I had an amazing day on Saturday 12 May, spending time in two places with which I have deep connections The Yorkshire Sculpture Park used to be Bretton Hall College of Education which I attended in the 6os as a training music teacher. Before that it was a mansion surrounded by 500 acres of beautiful parkland. It has been awe-inspiring to watch its transformation over the years since 1977 , to see world-class sculpture gradually appearing over this fantastic landscape as the Yorkshire Sculpture Park evolved into this most renowned venue for permanent and visiting sculpture.
It was a sparkling day and the Park looked stunning. I often think those old trees are the real stars of the show. The reason for being there on that day was Blog North #1, organized by Manchester-based Creative Tourist. Susie Stubbs, the Director, gave a practical writing workshop for a large group of bloggers and would-be bloggers in the Hayloft.In my student days this building was the college bar, but no whiff of Barnsley Bitter now.
Later, after a curatorial tour of the current (largest ever) exhibition of Miro’s sculpture, we had a critical writing forum led by the arts writer Jessica Lack who will be writer-in-residence at the Jerwood from September. Then on to The Hepworth Wakefield, only a few miles away.
This stunning gallery with its views of historical landmarks out over the city was designed by David Chipperfield. The floor-to ceiling windows give the galleries amazing natural light. One window looks vertiginously into the rushing waters of the weir, all around are the old boatyards, warehouses and a sense of the city’s trading history in stark contrast to the spacious minimalist galleries. The Hepworth stands a mile or two from a house I lived in in the 70s. In those days the River Calder was polluted and gave off noxious fogs and the area was dismal and dilapidated. When I visit now I am amazed by the regeneration that has taken place, and will continue. It gives me a great feeling of pride, although I haven’t lived there for decades. It is just so good to see.
Before The Hepworth was completed (it has just celebrated its first birthday and its 500,000th visitor) the city’s Art Gallery was in the St Johns area, where I lived for a few years in the 60s/70s. Much later, in 2004, when I had ‘transormed’ myself from a teacher into an artist, I had an exhibition there and one of my paintings was added to the city’s collections.which is now housed at The Hepworth . I have a little fantasy of walking in to The Hepworth one day and there will be hanging my painting in a group show of Work from the Collections

ART TRENDS NOW: a quick look around the current art scene shows the enduring popularity of the hand-made in the traditional media of painting, drawing ,printmaking and sculpture. Cross-cultural exchanges are happening, too. ‘Art Trier Kunst’ aims to create an ongoing relationship between the two art scenes in York and the German city of Trier. Brilliant work from the British half of the project is on show at Bar Lane Studios, York, until 29 April. A group show of women painters, ‘Elementals’, focusing on expressive colour, can be seen at ‘According to McGee’ until 13 May.
New work using multimedia installation and social content is emerging in the upcoming Fine Art degree shows. York St John University Fine Arts Graduate Bethany Jones says: “This body of practice began to emerge after visiting the Breast Cancer Clinic at York General Hospital. Talking to the patients there made me want to find a way to share the emotions and experiences they had expressed. …. this work aims to present metaphors for the struggles of these women and their families.” The preference to use photography and film over traditional media can perhaps enable greater clarity and complexity.
At the ‘conceptual’ end of the scale, interesting work is coming from MA Fine Art students. Thomas Skinn’s is a digital media work “exploring the emerging potential of the Internet of Things through lo-fi sculptural aesthetics and retro web animation” Clare Nattress’s . ideas are explored through video (vhs), sound, photography and programmed digitally. Elaine Whitehead remains fascinated by Deconstructionist philosopher Jaques Derrida.
York St. Mary’s installation for 2012 is composed of a thousand cast glass bells and a specially composed polyphonic sound piece, creating a 3-D effect to the sound of a narrated story. The sculptor Laura Belem’s intention is to touch the viewer’s “inner score” – soul and heart – something we share in common universally and that transcends geographic and cultural boundaries.

York St John University, Lord Mayor’s Walk, York, YO31 7EX
York St Mary’s ‘Temple of a Thousand Bells’ 25 May – 4 November, 2012
‘Elementals’ ‘According to McGee’, 8 Tower Street, York YO1 9SA 21 April – 13 May
‘Art Trier Kunst York’ Bar Lane Studios, York 19 April – 29 Apr with 8 Trier-based artists in July.
BA Fine Art Show 25 May – 2 June
Bar Lane Studios -1 Bar Lane at Micklegate, YO1 6JU
‘According to McGee’ Gallery – 8 Tower Street, York, YO1 9SA
Art Block at York St John University – Lord Mayor’s Walk, YO31 7EX

A quick look around the current art scene shows the ubiquitous popularity of photography and video art, both for its own sake and as a record of performance-based art. Artists such as Bruce Naumann , Bill Viola and Nam June Paik have worked with video for years. More recently this type of work has been continued by the likes of Matthew Barney, Sophie Calle, Spike Jonze and Steve McQueen among many others, working with video film, single channel digital video and stills from these.

The last twenty years have seen the use of text, either scrolled, as in works by Jenny Holzer, or hand scrawled as in Tracy Emin. Threading through all this new media, there is a resurgence of interest in, and demand for, the traditional media of paint or pencil applied by a human hand, and the word-free stillness and meditativity of abstraction.

One of the most interesting artists around now is Turner-prize winning Jeremy Deller, whose mid-career survey ‘Jeremy Deller: Joy in People’ is currently showing (until Sunday 13 May) at London’s Hayward Gallery. He has been described as ‘part alchemist and part socialanthropologist’ and his hugely influential multi-faceted work has expanded ideas of what Art can be. He combines humour and absurdity with deep seriousness in his big projects involving lots of people. One project, ‘Acid Brass’,  has a traditional Northern brass band playing specially arranged Acid House music with audiences dancing in the aisles. Huge fun and also exploring music’s relationship to history and social history. Another project, ‘The Battle of Orgreave’,  is a filmed re-enactment of the in famous confrontation between striking miners and Thatcher’s police in 1984.

Closer to home, Massimo Nolletti’s April exhibition at Bar Lane Studios, York,  represents the endless possibilities of photography in an urban setting, celebrating  the sounds and vibrations of everyday life. Photographer Piotr Kapica was overall winner in the New Chapter Arts prize, currently showing at ‘According to McGee’. His iconic, thought-provoking work can be seen until 14 April., along with paintings and illustration.

 Open Studio events are always hotly awaited. York’s took place in March. Involving the local community is a top priority. A bursary  was awarded to Kalindi Kankali and Belinda Noda, community artists and craft workers who collaborated to create an installation which reflects their ideas surrounding freedom and motion using St Nicholas Fields as an inspirational location. Lyn Wait, also working in mixed media community projects, received a bursary. Skilled in drawing, performance and ceramics, Lin is interested in how heritage shapes and is influenced by different perceptions.

Cross-cultural exchanges are happening, too. ‘Art Trier Kunst’ is an international exchange of Art aiming to create an ongoing relationship between the two art scenes in York and the German city of Trier.

Innovative digital art work was hosted by, Bar Lane Studios where the outdoor, interactive works of KMA could be seen. The exhibition was designed and curated by York creative agency The Beautiful Meme.

Massimo Noletti: Oz, 10/04/2012 – 14/04/2012, Bar Lane Studios, 1 Bar Lane, York, YO1 6JU. www.barlanestudios.com/www.massimonolletti.com

New Chapter Arts Prize, ‘According to McGee’, 8 Tower Street,YO1 9SA until 10/04 www.accordingtomcgee.com

 ‘Jeremy Deller: Joy in People’  Hayward Gallery, London until 13/05

I have just read the new Kindle version of this collection of stories by my dear friend Sandra Horn.  Hob, of the title, lives secretly under the hearthstone at Ghyllside Farm, deep in the Sussex Downs.  He is ancient, timeless, and knows magic. Miss Minkin is an elderly tabby cat. The two are great friends, and the stories tell of their adventures together.

Sandra writes from a deep knowledge of the countryside, past and present, with the eye and ear of a poet and with subtle humour. With vivid flashes of detail and wryly observed characters, seasonal events and everyday happenings that shape the years and the days are seen from a fresh perspective.

These stories, like the award-winning Tattybogle stories and others by Sandra Horn, may have been written for young children but the sheer quality of the writing makes them a source of great enjoyment for people of all ages. I love them and wish there were more to come. Get them for your children, grandchildren….and yourself.

The Dot WarsSPOTS! Spots are appearing everywhere right now. On clothing, crockery, textiles and  - in Art. Spots are round(ish) marks differing in colour or texture from the surfaces around them. The artist Damian Hirst recently showed Spot paintings in Gagosian Galleries around the world. Some of these are enormous and some are miniscule. All contain perfect circles perfectly painted in household gloss. All are structured on the grid.

Everything I know about Hirst relates to numbers, amounts: the phenominal sums of money paid for his work, the fact of eleven galleries concurrently showing his Spots; 1,500 have been produced so far; a team of assistants are working on one with a million spots that will take nine years to complete, and so on. Perhaps the most surprising number is 5, the number of spot paintings  Hirst actually painted himself. By now he has so many assistants that it is a ‘factory’  setup, such is the demand for his work. Yet he still sees himself as the artist, being the one who has the ideas.

My personal response to the Spot paintings is to find them bright but cold and not particularly interesting in their perfect execution. These dots don’t relate to each other and I don’t relate to the paintings. A very different use is made of dots by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, currently showing at London’s Tate Modern. She is known as ‘the high priestess of polka dots’, having used them in her work and on her body for sixty years – since before Hirst was born. She uses them in a subjective, obsessional way. The exhibition includes paintings, sculpture and full scale sensorial environments and I can’t wait to see it.

I make use of spots, blots, splats and blats in my own work. I love the discoveries from the accidental that can occur in a painting. one of my favourite quotes is from John Cage: “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep”.

My solo show at Horsforth Modern Art has been extended to the end of February.

Horsforth Modern Art Ltd
2 Back Lane, Horsforth Town Street, Leeds LS18 4RF
01333 188845

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I have been invited to write for an on-line magazine in York, OneandOther. My first contribution, on the Northern Art Prize, went live last week, a few days before the winner was announced.  Click here to read it. Congratulations to the winner, Leo Fitzmaurice!