Shrewsbury art show keeps it in the Coyle family
A shared love of art brought them together as teenagers. And now a couple from Shropshire and their two sons are proving that artistic talent runs in the family as they put on a joint exhibition in Shrewsbury.
The Coyle family from Wellington in Telford, have booked out the entire exhibition space at The Bear Steps Gallery in St Alkmund's Place to display about 80 pieces of work they have created.
Mum Jackie said the space had initially been booked out earlier this year as a 50th birthday present for her husband Eric, who is an art teacher at Adams' Grammar School in Newport.
But after they realised he would struggle to fill the space with his own work, Jackie and her two sons Sam and Joe offered up some of their work for a joint family exhibition.
Jackie said a love of art runs in the family, with her and Eric meeting as teenagers when they were both doing fine art degrees in Sheffield.
They ended up getting married and have passed on their shared love of art to their two sons.
Their oldest son Sam, who is 22, has just graduated from a graphics degree at Huddersfield University, while 20-year-old Joe is studying for a fine art degree himself in Hereford.
Mrs Coyle said she had hit upon the idea of the display for a 50th birthday present as her husband had never had a his own exhibition before.
"I booked the whole building but we realised he couldn't fill it all. I have exhibited and my sons are artists as well so we thought we would do it together," she said.
"There must be around 80 pieces. My husband's work is mainly paintings, I work mainly in mosaics so everything is a bit different."
She said Mr Coyle would be turning 50 on December 27 as the exhibition still runs, with the show due to end on December 29 having started earlier this month. Mrs Coyle said her husband had been a bit worried when he realised the amount of work that was needed to fill the gallery, but has gone on to have one of his most productive artistic spells in years as he created new pieces for the exhibition.
"He has done more work in the last six months than in the last six years, because he has worked towards it. He normally spend most of his time teaching others," she said.
She said Mr Coyle's work often contains images of things like skeletons, bones and skulls and has attracted a varied reaction from visitors to the gallery.
But she added the family have produced a real variety of different work, with all four of them bringing a different style to the show. There is something for everyone as there is other work upstairs which is totally different," she said.
