Exhibitions

2025 sees the return of the BLACK SWAN ARTS
YOUNG OPEN ART COMPETITION AND EXHIBITION.

The Young Open Art competition is a brilliant opportunity to showcase the artistic talents of all young people aged between 8 and 19 years. It is probably the largest art competition in the South West aimed exclusively at young people – it’s definitely the best!

Anyone can enter, no matter where in the world you live, your background or ability.

The exhibition will run between Saturday, March 22^nd and Sunday, April 27^th 2025 in the prestigious Long Gallery at Black Swan Arts Centre in Frome, Somerset.

The artworks selected for the exhibition will be divided into 3 age-group categories: 8-11 years, 12-15 years and 16-19 years.  All the work will be judged by a group of professional artists who will choose three prize-winners in each category and 3 Highly Commended.  Each of the prize-winners will be awarded with an individual workshop with a practising artist to help develop their skills, with the Highly Commendeds receiving a voucher for artists’ materials generously donated by Post Script of Frome.

There are no limits on what sort of art can be entered.  We welcome all and any of the following:

Collage         digital            drawing        textiles         jewellery     painting        metalwork               photography           sculpture    pottery         wood recycled materials           animation

The competition opens for entries on Wednesday, December 11^th 2024 and all the entry details and the terms and conditions are on the Black Swan Arts website: https://competition.blackswanarts.org.uk/competitions/young-open-2025

We are always blown away by the amazing talent shown by our young people, so please support them and this wonderful community event which is one of the highlights of the Black Swan year.

Local artist/printmaker Maxine Foster is an MA graduate from the University of The West of England. Her work draws inspiration from the urban and natural environments, connected by an invisible umbilical cord. Time has profoundly affected her practice – having had one foot in the city and one foot on the coast since birth – which has emulated with the ebb and flow of the tide. The accumulation of Foster’s work is an ingrained, intuitive response to what is in front of her. She goes with the flow: the flow between the two personalities of her practice, reflecting their connections through water sources.

She works mainly in the mediums of monotype, intaglio and relief, occasionally introducing paint, frequently using palimpsest within the complexity of her multi-layered pieces. Inspired by her surroundings, these seemingly disparate urban and natural environments are linked by decades of unique erosion and decay, whether caused by natural or man-made interventions. Foster builds up complex layers, combining multiple print processes: layering up the substrate with dry-point etching, carborundum and collagraph, chine collé and monoprint collage.

An Aladdin’s cave filled with high quality vintage clothing, accessories and curiosities from the early 1900s – 70s. Free entry.

For more info follow @covenvintagecollective on Instagram.

An exhibition of watercolour paintings and cards by local artist, Linda Mannion.

www.lindamannion.com