Making and Drawing

Debbie Smyth (photo: Zac Mead)

Kyra Cane

12 June – 11 August 
The Harley Gallery, Welbeck is delighted to present Making and Drawing, showing 12 June – 11 August. Curated by ceramicist Kyra Cane, this exhibition reveals the secret lives of artists and makers; showing their private drawings alongside the finished works that they inspire, inform or create.

Kyra Cane is a leading ceramicist based in the Harley Studios, Welbeck. Her beautiful works are inspired by her observations of landscapes and weather patterns. They range from large thrown pieces to small intimate pots, with surfaces decorated with marks and subtle textures.
In 2012, Kyra published a new book titled Making and Drawing, which illustrates how artists’ and makers’ two dimensional sketches inform their finished three dimensional works. Featuring a broad range of creative practice, the book presents the drawings which are made behind-the-scenes; the secret doodles, notes, plans or marks which are all vital in developing a thought process and a finished work. 
This exhibition celebrates the Making and Drawing publication and presents the featured artists’ works and their preparatory sketches. Just like the book, the exhibition will focus on how these makers use drawing for reference; planning and design; surface; making; thinking; with technology. 
‘Drawing is a fundamental part of creative practice, its many roles range from being part of the exploratory process which encourage ideas to flow, to forming the basis of a critical framework in which outcomes are evaluated. It is an art readily associated with the creation of painting and pattern making but it also forms the foundation for making artefacts.’
Kyra Cane

Spanning jewellery, sculpture, furniture, installation, textiles and ceramics, Kyra has selected artists at different stages of their careers, whether emerging talent, such as textile designer Rory Londgon or craft legends jewellery designer Dorothy Hogg. On show will be a rare film by Nick Duffy of Simon Carroll making huge drawings on a Cornish Beach.

‘Making and drawing is so intertwined for some makers that the drawing aspect of their work is an activity they take entirely for granted, it comes as second nature to their practice, playing a crucial role in the development of whatever they do and is nearly always an entirely private pursuit.’ 
Kyra Cane
Making and Drawing will be on show at The Harley Gallery, Welbeck from 12 June – 11 August 2013. Visit to explore the relationship between working in two and three dimensions through the work of leading artists and makers. The Harley Gallery is on the A60 between Mansfield and Worksop. It is open daily, free to enter and offers free parking.

Adam Frew: Drawings & Pots

12 June – 11 August 2013

Potty about drawing? Adam Frew certainly is. From 12 June to 11 August, The Harley Gallery, Welbeck will be showing the first exhibition by the Northern Irish potter to show his celebrated pots alongside the drawings which inspire them.

Work will include pieces made following a short residency on the Welbeck Estate, home of The Harley Gallery. Nestled in the North Nottinghamshire countryside, the rolling hills, woodlands and artisan production of Welbeck have provided a special source of inspiration for Adam Frew’s work. 

Adam Frew is known for his sumptuous pots, rich with glossy glazes, luscious colours and expressive marks. This exhibition not only shows his large scale, beautiful ceramics and domestic ware but also the drawings which inform them. Enjoy a glimpse into the artist’s process and see how a softly sketched drawing of the local landscape is translated into the inky cobalt marks on Adam’s pots.

‘Spontaneity in my work is essential to inspiration.’

Working on the potter’s wheel, Adam is able to create his ceramics quickly and intuitively. His pots use playful techniques and unpredictable processes – his inspirations include glass blowing technique of cup-casing colours, wood firing and throwing into textured moulds. Layers of clay, swathes of coloured glazes and plaster-cast made marks adorn his expertly thrown vessels; the white porcelain becomes a canvas for his drawings.

‘I love drawing, making quick, free marks that capture a moment and often these marks feed into the language I use to decorate pots.’

Visit The Harley Gallery from 12 June – 11 August to see Adam Frew: Drawings and Pots. Glimpse the artist’s process and discover the local landscape through Adam Frew’s eyes.  The Harley Gallery is free to enter and is conveniently located between Mansfield and Worksop on the A60, 15 minutes from both the A1 and M1.

Edward Harley: The Great Collector

A new Harley Gallery exhibition opening 25 May 2013

From opulence and obsession to debt and despair, new exhibition Edward Harley: The Great Collector follows the fortunes of the 2nd Earl of Oxford. Showing at The Harley Gallery from May 2013, this exhibition explores Edward Harley’s background, family and marriage through his spectacular collections of art, decorative crafts and fine books.

The son of one of the most powerful politicians in the country, Edward Harley married Henrietta Cavendish-Holles - the wealthiest heiress in Britain.  Harley filled his family’s home with a hubbub of activity – writers, poets, artists, bibliophiles would be regular visitors. He was a dedicated collector; his collections were extensive and extravagant as he passionately sourced the rarest and most beautiful things. Harley was surrounded by the finest thinkers and the finest things.

His wealth gradually dwindled, yet Harley continued to add to his collections, often driving up the price of objects in his lust for ownership. In this obsessive collecting, Harley bankrupted himself and spent much of his wife’s fortune, eventually selling his family home and his collections to pay his debts.

At his death in 1741, Edward Harley’s library contained 50,000 printed books, 7,639 manuscripts, 14,236 rolls and legal documents, 350,000 pamphlets and 41,000 prints. Harley’s manuscript collection was sold to the nation after his death to pay his remaining debts, at a price far less than he had paid. These manuscripts formed the basis for the British Library, still known as the Harleian Collection.

Visit the Harley Gallery to see a selection of objects from Edward Harley’s phenomenal collections, treasured by his widow and daughter. Glimpse the obsessive and opulent world of the 2nd Earl of Oxford in Edward Harley: The Great Collector, showing from May 2013.    

The Bodging Project

Gareth Neal working in Clissett Wood

27 March – 2 June 2013

The Bodging Project’s creative adventures and woodworking experiments will be showing at The Harley Gallery, Welbeck from 27 March to 2 June. Visit to explore the relationship between traditional craft skills and contemporary design.

The exhibition will tell the tale of 10 furniture designers and what happened when they went to the woods.

In a series of workshops, The Bodging Project took top furniture designers to work in the woods and to go back-to-basics with traditional ‘bodging’ techniques - which use green, unseasoned wood and low tech tools.

The 10 designers will each show 3 pieces of their work:

‘Before the bodge’ – a manufactured piece of furniture

‘At the bodge’ a piece made by hand in the woods, using green wood techniques

‘After the bodge’, made when the designers returned to their normal practice. As Chris Eckersley explained; ‘although we’d moved out of the woods and into the factory, we’d somehow retained the ‘bodge’ way of thinking’.

Work made by The Bodging Project’s Lloyd Loom Elves will also be on show. Creeping into the Lloyd Loom factory in Spalding, Lincolnshire one weekend, a group of designers were able to play with Lloyd Loom’s iconic twisted paper materials, creating new exciting designs and trying different, unusual techniques. 

Visit The Bodging Project from 27 March – 2 June to discover these designers’ adventures from factories, to the forest, and back again.