Art of Gold - Chalk Gallery

I pop into the Chalk Gallery fresh from the clockmakers next door, and am immediately greeted by our current handbook cover artist Amy Williams. She is one of the artists in the new Chalk Gallery Xmas exhibition, 'Art of Gold'. The soulful eyes of one of her now familiar-looking cows ('Bernadette') follow me round the gallery. Why Bernadette? I ask. ‘It just looked like one - my cows always suggest names to me.’ On the opposite wall I spy her seasonal offering, 'Three French Hens' in hues of blues and purples, as if as an antidote to the traditional festive palette. On the adjoining wall my eye is caught by a painting of the Madonna by Mary Beaney. Apart from the golden halo above her head, the rest of the colours are dark and her expression makes her look bad tempered, sulky. I wonder what she is thinking.

The artists have loosely interpreted the theme, and whilst some pieces explicitly reference the season, many do not. Four watercolours in inky blacks and browns, by Gus Harrison, hang together in a square. Each captures a moment in a young woman's life. In 'Deepest thoughts' a girl presses her face into her knees drawn tightly up to her chest. In 'Contemplation' another girl dreamily regards something that the observer cannot see. I like the way that the rough pared-down strokes contrast with the softness of the expressions depicted. Conversely the appropriately named Peter Cheek's pictures have something of the saucy postcard about them, with bold colours and stylised, oversized figures. ER