News from the Gallery

2009 was a fantastic year for the gallery - throughout the year the artists created some wonderful inspirational work and took part in many projects. We held our annual community event at the Mariner's Tearoom in Rye. The exhibition 'Putting History on the Map' focused on Rye and the surrounding area.

Sally Russell - Rye Harbour

This was commercially a huge success thanks to the input of the many artists, dedicated staff and volunteers who attend the Gallery & of course, all the people who bought the work!. We hope that 2010 will be just as successful and rewarding as last year.

So here's what we've got planned for 2010 ...

Beginning in January, our first project is focusing on portraiture and figure drawing, we will be using arrange of mediums i.e. Drawing, charcoal, pastel, collage, printing, pottery, batik, embroidery and felt. We have many materials donated to the gallery and we encourage artists to use what is available and adapt this to their work. Do revisit the site to see how this project develops.

We hope to have an auction and exhibition later on in the year showing the wonderful work created by the Rainbow Gallery's artists.

We will also be gathering designs for 2010 Christmas Cards and creating a 2011 Calendar.

Christmas Card by   Cheryl Coussens

Last year was the first year we did not produce our own calendar and this has proved to be greatly missed, so we will endeavour to produce one for 2011!! We are also going to introduce NPTC course in Pottery. This will be a great opportunity for artists to develop their ongoing skills, enabling them to gain certificates in reaching certain goals.

2009 was extremely successful commercially, largely due to work being shown & sold at the Mariners (Coterie) Tearoom in Rye and we will continue to provide them with cushions, cards and limited edition prints in 2010.

Cushion for Mariners   by Neil Calveley

It is a fantastic venue for artists to sell their their work and is an ongoing project throughout the year. This is encouraging and motivating for all artists involved. Our work can now also be bought in the main shop at The Rare Breeds Centre.

September/October 2010 - Every year we help with Halloween on site at the Rare Breeds Farm. This is a fun but very messy and exciting project with everyone contributing in making scary props and painting backdrops. The Christmas project will start earlier this year and will focus on creating saleable items, for example stockings, tree decorations etc, which will be used to decorate the Tearoom in Rye. The artists involved will also be creating individual gifts to take home to their family.

So this is our plan for 2010 - do please re-visit this site regularly to see how our projects are developing