Viewing Room
Welcome to the Castle Gallery Viewing Rooms where you will find highlights from our exhibitions - past and present - focussing on key works, inspirational ideas and telling the stories behind the show. Best viewed on a desktop browser.
Looking Out, Looking In
Trevor Price & Helen Martino
6 - 28 September 2024
Original Prints and Sculptural Ceramics
6 - 28 September 2024
Original Prints and Sculptural Ceramics
Helen Martino
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Looking Out (Wall Piece), ceramic, 18.5 x 18.5 x 3.5cm
The title for this exhibition was chosen by Helen Martino. ‘Looking Out, Looking In’ encapsulates many of the elements present in her work. Through gesture, Helen suggests the inner emotions of her ceramic personalities as they interact with each other and face out towards us, the viewer, or the surrounding landscape. She has also made some wall pieces for this exhibition which are ceramic frames with sculptural elements – windows looking out at a landscape or looking into the rooms. ‘Looking Out, Looking In’ also chimes perfectly with the handmade prints of Trevor Price as he depicts expansive seas and sheltered woodland interiors. |
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Lolling Around, ceramic, 17 x 23 x 8cm
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Love is a Many-splendoured Thing, ceramic, 29 x 17.5 x 13cm
Helen depicts people together and people in the landscape. Her ceramic sculptures capture intimate moments in people’s lives expressed through gesture and communication. Layers of texture, pattern and colour help to create the mood, character and story for each individual piece. |
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Embracing, ceramic, 5 x 24 x 6cm
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That Summer's Day, ceramic, 26 x 27 x 9cm - Friends, ceramic, 16 x 31 x 9cm - Celebration Picnic, ceramic, 28 x 30 x 19cm
Helen says:
"I am fascinated by body language within both the moving and still image. I find inspiration, for example, in the exaggerated and stylised movements expressed by actors in silent movies. Equally inspiring are friends and family and the things they do and the way they look and interact."
"I am fascinated by body language within both the moving and still image. I find inspiration, for example, in the exaggerated and stylised movements expressed by actors in silent movies. Equally inspiring are friends and family and the things they do and the way they look and interact."
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Sophisticated Dishy Lady, ceramic, 6 x 28.5 x 16.5cm
"I am also interested in the way narrative is depicted within Mogul and Persian miniature paintings. Here, a still gesture, combined with often intricate and symbolic composition, captures a moment which tells both a past and a future story. My sculptures, often intimate in size, relate to this single moment where great, or small, events in people's lives are revealed by gesture and communication." |
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Helen initially studied ceramics at Central School of Art and Design, London, from 1966-69 and now lives and works in Cambridge.
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Off Adventuring, ceramic, 21 x 11.5 x 6cm
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"I am lucky to be a potter and still to be learning and changing and enjoying my work."
Trevor Price R.E.
Trevor Price is highly regarded in the world of contemporary printmaking because of his innovative techniques and distinctive style. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers in 1997 and was the Vice-President of the society from 2013-18.
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I'd Swim an Ocean to Find You, woodcut, 100 x 50cm
An Ocean to Swim, woodcut, 100 x 50cm |
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Trevor specialises in finely detailed drypoint and engraved relief prints, and large-scale woodcuts. Woodblocks and polycarbonate sheets are carved, scratched and engraved using chisels, blades and power tools. The surfaces are then rolled with ink and printed onto paper through a large etching press. It can easily take two months of platemaking with the larger works before the first proof print is taken. With little room for error this first proof can be an anxious moment.
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Evening Ocean I, woodcut, 66 x 66cm
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Breaking Waves, drypoint and engraved relief print on sepia paper, 47 x 102cm
Trevor is a proud Cornishman and a qualified lifeguard. His acquired knowledge of rip currents, dumping waves and cold seas as a beach lifeguard in St. Ives has inevitably influenced his most recent work. His surfing life and art have collided in ‘The Celtic Sea’, ‘Breaking Waves’, ‘Chop Waves’, and ‘Backwash’.
Backwash, drypoint and engraved relief print, 47 x 102cm
Eight years ago, he and his family abandoned life in cosmopolitan London for St. Ives. He recounts this event:
"Our first weekend in St. Ives was spent discovering the many hidden alleys and cobbled streets of ‘downalong’, the oldest part of the town. It was uncharacteristically cold for early Autumn with horizontal rain and a wind coming from the east, and far from the picture postcard moment I had hoped. The small fishing boats in the harbour, usually protected, were being thrown around in the chop. But amongst this, to our amazement, children were preparing to swim. On closer investigation we realised they were youngsters from the local surf lifesaving club, wet-suited up and ready to race. We watched in astonishment as a group of 8 years olds lined up. Unperturbed by the conditions, at the sound of a whistle they leapt into the harbour and swam out to a distant buoy, circling it before turning back to awaiting nervous parents and an applauding crowd. I looked down at my daughter and jokingly suggested she should join in. ‘No thanks Dad’ was her reply. Eight years on and we have become part of this surf life-saving family. I volunteered to help with water safety and now find myself as a qualified beach lifeguard, regularly training with the club masters (the oldest members!). My daughter trains with the junior squad and thinks nothing of a 2km sea swim."
"Our first weekend in St. Ives was spent discovering the many hidden alleys and cobbled streets of ‘downalong’, the oldest part of the town. It was uncharacteristically cold for early Autumn with horizontal rain and a wind coming from the east, and far from the picture postcard moment I had hoped. The small fishing boats in the harbour, usually protected, were being thrown around in the chop. But amongst this, to our amazement, children were preparing to swim. On closer investigation we realised they were youngsters from the local surf lifesaving club, wet-suited up and ready to race. We watched in astonishment as a group of 8 years olds lined up. Unperturbed by the conditions, at the sound of a whistle they leapt into the harbour and swam out to a distant buoy, circling it before turning back to awaiting nervous parents and an applauding crowd. I looked down at my daughter and jokingly suggested she should join in. ‘No thanks Dad’ was her reply. Eight years on and we have become part of this surf life-saving family. I volunteered to help with water safety and now find myself as a qualified beach lifeguard, regularly training with the club masters (the oldest members!). My daughter trains with the junior squad and thinks nothing of a 2km sea swim."
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13.55 01-01-23 Latitude 50º6'42”N Longitude 5º32’33”W,
woodcut, 43 x 56cm |
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Trevor is now the owner of 4 wetsuits (summer, winter, racing and shortie) and spends more time in the sea than looking at it!
This is Where I Want to be Right Now, woodcut, 47 x 102cm