Garden City Gallery.

You may remember at the beginning of the week I visited Letchworth and not only did we stop at the LAC; we popped in to a lesser-known space called Garden City Gallery. This space definitely helped when we discussed ideas about possible future career spaces and we discovered it is good to look up on places after you visit, it will help you gain insight of your experience.

We would not have known about the place if our friend had not told us of it, as it is a doorway situated between two shops, partially hidden by the ‘signage’ of the shoe shop next door. We later discovered that the woman who owns the gallery space also owns this shoe shop. 

Up the stairs, you will find three main spaces with different purposes. They are used to show work, you can rent a space for this purpose, even meetings, or you can attend workshops they put on. There is also a small art shop adjoining the first room on your right, which is reasonably priced, plus a small kitchen area.

It was mentioned that a downside of having the place is that mainly because of where it is placed, not many people notice it and go in. In reality, the space is a hobby. More networking and advertising is needed and we agreed after the visit, that someone could even be hired to do that. There are signs in front of the entrance advertising forthcoming workshops and that they sell art supplies as well, but these look outdated and cluttered.

With a few little effective changes, it could be made more fruitful. It was pointed out that a successful space was out in Wymondley, which of course we had to visit and find out for ourselves (coming in another post).

LAC Freya Purdue.

I visited Letchworth yesterday, with a friend, to look at some spaces and of course, we had to stop by the Letchworth Arts Centre! This was my second time visiting there, last time being when the 3^rd years had a show there and I was pleasantly surprised at the show now there.

Freya Purdue is exhibiting until the 15^th May, so there is still plenty of time to have a gander, or if you cannot make it, have a look at her website.

LAC is positioned above a pub called The Three Magnets and heading into the Arcade, it is the first door on your right, if you are approaching from Leys Avenue. You go up the stairs, or lift, and depending which way you turn, you end up either in the Foyer gallery space or in the café, which is also used as hanging space. You will then soon come to Main Gallery and be delighted with the amount of space there is.

I rather enjoyed Purdue’s paintings; it was a lovely show, however, my images of them definitely do not do them justice! I am going to have to brush up on my photo taking skills… I was more drawn to the ones with brighter colours and more outlined patterns (makes sense to me). The space was right for the larger paintings; they each had enough room to be viewed on their own. Although, I feel the lighting in places let some of them down. The one above is certainly one of my favourites, not because of the painting itself, but simply for what the shape reminds me of. You can see the elephant too, right?

I have got them on my brain.