Steve's week off..

I've taken a week off work and had a 'staycation' in the truest sense of the word - stayed at home. And it's been great - once I managed to get my head into the 'holiday' groove... Playing with chainsaws and fallen trees, piles of wood, mowers, cars, bikes... anything to be outside in the fresh air (occasionally tinged with exhaust fumes and wood smoke) - and playing with our son.

Wednesday was a special day - Debbie and I packed up our rucksacks and headed for the hills -our first real walk on the moors together since the boy came along. A day in glorious sunshine up above Hawnby, with the ever present Bilsdale mast towering above us.

Debbie took sketch book and pencil along for the day - it will be interesting to see if any of the walk ends up in future drawings... On the topic of Debbie's drawings, we spent a morning with the framer last week in the very pleasurable task of discussing how to frame Debbie's newest body of work due to be exhibited in November in Lund Gallery. There are some interesting 3D blocks and multiple image works - can't wait to see how they will look when framed up...

Autumn on the Lund

The past few weekends have been wonderfully busy ; the opening of our 5th anniversary show, followed by a woodblock printing course from Jo McChesney and a stone carving course from Dominic Hopkinson. The creative buzz that comes with hosting courses makes the whole Lund come alive...

The sculpture yard has been bursting with colour - could not believe how the borders have flourished...

... and the White Horse of Kilburn has been repainted in the last few weeks, and it seems to jump off the hillside on a sunny day...

Steve has been trying to work out what veg to plant over the winter - this year we will mostly be eating spinach and spring onions.. I know it's a cliched picture, but I could not resist a snap of the fork in the vegetable plot that I saw the other day... They say that much of the pleasure of food is in the anticipation - well we'll be anticipating these for several months!

Almost Five!

Lund Gallery is rapidly approaching its fifth anniversay! In may ways it seems 'just like yesterday', but then again there are times when it feels like more than five years - there's a lot of hard work behind the scenes!

In these last five years we have built up a considerable mailing list to which we send out invitations to our featured exhibitions and events, and it has grown to quite a size - a little bit too large in fact. So in order to save some trees we have decided to make sure the list is up to date. So, if you are currently on our mailing list and would like to continue receiving information from the gallery in the future, please let us know by e-mail, 'snail- mail, or in person when you next visit the gallery.

Peter Humpherson's Pots

A short blog entry just to say how much we like Peter Humpherson's pots.


He has a selection in our current show, including some new forms on wooden bases one of which required a little last minute work before display...

On yer bike...

I took some time away from the chocolate factory and loaded up my bike with a tent and loaded the bike onto a train up to Berwick upon Teed (what a fantastic thing to be able to do - take a bike on a train for free!). The following days were then spent ambling back through the Cheviots and the Pennines roughly following Sustrans route 68. Revisiting many of the places I have not been on a bike for over 20 years - absolutley fantastic. One of the highlights was an old railway up Tynedale to Alston; I think Sustrans deserve a warm pat on the back for having opened up some fantastic cycleways.

I would also like to take the opportunity to praise Anna Whitehouse, an up-and-coming ceramicist from Harrogate who has helped us out in the Gallery over recent weeks - including photographing much of the current work in the Gallery and setting us up with some 'business pages' on Facebook : thanks Anna...

Summer at the Lund

The Summer show has opened at Lund Gallery, and the gallery has come alive...

In June, Debbie held a drawing course, Dominic a stone sculpture course, and Celia Smith a wire sculpture course - accompanying the opening of her show. The courses took place throughout the Lund - in the barns, fields, gallery, courtyard and Tractor Barn - a real buzz...

We finished the courtyard in time for exhbiting works by Chris Lewis, Nigel Edmondson and Sarah Walton:

And on top of all this, Debbie has been putting a body of work together for a show coming up in Harrogate next week. A busy time for all...

Summer show...

Chris Lewis delivered some amazing woodfired ceramics to us a couple of days ago, and it's been like Christmas unpacking the work. We now have a selection of huge pieces sitting outside in our courtyard waiting to be arranged - something we have been waiting for for years...

Following the film showings last weekend, it's all change for the Tractor Barn - out with the chairs and carpets and paintings, in with the easels and mounting some simple shelving to hold drawing boards - all in preparation for Debbie's first drawing class. Dominic will be holding a stone carving weekend at the same time, so there will be a real buzz about the place over the weekend...

Then I'll be taking a week off work to repaint the gallery - ensuring the walls are crisp and clean as a backdrop for Celia Smiths long awaited return to the Gallery with her wire sculptures... the Lund Gallery Summer Show..