Anserine (adjective): relating to, or resembling a goose; goose-like, foolish, ridiculous.
It’s here…. the Oxfordshire Artweeks festival in which over 1000 artists, designers, and crafters – and more than 100 in and around Abingdon – together turn the whole county into a giant art gallery for the Oxfordshire Artweeks 40th anniversary in May (7th-29th).
You are invited to visit artists’ open studios and pop-up exhibitions – all for free – in interesting and welcoming venues where you’ll find paintings and photos, sculpture, pottery, wood-carving, jewellery and more. Not only that, but you’ll also have the chance to talk to the makers about their methods, materials, and inspiration. With thirty venues in a six-mile radius open over a ten-day period there’s so much to see, and you can just drop in; no appointment necessary.
Ahead of the opening of Abingdon Artweeks, we’ve been finding out more!
Up at Peachcroft Farm where you’ll find 16 artists in the stunning medieval barn, a number of the group have been inspired by a special challenge for 2022, to each produce a piece inspired by Grey Goose and Gander and other anserine poetical quotes and lyrics alongside their regular art!
Grey goose and gander
waft your wings together
and carry the good king’s daughter
over the one-strand river
(Nursery Rhyme)
“Peach Croft Farm is famous for its free-range geese,” explains Barbara Payne, one of the exhibiting artists. “They are always around the farm when the exhibition takes place and form a significant backdrop to our Artweeks exhibition. So, we have decided to create some goose-related objects – wild or farm geese, feathers, eggs – any medium and any size. These anserine creations will be displayed, alongside our usual paintings, ceramics, silver, and textiles, in our Artweeks exhibition at Peach Croft Farm barn from 14th-22nd May.”
Barbara Payne herself has painted a Pictish goose based on a stone carving from Groam House Museum in Rosemarkie in the Black Isle, Scotland. She has added a Celtic style halo, as the early Celtic church depicted the Holy Spirit as a wild goose.
Did you ever see a wild goose sailing over the ocean?
(Sea Shanty)
Other paintings on show include “Gossiping” by Caroline Ritson which shows Brent geese on the Norfolk salt marshes. “I saw these on a visit there and I loved the way they grouped like characters at a party,” she smiles. Another is a small picture on handmade paper with deckled edge by CM Jackson-Houlston which is based on a sketch made at Port Meadows. The colour cast gives the feeling of a dull cold day enlivened by the orange flush of the willow twigs as the sap starts to rise, which chimes with the bill and feet of the Greylag Goose.
A symphony of water, wind and light
where a saltmarsh meets the sea
sanctuary …
(God Speed, by Tom Bliss)
You’ll also be able to find a handbuilt goose in flecked stoneware by Artweeks newcomer potter Suzanne Bladon who is also presenting functional pottery, and other geese, goose eggs, feathers, and footprints (or should that be web-prints)?
My heart knows what the wild goose knows,
I must go where the wild goose goes.
Wild goose, brother goose, which is best?
A wanderin' foot or a heart at rest?
Cry of the Wild Goose, Terry Gilkyson
The exhibition also encompasses other birds – embroidered robins and different birds stitched in a Wedgewood palette, and Birds of Paradise colours in pieces by Trudi James. There’s the beauty and drama of the countryside and the sea too; hints of hotter clines, Sicily, Morocco and Egypt in delicate washed pen and ink by Sue Hill, and lots of beautiful silver jewellery. Home to JASSO, The Jewellery and Silver Society of Oxford which will celebrate its 50th birthday next year – Peach Croft Farm really is a hotbed of silversmithing!
One of the jewellers, Alexandra Cardinal von Widdern, describes her style as that of a recovering minimalist with mid-century influences. A range of the pieces from her ‘Satellite’ collection offer the playful look of granulation (tiny balls of metal) and the ability to layer and recombine rings, cuffs and necklaces. Alexandra works with silver, gold and precious stones including her favourite, ‘salt and pepper’ diamonds which have a smoky speckled look, like the glitziest goose egg in the world. “My design process is very much driven by the materials, by their look and feel, their reaction to fire and often by an element of surprise,” she says, and her latest collection takes the organic and fluid look of molten metal, often with stones set at unusual angles or in unusual places.
Alongside, Janet Richardson explores textures and carving while Machi de Waard’s jewellery is sleek and smooth, and almost planetary, as a golden ball appears to balance on a curve, to peek out from a sweep of silver or is poised with a playful twist as if held by surface tension.
Other venues to explore in Abingdon centre include St Nicholas Church and St Ethelwold’s House on East St Helen’s Street. In St Ethelwolds you’ll find abstracted landscapes by Sandra Hoeft and Caroline Harben captures the essence of the landscape - its quiet, its colour, its shapes, its character, and its mood and, new for 2022 has a small series of paintings entitled “From Above” inspired by maps and a love of high vantage points. Just a stone’s throw away St Nicholas hosts the Abbey Group amongst whom you’ll find Margaret Horton whose work celebrates the seasons and the idea there are no right angles in nature: she was fascinated to realise that when archaeologists dig up a right-angle formation, they can be sure what they have found is manmade and she has been searching for right angles in nature ever since!
Elsewhere around town, individual and pairs of artists also invite you into their studios. Whilst larger pop-up exhibitions can be an easy way to discover the hidden talent of a collection of local artists in a single place, a visit to an artist’s studio can offer a more in-depth insight into an artist’s practice. Entering a studio is like opening a window into an artist’s world to see the way they work, their materials, their tools, their processes, sketchbooks, and their work in progress. If a picture tells a thousand words, then a studio is an epic adventure!
To see details of these venues and hundreds more, visit artweeks.org
