Wicker Man at the Mack

Tonight we have the first of our "Movies at the Mack" cinema nights. This ties in with the Galloway Artisans exhibition (both part of the West End Festival) we've carried on the theme for a screening of a British classic which features the landscapes and lore of Scotland's most mystical area: Galloway.

As today is Friday 13th we are delighted to be showing this evening, the 1973 classic horror "The Wicker Man". There can be few, if any, film fans in the world who haven't watched, at least once, this low-budget offering from Britain. The film has steadily grown in reputation in the intervening years to become one of the principal cult movies of the last 40 years. Tonight's showing is sold out.

This beautiful plate by Peter Wareing is inspired by the Logan Botanical Gardens near Port Logan. Several scenes from the film were shot there, as Lord Summerisle's gardens.

Peter Wareing trained in Manchester, 1969-1973, where he developed a passion for working in clay. After many years of teaching in Birmingham schools, he decided in 2006 to concentrate full time on his ceramic work.
His early work consisted of 3D built pieces, often incorporating figures influenced by the paintings of Egon Schiele.

During the 1990s he was commissioned to develop a design for a tiled fireplace at a house in Wells. As part of the design research for it he visited the tile museum at Ironbridge which has a range of tile panels, some produced by using the technique of tube lining. This led to an interest in the technique, which with its linear qualities afforded the possibility of drawing in an expressive way directly onto the ceramic form. One of his earlier tile panels was published by Lark Books in “500 Tiles” in 2008.