Monkton Arts opened a new exhibition in The Mead Gallery this week. ‘Sweet Dreams’ features work by Wendy Welsford, Sandy Kendall and Alex Welsford and runs until 25th July 2026.
The exhibition grew out of the artists’ shared fascination with each other’s work.
How the idea came together
Last year Wendy made a sleeping figure as part of an entry for a local art competition.
On seeing the head and concept of a person sleeping in a bed, Sandy was inspired to research people sleeping in paintings and started painting her own.
They both decided that a joint exhibition would be fun.
Developing the theme of insomnia
Wendy has developed the sleeping person concept to incorporate the idea of insomnia.
As a part of her original installation, she got up during the night to photograph the tangled sheets.
Then after recently rewatching a film made by Alex Welsford back in 2009, Wendy was inspired to use this theme of insomnia to develop her ideas further.
From Warhol to the Eurythmics
Back in 2009, Alex drew on the work of Andy Warhol in making their film Insomniac.
As things were developing the song “Sweet dreams are made of this” by the Eurythmics (a favourite song from the 1980s) also inspired the title and some of the work in this exhibition.
Other inspiration has come from poems about dreaming and insomnia.
What’s on show
The exhibition is a mixture of installation, original paintings, printing, sculptures, music and film and photography.
Where and when
Sweet Dreams runs until the 25th July and can be seen at Monkton Arts, East Street, Ryde.
Open Tuesdays to Saturdays 11am-4pm.
