Saturday 18 October 2008

Bearpark Artists

When we (Figure8) had our exhibition at Bishop Auckland in August, there were some encouraging comments left in the Comments Book, as I mentioned here. One of them was from a group of artists calling themselves The Bearpark Artists Co-operative, and suggested we get in touch with them.

I did that and yesterday, Mo, Frank and I went throught to Bearpark to meet up. Their studio space is really good and they gave us lunch and a very warm welcome. We spent a good couple of hours swapping gallery horror stories with Romey, John and Barrie and came away with some interesting collaborative possibilities to mull over.

In case you were wondering, "Bearpark" is thought to be a corruption of "Beaurepaire." The ruins of Beaurepaire Priory are close by.

And for added trivia, Bearpark is the title and subject of a song by Prefab Sprout. Here it is.

4 comments:

virtual nexus said...

Blast from the past - we lived at Esh Winning just down the road for a few years when we were first married. Saw the Ben Nicholson exhibition in Bexhill yesterday afternoon. Thought proking as to his style and methods of working.

virtualjourney said...

... Harry, mixed up accounts again.
Bill Feaver is one of my son's tutors. Small world!

Anonymous said...

Hi I was looking through profiles on blogger and found your blog interesting.

I want to become friends and I am welcoming you to come over and visit my art blog.

take care and hope to see you soon

harry bell said...

Miller -- I remember looking at the name "Esh Winning" (along with "Quaking Houses") on the destination boards of buses when I was a lad and wondering what magical realms they might reveal were I old enough to travel there. How disappointed I was to be ...

I've always been a fan of Ben Nicholson. I'd like to see the exhibition, but I have more chance of travelling to Esh Winning than Bexhill at the moment.

Virtual -- small world indeed. I should think your son is lucky to have Bill Feaver as a tutor. I know I'd have swapped one (one? all!) of my tutors for him when I was at Uni.

Jesse -- always glad to make friends. I'll be over to see your blog soon.