Page 24 - aprilmay pick west - web version

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In Woodstock you’ll find a surprising exhibition
of calligraphy and lettering art at the Oxfordshire
Museum showing calligraphy as a beautiful
counterpoint to the ‘perfection’ of computer-produced
wording – and they don’t only use paper, making their
mark on anything, the choice of words as important
as their presentation. Look out for lettered items and
artefacts inspired by Oxfordshire – from a tabletop
egg installation with Mother Goose rhymes, a Rocking
Horse lettered with Banbury’s famed Ride-a-cock
horse verse, and three sets of shoes acquired from
across the county and set to the words of the Lobster
Quadrille in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland: ‘Will
you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, will you join the
dance?’ There’s even an eight foot maypole festooned
with ribbons from many of the group’s members, to
celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Oxford Scribes.
Across at HemingwayArt in Cassington near Eynsham,
there’s a celebration of the special friendship
between the two cities Oxford and Grenoble who
have been twinned for twenty five years: Art Grenoble
is an exhibition of work by Grenoble artists which
accompanies the twin exhibition ‘Alps and Spires’
at the Town Hall Gallery (venue 306) exploring the
theme of ‘Alps and Spires’ and the different visual
characteristics of the two cities.
In Witney, pop into the SOTA Gallery on Langdale
Court just off Market Square to see six very different
representations of the same view, a stunning
panoramic of the river Windrush one of which is by
local photographer David Willoughby, another carved
in Cotswold stone from Burford Quarry. Also off the
Market Square in the offices of Day and Night Care
Assistance, you’ll find a fresh new exhibition by an
extraordinary painter, Susan Ryan from the Wychwood
Art Group who is partially blind and has to wear a
hearing aid to assist her hearing. If working from a still
life, she studies it by feeling the objects then making
several bold charcoal or chalk drawings, sometimes
include the distant light source of the large windows.
In the Wychwoods , discover steel and recycled metal
sculptures of birds and beasts from small lizards to
life sized horses in the Wychwoods, crafted by Sophie
Thomson, her tools aglow.
Along the High Street in Burford, take time to stop by
the Tolsey, a black and white timber fronted building