Gallery has great gifts (From Penarth Times)

Gallery has great gifts

THE WASHINGTON Gallery is staging its well-known Christmas Show on Thursday, December 6, from 9am to 11pm with a second all-day and evening event on Saturday, December 22.

The sale room on the ground floor will hold hundreds of paintings and prints by well-known artists for £100 or less.

There will be unique jewellery by Carlo Giovanni Verda inspired by ancient artefacts and cave paintings, beaded pieces by young Welsh jeweller Imogen Hose, original cards and bags by Angharad Davies of Angel, hand-painted glass by Jemma Enticknap and low-cost gifts and hand-crafted stocking fillers.

The big attraction, however, is the hundreds of paintings in the lower gallery, many on sale below value, by Welsh artists.

The gallery has assembled a selection of three-dimensional pieces for sale.

There will be ceramic sculptures by South African Helga Prosser, pottery by Roger Law (one of the creators of the Spitting Image television series), wooden vessels by Mark Hancock and a wide selection of Dartington and Gwili Pottery.

There will also be a range of kiln-fired glasses, each original in design, from Lara Aldridge, Charlie McPherson and First Glass of London.

Upstairs a collection of exciting contemporary art by some of the gallery's familiar artists such as Neale Howells (who did the painting on the cover of Know Your Enemy by the Manic Street Preachers).

Also featured are the mythical, atmospheric paintings of Michael Payne and beautiful impressionist pieces by Martyn Vaughn Jones, inspired by west Wales.

Among the new artists are Michael Siarl Bryant, Isabelle Anderson and Neil Ashton. The gallery will be open 9am until 10pm on December 6 and 22 with mulled wine, mince pies and stollen. The exhibition continues until January 5 and the gallery will be open seven days a week (except for Christmas and New Year's Day).