What is Goldmark films?
Jonny Lewis has worked on many productions for Goldmark Films, the Filmmaker of the Year and four-times Royal Television Society Award nominated independent film making arm of the world-renowned Goldmark Gallery. It has been producing broadcast arts documentaries for over 20 years and has made 24 feature length documentaries and 100 plus shorts, many of which can be watched, free of charge and 24/7, at youtube.com/@Goldmarkart, goldmarkart.com and goldmark.tv. Goldmark's global reputation allows it to gain intimate and revealing interviews with some of the world's leading artists, ceramicists, writers and critics. Its films on contemporary artists are complemented by a stable of programmes unveiling the fascinating life stories of both the famous and the forgotten painters, potters and sculptors of the 20th century. http://www.goldmarkart.com
TRAILER: RTS AWARD SHORTLISTED Alphabets, Bandits & Collaborations: RON KING Artist documentary
Graham Boyd A Life In Colour ROYAL TELEVISION SOCIETY AWARD NOMINATED FILM clip
You won't believe the driftwood creations of Sid Burnard | RTS AWARD NOMINATED FILM | GOLDMARK
Royal television society award nominations
Goldmark Films, the film making arm of Uppingham’s ‘extraordinary’* Goldmark Gallery, has received a number of Royal Television Society Award nominations over the last few years for the documnetary films it has been producing. Its arts documentary Graham Boyd - A Life In Colour was nominated as the Best Factual Programme, as was the documentary Alphabets, Bandits & Collaborations: RON KING. The short film Sid Burnard’s Curious Kingdom was nominated in the Promotional Catagory and Goldmark Films’ presenter Max Waterhouse was nominated as Outstanding Personality.
“We are honoured that the Royal Television Society [RTS] has recognised us in this way ”
Works in production include a commercial one-hour feature documentary on ANTHONY GROSS CBE RA. This is the first programme to follow the journey of an exceptional British artist who led a life of dashing romance worthy of Lawrence of Arabia and whose other exploits included wading ashore at the D-Day Landings armed only with brushes, paint and easel.
Key Players
Jay Goldmark is Managing Director of all Goldmark Divisions.
He is a film maker, photographer, composer and musician and brings all of these skills to Goldmark Films. He has filmed and directed documentaries all over the world, including Japan, South Korea, China, USA, France and Denmark.
Jonny Lewis is an RTS Award winning documentary filmmaker producing content for Goldmark Films and has directed a number of award winning and shortlisted feature documentaries. He has a wide variety of other credits in Europe and the USA including an award winning documentary on Amazon Prime.
Max Waterhouse is the resident writer, researcher and presenter at the Goldmark Gallery. Max has presented over 100 in-depth videos and exhibition reviews. Max is also commissioning editor for the Goldmark Magazine, a richly illustrated 64-page quarterly with articles from some of the country's top arts writers.
latest goldmark films by Jonny lewis
Check out the latest Goldmark film by Jonny in this playlist and watch content on Goldmark TV
Featured Films
Graham Boyd: A Life In Colour | Royal Television Society 2022 Best Factual nominated documentary
Royal Television Society best factual Award shortlisted . Two years in the making, this new Goldmark film finds 93 year old veteran of abstraction Graham Boyd at work in his Hertfordshire studio. He talks about his life and inspiration; the early development of his painting into pure abstraction, the impact on his work of his time spent in Africa and America and his continuing artistic journey. http://goldmarkart.com
“‘Standing in front of his paintings we might feel just such variegations of mood and feeling. They are so alive, so unpredictable, so disconcerting, and, yes, so beautiful if we make them so.’ ”
“‘I am just curious about what is going to happen … what I can do with colour… I don’t want to do what I have done before … the main thing is to do what surprises me.’ ”
“Fantastic! One of the best I’ve seen...Thank you!”
“You’ve done it again, Goldmark! You make the best art documentaries ever. Thank you for showing this inspiring film of an artist who has such humility that one cannot fail to be inspired by him: both as an artist and as a man.”
Royal Television Society Award Shortlisted: Ron King - Alphabets, Bandits and Collaborations
Ron King - Alphabets, Bandits and Collaborations - 2020 Royal Television Society Award nominated Best Factual
2020 Royal Television Society Award nominated Best Factual. When a young boy sees a photo of the decapitated head of notorious Brazilian bandit Lampião in a book, it becomes an obsession and inspires him to create incredible multifaceted artworks in a life time journey that takes him from Brazil, to England, Canada and the United States as he struggles to have his work recognised and accepted. http://goldmarkart.com
Ron King has had an artistic life that spans a multi faceted and inspiring 60 years. His iconographic work is marked by a distinctive, fresh and often pioneering approach. As an artist his work can’t be pinned down by genre but it does have an approach that is hallmarked by a distinctive curiosity, questioning and energy. King is considered one of the modern-day masters of artist books and his cut out Alphabets are recognised as timeless 20th century works of arts. The iconic status of his Alphabet was recognised in 2011 when the Crafts Council chose it for its '40:40' selection of Forty Objects for Forty Years. In this new Goldmark film, shot mostly on location in his studio in Sussex, Ron King talks about his life and inspiration; the development of his work and the founding of Circle Press as an ongoing collaboration with other artists. The film highlights his continuing relationship with the USA which was underlined in 2002 with the purchase of the Circle Press' complete output and archives by the Paul Mellon Foundation at The Yale Center for British Art. King also talks movingly in the film about the sudden death of his son, from cancer, aged only 15 and that of his second son from the same disease 30 years later and the profound effect the passing of his sons has had on his life and his work. Featuring interviews with writer, art historian and critic Mel Gooding and artist, designer and filmmaker John Christie, this latest Goldmark film provides a sensitive and revealing insight into the life of this extraordinarily inventive and energetic man. http://goldmarkart.com
Akiko Hirai: 'Mark of the Pot' | DOCUMENTARY about Japanese potter | GOLDMARK
Akiko Hirai: 'Mark of the Pot' | DOCUMENTARY about Japanese potter | GOLDMARK
Feature documentary looking at how Akiko Hirai became one of the world's leading potters. https://www.goldmarkart.com/ "My pots display a lot of marks and traces of past events. To describe them in a conventional and very simplified way, they are 'dirty' and 'broken'. I have acquired a lot of 'marks' in my life like my pots. Because of them, I have found that life's obstacles are not really a bad thing, and that I quite like these marks that I have - Akiko Hirai I graduated from my university ceramics course here in the UK in 2003. That same year, I found a studio at The Chocolate Factory, London N16. It is 2021 this year, meaning I have been here for almost 18 years, and this is the place where I have spent the longest and happiest time of my life. I have had bumps and blips like everyone else during that time. My husband Jason sometimes says, in a slightly sarcastic way, that my life has been very eventful. Around my mid-20s, I gave up my regular job in Japan and came here, to a foreign country, without much language or money. I volunteered in a homeless hostel for 8 months, and then decided to change my career completely to the field of ceramics, which was entirely unknown to me, when I was nearly 30 years old. To a sensible English person my life must look preposterous. I was, and maybe am, naive, gullible and clumsy, so I have acquired a lot of 'marks' in my life, like my pots. These are the marks made when I come across life's obstacles. Luckily, I have been helped by so many people in so many ways and I am grateful to have met them. Because of them, I have found that life's obstacles are not really a bad thing, and that I quite like these marks that I have.
Richard James: Beachcomber as Shaman | Artist Documentary | GOLDMARK
Our Late Familiars: Witnessing the Palermo Catacombs DOCUMENTARY
Richard James: Beachcomber as Shaman | Artist Documentary | GOLDMARK
This 30 minute documentary delves into the life and creative processes of Richard James, a visionary assemblage artist renowned for transforming found materials from the natural world into profound works of art. Our film explores James' unique artistic journey, revealing how the recurring themes of astronomy, religion, natural history, and biology intertwine to influence his distinctive work. https://www.goldmarkart.com/ We follow Richard to the Outer Hebrides where, guiding us through the stunning landscape, he talks us through the process of collecting and curating found materials. In a moving interview he discusses his profound relationship to the natural world and his desire to honour and show respect to the flora and fauna that we so often take for granted. We then travel back to his Northamptonshire studio where he selects, combines and transforms these materials into art. Through time-lapse sequences showing the creation of a piece from start to finish, we witness some of the incredible technical processes that he uses to make his constructions, many of which take over three months to complete. We visit a major exhibition of his work at Goldmark Gallery and James talks about the pleasure it gives him when people connect with his work. Our film attempts to open the door to an understanding of Richard James' complex and beautiful assemblage art, celebrate his contributions to contemporary art and inspire viewers to see the beauty and interconnectedness of the natural world through his eyes.
Our Late Familiars: Witnessing the Palermo Catacombs DOCUMENTARY | Iain Sinclair & Ian Wilkinson
For close on five centuries the catacombs of Palermo, Sicily, have played host to the undead. When the local Capuchin brotherhood embalmed their first member, preserved in his habit, with him began a tradition of macabre display that prevailed in Sicilian society for over four hundred years. ourlatefamiliars.com/
Today, tourists are encouraged to make their own visits to the crypts. But when artist and Goldmark Atelier’s master printmaker Ian Wilkinson made his, it prompted a visceral re-awakening. He was reminded of two childhood nightmares: a darkened corridor leading to a door, unknown voices whispering from the shadows; and a black bird alighting on the windowsill, announcing it was ‘time to go’. Left with an unshakeable association, he resolved to explore it. He bought himself a camera and over five years returned to document Palermo’s necropolitan populace.
The results are these: 67 photographic images of catacombed saints and sinners, still dressed in their finery. Attending them are a company of portentous birds, bearers of tidings good and ill, in similar states of mummification. Wilkinson discovered them soon after his return from Palermo, entombed within the chimney breast of an abandoned farmstead in Northamptonshire. Excavated by hand and photographed in his home studio, man and bird – and two personal visions – are united in these prints: departed souls and underworld envoys.
What began as a private endeavour to reanimate Palermo’s eternally interred quickly evolved when acclaimed writer Iain Sinclair was apprised of the project. In a fortuitous meeting with the publisher, Mike Goldmark, Sinclair accepted the kind of Sicilian offer that can’t be refused and left town for the catacombs. After years writing his way out of the labyrinth of London’s East End, Sinclair found himself in a true labyrinth, where all the familiar ghosts were waiting, eager to dictate their stories.
Our Late Familiars presents Wilkinson’s haunting imagery with Sinclair’s words: a fever-dream immersion in the plural connections of Palermo and its land of the dead.
The Wonderful Driftwood Creations of Sid Burnard
The Wonderful Driftwood Creations of Sid Burnard
“..Sid Burnard is putting together objects that make profound, witty and beautiful remarks about life, the universe and everything. ”
Sid Burnard traces the true beginning of his making to a chance meeting with Mike Goldmark in 2002 who stayed in touch, and debated with him, and encouraged him, while Sid got on with life - which included beach combing. Sid's work is made from the bits and pieces he finds lying about on beaches, riverbanks and hedges. He brings these bits and pieces back to his studio, and looks at them, and adjusts and assembles them until they cease to be mere stuff and become a thing: a bird, a beast, an insect, a boat; while at the same time their component parts cling to their original state as a lump of driftwood, a toothbrush, a bottle top. This is the land of miracles, where an object can be many things at once. Sam Llewellyn
91 Year Old Sculptor Olive Wootton's Incredible Creations: "Myths & Animals" Documentary | GOLDMARK
Olive Wootton: Myths & Animals | Documentary about 91 year old sculptor.
Olive Wootton: Myths and Animals follows Olive Wootton, now in her nineties, as she prepares for a major exhibition at Goldmark. In her Northamptonshire studio, we find Wootton working on a new minotaur, a theme she has returned to time and again throughout her career. The film captures Olive's passion for her craft as she meticulously shapes clay and works with craftsmen, mouldmaking and bronze casting. Despite her age, Olive's creativity remains vibrant, infusing her sculptures with a timeless energy. As Wootton prepares for a major exhibition at Goldmark, anticipation builds. On exhibition day, surrounded by admirers, Wootton is joined by gallery owner Mike Goldmark for a short discussion about her life and work. This poignant film celebrates Olive's resilience and artistry, proving that age is no barrier to creativity and passion.
Artist destroys work in pursuit of perfection | Christophe P Wood Printmaking
Artist destroys work in pursuit of perfection
Artist Christopher P Wood struggles for perfection with the art of printmaking using mono print and etching techniques at Goldmark Atelier. We are always delighted to host an exhibition by Christopher P Wood. This will be the third major show of his paintings at the gallery, each one attracting a host of new admirers for Wood’s magical, thought provoking and elegant work. The exhibition will open on February 19 and be accompanied by a guided online walkthrough film. A new 108 page book on the artist, An Innocent Vision, will be published by Goldmark to coincide with the exhibition. Dr Richard Davey, Senior Research Fellow at Nottingham School of Art and Design, contributes an essay to An Innocent Vision and comments, He shows us the reality of both pigment and poetry, wandering the space between wonder and knowledge, the unnamed and named where mystery exists… Wood’s paintings offer us both poetry and prose; a world where monsters prowl the bedroom and tree branches fall as patterned shadows on the wall. http://goldmarkart.com Born in Leeds in 1961, Christopher P. Wood is a painter and printmaker of atmospheric and enigmatic imagery. He gained a master’s degree in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art in 1986 and has consistently had successful exhibitions in the UK and abroad. His work is held in numerous public and private collections including Harrogate Art Gallery, Leeds City Council and the Unilever Collection. Wood’s work features magical, symbolic figures and signs, what the artist calls an exploration of the interior world of the imagination. He spends a great deal of time priming his canvases, often four times over, and builds his pictures in such a way that once begun each must be finished in a single sitting, an emotionally draining task to say the least. http://www.goldmarkart.com
Randy Johnston | An Expansive Vision | GOLDMARK
Randy Johnston | An Expansive Vision
Our documentary tells the story of one of America's most respected studio potters, Randy Johnston. Set against the backdrop of his picturesque Wisconsin studio, it gives a revealing and moving insight into his artistic journey. Kicking against his family's desire for him to become a doctor, Johnston tells of his early travels to Japan, meeting the great Shoji Hamada and apprenticing to National Living Treasure, Tatsuzo Shimaoka. We are also taken on a visit to the Minnesotan studio of his lifelong mentor and friend, 94 year old American legend, Warren MacKenzie. A deep thinker, Johnston talks about his approach to his working practice and his philosophy on art and teaching. Having studied with Warren MacKenzie and Hamada's favourite apprentice, Tatsuzo Shimaoka, Johnston is one of the most exciting and innovative potters working in America today. He is recognized internationally as an artist who has pursued functional expression and brought a fresh aesthetic vision to contemporary form, and for his many contributions to the development of wood kiln technology in the United States. http://www.goldmarkart.com See more films like this at http://www.WeLoveClay.com
Ken Matsuzaki | The Intangible Spirit | GOLDMARK
Ken Matsuzaki | The Intangible Spirit
Our brand new documentary tells the story of one of Japan's most respected studio potters, Ken Matsuzaki. Set against the backdrop of his picturesque Mashiko studio in Japan, it gives a revealing insight into his creative journey and his philosophy on art and working practice. Born into an artistic family, Matsuzaki talks of his apprenticeship with National Living Treasure, Tatsuzo Shimaoka and the subsequent difficulties in finding his own voice. We hear how his pottery town was decimated by the terrible earthquake of 2011 and the international efforts to rebuild it. We see him at work in his studio and we are taken to his exhibitions in Japan and England and hear of his desire now to encourage younger Mashiko potters to be true to themselves as artists and promote them on a world stage. http://goldmarkart.com
David Suff | Journeys Beyond Appearance
David Suff | Journeys Beyond Appearance
David Suff’s work is almost always based upon observational drawing of the landscape, especially gardens, and is often created on hand-made paper. He has described how there is an important link between the symbol of the garden and spirituality in his work which attempts to illustrate mankind’s constant search for the divine. He has shown in a number of solo shows, in the UK and abroad. http://goldmarkart.com With works held in prominent public and private collections, David Suff is well known for his work on paper – and in particular his large, rich, and meticulously drawn landscapes in coloured pencil. Building up crayon layer upon layer, Suff creates intimate views of enclosed gardens and landscaped spaces that can take many years to complete. Each drawing explores the garden as a place of temporary imposition on the natural world; one of quiet contemplation and spiritual mystery. This film features a look at the life and work of Suff including the making of a small suite of drawings and book called A Conversation with William Blake. It also features Suff’s autobiographical ‘River of Life’ pen drawing stretching over 30 feet long. Featuring footage from the film "River" featuring original music by Martin Simpson and Kathryn Tickell. You can purchase work by David Suff at http://goldmarkart.com
Mike Dodd: His Final Firings | Documentary on British Potter | GOLDMARK
‘I can think of few potters as thoughtful, sensitive, and committed to their craft as Mike Dodd,’ Mike Goldmark. A philosophy of honesty, mindfulness and aesthetic integrity has informed Dodd’s career. He is perhaps best known among the ceramics community for his use of, and dedication to, local materials. https://www.goldmarkart.com/collections/mike-dodd ‘Clay is vulnerable and innocent ‘and will therefore show us the slightest mark when handled. The potter needs to stand back and respectively learn to allow plasticity to show itself, to be mindfully unfussy. With practice, feeling and respect, vitality can emerge.’ Mike Dodd Mike Dodd was born in 1943 in Sutton, Surrey. While in the village of Corfe Castle, on his way to a teashop with his parents, the young Dodd spotted a potter at work. He stopped, mesmerised by what he saw. The image of that potter burnt itself into my mind, and according to my mother’s later account I bored them rigid, talking excitedly about everything this white coated magician had done. Dodd has a strong commitment to animal welfare, conservation and environmental issues. He has held workshops at Landshut College for Ceramics in Germany and the Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry, India. He has exhibited extensively throughout the UK and his work is held in collections at the V&A, British Crafts Council and Ulster Museum, Belfast.
Walter Keeler: Treasures of the Everyday
Walter Keeler is a British studio potter, born in London in 1942. He attended Harrow School of Art, London where he was trained by Michael Casson. He established his first pottery at Bledlow Bridge, Buckinghamshire in 1965 then moved to his current studio in Penallt Wales, where he lives with his potter wife Madoline. He was professor of Ceramics at the University of the West of England and in 2007 was named Welsh Artist of the Year. http://www.goldmarkart.com Keeler makes salt glaze pottery influenced by early Staffordshire Creamware. Writer Oliver Watson described him as 'one of the most important and influential potters of the 1980s'. Keeler's work is held in a number of public collections including Victoria & Albert Museum, National Museum Wales, American Craft Museum, New York, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA and the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
Below is a selection of Goldmark films by Jonny Lewis
Archive
selection of GOLDMARK TV
A streaming TV service from Goldmark featuring the best in art, books, ceramics & music, started during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic featuring regular broadcasts from the gallery, seeking to entertain, , inform and maybe even tempt you! WATCH MORE at Goldmark.tv and read an article about GTV on the Royal Television Society website here
