The first Buxton Art Trail appears to have been a success. The town was buzzing, everyone we dropped in on said how busy they had been and it was really great to see families and groups of friends walking around town using the brochure and map I made to follow the trail. Thanks to everyone who visited our exhibition and bought prints – the exhibition continues up until 25th July, there are plenty more prints for sale and more creative goings on around Buxton. The show has been reviewed already by the Fringe –
“In 2009, the newly opened Apertures caused a stir with its first Fringe exhibition showing imaginative new artworks from successful Buxton-based illustrator, Kelly Dyson. This year the High Street shop is exhibiting again, with Dyson joined by local artists Martin Olsson and Thomas Hope, using his artist’s moniker of Mister Hope.
Where last year the mood was dreamlike and faintly disturbing, this time it is more humorous with Martin Olsson almost stealing the show with his large colourful, cartoon-like canvasses, one displaying a kind of vertical cross-section of humanity ranging from devils at the bottom to an angelic multitude at the top. In his refreshing statement, Olsson says he ‘resists subtlety in favour of clarity and humour’. He favours strong outlines, filled in with colour and enjoys subverting symmetry in pictures such as ‘Fish’, in which almost identical green fish in rows become progressively more obese. Olsson’s interesting work has been picked up by the Buxton Festival and here you can see the original artwork for the Festival programme’s illustration for All the Kings’ Men.
Mister Hope describes himself as a ‘large, hairy illustrator’ who was ‘once eaten by a sea creature and spat back out’. Perhaps that is why there is a Monsters Inc. feel to his friendly illustrations. This is art that does what it says on the tin. Hope says his well-executed paintings are ‘simple, cute and don’t always make sense’. I would go along with that. They certainly made me smile and it is fascinating how pictures combining night-time, small children and monsters can end up so unthreatening.
As for Dyson, some of Dyson’s magical, faintly feral compositions are back up but they are joined by more neutral recent illustrations for the Guardian Weekend and Guitarist magazine. The big move for Dyson has been away from digitally created work to hands on illustration and linocuts. What is exhibited here is instantly commercial – for example the picture of different hats – but I can’t help feeling there is more to be unleashed from his imagination. The print featuring upside down boy, dog and squirrel with cans on their heads is I’m sure only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what is going on in Dyson’s mind.
Part of the Buxton Art Trail, this intimate show is well worth your time. One last thing – don’t overlook the framing. Hugo Edwardes’s handmade frames for Dyson’s work are made from recycled materials and probably artworks in their own right.”
Stephanie Billen – from buxtonfringe.org.uk