on the other hand paints St Andrews from a different angle, looking down into town from the East Sands direction, or looking into St Andrews as though you are out at sea. His unusual technique with watercolour only serves to update the traditional St Andrews image even more.

Martin uses watercolours, building up the colour, to get rich deep, pure tones and colours, and then he picks out the outlines using Indian ink, making the pictures almost 'pop'. The traditional idea of watercolour, is soft, pale, and watery, so this vibrant new take on a traditional medium really brings it into the 'noughties'.

Martin says that painting St Andrews is a pleasure - it's one of those towns that is so easily distinguishable, that even with a little artistic license when painting it, it is instantly recognisable. His other paintings also depict Scottish scenes, featuring rolling landscapes and quaint buildings - all with that modern twist.
All of Martin's paintings can be seen here http://www.arteryuk.com/artists/Devine,Martin/1/ or viewed at Artery Gallery, 43 South St, St Andrews

Something Old, Something New......

Antalya Wool Rug

Those who are familiar with Artery Gallery will know that we are always looking for something new and different to display here as it's always great to bring new work into the gallery, alongside our regular firm favourites. Discovering a new artist for our gallery is one of the most exciting aspects of working within the art world, and looking for new artists and different styles is something we all do here, not only as a matter of course, but as a passion.

We have found something new for Artery again, while on our travels - we now have a collection of beautiful hand woven Turkish woollen rugs and silk rugs.
I suppose hand woven rugs aren't art in a traditional sense, but the creativity and skill required to produce these, make them one of the finest art forms possible. We have two types of rug - those made from sheeps wool, and those made from silk.

Our woollen rugs are spun from wool taken from the sheeps soft neck, chest and belly area, as it is the downiest wool on the body. Many woollen rugs from other countries tend to use wool from the back and flanks of an animal, which is courser textured and gives a sparse and hard texture to the pile of the rug. Rugs made from soft belly and neck wool have a very dense and downy texture. The rugs have different designs on them, some depicting scenes, and some with patterns, which mean something, and are specific to particular areas of Turkey. Turkish women can spend anything from months to years making a rug, so sometimes sometimes a lifetime is expressed in designs, symbols and patterns on a rug, it also means that some of the rugs can be many years old.

Our silk rugs have a glorious soft sheen to them, and my own thought is that they are so soft, they feel like the back of puppy dog's ears! It's wonderful to have a piece of art which is so tactile. With silk, the colour of the rug can change, and shimmer depending on which way you look at it, because silk is a light-reflecting material. Turkish silk rugs are reputedly the finest in the world as there are over 200 individual knots per square inch, make it one of the most difficult handmade works to produce due to the attention to detail it require. As with the wool rugs, the silk rugs either depict a scene or pattern, which can tell a story, or denote the area they come from. Unlike the wool rugs, the silk rugs are brand new, and although the colour will mature on them, the vibrancy and 'brand new' appearance is maintained in silk.

All Turkish rugs use natural plant and vegetable dyes as opposed to chemical dyes which are often used on imitations, and in rugs produced in other countries. Plant dyes change with age, but mature and mellow, maintaining their vibrancy, but developing an aged look (a bit like humans!). Chemical dyes can fade, and the colour can be stripped out altogether, or worse still, totally change colour. Turkish dyes are all natural, and each strand of wool is dyed entirely from end to end, rather than perhaps having several different colours on the one strand.

Stop in to the gallery for a look (and feel) of these beautiful works of art.

St Andrews Has a Fours Star Arts Venue.....Us!

We have reason to celebrate this week at Artery - we have just been given the prestigiuos award of Four Star Arts Venue by VisitScotland!

We are delighted to receive this award, in recognition of all our hard work and attention to detail over the years. We also think it's great to be able to bring this accolade to St Andrews - we can now boast that St Andrews has one of only sixteen four star arts venues in the whole of Scotland.

VisitScotland award star ratings to different types of establishments such as hotels, restaurants and museums and these star ratings are used to give customers and tourists a guide to what to expect from an attraction. Every detail is scrutinised such as pricing, cleanliness, appearance, customer service, and consideration of children - everything!

Artery's selection of interesting and unusual artwork - everything from clocks, to ceramics and paintings - and our clear and sensible pricing structure were a particular positive for us, pushing us into the four-stars category.

We'll continue to push ourselves to bring our customers the best in contemporary art, great customer service and a different class of gallery altogether.

It's All Coming Up Roses (well, Irises) For Derek Collins!

Irises In The Rain (yellow)

Artery Gallery regular, Derek Collins, has just delivered two of his new style, garden inspired paintings.

Derek is famed for being 'The Flaming Artist' - setting his paintings on fire to acheive the unusual paint effect he favours. Derek's technique is unique to him, and helps him create a look which cannot be reproduced. He applies paint, and then puts on a liquid resin, to give a glassy, 'puddle' effect, and then puts on an ignition fluid (sometimes using his best malt whisky!) and sets it alight. His work have ranged from his 'lava' themed pieces - http://www.arteryuk.com/Abstract+Paintings/Golden+Lava+Diptych/ to his love heart themed paintings - http://www.arteryuk.com/Abstract+Paintings/My+Heart+ii/.

Although Derek has supplied us with flower themed works before, he is using a new technique - using glass inks and dyes inside the liquid resin - it looks as though the colour is captured in a pool.

Irises In The Rain (blue)

Dereks full collection at Artery Gallery can be viewed here: http://www.arteryuk.com/artists/Collins,Derek/1/

Colourful mixed media paintings by Monica Paton

Fife artist Monica Paton has just delivered more of her extremely popular mixed media, box-canvas paintings. Monica has been working with Artery Gallery for around four years now, and her paintings attract more attention than ever - sometimes selling out within the week! Her canvases are intended to be left unframed, and are around 20cm x 20cm, selling at £70. At this size they are great to fill an empty spot on a wall or can stand on a shelf.



Monica's brightly coloured works of art, entitled 'The Field' are inspired by the Fife landscape and coastline, and this time she has also included some of her rarer, more unusual pieces such as 'The Wish' and 'Forest'.
More of her work can be seen here http://www.arteryuk.com/artists/Paton,Monica/1/

Unusual smoke-fired ceramics pods

Smoke-fired 'Pod £80, by James Stead

We have another new artist at Artery Gallery - James Stead - ceramic artist. James is a graduate of the University of Cumbria, and is now a full-time art teacher.

James makes beautiful ceramic 'Pods' with a smooth, smoke-fired, burnished finish, broken up by glazed designs on the surface.

We had never seen a finish like this on any ceramics or earther-ware before, and James explained that it was a fairly unique process to smoke-fire ceramics work after the glaze has been applied. You can read more about this unique technique on James's information page on our website.

Portrait of Colin Montgomerie at Artery Gallery

Artery Gallery is currently exhibiting an oil painting of someone who is very familiar to St Andrews!

Golfer Colin Montgomerie is the subject of one of artist Andrew Reid's hyper-realism portraits for which he is becoming very well known. Andrew takes an unusual approach to painting a portrait - likening the facial contours to a landscape. He takes great interest in capturing tiny details on the surface of a face, such as age lines, hairs and eyelashes - seeing these as the building blocks to make up a face. He also enjoys the challenge of reproducing photographic effects, such as soft-focus backgrounds and colour bleeds.

Artery Gallery set Andrew the challenge of painting a famous Scottish face, and his meticulous approach has produced amazing results in this life-like portrait of Monty. It also pays homage to St Andrews title of 'The Home of Golf.'

Andrew is available to paint portraits upon request, at no extra charge. Just stop into Artery Gallery, and we will arrange that for you.

Summer success for Joia Glass Art

'Waves' wall plaque - glass on white-washed wood

Summer may have been a bit wet and wild this year, but it hasn't dampened our summer tourism. St Andrews has been busy as usual, despite the lack of sunshine!

Two of our artists - a husband and wife, working together as design team 'Joia Glass Art' have had particular success this season, with sailing and sea themed glass.

Joia Glass Art originally joined Artery Gallery last summer, and have had sell out success with each collection since - and have continually expanded their collection of work with us.

Recent additions to their glass sculptures have included tealights and wall plaques. Both are a unique design - the tealights are split into two parts, so can be used as one large or two small tealights, and the wall plaques feature their glass 'Regatta' sculptures mounted on fresh white-washed wood.
Their full collection of work can be viewed on our website, or in our gallery in St Andrews

www.arteryuk.com

New 'St Andrews' painting by Jackie Gardiner

'Moonrise, St Andrews'

St Andrews is in full 'summer swing' at the moment, with lots of holiday makers from the United Kingdom, Europe, and across the world.

St Andrews is somewhere which is instantly recognisable to people from all corners of the globe, which is why we are delighted to have another beautiful oil painting of St Andrews by our regular artist Jackie Gardiner.

Jackie Gardiner has been a successful artist for 20 years now, and her work is featured in personal art collections such as The Earl of Strathmore's, Ernst and Young in Edinburgh and Karademir House. Her paintings have sold all over the world - travelling to places such as Singapore, Canada, South Africa, and of course, the UK.

Artery Gallery had been lucky enough to consistently exhibit Jackie's work for the last four years, with many keen followers regularly visiting to see her new work.

Artery Gallery, St Andrews, is open 10am - 5pm Monday - Friday, 10am - 5.30pm on Saturday, and 12 - 4pm Sunday.

www.arteryuk.com

Dreamlike Landscapes from Ashley More

"Enlightenment"

The paintings of Ashley More present emotion-fuelled views of romantic, dreamlike transported landscapes which interpret nature in a poetic semi-abstract way, both atmospheric and expressive, exploring the effects of light and colour.

View her new work exhibiting at Artery Gallery here at www.arteryuk.com

British Craft Trade Fair - Award Winners 2009

Our congratulations go out to Mike Hunter and Daniel Kavanagh, two of our exhibiting Scottish artists who have both recently won awards at the British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate.

Mike Hunter’s highly skilled process of ‘Zanfirico’ glass blowing, earned him the 2009 BCTF Award for Excellence in design, innovation and creativity. This is the Selkirk based artists second accolade for excellence this year.

Daniel Kavanagh from Nairnshire won the Best Newcomers Award, which was presented in recognition of the quality, design and craftsmanship of Daniel’s work. He was also presented with a Highly Commended Award at the ceremony.

It's the Wedding Season! Register Your Wedding Gift List With Artery Gallery

An art gift from Artery Gallery is not only a beautiful addition to any home but can also be an investment for the future. Artery Gallery are able to organise your wedding gift list, so you can be a little different and receive a memorable wedding present that you will cherish for years to come.

As the bride and groom, you can choose Artery Gallery as one of your wedding gift list venues. Guests can purchase the selected art you have chosen in your list, whether they buy individually or club together in groups.

Alternatively, the bride and groom can request guests to buy Artery Gallery gift vouchers. These can be purchased individually by guests, and then collected together by the happy couple at the appropriate time. The gift vouchers can then be brought into either of the galleries at a time to suit themselves to choose their favourite pieces of art.

Our wedding gift registration service offers you the opportunity to commemorate your wedding day with a list of gift ideas for your friends and family to choose from.

Anything from clocks and sculpture, to paintings and wall hangings are available, giving you the inspiration and opportunity to build your own collection of unique, original artwork.

When registering your wedding or civil partnership, you receive a catalogue of ideas and suggestions from us, which you can also add your own choices to. When you have chosen all the gifts you hope for, we will complete your registration by adding you and your partner-to-be to our website – with a web-page of your very own. This will include photographs, dimensions and prices of all the items you choose, with a secure, online purchasing function. Your friends and family will be able to browse the pages of your gift list before deciding on their purchase.

Friends and family can even combine their finances to purchase a larger item such as a painting, which can be reserved for your list by paying a deposit of 20%.

Create you own unique wedding gift list today here at Artery Gallery.

www.arteryuk.com

Sculpture - Stone, Steel and Glass

We have always had a an interesting collection of sculpture here at Artery Gallery and at the moment we probably have the widest selection ever, so here is a break down of just some of the sculptures we are currently exhibiting:

"The Golden Fish" by Alexandros Arabatzoglou

This stunning Golden Fish sculpture is hand carved from stone and built into a bronze frame. The techniques Alexandros uses to create his sculptures are unique only to him, which makes his work all the more special.

Alexandros comes from an art family and right from being a child, he was involved in the art of jewellery making through his father. He was designing and creating unique pieces and he was selected as one of the finest modern Greek artists by the BBC. Soon he discovered his passion for harder materials, and he started to work with bronze and different kinds of stones, clay and glass. After many years of work, he has managed to match these materials together, and create his own style in modern art. All his pieces are unique (editions of one). He has taken part in many exhibitions all around the world and many of his sculptures are in private collections.

"Horse's Head" by Whittle Design

This intricately designed steel horse head is created using individually cut and shaped steel panels.

Husband and wife team Kerry and Natalie Whittle work form a small workshop in the countryside near Plymouth.

They currently create a wide range of objects including sculpture, mirrors, wall panels, clocks and bowls from distressed steel combined with bronze. Particular interests are the creation of colours, textures and forms in metals by developing unique heating and forming techniques which are only possible through hand made production.

"Boy and Dog" by David Keenan

Working as a glass artist in Cheshire, David has also spent 8 years working on a glass artwork project in the West Indies, during which time, he developed the style of contemporary art glass that has dominated his work. David has built up a strong reputation for his glass sculpture and has in the past been commissioned to design several sculptures that have been gifted to royalty, including Her Majesty the Queen.

"Nine Walking Figures" by Frank Wilson

The nine figures are all created individually by building layers of molten steel, then each figure is welded together either by their hand or by their foot, making one singular sculpture.

Whilst in medical practice, Frank Wilson developed an interest in metal, which sprang from his work in orthopaedic surgery where very special, sophisticated steels are used to perform life-enhancing operations.

As a contrast to such high performance materials, Frank developed the use of any steel he could lay his hands on which was weldable electrically. Frank's work grew in quality and variety over many years and now his main interest is creating minimalist human relating pairs or larger groups of figures. Each piece is individually made so there are never two exactly alike. He has been making steel sculptures for over thirty years since he was a doctor in Yorkshire.

www.arteryuk.com