SHARDS Art Exhibition

Last week, I went to SHARDS art exhibition in the Bournemouth International Centre.  The name of this exhibition is an acronym for what the show represents. Showcasing How Artists Reflect Diverse Society.

SHARDS is the first exhibition of it's type to take place in the BIC. Over a period of six weeks it showcases around 50 local artists from the Dorset area.

“Bournemouth sculptor Linda Joyce and painter Rishi Ludgate took on the project after it was originally started by fellow artist Ruth Kelvin.

“It then grew from an exhibition of seven artists to the numbers now involved by using Facebook and word of mouth.” http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk

I was particulary drawn to the work of Rishi Ludgate, one of the leaders of this project. 

Although not an artist myself, the realistic strokes of her paintings really stood out and spoke to me. 

I was lucky enough to meet Rishi myself and got the opportunity to tell her how fantastic I thought her art was. 

In the first week, the exhibition had already sold two paintings, one of which was Rishi’s own painting (the girl with the leopard.)

Rishi showed me some photographs that inspired her paintings including a friend from the Philippines who modeled for her. 

She has a vast amount of creativity and seemed to visualise her paintings in advance of creating them by bringing contrasting elements together in order to create one work of art. This gave me an insight into the working process of an artist. 

The directors told me that the next exhibition will be a themed one. The theme will be “The evolution of art of the past 150 years in Bournemouth.”

Cant wait to pop in and get to see what else Dorset has to offer!



Click HERE to find out more about the exhibition