Below are details of the past and future events that the Old Courthouse Gallery has hosted.

CURRENT EXHIBITION

LIBBY EDMONDSON REMEMBERED: May 26th to June 18th 2023

We are honoured to announce a very special exhibition taking place this Spring. It will celebrate and remember the enormously talented local artist, Libby Edmondson, who sadly passed away last year. Libby was a very well-known artist who worked for many years as a sculptor before turning to painting 20 years ago. OCG was privileged to exclusively represent her original paintings during this time.

Libby produced some 270 paintings during her career and until recently it was thought that all of her work had been sold. However, a recent chance discovery in an overlooked storeroom brought 19 further originals into the light. Spanning the whole range of her painting career, they are a mix of landscapes, still life and nature studies. We are proud to be able to offer the majority of these for sale at OCG.

Also included was one very poignant self-portrait titled ‘Eating the Lotus’, which is a reflection by Libby on her life and work. It depicts her sculpting, painting and enjoying life in the company of her family and friends. It will form the centrepiece of the exhibition, though it will not be for sale.

‘Libby Edmondson, Remembered’ will open at 1pm on Friday 26 May in our Mezzanine display space. It is free to attend and will be open during normal gallery hours every day until Sunday 18 June. All works are listed here with full details and extra images.

Here is a preview of some of the paintings in the exhibition. We look forward to welcoming you to the gallery soon.

PAST EXHIBITIONS

SARAH & DAVID CEMMICK: True to Form, from March 5th to 26th 2022

This exhibition saw the return of David Cemmick, in collaboration with his equally-talented wife Sarah. They  developed a new collection of work titled ‘True to Form‘ centred around the iconic March hare.

A form is the open-air space that a hare makes in long grass and via a mix of paintings, lino cuts and sculptures Sarah & David explored the personality of this much-loved British creature in its natural environment.

DAVID CEMMICK: Gorilla, from May 29th to June 13th 2021

David is a very well-respected wildlife artist, renowned for his work on endangered species and habitats. This new exhibition was a mix of sculptures, drawings and paintings focussing on gorillas and gave an evocative portrayal of these magnificent creatures.

The exhibition featured three brand-new sculptures alongside three editions of David’s existing gorilla works. There were also 20 new original artworks, half oils and half other media, and around 30 mounted unframed sketches. We also have more of David’s work at the gallery, which can be found here

FAY COLLINS: A Return to Nature, from September 19th to October 3rd 2020

For this exhibition we displayed a beautiful new collection of work by Fay Collins, in her exhibition ‘A Return to Nature’. The exhibtion ran from September 19th 2020 for two weeks. All the paintings were evocative representations of the landscape around the Ambleside area, in oils on board. Although ths exhibition is now over, we still feature Fay’s work in the gallery and you can see her latest paintings here.

Working from her studio in the Forest of Bowland, Fay creates distinctive paintings of both landscape and nature. For this solo exhibition she created a new body of work inspired by the slow return to normality in the Lakes post-COVID.

THE LAKE ARTISTS SOCIETY: Members’ Special Exhibition, August 22nd to September 5th 2020

We were very happy to host this very special exhibition of works by the members of the prestigious Lake Artists Society. Sadly, the Society’s usual highly-regarded Summer Exhibition had to be cancelled due to the COVD-19 outbreak. The Summer Exhibition has been a fixture of the Lake District Arts calendar for many decades and previously only paused for World War II.

Although the normal full exhibition with multiple new works from the Members and selected Guest Artists couldn’t go ahead, we offered our Chambers exhibition room for a smaller event. As long-time attendees of the Societies’ shows ourselves we were keen to do something to help out and avoid a total cancellation. We therefore hosted this exhibition of one or two works from each Member, with all proceeds going to the Society and its artists.

Below is the list of members who exhibited:

Janet Kenyon
Ralph Wardle
Marion Kuit
Michael Wilson
Tracy Levine
Judith L.Wood
David Macaulay
Beverley White