Gold paint on graph paper. Every now and then some art work completely surprises me, taking me aback with its originality, technical ability and emotional quality. We visited Somerton, the old county town of Somerset and found the Art Gallery. The building itself is quite evocative being built, originally, in the sixteenth century as a meat market or ‘shambles.’ It was then refurbished in the eighteenth century as the town hall, and in recent years has been the focus of the arts.

ACEarts currently has an exhibition by the West Country artist Toni Davey entitled Goldworks. The exhibition contains around sixty works comprising paintings, drawings, sculpture, textiles and assemblages. Davey says ‘In Morocco I discovered how intense decoration and metallic pigments can transform the humble and mundane into something precious.’ 

It takes the brightness of gold from the exclusive world of jewellery into something more reachable. By the use of simple everyday graph paper and tracing out beautifully intricate architecture and giving tone with just one shade she has created a whole new world. Her work also emphasises line which is so unusual in European easel art.

Gold is particularly interesting in the world of art history. Traditional religious icons were set on rich gold backgrounds to create a world with no perspective. There was no blue skies of the scientific universe in the ancient firmament or heaven. These were not of earthly making but from another world without perspective. This exhibition has the opportunity of taking the viewer into other worlds though its architecture and colour, but in its ordered way, a new perspective.

As regular readers of my post will know my three measures for looking at art are originality, emotion and technique. Toni Davey’s drawings , paintings and sculpture with gold have all these three characteristics in an abundance. The exhibition is all set in the peaceful environment of the gallery on the upper floor of the ACEarts building in the heart of Somerset. But hurry though as it closes on March 1st

Goldworks images by kind permission of the artist ©