Art heritage and culture at Low Wood Bay

A focal point for ornate, classical sculpture

Low Wood Bay ‘artist in residence’ Shawn Williamson created the venue’s sculpture trail in 2017. He was also instrumental in securing a new home here for the hand carved French limestone statue ‘Mr Valiant for Truth’.

Created by world-renowned sculptor Josefina De Vasconcellos, this ornate piece of artwork now stands proudly outside the hotel’s Winander Club. The white limestone sculpture was originally a memorial carving for Josefina’s late husband, the painter Delmar Banner.

The sculpture trail includes 16 pieces along the Windermere shoreline near the spa resort. The trail of boulders features carved creatures including otters, swans, fish, owls and squirrels. The aim is to showcase the wonderful woodland creatures of the Lake District to visitors from all over the world.

All the reclaimed boulders for the sculpture trail came from excavations during the development and extension of the spa resort. Some of the Low Wood Bay maintenance team helped Shawn site the hefty stones too.

Shawn has also created a sculpture of English Lakes Hotels’ former chairman and managing director, Michael Berry, and his faithful friend Sam the dog.

Lake District art - a ‘pop-up’ gallery in the hotel atrium

In partnership with Gavagan Art, Low Wood Bay Resort & Spa launched its inaugural ‘Art in the Atrium’ exhibition in 2023.  The first gallery featured the works of renowned British artist Norman Adams RA.

The aim has been to establish a regular display of fine art in the spacious Atrium at the resort. It’s a place where people can come to see a high quality art exhibition in the Lake District in an accessible, free and informal way.

Since then there have been several further exhibitions featuring a range of artists in this Windermere art gallery. This includes Kitty North, whose projects have appeared at Levens Hall, Bolton Abbey, Chatsworth and Salts Mill Saltaire.

Other artists to appear in the Atrium

The works of local artists such as Tina Balmer from Ulverston and Rebecca Scott from Windermere have also been on display for guests to marvel at.

Rebecca’s art work features in private and public collections nationally and internationally and she has exhibited overseas in Spain, France, Germany, Sweden and Norway.

Tina has had solo exhibitions at Brantwood near Coniston and the Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal. She has also organised various art trails and exhibitions in the north of England, including Printfest and Artfest North.

Norman Long is another North West based British artist to feature in the gallery here. The New English Art Club has displayed Norman’s work previously.  And he has also exhibited with the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

Since launching this ‘pop-up’ art gallery in the Lake District, we’ve had some tremendous, positive feedback from both guests and people who have come to Low Wood Bay to see our displays.

The ongoing success of the ‘Art in the Atrium’ gallery installation has resulted in an expansion into the world of stoneware ceramics and sculpture too.  The hotel team commissioned British ceramics expert Jonquil Cook to feature her works in a new display area to add to the venue’s ongoing art exhibits.

Celebrating Low Wood Bay’s Victorian heritage

Stonework is a key feature in the grounds of Low Wood Bay, notably following the discovery of an ancient limestone water garden. This unusual horticultural artefact from the Victorian era reappeared at the south end of the site during pruning work and the removal of overgrown foliage.

The water garden dates back to the mid to late 1800s. It features an extensive limestone rockery with three pools.  There's a larger one and two smaller ones linked by mini waterfalls. The hotel grounds team discovered the water garden whilst clearing overgrown paths under 12 inches of leaf mould and debris.

The most likely date for its original construction is around the hotel’s rebuild and re-opening in 1859. It is thought that the water garden was buried and lost most probably during the second world war while the hotel was closed.

When it re-opened after the war, there would not have been the staff to look after the grounds as there had been in its earlier heydays of the 1930s.

The hotel has installed a new water circulation system for the ponds and repaired them. Other than that, the water garden is intact and as originally found with no stones moved from where they were uncovered.

Take in some Lake District art along the print trail

And an array of British artists who draw inspiration from the natural world around them are behind the Low Wood Bay Print Trail.

This ‘trail’ features an eclectic series of selected paintings and Lake District art around the main resort. Guests can scan a QR code which allows them to read up on each of the prints and artists. It’s another reason why Low Wood Bay has become something of an art centre in the Lake District.

Print works include Sarah Cemmick’s Summer Swallows and Mr Blue by printmaker, illustrator and image-maker Anna Marrow. The Surgeons is by Mychael Barratt, a narrative printmaker and cartographer with a love of storytelling.

Home grown works from artists such as Mark Pearce, a printmaker and landscape artist from the coastal Lake District village of Ravenglass, are also on the trail.

Other renowned artists and award-winning designers and illustrators on display include Marcus Walters and Geraldine Walkington, whose work reflects the journeys she makes in the Lake District.

Sally Spens’ delicate hand printed etchings, inspired by the patterns and forms of nature, have a rhythmic quality and show a designer’s eye for line and composition.

And there’s an international flavour too in the artwork of Laura Boswell, a printmaker specialising in rural landscape. Having trained in Japan, she now works in classical Japanese water-based woodblock and reduction linocut.

More about Low Wood Bay artist in residence Shawn Williamson

A born traveller by his own admission, Shawn Williamson sailed on the high seas with the Merchant Navy before he became a sculptor.  He has created over thirty public commissions across the UK and overseas.

One of his most renowned works inspired by his overseas travels is the sculpture of Chilean naval captain Luis Pardo. Pardo’s courage and daring engineered the precarious rescue of British explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew after their months long stranding on Elephant Island during their Antarctic expedition.

Shawn sculpted the bust by hand in Portland stone, and a hand-lettered block of local Burlington slate was provided by Gordon Greaves.  It stands proudly in the entrance hall of the International Maritime Organisation in London.

Closer to home, he has worked with the University of Cumbria on a range of different pieces, including his ‘Red Torso’ sculpture which was hand carved at Low Wood Bay and sited and installed by the hotel’s maintenance team in the courtyard behind the library and Bishop Cross Building.

Shawn’s ‘Armitt stone’ is featured at the Armitt Trust at the University of Cumbria’s Ambleside campus.  Former managing director and chairman of English Lakes Hotels, Michael Berry, facilitated the completion of this project for Shawn and Josefina De Vasconcellos in 1992.

His 1985 creation ‘Medieval Knight’, stands outside the law courts in Lancaster, and his ‘Mary and Babe’ sculpture for Lancaster Priory was installed in 1994. He was also commissioned for three major works at Lancaster University: the ‘Bull Calf’, ‘Angel in Boots’ and ‘Jack, a working man’s terrier’.