The annual Yvonne Arnaud Art exhibition has become respected for the high quality and blend of national artists with professional local talent. The exhibition is firmly established within the Guildford Summer Festival.

A list of all exhibitors is shown above.

This year, we are delighted to have as sponsors awb partnership, a leading firm of Guildford solicitors.

The Yvonne Arnaud art exhibition is triumph

by Beatrice Phillpotts  
Surrey Advertiser
 Friday 16 July 2010

The star of the show at one of the strongest annual Yvonne Arnaud Art exhibitions staged by Guildford Arts is Leslie Worth, former president of the Royal Watercolour Society. One of the finest watercolour painters of his generation, Worth died last year and the show includes a rare display of seven paintings, each of which is a vivid demonstration of just why he is so highly rated. His sensuous appreciation of colour and the delicacy of his brushwork lends a visionary quality to his landscape views reminiscent of Turner and one of the most striking compositions conjures an extraordinary dream-like moment. In Il Pensoroso, a flicker of forked lightning in a turbulent sky transforms a solitary white cow into some kind of magical beast.

Opening Ceremony 14 July 2010 by Guildford Councillor Jen Powell  L-R Jan Wilkinson Show Organisor,  Charles Pfister awb Partner, Ken Rushton Guildford Arts Chairman,  Councillor Jen Powell

This is the 15th annual art exhibition staged by Guildford Arts at The Mill Studio and there are nearly 200 exhibits by a wide range of professional artists and sculptors on show until Wednesday July 28.

Some talented local artists put on a strong display, notably 2009 Farnham graduate Sheila Walls, who went on to win the prestigious Threadneedle Prize. She is represented by a clutch of powerful painterly close-up portraits, notably her large oil painting of the head of a fleshy battered and bruised boxer Beaten and her sharply-focused study Nick.

Royal Watercolour Society member Isla Hackney also stands out. Her vigorously tackled and expressively coloured paintings portray remote landscapes in the Scottish Highlands as wave-like sweeps and loops of movement. Winter in the Glen is a panoramic view that verges on abstraction in its dynamic portrayal of areas of deep shade juxtaposed with sunlight on snow and a touch of green to the sky.

Sculptor Angie Doy is also noteworthy for her sensitively modelled slightly eerie figurative bronzes. Commanding the foyer of the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre is Anukis, a pagan god with curved horns and closed eyes intricately tattooed with tiny decorative symbols. Her equally mysterious sculpture head Veiled Figure of a blindfolded girl is also a spooky presence and works well with David Paynter’s sculpture Protest Song displayed nearby of a screaming head carved from Portland stone.

Leading Society of Wood Engravers member Sarah van Niekerk shows what can be achieved in 20 black and white mini-masterpieces, which include a lovely flowing study of a shoal of elvers in a choppy sea.

Royal Institute of Oil Painters member Christopher Keays is represented by a splendid glowing river scene viewed in brilliant sunshine dominated by the vibrant colours of a brick bridge.

Beatrice Phillpotts

Jan Wilkinson, the chief organiser said 'We are greatly looking forward to this year’s Exhibition with works at affordable prices. Browsers and buyers are equally welcome. This is also a family occasion, with a quiz and free drawing materials available for budding artists!'