GOODNIGHT STALYBRIDGE......
A late one tonight. The hustle and bustle of the Christmas run up continues!
This evening I popped into The Peoples Gallery at the bottom of Melbourne Street. This part of Stalybridge holds many gems. Peoples Gallery is one of them.
Who are they?
"The People's Gallery is a non profit making enterprise bringing affordable art to the community. Run by volunteers, we aim to promote local artists. Our membership consists of of established, emerging and amateur artists. We have a regular, changing exhibition programme. Each month we have a new solo exhibition hung by one of our talented artists and each fortnight a different artists puts on a show in our window space. In addition, new art is constantly being added to our three floors of gallery space."
When I was in there I managed to catch one of their tutors before a class started. Geoff Wright is an artist with a passion for the magical and mystical. Dragons and maidens appear in some of the work he showed me tonight. One in particular, a picture of a dragon sitting to tell his life adventure to a little girl who's sat on the Dragons curled up tail and listening intently, grew even after the work was finished. They say a picture paints a thousand words. As it turned out, his image of this odd couple spurned a story which Mr Wright decided to share.
The Tale of the Dragonstone by G. L. Wright was published in all formats, including eBook and kindle, in August this year. A story of adventure, shared love and caring and the quest for the Dragonstone in the strange world of Eldosis is available now on Amazon and at all good bookstores. I have already sampled the first few pages and look forward to delving further. I will keep you posted.
You will find Oil classes with Geoff between 7pm and 9pm every Wednesday. If watercolour is your media you will find classes between 10am and 12pm on a Thursday with Roger Bamford. Contact the gallery directly or call in for more details.
I also spoke to Stephen Ollerenshaw while I was there, founder of The Peoples Gallery. He showed me their current portrait exhibition where they have already raised hundreds of pounds for St Pauls. Harry Loughlan, the artist, shows a colourful perspective on portrait art and some of his work is striking. You may find the odd portrait still available but most have been snapped up for as little as 20 or 30 pounds. Great work and affordable art.
Next month you'll find the "Visions" exhibition. All the work will be submitted by the volunteers from The Peoples Gallery themselves.
I've had a sneaky peak and there is some lovely artwork from some amazingly talented people.
Get yourselves down there and support some worthy causes, including the gallery itself.
For now it's a very cold goodnight Stalybridge. Wherever you are tonight we hope you're warm and comfortable!
Sleep well.
DT