After months of uncertainty and seemingly endless postponements, the doors finally opened on an annual art exhibition at the weekend.

The Hodgson Loom Gallery, based at the Laxey Woollen Mills, unveiled the entrants in its open art competition at the opening of its exhibition on Saturday, after being forced to postpone and delay the competition.

More than 138 individual pieces of artwork hang on the wall of the gallery, supplied by more than 70 artists to create a diverse and varied display of work, created by both professional and amateur artists of all ages and backgrounds.

The competition was run under the theme of ’eye’, with the artist free to interpret it as they saw fit.

Gallery curator Julia Ashby Smyth said that she was delighted and surprised by the range and quality of the submitted work .

’As usual this is just a brilliant exhibition,’ said Julia.

’Every year I am blown away by the quality of the work we get submitted to the open art competition.

’It does frighten me how many wonderfully talented artists there are around the Isle of Man.

’It is certainly a diverse exhibition, from all mediums and directions possible, like sculpture, textiles, 2D, photographs, everything.

’There are plenty of eyes that follow you around the room. I like that.

’There are some tenuous eyes and some hidden eyes, but there are also some fabulous eyes, that’s for sure.’

The ’eye’ theme was announced in February 2020, before the Covid pandemic had become a concern.

However, the theme enabled people to link their experiences into the competition.

’There are pieces here that have been affected directly by Covid,’ she said.

’There are plenty of eyes above masks, and there is one piece that, in particular, is very moving. It’s a collection of eyes of people, who are friends of the artist, and some of them, unfortunately, aren’t with us any more.

’Also, the lockdown has had a quite different effect on different artists.

’There are some who would have normally been on the walls here, that have told me that they could not get going, having either lost their creative spark or just didn’t or couldn’t produce anything over the lockdown, and there are others who have found a creative spark and are new to it entirely.

’I’ve had entries from artists I’ve never met before and there are some artists who would normally enter but have either been caught up in other projects.’

The ’Eye’ exhibition is open from Tuesday to Saturday, between 10am and 5pm, and runs until June 5, with the winners, chosen by a public vote, which can be cast at the exhibition, and also by a panel of judge, being announced on Saturday, May 29.

by Mike Wade

Twitter:@iomnewspapers