Art - Chalk Gallery Birthday Party

We have had a close association with the Chalk Gallery since we started up in January, so we are delighted to be able to publicly congratulate them on their first birthday, which they are celebrating with an all-weekend bash, to which everybody is invited. The celebration is entitled ‘In the Pink’ and the artists who exhibit in the gallery will be there to discuss their work. There will be pink champagne and canapés to offer throughout the weekend. This being a private gallery, there will, of course, be a number of works of art on sale: 10% of any sales over the weekend will be donated to the charity Breast Cancer Appeal.

Every six weeks the gallery has a new hanging with a new theme and every three weeks a featured artist is given a prominent spot in the gallery. The current theme is Lewes and Sussex landscapes; the current featured artist is Sue Barnes. ‘I choose to paint places that provoke a feeling in me, maybe a feeling of familiarity, or uneasiness, or fear. I try to pass on those feelings to the viewer,’ she says in her artist’s statement, proving that not all such statements are unfathomably twaddlesome. By and large she succeeds, though most of the moods she passes on seem to be full of foreboding. I loved her wintry trees passing out of the top of the frame, drawing the eye into the unknown, pictured on the right. AL