A few of my favourite places and people
ART GALLERIES & ARTISTS
ABBEY WALK GALLERY, Grimsby, Lincolnshire - a very friendly and accessible gallery, enthusiastically run by Gill Gibbon and Elaine Munson, where I now have a studio space. There is a permanent exhibition space for the studio artists and also a wide variety of rolling exhibitions.
SKYLIGHT STUDIOS, Margate, Kent - Exhibition Gallery and Artists' Studios in the heart of Margate within easy walk of The Turner Contemporary. New enterprise March 2011.
28 PLOUGH HILL ARTS & HERITAGE CENTRE, Caistor, Lincolnshire - New 2011 as featured on Village SOS (BBC Aug 2011). Fantastically friendly community-focused place, mainly run by very hard-working volunteers. The old Methodist Chapel now encompasses a cafe, serving homemade, local food, the library, a Heritage Wall, free Internet access and a multi-purpose skylighted room for conference meetings, craft group and constantly changing Art Exhibitions.
ARTLANDISH AT THE DISCOVERY CENTRE, Boating Lake, Cleethorpes - a brilliant place to see Contemporary Art in the Exhibition Gallery (upstairs) and the Community Gallery (downstairs). There is a cafe serving excellent light meals and snacks as well as a good craft shop. They also sell seed to feed the ducks, geese and swans on the boating lake. Run by lovely, friendly, helpful people. office@artlandish.org
HARVEY WELLS CONTEMPORARY GALLERY, - very good friends. I love Emma's Jewellery & Adams Ceramics. They now have work in Anthropologie Stores. info@harveywells.co.uk
LEMON STREET GALLERY, Truro, Cornwall - a lovely large space filled with interesting contemporary works
BESIDE THE WAVE ART GALLERY, Falmouth - the view from the back window, of Falmouth Harbour, detracts from the great work on show!
PAUL GALYER, Grimsby, Lincolnshire - a varied, and prolific, output of work, from one of the Abbey Walk Gallery studio artists.
LIVE LOVE & CREATE, Brigg, North Lincolnshire - popped into the cafe for a cup of tea and some delicious homemade cake and found a lovely shop selling crafts from British makers, two drop-in and bookable ceramics and craft studio spaces and the delightful, enthusiastic and very hardworking owners, Sarah and Craig. This is an enterprise well worth visiting and supporting - we hope to see it go from strength to strength - they deserve to succeed. Some of my paintings can be found in their Tearoom.
RESTAURANTS, BARS & EATERIES
THE GREENHOUSE ORGANIC RESTAURANT, St. Keverne, Cornwall - great friends and great food what more can you ask for!
THE SETTLEMENT BAR & RESTAURANT, 20 Market Place, Caistor, Lincolnshire - Beautifully renovated building (2011) with extensive bar rooms and large outside deck downstairs and a gorgeous restaurant upstairs. The food we had was excellent and good quality. Lovely Sunday Lunch.
SHOPS
ROYSTON'S DELI - Louth, Lincolnshire - Louth is a special market town full of special independent shops. Royston's Deli is one of our favourites mainly due to the friendliness of Roxy and Chris - not to mention their mega-scrummy Chocolate Ganache, 'proper' bread and many other goodies.
SEASALT ORGANIC CLOTHING - Cornwall based company.
WILLOW & STONE - Falmouth. One of those shops full of bits you'd really love to buy for your home.
SUNNYSIDE-UP FARM SHOP, on the road between Tealby and Market Rasen in the beautiful Linconshire Wolds. Very ethical meat (I believe if you have to eat meat you should consider the welfare of the animals that provide it for you), and other produce - all as local as possible, very high quality and not silly high prices. Very friendly owners and staff and certainly puts supermarkets to shame. A cafe is now open
WEB
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VISION ODYSSEY - useful tips and advice for Marketing & Social Media Solutions