Welcome to Contemporary Six
Contemporary Six is a leading independent art gallery located in the heart of the city centre of Manchester — opposite the beautiful Town Hall. Established in 2010, the gallery is known for offering a warm and friendly welcome to art enthusiasts, collectors, and new visitors and explorers to the city. Visit today and enjoy original works of quality and substance by emerging and internationally acclaimed artists. Specialising in original paintings — landscapes, portraits, and abstracts — handmade prints, and sculptures and ceramics, Contemporary Six boasts variety in artworks, with integrity and substance a priority. We look forward to welcoming you to the Gallery.
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Plein Air Painting
Michael Ashcroft / Alan James Thompson / Adam Ralston / Norman Long / Rob PointonMany artists describe the act of painting as more than a simple record, more than a reproduction or a transcription. Painting an atmosphere, and the fall of light, heat, and weather upon a landscape is an ideal that some artists pursue through the mode of plein air painting — that is, painting in the open air, with the landscape around you.
Leaving the studio behind to head outside, with all the freedom and difficulty that gives rise to, is a mode of painting which has existed for centuries — but it is widely thought to have achieved its greatest height with the French Impressionists, at a time when paints could be transported in tubes, and easels folded into manageable sizes.
Contemporary Six represents several fantastic plein air painters: Michael Ashcroft MAFA; Alan James Thompson, Adam Ralston MAFA, Rob Pointon MAFA, and Norman Long MAFA — and their work, though varied in its aesthetic, is always in the service of capturing that transient moment. A moment that could only be captured at that time, in that place, by that individual.
