Culture Vulture

Lucinda Storm: Inhabiting the Moment

Pictured: Blackmore Vale

To me Lucinda Storm’s evocative oils are like dreamscapes, a remembered moment of fleeting beauty which yet hold the essence of the Wiltshire/Dorset countryside she paints.

In every work you see her fascination with the interplay of colour and light and a vivid recall of the almost absurdly picturesque West Country landscape. read more

Gangsters & Gunslingers at the American Museum

You’ll be able to release your inner cowboy when Gangsters & Gunslingers: The good, the Bad and the Memorabilia opens at the American Museum in Claverton on March 23. For anyone obsessed with the Wild West and America’s famous outlaws  - Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane, Bonnie and Clyde et al – this is going to be one not to miss. read more

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Bristol Old Vic

Tickets are already selling fast for an exciting new production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Bristol Old Vic. It’s a collaboration between the Old Vic’s Artistic Director, Tom Morris (formerly of Battersea Arts Centre) and Cape Town’s Handspring Puppet Company. read more

Mark Thomas at The Tobacco Factory, Bristol

Comedian Mark Thomas kicks of a tour of the South West at Bristol’s Tobacco Factory Theatre 31 Jan – 2 Feb with his latest show Bravo Figaro, originally commissioned by the Royal Opera House. read more

Reigning Cats and Dogs: Satire Meets Sentiment at the RWA’s New Show

Cat’s Dream by Peter Ford

The RWA’s new show Reigning Cats and Dogs – is sure to blast away January blues when it opens next week (11 Jan). An exploration of the domestic pet in art, the exhibition blends classical painting with sculpture, photographs and postcards alongside a heavy dose of humour. Which is which, you wonder, in Bath artist Ben Hughes’s wonderful linear painting, Angela Lizon (both pictured below) is known for her chilling portraits of animals and dolls. Before the show opens we went behind the scenes with its curator Peter Ford to hear about the highlights.

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And Something Different…..Pop Up Art Shop in Bristol’s Victorian Loos

Pictured: Mr Mead – Dark Suits

Here’s a concept which should really take the ennui out of Christmas shopping – Antlers Gallery is hosting a pop up art shop in the disused Victorian toilets in Bristol.

From December 8 – 24 the shop will sell artworks, ceramics and t-shirts. We love these chimp chalkboards designed by Anton Goldstein. read more

Hauser & Wirth Somerset: A Cutting Edge Art Space For Bruton

Louise Bourgeois’s Spider is coming to Hauser & Wirth Somerset

Bruton, already home to hip eaterie At the Chapel, is set to become a major destination town when a cutting edge new art complex, Hauser & Wirth Somerset, opens its doors in 2014.

After two years of research the gallery has just put in a planning application which should be granted before the end of the year. read more

Charlie Baird at the Art Stable

Main image: Autumn by Charlie Baird

Charlie Baird is one of those artists it is impossible to pin down – he even says so himself.

His new exhibition which opens at The Art Stable in Child Okeford on Saturday (13 October) is a case in point, starting out as an abstract show based around Dorset landscapes but soon incorporating figurative work and collage and flitting between Dungeness, the Hebrides and the West Country as the mood took him. read more

Bristol’s Hipper Than Thou Art Scene… as told by Coates & Scarry

Bristol is currently art capital of the UK with exciting new spaces and a hotbed of contemporary artistic talent. Hip duo Chippy Coates and Richard Scarry cult bloggers, curators and life partners Country Calling through it. read more

Art in Truro….We Know What We Like

Pictured: Scilly Trefoil by Kurt Jackson

Truro is the new art capital of Cornwall, says Dave Meneer.

Cornwall has been full of art and artists for over a century; most of them “down west” and until recently “down west” was where you had to go to see the county’s finest paintings – to Newlyn or St.Ives. But that’s all changing thanks in part to one street in Truro – Lemon Street. read more