Cover - Viva Lewes

Tom Art & Walker About
Snooker What’s on in in the Lewes’ FrameGalleries
this month (cont)
Our cover artist Peter Messer
will joining 40 or so others in an
exciting exhibition in the Star
Gallery (Castle Ditch Lane)
which runs from October 30th
to November 17th. Curator
Hayley Mills has close links with
India, and she devised the show
having fallen in love with Indian
miniature art. She decided to
invite a number of artists she has
contact with, from Sussex and
from London as well as select
graduates from the University
of Brighton, to produce original
art works for the show, which is
Local artist Tom Walker loves
entitled ‘Stardust’. The only limits
playing and watching snooker,
she gave them was that the works
and he decided to mix his two
had to be slightly smaller than
passions by painting a series of
A4 size. As well as Peter Messer,
frames which make references to
artists such as Marguerite Horner,
the sport, which is to be exhibited
Hamish Black, Harold Mockford,
at the Star Gallery from January.
Tom Walker, Julian Bell, Caroline
The BBC picked up on Tom’s work
Trant, Charles Williams, Richard
during their fi lming of the World
Sorrell and Charles Gilvan
Championship in December, and
Cartwright (pictured right) will
made a short feature about him.
be represented. From the 25th
“They played it three times in
the gallery will also be holding
all, which I didn’t expect,” says
its annual Star Crafts Christmas
Tom. “I sat down to watch the
Show showing work ranging
fi nal and they showed the feature
from pottery to jewellery via
between frames, which was great
metal works and trugs. (A trug
publicity, and a pleasant surprise.”
is a medieval gardening basket
The television coverage, not to
particular to Sussex).
forget the intriguing nature of
the project, has generated a great
Lewes’ latest gallery space, Four
deal of interest in the exhibition.
Square Fine Arts (Mount Place)
“It will be interesting to see how
has been set up by art consultant
far people come,” says Tom. “The
Sonia Crivello, who has vast
Masters Tournament is on at
experience in selling at art fairs
Wembley during the fi rst week of
and has a number of nationally
the exhibition, so we’re expecting
renowned artists on her books
a number of people to come down
who she is going to exhibit in
from that.”
The pictures are brilliant – you
can see them all on his website
listed below. “I use pastels as
my medium,” continues, “which
means that one false mark and
the painting’s ruined. It’s very
like snooker, when you can lose a
game through a bad stroke.” The
way he alludes to the sport in his
pictures is very clever. Sometimes
the reference is oblique (there’s a
still life of snooker-ball-coloured
vegetables and a blue cube of
chalk) sometimes they are more
direct (a picture of an evening
session at a snooker hall). One,
the bright new gallery space.
with melting balls, pays homage
She will also use the space for
to Salvador Dali. Our favourite is
community projects. First up,
one we have used to illustrate this
an exhibition of three different
feature. It’s called ‘Breaking Off’.
artists, ‘Contrasting Elements’
The red balls are represented by
until the 11th November, which
a group of marching soldiers,
features a ceramicist, an artist,
the white one by a bride who is
and a painter. Ceramicist Sotis
attacking one of the men. “He
Fillipides fell in love with this
is the groom, who hasn’t turned
country after discovering a type
up to the wedding, and she is
of clay in Stoke which is usually
breaking off the engagement,”
used for stone sculpture, but he
explains Tom.
WWW.VIVALEWES.COM
fashions into delicate-looking
pots: the clay is peppered with
silica which sparkles in the light.
Manja Scott is an award-winning
printer who makes primitivist lino
cuts which recall her many years
in
‘Tom
Africa;
Walker
Sally
– Snooker
McGill
in
paints
the
landscapes
Frame’ will
with
run
a difference:
in the
they
Star
are
Gallery
viewed
(Castle
from
Ditch
above,
Lane)
abstract-
from
looking
January 15th
and in
– February
pastel shades
3rd.
of
turquoise and blue. V
ART & ABOUT ART
Three of Tom Walker’s snooker-related pictures: (left to right)
Club; Breaking off; Brass Band
The exhibition will be a breath
of fresh air in a quiet month on
the Lewes art scene. There will
be a third-sized snooker table in
the gallery for much of the time
the paintings are up. Tom will be
there, too. “I’ll be ready to take
on all comers,” he says.
To preview the pictures go to
www.tomwalker.co.uk.
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