Joining forces for festival

Festival spokeswoman Mary Hamilton said: “This year’s Festival Art Exhibition brings together a painter and sculptor, both of whom celebrate the joy and beauty of performance in very different media.

“Penny Warden is a renowned artist known for her major public commissions in the north of England. She paints her images with a maximum of spontaneity and energetic expression, involving risks and accidents but working in partnership with the oil paint, exploiting these in order to forge a new vibrant image out of a familiar well-known form. The sense of movement and vibrancy in her oil paintings is Penny’s trademark.”

Mary added: “Sculptor Andrew Thomas’ work, principally in bronze, is an evolution of

design that he has been developing over the past 23 years ranging from the human form

through to complete abstraction of subject. His avant-garde style is a unique blend of angles and curves that have flavours of cubism and art deco.

“His influences are the great modern artists; Constantin Brancusi, Alexander Archipenko,

Jacques Lipchitz, Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. Andrew’s work can be found in many private collections across the UK and Europe.

“He is currently working on a series to celebrate the 2012 Olympics, under the collective title Sea And Sail.”

Andrew said: “Over the past 15 years I have focussed my attention more on abstract forms, exploring each individual subject and its essence, looking at the subtle areas of their form and being, merging positional surfaces with free form surfaces and trying to apply these to the medium in a sensitive and harmonious way with great attention to the balance and proportions”

Opening times: July 16: 2-5pm; July 17-20 July: 11am-5pm; and July 23-27: 11am-5pm.