The Shape of Magic

4th September - 9th October 2010

Shellie Byatt & Betty Pennell

with ceramics by Jacqueline Leighton Boyce

The Art Shop, Cross Street, Abergavenny NP7 5EH



The Empty Skep by Shellie Byatt

“There is a common thread that links these artists’ work. Their work is narrative in content, conjuring up magical environments against which human dramas and elusive emotions are played out.” The Art Shop

“I was talking with Ronald Pennell about the sad state of the bee world at the moment (and his work in response to it) that I decided to make an image myself. Alas for the poor human in my picture - the skep is empty and she has already been reduced to pretending to be a bee herself (wings and striped dress) perhaps trying to use a sort of sympathetic magic! The image is made of paper and pencil on board in a type of collage that I have developed over the years - no imported images, all of the image is made first-hand by me.” Shellie Byatt

Beekeeping in Britain by Andrew Tyzack

Bees In Art: Raising Awareness About Pollinators In Peril
Andrew Tyzack and Debbie Grice Found Special Gallery To Celebrate Role Of Bees In Our Lives
Written By Todd Wilkinson

As artists who together operate The Land Gallery in England in East Yorkshire, they decided to do something about it: Put out a call to other artists and open a virtual gallery with procceds from the sale of artwork going to the cause of pollinator conservation. Tyzack has a particular insight into the problem, which in many parts of the globe has manifested itself as Colony Collapse Disorder. Outbreaks of CCD have been blamed on a virulent combination of mites and a fungus killing honey bees with weakened immune systems potentially caused by exposure to pesticides. Loss of habitat also is taking a serious toll on wild bees, with several species in the U.S. now imperiled.

Tyzack himself is a third-generation beekeeper, a practitioner of the apiary arts, husbanding his domestic honey hives to make sweet honey.

More and more, artists are stepping forward to aid in the cause of conservation. This effort on behalf of pollinators is similar to one led by biologist Kerry Kriger who founded Save The Frogs and has sponsored an art contest that is open to painters of all ages.

Bees in Art celebrates Hymenoptera, the order of insect that encompasses honey bees, bumblebees and related species. He said that he and Grice welcome artists in North America to contact him if they are interested in supporting bee conservation by making works available for sale...

For complete article please visit The Wildlife Art Journal.

• Artists for Nature Foundation: ANF acts as a catalyst for nature conservation by asking artists to capture the spirit of endangered landscapes and species in their natural habitat.
• Apiservices: Promoting beekeeping and the bee as a pollinating agent, and the integration of beekeeping in interdisciplinary rural development projects.
• A Surrey Beekeeper: Follow James on his quest to obtain one, just one, pot of honey on his first year of beekeeping.....
• Bees for Development: Raising awareness about the value of beekeeping for poverty alleviation.
• Bee Proof Suits: Innovative beekeeping clothing. Protective clothing designed by beekeepers to keep you cool and protect from stings.
• Buglife: The invertebrate Conservation Trust.
• Bug Squad Blog: The blog of Kathy Keatley Garvey, communications specialist for UC Davis Department of Entomology.
• BWARS: Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society (British).
• Devon Beekeepers Association
• Eastbourne Beekeepers Association
• East Grinstead Beekeepers Association
• Glenn Apiaries: Dedicated to breeding honeybees for high honey production and disease resistance.
• Help Save Bees: A campaign to promote bee awareness.
• Learn Beekeeping: Beekeeping, for all levels, courses in Wiltshire, UK.
• Natural Beekeeping Trust: Promoting ‘natural’ beekeeping.
• North Pennine Bees: Beekeeping courses, UK.
• Operation Bumblebee: Reviving the fortunes of the humble bumblebee across the entire UK arable farming area.
• Plan Bee: The Co-operative has launched Plan Bee, a 10-point plan to help reverse the decline in the British bee population.
• Sark Paintings: Home of Sark artist Rosanne Guille and La Maison Rouge Gallery.
• Scottish Beekeepers: The website representing Scottish beekeepers nationally and internationally.
• Wakefield & Potefract Beekeepers’ Association
• Wharfedale Beekeepers Association
• What’s that Bug?: An insect identification website.

The Five Queens by Ronald Pennell, diamond wheel engraved glass


The Last Queen by Ronald Pennell, diamond wheel engraved glass

For many years we have been aware of the declining Bee population. Having a richly planted country garden, Bees and Butterflies in great profusion, have been one of its chief delights. The changes that we have seen are dramatic but world wide the exploitation of Bees for commercial crops on a vast scale is leading us all into a disastrous situation. By a strange co-incidence I had begun a series of engravings on this theme when I received an invitation from Contemporary Applied Arts to take part in The Honey Bee and the Hive. My Bee series engravings on glass are both optimistic and pessimistic. The Last Queen shows a last Queen Bee approaching a Peoplecomb with people, animals and birds, each appropriately in their own strangely distorted cells. Then Five Queens has two Bee Keepers with one hive and five Queen Bees. All the faces are based upon good friends and engraved from memory. Finally, Angry Bee and Two Friendly Bees express my view upon reading in the New York Times recently, that Bees can recognise
individual human faces.

Beehive Pins by Vicki Ambery Smith


Bee Table by Wendy Ramshaw

The vulnerable, beautiful, industrious bee, is the inspiration of never-seen-before work from twenty seven of Britain’s top designer/makers. ‘The Honey Bee and the Hive’ at Contemporary Applied Arts in London is curated by Wendy Ramshaw CBE, critically acclaimed artist jeweller and designer.

The exhibition is a celebration of this iconic insect and a response to the threat of depleting bee populations. Native British bees are dying out — and with them will go flora and fauna. Many experts claim there may be less than a decade left to save bees from extinction. Ramshaw is passionate about their plight and is organising this exhibition to raise awareness, inspire and raise money (a percentage of sales from the exhibition will go to the British Bee Keeper’s Association).

Ramshaw has invited a wide range of makers (all of whom are members of Contemporary Applied Arts) working in metal, glass, textiles, paper, wood and ceramics. Ramshaw herself is making a table from powder coated, mild steel – the top of the table has a open grid honeycomb pattern and suspended beneath it is a sheet of glass on which can be seen an image of a bee. Another jewellery designer, Zoe Arnold is also working in a much bigger scale than her usual work. She is creating a floor installation of porcelain bees, individually numbered and lit with an atmospheric floor lamp.

The process of pollination is explored by textile artist Ann Richards who is creating a collection of necklaces and bracelets in silk, steel, linen and paper. Richards’ weaving technique will echo the honeycomb form. Jennie Moncur is weaving a colourful, contemporary still life using the pollinated peach tree from her own garden as the main subject.

Taking a more scientific approach, ceramicist Joanna Veevers is designing bees as specimens alongside her own sketchbooks full of detailed bee drawings. Cathy Miles who creates wire, drawing-like sculptures is exhibiting a wall installation of bees accompanied by a written guide outlining imaginary conversations going on in the hive, their worries, gripes and camaraderie.

Other artists like Rebecca Catterall, Julia Griffiths Jones and Vicki Ambery Smith are exploring the highly skilled construction skills of the bee and it’s honey comb, architectural home. Contemporary basketmaker Dail Behennah will also focus on the combs by creating a ‘ghost’ of a honeycomb which will cast a shadow more visible than the work itself.

Honeybees in flight by Rick Lieder

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A small derelict church becomes an apiary for honeybees on the North York Moors.

• Bombus pratorum
• Bombus lucorum
• Bombus pascuorum
• Bombus hortorum
• Bombus lapidarius
• Bombus terrestris

Six Bumblebee Queens, a mezzotint engraving by Andrew Tyzack

A wood engraving begins with a rough boxwood round, which is cut ‘end grain’ on and polished until it is smoother than glass. The artist engraves onto the darkened surface with various tools. The final print is pulled from the inked engraving, using a fine quality paper.



A Queen Honeybee by Andrew Tyzack: From boxwood round to finished wood engraving.

‘Honeybee queen’, pencil on paper, & ‘Queen honeybee’, wood engraving by Andrew Tyzack

“My influences are the bees that sting me, the midges that bite me and the birds that sing so sweetly.” Mark Rowney




Aerobombus (detail), acrylic on panel by Mark Rowney

‘The Life of the Bee’ written by Maeterlinck & illustrated by E. J. Detmold

1st January 2010: The Bees in Art home apiary in Yorkshire, UK