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.