Festive Cheer
Southport Contemporary Arts Members Christmas Collection Exhibition
12th November – 24th December 2025
Guest Blog by Martin Dawber
It is always a sign that Yuletide is just around the corner when Southport Contemporary Arts opens its door at The ArtHouse in Eastbank Street to welcome in the festive season with its eagerly anticipated SCA Members Christmas Collection Exhibition.
An annual highlight of their calendar it always proves to be the largest SCA Members Exhibition of the year and offers a celebratory platform for the network of local artists and makers that SCA represents.
“Give a gift made with love, soul and passion built in this Christmas,” advises SCA Director, Norrie Beswick-Calvert.
“The ‘SCA Members Christmas Collection’ always exudes real soul through the pieces that our creatives have hand produced, imbuing them with the love and passion that make the pieces particularly special to give as presents at Christmas. Shopping in Southport for locally made products supports our community in so many important ways, economically, ethically and sustainably”.
The Southport Contemporary Arts (SCA) network started in 2009 with the aim to promote and support the broad range of artists in the area, no matter at what level or in which discipline they worked. SCA subsequently opened The ArtHouse in 2012 providing a permanent gallery space to showcase local artists.
Able to draw on the diversity of SCA members’ wealth of different approaches, the gallery will be overflowing this Christmas with an eclectic mix of tempting seasonal crafts and artwork from the unusual and individual to more traditional and classic designs.
Norrie goes on to explain: “Our town center gallery, ArtHouse, is the sort of space that can take on the character of the work being shown. Whether that’s the work of an individual artist having a solo exhibition or an active creative organisation having a group show, every one is different! When it comes to Christmas, we love dressing it up in all it’s finery, and going all out to pack it full of the fabulous pieces that the SCA Members have been creating”.
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a welcome appearance by that most ubiquitous emblem of the festive season – a robin proudly showing off his striking red breast. Angela Birchall, who grew up in Africa and now lives only four streets away from where she was actually born in Southport, has beautifully captured this iconic garden visitor with her wistful drawing: “I was out in the garden a few weeks ago doing a bit of tidying up and within a few minutes of being out there my little robin friend arrives singing his head off. When he hopped down onto the rockery I got my phone camera out and took a few quick snaps of him. Looking at them later on I decided to do a soft pastel drawing to give the texture of the robin’s feathers; soft and fluffy on his red tummy contrasting with the stiffer wing and tail feathers”.
Jen Rogers, who also lives in Southport, has been busy knotting yarn to make bright and colourful snowflake tree decorations: “During the COVID pandemic I discovered macramé – the art of creating with lots of different knotting techniques. I taught myself the skill and enjoyed losing myself in the creativity. My macramé work is a contemporary take on a classic design. I love how much a simple twist can have such an effect”.
Jen, who has recently started hosting workshops to teach others the addictive technique, has also been experimenting with found and reusable materials: “My work is rarely planned out and I work intuitively with what feels right for me at that moment.
Henrietta Joyce, who gets pleasure from working across several areas of the visual arts, has recently been enjoying experimenting with fluid art: “This technique involves the use of a pouring medium mixed with acrylic paint. The acrylic paints react with each other when combined to make interesting and visually organic motifs”. Henrietta will have two examples on show: “”Spiralling in Green” is an artwork in which I employed fluid Art technique to suggests an upward movement. I created the effect by firstly pouring a green background with splashes of bright colours and while the background was still wet, I used combs to generate upwardly flowing, wavy leaf like spirals”.
Origami maestro, Zulay Sayalero, who prefers to define herself as a ‘Creativity Engineer’, is a British Venezuelan community artist now living in Birkdale and currently undertaking an Art & Design Foundation year at Southport College: “My own creative journey started 15 years ago, by chance, after I rediscovered the art of origami while a patient in hospital. Later I became a volunteer teaching origami and arts and crafts within the NHS”.
A strong believer in the healing power of the Arts, her Zen-like approach guarantees an aesthetically rewarding outcome as in her elaborate paper folding explorations currently out on display: “I enjoy sharing my origami and arts & crafts skills by creating artworks that evoke feelings of hope and positivity. I have facilitated over 1,000 workshops in the public and private sectors, including some to the most vulnerable in society. I have worked at venues including the Sefton Park Palm House, Tatton Park, Liverpool Museums, Sefton Libraries and delivered art workshops in Merseyside Community Centres, Care Homes and learning disabilities charities such as Mencap and PSS”.
Fresh off the easel, SCA newcomer, Paul Booth, who enjoys working with oils and acrylics, is submitting a stirring seascape painting from his recent series vividly capturing the rocky north coast of Devon between Ilfracombe and Combe Martin: “I have altered the perspective to make the land a feature. Its strong texture is achieved by applying paint thickly. This view also captures the beautiful greens as the sea reaches the shallows. The sky is textured, but uniformly coloured, to focus the eye on the land and sea as they are the stars of the show”.
Another recent SCA member, Marion Bayliss, who moved up from Somerset to Lancashire in 2022, is often found beavering away in her studio in Much Hoole:
“Having recently bought a Gelli Plate to try and experiment with, I am finding it quite exciting as I play with the many different methods of working. In the words of Forrest Gump ‘it’s like a box of chocolates!’ You never know what you’re going to get’.”
On display is the latest of Marion’s Gelli print and pastel combinations inspired by photos she took on a recent family trip to the Lake District: “I wanted to create an atmospheric image of a lake in the depths of winter with its murky clouds and hazy shine on the water. To get this effect I had to use the multiple layering method where parts of the plate were ‘inked’ with acrylic paints before taking a print. I then had to repeat the same steps but using different colours and areas of the plate to complete the print using pastels to add a bit of depth.”
Norrie concludes: “We’re hoping our Christmas Collection will delight visitors, enable them to connect with us and enjoy their part in helping our creative community thrive”.
Promising “special gifts for special people”, this year’s SCA Members’ Christmas Exhibition will be on display at the ArtHouse, 65 Eastbank Street, Southport PR8 1EJ from 12th November – 24th December. The gallery is open Tuesday – Friday 10.00-15.00. Saturday 11.00-16.00.
Guaranteed to provide more than a sprinkle of Christmas magic, this latest showing by members of SCA is certainly not one to be missed.
Following the Open Evening from 5-7pm on 12th November, at which all are welcome, there will be a festive Christmas Lights switch-on between 5-7pm, on Tuesday 2nd December and a late night shopping event (3-7pm) on Saturday 13th December.
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