Photo: Anton Dolders, Regional Chair of Arts at Macmillan
Art For Macmillan Cancer Support was established by Macmillan’s Regional Chair of Arts: Anton Dolders in the Summer of 2011 after his participation in various exhibitions for the charity. It’s success can be attributed to the efforts of artists and craft workers who hail from all over Sefton and include watercolour painter John West; photographer Gary Gray; ceramics painter Nancy Marriner and abstract artist Walter Fairclough. The group has worked hard to raise funds to provide care for those suffering from a terrible illness and for their families by applying their time and skills to publicly demonstrating art and craft techniques in their exhibition venues and other locations around the district. They are currently based in Cambridge Walks, a shopping arcade connecting Eastbank Street; Chapel Street and Lord Street in Southport where many of their fundraising exhibitions and events take place. They also organise art activities for people of all ages outside the gallery on Saturdays with all the necessary art materials provided. There is no need to book; all that is required for taking part is a donation to Macmillan Cancer Support. Art For Macmillan has so far raised £7,902 for it’s charity.
Art For Macmillan’s progress can also be accredited to the support of local businesses in Southport as it is dependent on the provision of premises in which to display artwork and carry out fundraising activities. Implementing a pop-up approach to occupying vacant commercial properties , the group is now in it’s sixth venue, provided this time by Community Interest Company: Make It Workshop, who are also based in Cambridge Walks. The two groups share a common goal of revitalising redundant vacant shops in the town centre and have managed to rekindle interest in Cambridge Walks, which lay dormant for over fifteen years by providing goods and opportunities for local people and visitors to the area. The Cambridge Walks exhibition features work by twenty two artists from around the region and is extremely varied with artistic goods ranging from traditional paintings to extreme abstract work created in both painted and sculpted media. Displays of Art For Macmillan’s artwork can also be seen in properties on Lord Street and in Wayfarers Arcade.
Macmillan’s Chair of Arts Anton Dolders said: “We are overwhelmed by and thankful for the amount of support offered by local service industry businesses and property agents in particular Anthony Hill Commercial and Wayfarers Arcade’s management. They have repeatedly furnished display areas and opportunities which have been of great help in promoting our cause. The charitable nature of Southport’s business community is a credit to Southport”
Cambridge Walks Gallery, Southport PR8 1EN
Open Tues – Sat 10.30am – 5.15pm / Sunday 11am – 5pm Free Entry
Anton Dolders, Regional Chair of Arts at Macmillan: Recent Biography
A painter since the age of four, Anton Dolders has been an artist for thirty nine years and specializes in portraying scenes located around the Merseyside and West Lancashire area, focussing on it’s towns, coastline, landscapes and waterways.
Says Anton: “West Lancs and Sefton’s land, sky and waterscapes have inspired me to create drawings and paintings my whole life regardless of what other jobs I have had. I enjoy travelling and capturing views wherever I go but I do not think that I have discovered another region encompassing such a variety of elements so appealing to an artist”
Anton has recently participated in events organized by Memory Lane Fairs at the end of Southport Pier and as usual a percentage of proceeds from sales went to Macmillan Cancer Support.
Anton: “The pier provides brilliant viewpoints from which to draw Southport’s promenade and coastline. Southport is an extremely picturesque town whose distinct vintage and more recent architectural features, coalesce well within a bright and lively seaside setting. The challenge lies in capturing the town’s ambience, comprising classically rendered walls and windows; upbeat structures promoting fun and commerce and a serious, academic approach to visual traditional and culture.”
Anton also had a wonderful Summer in Cambridge Walks, the location of Art For Macmillan’s current pop-up venue and feels it to be a great setting for an art gallery because of it’s subtly stylish décor and the presence of other culturally relevant components including a retro household emporium and classic record shop owned by Make It Workshop. The Southport area corresponds well with the art business. Anton took part in The Birkdale Summer Fair; a fantastically energetic street event which provided a useful outlet from which to sell prints of his recent paintings of Birkdale Village. Prints of his work are also permanently on display in Paul’s Barbers on Liverpool Road in Birkdale where he carried out a number of drawing demonstrations over the Summer and raised funds for Macmillan through the sale of artwork to local businesses. He will be situated outside Paul’s again in the run up to Christmas as despite the cold temperatures expected, Anton used to be a paver and is accustomed to working outdoors in Winter.
Anton’s paintings and drawings of Churchtown can be seen in L & A’s Tea Shop on Botanic Road where he exercised his drawing skills to benefit a Macmillan Coffee Morning on 23rd September. Anton: “I find the bygone yet still very buoyant character of Churchtown extremely heartening. It offers whimsical, almost eccentric views and ambience which are a departure from the town centre’s bustle and inspire beautiful artwork”
His array of artwork portraying Churchtown was displayed at the Victorian Day in Botanic Gardens early in September and is to be included in the forthcoming Christmas Fair there.
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