Liz Dixon Blog

The Church Lane Gallery in Banbury opened its doors to the public at a Launch Event on Friday 24th February.  The event was well attended with many of the exhibiting artists greeting guests & talking about their work.

The pop up art gallery is believed to be the first dedicated art gallery in Banbury & has been organised by Baz Whitehouse, who also runs The Artery - the only art supply shop in the town.  Support for the venue has been given by Iain Nicholson & Neil Wild, Banbury Town Team Coordinators.

 Where ever possible, I try to incorporate recycled textiles & found items into my art.  Occasionally these will be charity shop finds, but often the textiles I use are clothes that my children have grown out of, & are no longer good enough to pass on to friends for their children. My children are growing up learning to recognise natural fibre materials from clothes labels & then get to see the resultant change from their clohing into pieces of sculpture or mixed media canvases - a great way to repurpose & recycle.

Seven artists from the South Northamptonshire Arts community are taking part in the National Trust at Stowe Landscape Garden's Christmas Shopping Event for one week only. This is an opportunity to purchase locally made unique art, jewellery and handcrafted items in the run up to Christmas. 

The 3rd year of the South Northamptonshire Art Trail took place from the 8th to the 16th October 2016.

Over 40 artists opened the doors to their studios or exhibited their work at galleries & venues, with many choosing to demonstrate their chosen art medium. 

 As an artist, I always loving learning new techniques & worndering how I might be able to incorporate them into my own art.  After seeing an Eco Dying workshop in a neighbouring room whilst teaching at Denman WI College earlier this year, I booked to do a shorter, one day workshop at Ardington School of Arts with the same tutor, Sue Pearl.

Pete Mosley is the Business Editor of Craft&Design Magazine & delivers talks & training sessions on many aspects of business development & coaching to creative businesses.

On 12th May, Pete came to Silverstone to run one of his workshops for members of the South Northamptonshire Art Group & I was among the attendees.

To correspond with Oxfordshire Art Weeks, the Michael Heseltine Gallery at Chenderit Visual Arts College in Middleton Cheney are once again hosting the South Northants/North Oxon Open Exhibition by Selection.

The annual exhibition features work by artists at all stages of their career, in a wide variety of styles & mediums. Work includes watercolours, oil paintings, charcoal sketches, textile art, ceramics, copper enamel jewellery & more...

On 6th May I took a slight detour, on my way to teach a textile sculpture workshop at the WI College - Denman, to take time to learn some new painting techniques in Oxford.

The 'Flinging Paint' workshop was run by Peronel Barnes, an award winning artist who I had originally met through The Oxfordshire Project Networking Group. The workshop is designed around the principles of Mark Making & letting go of the conventional confines of thought when creating art.

The Birtley Estate in Bramley, near Guildford will once again open the doors of its beautiful 48 acre grounds to the public throughout May to host the Surrey Hills Sculpture Park - the largest temporary sculpture park in Surrey.

Two of my sculptures have been selected for the exhibition this year, so on 26th April I travelled to Surrey to install my artworks.

I have done a number of Artist Talks & Demos recently for the both the Northampton District & Banbury District Embroiderers Guilds & Buckingham Art for All (BAFA), which have been well received. I enjoy sharing the story of how I went from Engineering to Art, introducing people to the art of textile sculpture & textural mixed media canvases & showing them how it's done.

However, I also like my talks to be interactive sessions, with a chance for people to try textile sculpting for themselves with a mini make at the end of the session.

Pitsford School hosted an Art Exhibition over the Easter weekend, featuring work from over 100 local artists in a wide variety of styles & mediums.

Proceeds from the exhibition raised over £3200 towards an Ultrasound Scanner for the Oncology & Radiotherapy ward at Northampton General Hospital, adding to the £14K already raised by Nene Valley Rotary Club towards the £25K target.

Following on from the 'Rebirth' Exhibition at the Greenspace Gallery in Carmarthen, I was invited back for the following exhibition entitled 'Painting Our Mother'.

This exhibition includes not only portrait paintings as the title may suggest, but also incorporates interpretations of Motherhood, Mother Earth & Motherly emotions.

The new year started with a new venue for Liz Dixon Art to exhibit. On 29th January, 3 chicken sculptures, 2 mermaids, & a squirrel made the journey to Greenspace Gallery in Carmarthen for the start of the 'Rebirth' Exhibition.

This exhibition showcases both 2D & 3D art made from at least 75% recycled materials - a perfect fit for my 'Art with a Conscience' ethos. One of my chickens even got selected for the poster to advertise the event.

The South Northants Art Trail was a great success, with over 200 visitors to Vitreus Art Gallery during last week. The gallery was exceptionally busy on the evening of 15th October, with approx. 70 people attending the late night opening & enjoying not only the art but the drinks & nibbles as well.

During the Art Trail several of my sculptures found new homes, including a Masai woman & the Owl sculpture.

The South Northants Art Trail this year runs from 10th - 18th October 2015. I am based at Vitreus Art Gallery near Potterspury. This lovely gallery is full of beautiful art & inspirational gift ideas & is a lovely creative space to work from.

The exhibition space is being shared with Deborah Thompson, who is exhibiting her paintings, & the beautiful glass work of gallery owners Jenny Timms & Mike Caddy.

I've been wanting to make a Dragon sculpture for some time now & finally got around to making one in the last few weeks.

This was a chance to play with a range of products, including Easy 3D Flex clay which cracks as it dries & Stone Art mixed with Powertex sculpting medium to form an air drying clay.

Looks like it will be a typically rainy August BH Monday tomorrow so if you're looking for some wet weather fun then why not visit Wakefield Courtyard in Potterspury, Northants?

There will be plenty to see there - Vitreus Art will be hosting an Art Demo Day with local artists creating original pieces of work. See painting, textile sculpture, glass work, needle felting & encaustic art demonstrated throughout the day (10am - 3.30pm).

The South Northants & North Oxon Open Exhibition by Selection is an annual exhibition of painting, prints and craft by local artists which runs as part of the North Oxfordshire Art Weeks calendar.

Set in the fantastic gallery facilities within Chenderit Secondary School in Middleton Cheney, it is an opportunity for local artists of all abilities & stages of their career to exhibit in a public exhibition. Work is selected from all the entries received & the chosen pieces are then available to view throughout May.

As with previous year’s, all three of my submitted pieces of work have been selected for inclusion in the exhibition.

The start of Oxon Art Weeks is finally here! Art Weeks runs for 3 weeks throughout Oxfordshire, with the focus on North Oxfordshire 2nd - 10th May, seeing local opening their studios to the general public & exhibiting at selected venues

I shall be exhibiting this week at Cool Contours (Site No. 5) as one of 14 artists at this beautiful venue with enviable views of the surrounding countryside, so plenty to see in a variety of styles & media.

Druantia, our Celtic Tree Goddess, travelled down to Birtley Sculpture Park, near Guildford, to be installed in their annual exhibition.

The Sculpture Garden is the largest temporary exhibition in Surrey, & this year will showcase 170 exhibits by 58 sculptors from across the UK, in a wide variety of media & styles.