Padstow Contemporary Art Gallery Autumn Exhibition

In October 2008, Padstow Contemporary Art Gallery opened its Autumn Exhibition, featuring work by Gareth Edwards, Simon Gaiger and resident artist and curator John O'Carroll.

The gallery was tucked away in an atmospheric alleyway in the centre of Padstow. A few days after the exhibition opened, all the design team from Pickle Design went along to the private viewing, eager to see John O'Carroll's new work alongside the gallery's regular exhibitors.

There was a warm atmosphere within the small exhibition space, welcoming as we stepped in from the crisp autumn darkness.

The image above is Damascus by Gareth Edwards, which was hung upstairs. His work in the lower gallery evoked the Camel Estuary, and the choice of media gave it the impression that it had formed wonderfully from the boatyards and sands.

Simon Gaiger's sculpture drew on nautical mythology. Especially memorable was Charybdis, based on the spokes of a carriage wheel and effortlessly conjuring images of the Greek sea monster. The other image in this post is his work Grey Wing.

At the time, John O'Carroll also had an exhibition running in Holland, Archaiologia, at Galerie Roger Katwijk. A few weeks later he was due to present a new book there, cataloguing his work from the previous ten years.

Looking back, it's a lovely little snapshot of Padstow's art scene at the time – and of an evening when the whole Pickle Design team stepped out of the autumn darkness and into this tiny gallery full of work inspired by the coast around us.