the end of a wonderful chapter, but not the book...

the gallery is now closed, but i won't be turning my back on the visual arts or artists in the area. please keep visiting this site, to find out more about events and exhibitions happening locally. i will continue to be closely involved with macclesfield barnaby festival and to shout loudly about new and exciting talent, wherever i find it. please watch this space...

eves@amuse and inking & thinking

There are some very special exhibitions being hung at this year's Macclesfield Barnaby Festival which runs from 21-24 June 2012.

eves@amuse, a solo show of work by Carlo Eves (one of the region's most accomplished painters) is at amuse cafe on Chestergate from Thursday 21 June and continues over the summer. The preview is on that same Thursday from 6pm and you are very welcome to join us for what will be the last official white gallery exhibition. 

Carlo Eves trained as a print maker and his most recent work leans towards abstraction and constructivism. He is fascinated by the relationship between the natural contours of the land and man's intervention, mostly represented by repeat patterns, shapes and marks made with a sharp tool using an ancient engraving technique called intaglio. 

Carlo will be demonstrating his skills at amuse on Friday 22 June (3-4pm) and Saturday 23 June 

(5-6pm) so please drop in and enjoy learning more about his techniques. 

Macclesfield is awash with art over Barnaby Festival and Thursday night provides an opportunity to see as many exhibitions on the art trail as is physically possible to do in the space of three hours! Start at amuse and take it from there. Please note, the art trail continues throughout the festival, with three very special Arts Council funded exhibitions at Paradise Mill, the Savage Chapel attached to St Michaels Church, and King Edward Street Chapel. Visit www.barnabyfestival.org.uk for more details.

Another exhibition to enjoy is Inking and Thinking, a collection of paintings and drawings by another white gallery artist, David Evans, at the Silk Museum on Old Park Lane. David will be running two bookmaking workshops aimed at young people aged between 8-12 on Saturday and Sunday over Barnaby, from 2-4pm. Ring the museum to reserve a place, or just drop in. If you have children who enjoy history and WWII, they'll love this!

My final recommendation is a wonderful exhibition at St Michael's church in Market Place called Animal Magic. The paintings have been created by local school children, using Saint-Saens 'Carnival of the Animals' music as inspiration. Pupils also studied Tunnicliffe's beautiful animal drawings at West Park Museum. A live concert performance of 'Carnival of the Animals' is also taking place on Sunday 24 June at 4.45pm to compliment the exhibition. Children are encouraged to make a mask (FREE mask-making workshops at the church on Saturday 23 June from 11am-1pm and 3-5pm) and wear it for the finale!

Please come along and enjoy all of these events if you can. The festival is run entirely by volunteers and is a fabulous opportunity to find out more about Macclesfield. For further information, and to buy tickets for some of the events, please visit www.barnabyfestival.org.uk. 

moving on...

After five wonderful years, thewhitegallery will be closing at the end of June. We are moving into Macclesfield, to a house where the children can have a trampoline in the garden and a dog to fuss over.

Of course, the joy of living at 13 Wellington Road has been the front room gallery, which has been a shop since the 1920's. First a cobblers, then a haberdashers, then a corsetieres, then the Greenhouse Gallery before we moved here in 2007 to set up thewhitegallery. Quite a journey for the house, and for us as a family. We've loved every minute of it, from the preview parties, to the exhibitions, to the last-minute christmas shoppers, to all the new friends we've made along the way.

I'm going to take a short break before launching myself back into my photography and writing, which i've been doing a lot more of recently. However, I won't be turning my back on the visual arts, and intend to carry on exhibiting and promoting new and established artists at every opportunity - I just won't be using a permanent or conventional gallery space to do it. I look forward to updating you via this blog, very soon. Also, I will continue to mail out interesting and unusual arts events and happenings that I'm either involved with, or find out about on my travels. There is so much going on in and around Macclesfield these days and I look forward to telling people more about it.

To start with, there's Macclesfield Barnaby Festival which starts on Thursday 21 June with Bell-issimo! a mass ring-in (involving church bells, hand bells, bicycle bells, alarm bells, mobile phone bells, people called bell..you get the picture!) and continues until Sunday 24 June with any number of fabulous things in between, including art exhibitions, live music and performances, the fete and carnival parade, midsummer tea party and evening feast, comedy, workshops and a touch of magic which will leave you breathless.

People all around us are busy creating something extremely special so please take part, visit the town over Barnaby and enjoy seeing Macclesfield at its very best. For more information, please visit www.barnabyfestival.org.uk

And please let me know if you'd like to be on my mailing list, or if you'd like to be removed. I can still be contacted on fionabailey@mac.com or by phone on 0776 167 7370.

It's been great getting to know all my customers over the years, and thinking of many of them now as friends. And of course, a special mention to all my lovely artists. Thank you for all your support and kindness. Until soon....