Painter Ophelia Appleby's first solo show opens on King Street, Whitehaven, on 6 November Ophelia Appleby's first solo exhibition opens at Gallery 9 in Whitehaven on 6 November
Marra Mode is how we'd tell you this in the Co-op. Switch it off for the straight version.
Cumbrian painter Ophelia Appleby has her first solo show, all faces in oils, at Gallery 9 on King Street. Preview's 6pm Friday 6 November, then it's on Thursdays to Saturdays all month.
This one's for anybody round Whitehaven who likes a good painting, faces especially, or fancies a night out at a local gallery.
Ophelia Appleby, a portrait painter based in Cumbria, is having her first solo exhibition at Gallery 9 on King Street next month. It's called Mapping Glances: Painting Faces Through the Autistic Lens. There's a preview at 6pm on Friday 6 November, and then it's on for the whole of November.
They're all oil paintings, and they're about what she calls the "silent language" of faces: the little looks, the tension, the patterns that give away what someone's thinking or feeling. It's also about how tricky it can be to read all that without words. You'll see pieces like A Last Look, from 2025, and Callum Again, from 2024.
Ophelia said: "I see so much communication in a face, so much information. I love it but I do not have the skill of deciphering it easily." And: "If I could read them better I wouldn't need to paint them all the time."
She's shown her work in London, Cumbria and East Sussex, and at the Venice Biennale with ProSeed, a group of Cumbrian artists. She was in Shipping Brow Contemporary in Maryport not long since, and won the People's Choice Award at Rheged's Twenty Five and Onwards show.
What you can do: get yourself along to the preview at 6pm on Friday 6 November. After that, Gallery 9's open noon till 6pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays all through November, or you can ring ahead and book a time.
Mapping Glances: Painting Faces Through the Autistic Lens, a show of oil portraits by Cumbrian painter Ophelia Appleby, opens with a preview at 6pm on Friday 6 November at Gallery 9 on King Street and runs through November.
This is for anyone in Whitehaven and West Cumbria who enjoys painting, portraits or a free night out at a local gallery.
Ophelia Appleby, a portrait and figurative painter based in Cumbria, will hold her first solo exhibition at Gallery 9 on King Street, Whitehaven, next month. The show is called Mapping Glances: Painting Faces Through the Autistic Lens. It opens with a preview event at 6pm on Friday 6 November and runs throughout November.
The collection of oil paintings explores what the artist calls the "silent language" of faces: the small expressions, tensions and patterns that can give away thoughts and feelings. It also looks at how hard it can be to read non-verbal communication. Works in the show include A Last Look, painted in 2025, and Callum Again, from 2024.
Ms Appleby said: "I see so much communication in a face, so much information. I love it but I do not have the skill of deciphering it easily." She added: "If I could read them better I wouldn't need to paint them all the time."
She has exhibited in London, Cumbria and East Sussex, and at the Venice Biennale with ProSeed, a collective of Cumbrian artists. She recently took part in Shipping Brow Contemporary in Maryport and won the People's Choice Award at Rheged's Twenty Five and Onwards exhibition.
What you can do: go along to the preview at 6pm on Friday 6 November. After that, Gallery 9 is open from noon to 6pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays throughout November, or you can arrange a visit by appointment.