Four members of staff from St Peter's School, York, will be participating in this year's York Open Studios event.
Charlotte Chisholm, Hazel Battersby and Penny Phillips will be exhibiting their work in the school's Whitestone Gallery, while Philip Wilkinson will be participating in York Open Studios for the first time with an exhibition at 241 Burton Stone Lane.
Members of the public are invited to browse exhibitions on display across York and purchase artwork by local artists.
You can find out more and download a map of exhibition spaces on the York Open Studios website.
Charlotte Chisholm has juggled making and teaching Art for over twenty five years, and is currently Head of Art at St Peters School, York. She has exhibited her work nationally in solo and mixed shows and this is the third time she has taken part in York Open Studios.
Charlotte will be exhibiting mainly wall-based pieces made with a variety of media including cement, aluminium, paper and charcoal.
Hazel Battersby, Art Teacher at St Peter's School, is a Scottish artist based in York. The forms, colours and textures of landscape inform her work. Exploring dramatic locations within the UK is part of her journey and process. Through drawing and collage, abstract and descriptive properties develop, and as they extend into paintings this continues to shift and change. Hazel’s work draws inspiration from the experience of landscape but develops through the physical process of painting.
Hazel's paintings are inspired by landscape but remain essentially abstract. They are dynamic and expressive; inviting you to look closer and discover exciting layers, marks and flashes of colour.
Penny Phillips, Ceramics Teacher at St Peter's School, divides her time between teaching and creating her own work. She uses a limited colour palette, creating depth with slips and oxide washes while attempting to retain the raw nature of the textural surface. As well as her familiar studies of British wild life , Penny has created a series of larger portrait studies of primates, which endeavour to capture the expressions and complex interactions of her subject matter.
Penny's work concentrates on capturing the movement, expressions, and complex interaction of her subject matter. Her work encompasses portraiture, wall work and smaller studies of a range of British wildlife.
Philip Wilkinson, Design Technology Technical Assistant at St Peter's 8-13, has been a design-maker of bespoke works and hands-on museum exhibits for 25 years. Employment stints, at the legendary Eden Project in Cornwall and magical Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales, stoked his interest in working with reclaimed materials. In 2019 he built Quick Sticks Workshop. His goal, to impart “the joy of making stuff”, through handmade automata, educational kits and practical sessions.
Philip will be exhibiting a series of works that upcycle scrap into whimsical, hand powered artworks (aka automata). Common themes are humour, environment and engineering. Each handcrafted model draws unique character from available materials.
