Blyth Festival Art Gallery

From May until September 2022, local artists were invited by the Blyth Gallery Exhibition Committee to submit two pieces for display at the Bainton Gallery in the Blyth Community Memorial Hall. I choice two works that highlighted a new direction in using multiples of the same Object to create a pattern in a memory box.

Brown Keyholes with Hinge

For “Brown Keyholes with Hinge,” I employed the repetition of metal keyhole covers to emphasize the attractive shapes of the brass plates. The negative space of the keyhole section is also unusual and interesting. The covers were meant to protect the wood around the keyhole opening as well as align the key with the keyhole. Keyhole covers could be plain or elaborate. They were also called “escutcheons;” but “cover” is a more commonly used word.

Pastel Keyholes

I played with the notion of colour in the second memory box, “Pastel Keyholes,” since the Objects are still partially covered with old colours of paint. The tints are all pale, which is interesting, meaning they could have come from one house that was painted in light colours. Door hardware on older doors eventually became painted over, and I do not know if the beauty that we see today in the brass or other metals and the design was appreciated. It could be these utilitarian Objects eventually faded into the background, much like today’s door hardware might. I like to think that the manufacturers made the hardware both durable and with fine design elements that we can appreciate today.