Now in its tenth year, the English Riviera Summer Open returns for another vibrant celebration of contemporary visual art from across the UK. Hosted by Artizan Collective CIC in their central Torquay gallery, the exhibition transforms the walls of this much-loved cultural space into a rich, salon-style showcase of original work, selected through open submission. This year’s show promises a dynamic mix of emerging and established artists, with a wide range of media, styles, and voices. Expect painting, printmaking, photography, textiles, sculpture, and more, all curated with an emphasis on quality, originality, and diversity. With all works for sale and new pieces regularly rotated in, it’s the perfect destination for collectors, browsers, and art lovers alike. Proceeds from the exhibition will support Artizan's future development projects. Our Summer Open is now a well-established event on our annual calendar having originally started purely by chance a decade ago. Each year the event sees us build on previous shows as we welcome established and emerging artists working in many rich and diverse mediums and styles to Torbay for our personal homage to the great institution that is the Royal Academy Summer Show. Starting at the end of June and running through until late August, the exhibition promises to be as rich and diverse as in previous years.

English Riviera Summer Open 2025

Artizan welcomes South-East based artist Brenda Hartill as we continue with our series of solo shows at our dedicated printmaking and sculpture gallery on Lucius Street. Brenda has had an extensive career spanning several decades as an experimental printmaker and mixed-media artist, widely known for her richly textured, embossed works that abstract the essence of the landscape. Working across collagraph, etching, encaustic, painting, and collage, her practice is driven by a fascination with erosion, weather patterns, growth formations, and the universal organic forms found in nature. These themes are expressed through intricate layers of material and texture, often enhanced with silver and gold leaf, creating luminous surfaces that shift with the light. Originally trained in theatrical design at the Central School of Art and Design, Hartill’s early career in stage lighting and set construction informs her approach to light and structure. Her work has evolved from careful, figurative drawing to an expressive, abstract visual language, where layering and materiality are central to her process. She describes her approach as sculptural, building up embossed surfaces, cutting, collaging, and carving into materials before adding colour, resulting in works that are as much about physicality as they are about image. Together with Brenda we have selected works that span her career and which show the breadth of her printmaking practice. Brenda’s exhibition will be hosted in our main gallery space, alongside our seasonal Summer Sculpture Exhibition which features works from, Emma Baldwin, Emmy Palmer, Lucy D'Auvergne and Zoe Clare. Thursday - Saturday 10 am - 5 pm or by appointment

Retrospective

This September, we welcome back our annual collections exhibition, now reimagined as the Artizan Collections Sale—a unique opportunity to explore and acquire artworks from our archives while supporting the future of the visual arts in Torbay. Running from 31st August – 21st September, the exhibition will feature a carefully curated selection of works drawn from our permanent collection, including pieces acquired through past exhibitions, initiatives, and programmes of support. Alongside these, we are also inviting artists to donate works in advance, expanding the sale with fresh contributions and helping to raise funds for future artistic endeavours. For collectors, this is a rare chance to discover hidden treasures—artworks spanning a range of styles, mediums, and artists, all available to purchase at exclusive prices. Whether you’re a seasoned collector, a first-time buyer, or simply looking for an inspiring piece to take home, the Artizan Collections Sale is an opportunity to connect with exceptional work while directly supporting our ongoing mission to promote, showcase, and sustain artistic talent. The exhibition will open with a special launch event on 30th August, 18:00–20:00, offering guests the first look at this year’s collection. Interested in donating artwork? Artists wishing to contribute pieces to the sale are welcome to do so in advance. Donations will be accepted throughout the lead-up to the exhibition, helping to expand the range of work available and supporting Artizan Collective’s future programming.

Artizan Collections 2025

Artizan welcomes printmaker Charlotte Sainsbury to the gallery as we approach the end of the first 12 months of a dedicated programme of printmaking and sculpture at our Lucius Street Gallery. A painter as well as a printmaker, Charlotte will be showing a series of new works that focus on her printmaking practice and which demonstrate her love for, in particular, collagraphs. 'It was love at first sight when I come across a collagraph plate seventeen years ago. Made from scraps of material, paper, sand and textures, it was a thing of beauty in itself. The idea of creating art from discarded materials that were once overlooked, or intended for another reason, really resonates with me. And then to see the process reveal a print that’s not just an image but one with depth, tone and texture of an almost photographic quality……wonderful!' Since that day Charlotte has been producing collagraph prints based on her surroundings of boatyards, harbours and moorland on the Devon/ Cornwall border. She loves creating compositions using the shapes of the marine and industrial heritage of this area set against the patterns of the natural environment, allowing her to combine strong shapes with random mark making. 'There’s something magical about discovering an art form that instantly speaks to you, especially one that is as tactile and transformative as collagraph printmaking.' Charlotte's exhibition will be hosted in our main gallery space whilst in our Courtyard Gallery we shall be continuing with our seasonal printmaker open exhibitions. Each space will also feature specially selected 3D works from our seasonal sculpture artists. Launch: 3rd October 18:00-20:00 Openings Thursday - Saturday 10 am - 5 pm Closing week 23rd December 10 am - 5 pm 24th December 10 am - 1 pm

Pressed and Pulled

Artizan welcomes Leicestershire based artist Jo McChesney as we continue with our series of solo shows at our dedicated printmaking and sculpture gallery on Lucius Street. This exhibition brings together works that demonstrate Jo's constant source of inspiration, the natural world, with trees, weather and water a recurrent theme. From the changing light of dense woodland, to starkly lit trees against a bright sky, her work often focuses on transient moments in time, such as ripples on water, or drawing attention to unnoticed fleeting happenings, the tiny explosions and drift of seed heads, carried by air currents. She uses collected drawings and juxtaposes these with memories of time and place. Often the images are not fully realised at the stage of carving and can evolve and change through the process of the cutting. Each print is burnished by hand which allows the soft texture of the wood to emerge. Jo's exhibition will be hosted in our main gallery space whilst in our Courtyard Gallery our seasonal printmaker open exhibition continues. Each space will also feature specially selected 3D works from our seasonal sculpture artists. Thursday - Saturday 10 am - 5 pm or by appointment Closing week 23rd December 10 am - 5 pm 24th December 10 am - 1 pm

Capturing Moments in Time

The Artizan Sculpture Season offers a refined exploration of contemporary sculpture, presenting a series of quarterly exhibitions that showcase the diverse practices within 3D art. This Summer Season, we are proud to feature the work of Lucy D'Auvergne, Emma Baldwin, Emmy Palmer and Zoe Clare. Each artist brings a distinct approach to sculpture, reflecting a deep engagement with form, material, and conceptual exploration. From intimate, hand-crafted sculptures, decorative ceramics and glass, the Summer Season offers a comprehensive view of the sculptural landscape, inviting visitors to appreciate the intricacies and possibilities of the medium. The works displayed in this season reflect the varied ways in which artists engage with human experience, nature, and the complex relationships between objects and space. Alongside the sculpture exhibitions, our Printmaker Exhibitions will offer a complementary program, expanding the dialogue between different art forms and presenting the depth of contemporary printmaking practice. This integration of sculpture and printmaking provides a rich, layered experience for visitors, underscoring the versatility and innovation of both mediums. Whether you're a collector, enthusiast, or simply a visitor with an interest in contemporary sculpture, the Artizan Sculpture Season provides a meaningful opportunity to engage with exceptional works that reflect the breadth and depth of 3D art today. The gallery will be open Thursday – Saturdays 10 am – 5 pm with some additional days during the period. Please contact the gallery if you are looking to visit outside our normal opening hours.

Artizan Sculpture Season - Summer

Artizan welcomes Cornwall based artist Beth Munro as we continue with our series of solo shows at our dedicated printmaking and sculpture gallery on Lucius Street. Beth will be exhibiting a series of Hybrid Monotypes, etchings and dry points which were begun in 2022 and have since developed into a large body of work. The Flotsam and Jetsam served up daily by the ocean became her entry into exploring the world beneath the waves. Using man made and organic materials found on her local beach, she builds her prints layer by layer, colour by colour. The act of Printing becomes a conversation between the physical application, the reveal and one's response. The work literally takes on a life of its own, as a narrative appears within the marks, the textures, the forms.’ The story behind the work: ‘I am lucky enough to live by the sea. In fact, I’ve lived my whole life by a sea, or a river that leads to the sea, I’ve lived on the sea, and I swim in the sea. Each day Ottie, my dog and I explore the beach thoroughly, looking at the rock formations, the shoreline, and the flotsam and jetsam that appears anew each day. I started collecting seaweed in 2020 and learnt how to identify it, press it, and preserve it. I collected strange organic objects that revealed themselves to be cuttlefish bones, ray egg cases, bones from dolphins, sponges and holdfasts, the strange handlike structures that Kelp use to attach themselves to rocks. I began researching marine life that I found captured in the rockpools at low tide and became fascinated by the curious and often surprising lives they shared in these complex habitats brimming with biodiversity. I also collected a lot of plastic waste, fishing detritus and general rubbish that the sea gave up each day. To begin with I brought it home and recycled it or threw it in the bin, after time I decided to keep each day’s haul and label it with the date and where I was walking. It didn’t take long before my studio was full of bags, all labelled, all slightly giving off a fishy, sea weedy odour, silently telling me to do something with them. I decided to use the contents of these bags as a starting point for a new series of work that looked at the beauty of these underwater environments and our complex relationship with them. Trying to capture the sense of a world underwater, beneath the surface, but also try and say something about the impact of our behaviours on that environment. Rummaging through my beach detritus I always find something that I can add into my images that can become a talking point, a gentle message or just a beautiful juxtaposition. I have thoroughly enjoyed the creative freedom that Monotype can inspire and have grown in confidence as a result. In the last year I have been studying Kelp ecosystems along UK coastal shores and making work that hopefully reflects the size and beauty of these ancient forests.’ Beth’s exhibition will be hosted in our main gallery space whilst in our Courtyard Gallery we shall be hosting a Retrospective of works by Brenda Hartill. Each space will also feature specially selected 3D works from our seasonal sculpture artists. Thursday - Saturday 10 am - 5 pm or by appointment

Beneath the Surface

The Artizan Sculpture Season offers a refined exploration of contemporary sculpture, presenting a series of quarterly exhibitions that showcase the diverse practices within 3D art. This Autumn Season, we are proud to feature the work of Becca Brown, Bev Knowlden, Tracy Nicholls, Alison West and Jack Richardson. Each artist brings a distinct approach to sculpture, reflecting a deep engagement with form, material, and conceptual exploration. From intimate, hand-crafted sculptures to large-scale installations, the Autumn Season offers a comprehensive view of the sculptural landscape, inviting visitors to appreciate the intricacies and possibilities of the medium. The works displayed in this season reflect the varied ways in which artists engage with human experience, nature, and the complex relationships between objects and space. Alongside the sculpture exhibitions, our Printmaker Opens will offer a complementary program, expanding the dialogue between different art forms and presenting the depth of contemporary printmaking practice. This integration of sculpture and printmaking provides a rich, layered experience for visitors, underscoring the versatility and innovation of both mediums. Whether you're a collector, enthusiast, or simply a visitor with an interest in contemporary sculpture, the Artizan Sculpture Season provides a meaningful opportunity to engage with exceptional works that reflect the breadth and depth of 3D art today. The gallery will be open Thursday – Saturdays 10 am – 5 pm with some additional days during the period. Please contact the gallery if you are looking to visit outside our normal opening hours.

Artizan Sculpture Season - Autumn

We are pleased to be welcoming back to the gallery, artist Keith Frake, whose work for this exhibition has evolved over the last three years and has mainly been influenced by his interest in early Christian painting, the apocalyptic images from the Book of Revelations and the Book of Enoch. The physical and psychological processes of Alchemy are also a major influence, as is, the colour symbolism in the poetry of Georg Trakl. One of the main differences between this sequence of work and previous pieces is the inclusion of a wider variety of colour, especially those used by Trakl, but mainly yellow and gold. 'My excursion into gold paint was stimulated by Byzantine imagery and icons and yellowing as part of the alchemical process’ . Until about the fifteenth or sixteenth century, yellow (otherwise called citrinitas or xanthosis) fell into disuse within the domain of Alchemy, thus leaving only three colours black, white and red. The transitional process, the yellowing stage between the white and red , was neglected. Some argue that the original quaternity was transformed into a trinity to bring it into line with Christian theology. Newtons chromatic prism curiously locates yellow-green in the centre of its spectrum as does the median position of da Vinci’s six primary colours (black, white, red, yellow, green and blue.) Today the green-yellow of Chloris, which for the Greeks described the earth goddess Demeter, reappears in electrical wiring where a spiralling green and yellow insulation signifies the grounding or earth line, neither positive nor negative. Our response towards yellow is often ambivalent, from the etymological link of Yellow with yolk to the metaphorical association with spring flowers, sunlight and honey etc. The German gelb and the Latin galbus and galbinus derive from the roots meaning radiant and shining, like gold. On the other hand, however Edgar Allan Poe associated it with craziness and troubled minds; Kandinsky with violent lunacy; for Van Gogh and Gauguin it represented love. The Alchemists however associated it with putrefaction and corruption. The Yellowing is a process in time, ending in staining and decay. The processes Frake uses, include burning, the boiling of paint and other industrial substances and the other actions he inflicts on the work, necessitates very long drying periods. During this period the whites often transform and degrade into a variety of yellows and browns. More generally many other changes occur in the colour and texture of the work’s surface. Overall, there is a feeling of fragility, unpredictability and impermanence in the work which may in fact reflect Frake's own fear and anxiety for the future. There will be an evening launch on 18th October 6 -8 pm and the exhibition will run until 2nd November.

The Yellowing