Following on from the past successes of Art on the Railings exhibitions, we are now excited to announce that in 2022 the spirit of Art on the Railings will be represented at the art festival within Gazebos along the High Street. Each Gazebo will have Heras Fencing at the back to provide the railings for artists to hang their work.
Artists of all ages and abilities have exhibited on Art on the Railings over the years, and we know that many of our visitors have also been artists looking for inspiration and chances to network. We hope you will all be able to join us once again to celebrate our local talent at this vibrant art festival.
Professional photographers will be exhibiting alongside the Gazebo artists in Chepstow High street.
Five local photography groups, Chepstow u3a, Chepstow Photography Society, Forest of Dean Photographic Society, Caldicot Photography Society and Gwent Photographic Society, exhibited in Cavill Hall with a stunning eclectic collection of photographs.
The extensive displays which were created showed a wide range of photographic techniques and image topics. Each group also, had representatives present on the day to chat about how their group ran their sessions.
Despite the very hot weather conditions on the Festival 2021, a huge number of people found their way to the Hall. All the previous hard work mounting photographs and setting up the display boards felt worthwhile after chatting to these visitors and listening to their favourable comments.
A huge thank you to Colin Harris and his team for transforming the hall into such a fabulous exhibition space.
Have you ever wanted to have a go at drawing, revive your talent or join a life class to draw the human figure? Not sure what to do or where to start? Now is your chance to see what you can do.
In this community event, Sponsored by Moon & Co Estate Agents, Chepstow Festival of Arts will set out easels and drawing materials around the Boatman in Chepstow High Street. Paper and charcoal will be provided, and expert tuition is at hand should you need it.
Come along, have some fun and make a masterpiece.
Individual artists, and art groups, will be displaying and selling their work, creating a feast for art lovers, covering all subjects. Wonderful artists exhibiting paintings in all types of media, and many different styles.
Chepstow U3A Art Groups
As part of the u3a contribution to the Chepstow Festival of Arts on Saturday 17th July the three Chepstow u3a art groups, Drawing and Painting, Painting for Pleasure and The Art Club all took part in a combined exhibition at the Palmer Centre. Over thirty artists contributed with a variety of media, techniques, subject matter and styles. These included water colour, oil, acrylics, pastel, pen and ink, charcoal and graphite, producing paintings of landscapes, seascapes, portraits, nature, imagination, abstract, cubist and still life.
The Palmer Centre room looked attractive and colourful with its line of boards covered with over a hundred pictures and several floor and table top easels holding others.
An unexpectedly large number of people, about 200, visited us, some from Chepstow but many from much further afield including a lady from near Tunbridge Wells who is a member of a u3a art group there. Many were impressed by the standard and variety of the work that had been produced recently.
The afternoon ended with a visit from the Chepstow mayor, Councillor Tom Kirton who enjoyed our paintings.
The whole of the town was alive and vibrant with so many festival events. A great day for Chepstow!
To find out more about Chepstow u3a visit www.u3asites.org.uk/chepstow
In the foyer of the Mencap Board school Katie Deacon created a stunning wheel of intricate interwoven flowers that left all of us breathless with admiration.
Inside on all the window ledges the u3a Flower Arranging Group who had decided to use book titles as their theme. Alison chose Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee using cream roses, apples, greenery and ladies mantle adding a flagon. Elaine chose ‘The Color Purple’ by Alice Walker, using lots of lavender and ferns from the garden, particularly relevant with the current Black Lives Matter movement. We also had a decorated wicker cup and saucer to represent ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll and a very topical arrangement based on ‘Living Through Lockdown’ by the Rev. Preben Andersen. It included a familiar bottle of hand sanitizer, face mask and the NHS rainbow. Hazel had a Harry Potter puppet, an ideal accessory to her fantastic depiction of the Harry Potter novels. Barbara chose ‘The Shell Seekers’ by Rosamunde Pilcher and her arrangement gave a wonderful interpretation of the sea and shore. Well done everyone involved in producing this fabulous flower arranging exhibition.
With the outstandingly beautiful Mencap Board School as the backdrop for the 2021 Artisan Craft fair, the foyer was splendidly decorated by Deacons Florists, and the window ledges awash with colour courtesy of the u3a Flower Arranging Group, it was a very enthusiastic band of stallholders who set up ready to welcome the first visitors. And come they did! The building buzzed with excitement the whole day. Annie, Barbara and Caitlin worked tirelessly and with endless cheerfulness to ensure that whilst the regulations were observed, it didn’t impede any of the enjoyment inside the hall.
To refresh both us and all the visitors Mencap put on a fabulous café in their rear hall and back garden. Mencap photographers put on an amazing photographic exhibition on the railings, which brought a tear to many. Mencap raised £750 across the day for their funds.
Thank you to Sue, Dawn and the team at Mencap for making us so welcome and giving us so much support.
The ancient Moot Hall will play host to an exhibition of sculpture from various local artists.
On the riverside opposite Stuart House, there will be an architectural sculpture, by Toby Garrett, specially created for the art festival.
For more information please contact info@chepstowfestivalarts.co.uk
We kicked the day off with a bang with Drums Aloud on the Bandstand and the Bristol Batala Samba Band in Cormeilles Square, and that set the tone for a wonderful day of music in Pye Corner, Cormeilles Sq, Beaufort Sq and the bandstand.
This was the first performance for all our music makers for a very long time and they made the most of it to huge appreciative audiences.
We had everything from poetry, and flamenco to amazing choirs, rock bands, ukuele bands, a lindyhop group, and much much much more.
A huge thank you to everyone who took part, to John McConnachie and Giles Norman who expertly ran all the pa systems, and to our volunteers who kept the programme running so smoothly.
What a fantastic day we had in the Drill Hall! Bright Festival umbrellas led the way into our Youth Creativity exhibition which was ablaze with talent and colour. Visitors were presented with a wonderful display of art in all its forms – painting, digital art, photography, feltwork, pottery and dance. Our thanks go to Cicely, Bryony, Grace, Izzy, Lucy, Chloe, Isabelle, Holly, Dance Academy 1 and both Chepstow and Wyedean Schools for providing us with an amazing exhibition. You did the festival and yourselves proud. Our thanks, too, to our wonderful volunteers and to Pobl. See you all next year!
For more information about this event or if you would like to participate next year please contact pam.harrison@chepstowfestivalarts.co.uk
Chepstow Festival of Arts believes that it is important to nourish our next generation of artists. We want to inspire all young people to enjoy art, so have created annual projects, for all students to get involved in, and show that art is not just painting a pretty picture but a powerful communication tool.
For more information please contact
catherine.hawkridge@chepstowfestivalarts.co.uk
We challenged year 8 students in Chepstow School, Wyedene School, and St. John’s on the Hill to produce a work of art about Chepstow that has a message that is important to them.
This Art in Action Competition required each year 8 class to work collaboratively to design a piece of street art, and then paint it on to a 4’ x 8’ board. The most popular piece ‘Coral Reef in Full Colour’ by Chepstow School won £500 for their art department.
Our Chepstow Mayor announced the winner and presented the prize at 3.00 pm in St. Mary’s Priory.
All year 5 students were given an umbrella to paint or decorate however they wish.
Umbrellas were the theme of our Festival signage because they are vibrant, hard to miss, and create an aura of joy and expectation as visitors came to view all the arts showcased throughout the town. The Dell Primary School, Pembroke Primary School, Thornwell School, St. Mary’s RC Primary School, St. John’s on the Hill, Tutshill C of E Primary School and Offa’s Mead Academy all took part, more than 290 umbrellas were on display down Church Walk by St. Mary’s Priory.
All reception classes were asked to draw, paint, or colour a Dragon picture. These were on display at the Drill Hall.
f you would like to bring fairy magic into your life, join Garden City Community Group & Friends on Priory Green (next to Church Walk).
They will be running a fairy door painting workshop and selling a few low-cost fairy accessories to raise funds for their community group.
