In Praise of Wood - Kit Falla's work at Lewis Elton Gallery

At the Lewis Elton's Gallery's latest exhibition I am drawn to a glass cabinet in the far corner of the room. Walking past wonderful wood-cuts by Kit Falla, safe in the knowledge I will return to them, I want to see the actual woodblock of one of my favourite Falla prints - The Tree (see pic). There is it, tucked away on the bottom shelf surrounded by the tools of the great artist herself. Traces of ink still remain and this excites me just as typography galleys and etching plates always have. They are the proof of the work, the physical beginning of all the prints we see before us. 

Kit Falla's work has all the elements of a great craftswomen. In her designs of trees, leaves, fields we see where many of today's printmakers may have got their inspiration from. 

The Tree is a wonderful moving feast of colour, you can almost feel the wind in the branches. In The Dance we see 3 geese rising from the water in one screeching movement. And The Light Beyond has such a wonderful sense of simple perspective and colour.

Kit has a fascinating life story - she was born in Guernsey in 1924 and on leaving school she joined the WRNS and worked as a 'small cog' in the Bletchley decoding system. She returned to Guernsey after the war and became the first 'calf sketcher' on the Island, literally sketching calves. Once married she moved to Surrey and as her children grew up she continued with her art studies. A spell in Toulouse with her husband's job nurtured her fascination with colour and light and she loved drawing the ancient French farms. her love of the countryside developed into an interest in wood and she attended courses in Sudbury and eventually worked at the Henry Moore Sculpture Studio in London. She says:

"I was led into wood cuts by discovering “frottage”, that is rubbing over figured wood with graphite or carbon on paper.  This soon led to cutting into the wood and printing with ink.  I always cut straight into the block of wood, sometimes with a landscape or figure in mind. When printed, the grain of the wood and the reversed version of what has so far been printed will provide some exciting surprises and work continues with further cutting and printing – almost in a question and answer kind of way."

You can feel the affinity Kit has with wood when you get close to her work. There is something very wise about these woodcuts, and also something tender. She explains: "In a practical and philosophical way my work is a learning process; a learning about life, about myself, and a searching for the secrets hidden within the wood itself.”

In Praise of Wood, a retrospcetive of work by Kit Falla MBE FFPS, is at the Lewis Elton Gallery, Guildford until Saturday June 29. Tel: 01483 689167. Visit www.surrey.ac.uk/arts/visuals for opening hours.

The Woman in Black - just a pigment of my imagination?

It’s a strange thought that people choose to go to the theatre to be frightened out of their wits. The Women in Black, playing this week at Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud, is famous for making the audience scream out loud and that would appear to be a strong selling point.

Antony Eden as 'the actor'

Based on a novel by Susan Hill, The Woman in Black has been adapted for stage by Stephen Mallatrat, who comments that ‘ghost stories aren’t that many in play form’, the main problem being that it’s hard to do them really well. The modern audience is now so used to stunning special effects in films that a shivering hologram or someone passing behind a gauze curtain in a white sheet simply isn’t good enough. Hence to build suspense today, less is definitely more. An occasional suggestion of the horror that lies behind a closed door or in the attic of some gothic mansion works very well indeed as people’s imaginations, unlike special effects, is the same as it ever was - powerful and potentially terrifying.

And so it is down to the actors to create the suspense. In this production just 2 actors carry that responsibility: Julian Forsyth and Anthony Eden play an elderly man with a terrifying past and a young actor keen to tell the tale. Both are faultless in their roles. Eden is energetic, enthusiastic and delightfully naive as ‘the actor’ who encourages an older man called Mr Kipps to act out the story that has terrified him for most of his life. Forsyth is brilliant as Kipps, growing into the role as the play develops and switching roles with the experience of an actor who enjoys a challenge. Sharp direction by Robin Hereford keeps the pace alive and the two actors convincingly create this two act tale with a couple of chairs and a wicker basket, an imaginary dog of whom we grow very fond, and of course some evocative sound effects.

Ah yes, the sound. How would a ghost story on stage survive without it? Played at high volume the thunder of horses hooves, the screeching and screaming of a woman possessed, the wind in the trees, even the slow ticking of a clock is enough to strike fear into any man’s, and certainly woman’s, heart. Even the Monday night often-quite-sensible Yvonne Arnaud crowd screamed out loud.

There were, I confess, a couple of moments when I felt like laughing particularly when we finally see the face of the poor old Woman in Black who has spent a lonely life in her spooky gothic mansion on the marshes. Mysteriously she is not mentioned in the cast list, and does not take a bow at the end. Was she even there, or did I imagine it?

The Woman in Black is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a UK tour and plays at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford until Saturday, June 8th. www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk Tel: 01483 440000

Tribal Indians at the Lewis Elton Gallery, Guildford

It is unusual for me to stay hooked to one particular work in an exhibition but at Mirror Mirror, currently showing at the Lewis Elton Gallery, I can’t quite tear myself away from the voices of an Indian tribe coming from one of Salli Tomlinson’s famous ‘sound pictures’. This richly coloured painting on wood, with its delicious layers of cracked varnish and colours yellowed by time, looks initially like a picture of 3 tribal Indians. But when I open the wooden door cut into the picture I hear tribal chanting, murmurings - the sounds of a place and a people far away from this gallery in Surrey.

Salli explains it is the actual voices of a Native American tribe and I am further amazed to hear that this elegant lady with her flowing grey hair journeyed alone to Taos, USA to show the finished picture to the Pueblo native American people.

“They were fairly hostile at first” she says, “and it was a bit nerve-wracking. But when I opened the sound picture door and they heard their own voices and other familiar sounds the tribal elder broke into a broad smile and that gave permission for them all to join in. It was a very spiritual moment.”

Salli first introduced sound pictures into the art world in the 1980s and in this exhibition we are privileged to see, and hear, two of her originals.

The second, ‘Alice’ is a potted history of her family in a huge wooden frame, with tiny cartoons, line drawings and bold, almost comic book portraits of relatives. She says she has always been fascinated with Alice in Wonderland then suddenly calls a young man over.

“Look here,” she says, opening one of the wooden doors, “there’s your dear ma”. He peers into the tiny door and Salli explains all the other relatives. It is a bewitching piece of work, so personal and yet so accessible for us all to see. The busy, chaotic soundtrack is a touching audio mix of family life.

Salli’s son Marcus shares this exhibition and his work is deliberately more minimal. His slow-focus photographs and a film projected on a wall are all he feels he needs to show. He admits he is secretive about his work. A glimpse at his website shows he achieved note in the 1990s for his fashion photography with the likes of French designer Lacroix and the influential British magazines i-D and The Face. He continues to experiment with photography and film and is clearly delighted to exhibit with his mother for the first time.

“We didn’t realise until we worked together how many common themes we have,” he says at the private view. “We come from a long line of artists and we thought it would be interesting for two of us to exhibit together.”

The show also focuses on Salli’s huge magical 2D sculptures and Marcus’s film of a moving sculpture, represented by a Gareth Pugh fashion garment. The Tomlinsons come from a long heritage of artists and painters and it is hard to represent their artistic journeys in such a relatively small space, but Mirror Mirror is an intriguing exhibition that definitely makes you want to find out more.

Mirror Mirror is at the Lewis Elton Gallery, University of Surrey until Thursday June 6. Tel: 01483 689167 www.surrey.ac.uk/arts/visualarts  

Artists' websites: www.sallitomlinson.com  http://marcustomlinson.com

Antiques Roadshow comes to Polesden Lacey, with 4,500 fans in tow

What a difference the sun makes! It certainly did for the 4,500 people who turned up at Polesden Lacey last week for the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow. Queuing for over 3 hours doesn’t seem quite so bad when it’s warm and you can enjoy an ice cream.

Fiona Bruce was there, charming the crowds and taking time to talk in depth with some of the lovely people who came bearing family heirlooms and other treasures.

I had a chat with her before she started filming and she was in a state of happy excitement:

“This is the first of the new series which will be shown in the autumn. We all came down here yesterday and it was like the start of a new term, wonderful to see everyone and we had a very lively supper together. Really, the Antiques Roadshow is like one big family and it is so great to get together again.” 

Polesden Lacey is of course a great location for the show. The grand stately home, now owned by the National Trust, was the home of Mrs Greville a gregarious Edwardian hostess who loved entertaining friends at her glorious home, including King George VI and the Queen Mother. The anticipation that items related to the royal pair might emerge were in the air.

Fiona and the AR gang enjoyed a tour around the house before the open day for the public, and they, like most visitors were astounded by the collections on view.

“This is just an amazing house,” she said, “the silverware and ceramics are wonderful and you can just picture it as a lovely house for living and entertaining. Mrs Greville was obviously a fascinating lady and a lot of fun - I wish I’d known her!”

I asked Fiona if she has ever had her own treasures valued by the team.

“Sadly I don’t have anything of great value,” she said. ‘But I did ask them to check over my engagement ring” as she showed her delicate hand with ring in situ. “John Benjamin was fascinating, he traced the stone back to the mine in New Zealand where it came from.”

I asked her if the filming is all live, considering some people’s reactions are subdued in front of the camera, and she was slightly horrified,

“Of course it is,” she replied. “otherwise we’d be asking people to act and that’s out of the question.”

So there it is, confirmed by the lady herself, Antiques Roadshow is very much live and still attracting around 6 million viewers each programme.

So what turned up at Poesden Lacey? Some great treasures were revealed including a photo album and brooch owned by a lady whose mother had been a maid to Mrs Greville, the hostess of Polesden Lacey. Also a piece of icing from an anniversary cake.

The atmosphere is one of great excitement at these live events and it is amazing how the experts keep their enthusiasm in top gear throughout the day. At Polesden Lacey the last people clutching bags of precious items were seen at 8pm at night - I hope it was worth the wait and that an amazing, rare artefact was revealed in the last flickers of daylight.

On 5^th September the Antiques Roadshow will be at the Royal Ballet Lower School in Richmond Park. Visit www.bbc.co.uk for details.

Surrey Open Studios - a few teasers

There are some great Open Studios taster sessions around the county at the moment, offering a flavour of the exciting range of creative work on view at participating studios and galleries in June.

The Lewis Elton Gallery, a wonderful gallery tucked away within the University of Surrey campus, is showing works by various artists until May 16th. Peter Rogers has co-ordinated this exhibition and has selected a richly varied collection of work from 34 exhibitors.

I particularly loved paintings by Andrew Curtis, an artist who draws inspiration from his travels, creating vibrant and striking works of art in watercolour, oil, acrylic and mixed media. Wonderfully vivid collages containing bits and pieces gathered on his wanderings in North Africa and the Middle East, including secular Arabic text together with bits of Koran, really bring the countries to life.

Also at the Lewis Elton Gallery, Iona Mackenzie Laycock exhibits some of her richly earthy 3D ‘paintings’ depicting landscapes from Surrey, Sutherland and beyond.

Mary Wondrausch includes a 3D collage and richly glazed ceramics and currently has one of her works at the V & A.

Beautiful, smooth wooden vases and bowls by John Sherwood, screenprints by Annee Robson, deliciously rich green glass vases by Jake Mee - the variety of work is exciting and of the highest quality.

                                                            Glass vase by Jake Mee

Sambaru by Andrew Curtis

Taster sessions:

West Surrey, until May 16th, 10am to 5pm at Lewis Elton Gallery, University of Surrey
East Surrey, May 7 to May 23, 10am to 5pm at East Surrey College, Redhill.
Selected Surrey, May 25 to July 7, various times, at Bourneside Gallery, Dorking.

Check the SAOS website for full details: www.surreyopenstudios.org.uk

The Sculpture Garden at Birtley House, Bramley

Last Friday was the perfect evening for a wander around the beautiful grounds at Birtley House, currently hosting The Sculpture Garden, an annual event that has grown to be an important date in the summer art diary.

The range of work at the exhibition is exciting and varied. Wherever I turned another surprise greeted me - birds of prey, a nut-brown twisted column of wood, a spring hare, a walnut or a simple cocoon pod.

A beautifully serene piece carved in serpentine stone by Zimbabwean artist Ronnie Dongo caught my eye as it rested peacefully in the sun. I couldn't resist stroking the cool smooth stone, and the curator told me that their regular groups of partially sighted people always stroke and feel the sculptures, perhaps gaining a sense of the piece that the sighted may miss.

On a slight incline a majestic welded steel peacock by Amy Goodman peers towards the lake. Sculptures by Peter Little include wonderful wafting water lilies crafted in steel, copper and sedum. And there are also smaller to admire - glass and stone pieces by Adam Aaronson and birds, beasties and insects by various artists. 

The inspiration and development has been steered by local artist Juliet Scott who works mainly in clay, producing elegant works of art based on her observations of every day life. Her original pieces are cast in bronze, aluminium, copper, iron and other resins.

Every style, shape and size of sculpture is covered in this wonderful exhibition. Indeed, there is so much to see that another visit is marked in my diary.

The Sculpture Garden is raising funds for the Community Foundation for Surrey who support local community and voluntary projects, improving the lives of those in need in Surrey. 

The Sculpture Garden is open daily from 10am to 5pm until Sunday June 2nd. Birtley House is in Bramley, just south of Guildford. Visit the website on www.birtleyhouse.co.uk or call 01483 892055 for more details.

Joe Egg at the Rose, Kingston

Many years ago I interviewed Ralf Little when he was appearing in Billy Liar. He was totally charming with a cheeky sense of humour and exuded infectious enthusiasm.
Here he is again then, cheeky and charming but displaying a mature confidence at the Rose Theatre Kingston in the touring production of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. Ralf is so relaxed and so amicable you feel you could just jump up and join him on stage. Admittedly he plays a character that instantly engages with the audience, and they can’t get enough of him. He kicks off this lively production by running through the audience and leaping on stage. Dressed as an affable teacher complete with cord jacket and leather patch elbows, he spends five minutes shouting at us to stop talking, put our hands on our heads - and amazingly everyone does it.  What great power and presence the man has!

Ralf plays Brian, or Bri, husband to Sheila and father to their disabled 10 year old daughter, Joe. The first act reveals the relationship between the couple and their relationship with Joe. Bri swings between comedic charmer to a falling man who needs constant reassurance and support. Sheila, played tenderly and with warm humour by Rebecca Johnson, is an energetic, devoted mother trying hard to keep the family together and to give her daughter as normal a life as possible.

Jessica Bastick-Vines plays Joe, no doubt a difficult role but played so convincingly that there was certainly a very quite, thoughtful pause in the merriment of the audience when she is first brought on stage in her wheelchair.

Touching on a sensitive subject, this play, written by Peter Nichols and first performed in Glasgow in 1967 is surprisingly riotous and full of great gags and humour. Nichols’ script is fast-paced, poignant and pithy. The quick-fire dialogue between the characters is spot on, and the second act is hysterical in places. Neighbours Freddie (Owen Oakeshott) and Pamela (Sally Tatum) are a brilliant double act as the couple of who can’t quite get their to grips with the presence of a disabled child and Pam in particular is cringingly tactless with her small-mindedness attitudes. But Tatum brings great humour to the role and her mannerisms are so painfully funny, so much so that somehow this dissipates any discomfort we may feel.

But trumping all cards for delivering a truly great character is Oakeshott. I sat spellbound as he twisted and crouched and wrang his hands with sympathy and awkward well meaning. He is unfailingly constant in accent, manner and delivery. With Marjorie Yates also brilliant as Bri’s mother, this is a truly stunning cast.

Joe Egg is directed by Stephen Unwin, who himself has a disabled son called Joey. The programme for this production includes an enlightening and moving article written by Unwin for The Guardian in September 2012. In it he describes the challenges and joys of raising a boy with profound learning difficulties. He says how his Joey has opened his eyes. I think and hope that this moving play, with its flashes of black humour interspersed with quiet tenderness, will do the same for those of us lucky enough to see it.

A day in the life of Joe Egg plays at the Rose Theatre Kingston until May 18th, 2013 

Box office: 08444821556  www.rosetheatrekingston.org