A blind man, a cat and some snazzy pottery

Come here for the art, stay for the cat.

As we wandered in, we were greeted by Matthew (I think, I'm awful with names), who was great - really helpful and gave us loads of info about the pieces in the store, as well as the history of the shop itself.

"Looks like it's a reet sunny day" - Kate, describing one of the pieces of art - 2024

The entire gallery is a selection of paintings and sculptures, with a variety of price ranges, but all really nice pieces. Some galleries you wander into and some of the art in there is a bit... naff.

Kate also liked the bowls that looked a bit like cake icing, see below on the table, and I was into the Peter Watson paintings, which were varying degrees of snazz. But it seems like a lot (and I can't entirely vouch for this without knowing the whole portfolio) of the artists are somewhat local, and that is awesome to see.

Crich Pottery to Alpaca Farming

In the picture above, on the right-hand side, there is pottery from Crich Pottery, bottom shelf I believe. Matthew (again, hopefully the right name) told us about the lady who made the pottery, and gave us a bit of a rundown of her later-life story. Having just done a bit of research myself, I've got the potter down as Diana Worthy. Who after 30 years of pottery, decided in her 80's to move to Spain and open an Alpaca farm. Which if nothing else, is a great example of "you're never too young to do anything" but also, as the kids say, YOLO. Kate and I used to live in Crich, so it's nice to see a part of what was our home for a couple of years out in the wild.

See more about Diana's Alpaca farm here: https://dianaworthy.crevado.com/about

Old AF building

We didn't even realise that the building had an upstairs (obviously we knew it had an upstairs, as it's quite clearly a two-story building, but not as part of the shop). Matthew told us about the wooden beams in the shop (pictured on the left of the image above) which are dated to the mid to late 1500's, just after the reign of Henry VIII.

Whilst I don't believe the building itself is listed, loads of the buildings in the vicinity are listed, and they're all mega-interesting buildings with a huge amount of history in them. You can find out more about the listed buildings in Ashbourne here.

Big Snazz

I didn't really expect anything when we went into Taurean Arts, I thought it'd be a quick in and out after taking a few pics, (which, when I read that back, is a great setup for a "your mum joke", will take note for later). It's quite "far" out of town in comparison to most shops, but let's be fair, Ashbourne isn't exactly London, so the 5-10 minute walk to it is well worth it.

You also need to keep an eye out for the in-house cat, he's quite a difficult spot. His name is Frankie, but I have it on good authority that his name is actually Frankenstein, but you didn't hear that from me. 👀

Either way, I want to wrap up the post here in the sense that it's about Taurean Arts, but I want to end on the most impressive artist in the gallery.

The Blind Woodturner

I've seen references to the Blind Woodturner before when we've been out at local markets/events etc, but never really thought to do any digging into him as a person. Matthew told us all about Chris (the man himself) and when you only see the name, I didn't really think anything else of it.

But when you see his work, it's pretty unbelievable.

The art he produces, is so so good, regardless of being blind. He is also a patron of the UK Men's Shed Association (a great cause btw) and helps children with disabilities to overcome their challenges.

And whilst the art is great, there was one thing that I saw in the gallery today that I thought was fucking insane. There are concept drawings (with pencils), done by Chris, with colour, and they are exactly like the art he then creates. Apparently drawn just by feeling, absolutely, mad.

Either way - you need to check out Chris and his work, I cannot stress that enough. Go check out his stuff.

Website: https://theblindwoodturner.co.uk/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blindwoodturner/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkkxNOUNP8kNT7Gvpc1MjJg

Peace out you sexy mofo's.