In this solo gallery‑tour video, the presenter from Bridport Contemporary Gallery walks viewers through a group exhibition that extends the work shown at the London Art Fair. The tour begins with Ruth Piper’s coastal paintings, noting her Bristol roots, recent move to Lyme Regis, and strong London reception. The presenter then showcases his own large 6‑foot “Sunrays from Egerton Hill” landscape, emphasizing its dramatic sky and 3:1 format. Next is James Ursell’s Swiss mountain scene, linked to a patron who invited him to paint in the Alps, and the presenter explains a shift toward a moodier tone for the Bridport venue. John Adam’s abstract, self‑made‑paint works are highlighted for their buttery, tactile surfaces. Helen Lloyd Elliott’s charcoal drawings capture West Dorset lanes and fields. The tour introduces two young, second‑generation Bridport artists: Ella Squirrel’s loose, expressive figurative portraits and Grace Crabtree’s egg‑tempera‑on‑gesso pieces, praised by the Zbúgalić Collection for their geological texture. John Charlesworth’s whimsical, Dr Seuss‑like narrative paintings are shown, followed by Liz Coxwood’s pointillist coloured‑pencil drawings of a coastal shed about to fall into the sea, illustrating her interest in light and architecture. Additional John Adam oil pieces in handmade frames are displayed. The presenter concludes with practical details – the gallery is open Saturdays 10 am‑3 pm or by appointment – and invites viewers to discover the emerging Bridport art scene and the new movement bridging London and the West Country.
Chapters
So hello there from my Bridport Contemporary Gallery, and I've got a rather lovely group show of paintings and drawings from, which is, we're sort of continuing our London Art Fair show. So yeah, I'll just give you a little look around. So first of all, we've got one of Ruth Piper's paintings. And she is my collaborator at the London Art Fair. She has been based in Bristol for 16 years, I think, and she's recently moved to Lyme Regis, just up the coast. You can see she's an amazing painter. These are really very original works and beautifully painted. They are very well received in London, which was great. And then moving to my piece, this is one of my Sunrays from Egerton Hill, a very dramatic painting as you can see. I always wait for these moments of drama and serenity as well. But this is one of the moments where it's like the heavens have opened, and it's one of my favorite spots to paint from. So this is a big 6-foot painting, it's 3:1 proportion. And then next to it, I've got a James Ursell painting. So I met James at the Simmondsbury Art Community when I first moved down to Bridport, and he and his wife Georgina, also an artist, had moved to Dorset from Berlin, and they've now moved to Wales. They live in Wales, and this painting is Hwängen in Switzerland, up in the mountains. So James has a, like, a patron who you know, loves his work and invites them out to his place up in the mountains. In London, we had a companion piece to this which was a lot sort of quieter, but because of the kind of sense of this gallery, I thought I would make everything a little bit more moody for this exhibition in Bridport. Then we've got a John Adam painting over here. John Adam is a West Bay artist, and he makes these really incredible abstract paintings, makes his own paints as well, and these paintings are absolutely incredible, and they have this sort of very buttery surface. Which is, yeah, just wonderfully kind of sensual and tactile. And this is one of his recent abstract pieces that I just felt, yeah, it's just a really powerful piece. So we've got, yes, 3 of these pieces on the website which you can have a look at. Then this is Helen Lloyd Elliott. She's based up near, what's it called, Ford Abbey, right out in the sticks. She does these lovely charcoal drawings set out in the lanes and the fields of the West Dorset countryside. Really beautiful area and Yes, I really wanted to bring some of her work up to London. And then over here we've got a couple of young artists. First of all, we've got Ella Squirrel here. She's— these are what I call second-generation Bridport artists, in that their parents moved here and they were born here. Ella is quite a precocious young painter and does these sort of very loose, expressive figurative pieces. She also shows in a good gallery in Falmouth, so we've got 3 of her pieces, 3 portraits on the website. And then below, this is Grace Crabtree. And she actually was commended by— I'll mispronounce it, but it's like the Zbúgalić Collection. So it's like a very esteemed art collection in London, and the director selected Ruth— uh, selected Grace as the young artist to watch at the fair. Which is really nice. So these are egg tempera on gesso board, and you can see they've got— she's really sort of scratched into them, and they're very tactile and very, very kind of influenced by sort of rocks and geology and, yeah, her interest in surface. We've also got 3 of these John Charlesworth paintings. So John was somebody that I knew in Bridport a few years ago when I was at St. Michael's Studios, and he makes these wonderfully fantastical paintings. They're very amusing. And they're just these ridiculous kind of narratives, a bit Dr. Seuss. So I've got 3 of these, they're really lovely. Then up here we have Liz Coxwood, and she does these very intimate drawings. So these are— this is basically like a pointillist technique that she uses. With coloured pencils, and you can see that she's got this interest in light, architecture, kind of, and the sort of gentleness of, you know, the sort of coast. And this is a whole series she's done on this shed which is, you know, almost about to fall into the sea. So it's a really interesting series about a building that will disappear at some point soon. And here actually we've got 3 more of John Adams' pieces in these beautiful handmade frames. So these are again, oil pieces on board. The big one is on linen, but you can see again, these are really, really lovely little intimate pieces with these beautiful surfaces. And yeah, look at these wonderful little frames that he's made. So yeah, so that is the exhibition I currently have in my gallery in Bridport, and I'm open every Saturday 10 till 3, or by appointment. So yeah, do come along and, yeah, discover the Bridport art scene, and of course It was great to bring these artists up to London, and yeah, people just loved it. So yeah, come and discover this new art movement that's happening.
