Art of Gold

It has an amazing range of art prints, jewellery and quality accessories, but most of all, very polite people, a refreshing notion considering the general snobbery that usually entails such places.
A fantastic art gallery, and in Horsforth!

I can tell you one thing that I really didn’t expect — to find an excellent art gallery within the heart of Horsforth. It came as no surprise, to me, to find an art gallery in Otley and an art gallery in Leeds city centre — but Horsforth? What a fabulous surprise!
So what do they have on offer? A range of arts, in different media and styles, jewellery and gift cards. The limited edition gift cards are of a particularly high quality, not the kind of thing you’ll find anywhere else, and just that little bit more expensive — but worth the gesture in my opinion! The jewellery on offer is beautifully made, contemporary and appeared to me to be inspired by the natural world (lots of leafy shapes and such). A lot of the pendents seemed to be detailed in such a way that gave the impression it was pressed silver and certainly hand made.
The artwork on show was a fantastic range too. There were some ‘fusion glass’ pieces which appeared to be photographs detailed with a sort of embossed piece of glass over the top, bringing out details like traffic lights and such. They were particularly interesting. As well as that there were some amazingly simplistic and sometimes textured sunset scenes by Barker, some amusing and poignant pieces by Todd White, some beautiful oriental ink nude prints by Qu Lei Lei (which were only £20!) and my absolute favourite (and stupidly, I did not note the artist) a sunburstingly orange horizon scene with a sort of marbled gold leaf effect and central silhouetted tree.
I found the art work varied, challenging, decorative and inspiring. The lady who owned/​managed the gallery was polite and thankfully did not try to go in for the hard sell either, which was much appreciated. I can imagine it is frustrating for them to receive browser upon browser, but I am sure if I ever manage to save I will be visiting this place for a central piece! Well worth the visit.

Art of Gold is a fine art gallery who also sell gold and silver jewellery. They are a family run business and don’t concentrate on one type of media or style when showing artists works. They have a diverse range from national and international artists, all of which are for sale.
If you are tired of much of the snobbery surrounded by art these days then Art of Gold should be a refreshing place to visit. The atmosphere is calm and there is no feeling of being stared at down the great height of a very well spoken nose. This is nice because it means you can actually concentrate on what you are there for, and avoid that uncomfortable ‘them and us’ feel that art galleries and shops often have surrounding their staff and customers.
They have a wide selection of works of all different styles, a few of which I noticed to be gorgeous but many didn’t spark any interest in me at all. I am quite picky when it comes to what I like about art. But that is just it, appreciating art is a very personal thing, and someone who saw the same works as me could quite easily have had the opposite opinion. And that is OK. Each to their own, innit.
To me this shop gives you the freedom to make up your own mind without enforcing a particular view or feeling on you as you walk through the door. Art lovers from all different ends of the spectrum would find it an interesting and welcoming place to visit.

You don’t seem to get that many small galleries selling more traditional art in Leeds these days; instead they seem too concerned with appearing modern and cutting-​edge, featuring straight-​out-​of-​art-​school ceramics and textiles of varying qualities. So it’s nice then, to see a more traditional gallery featuring — gasp — paintings, but again the work ranges from the jaw-​dropping to the my-​three-​year-​old-​could-​probably-​do-​better. Some of the work here is amazing, with particular highlights being Bob Barker’s beautifully illuminated landscapes and Sheryl Roberts’ dreamlike acrylics, but comparitively some of it appears dull and uninspired, although to the gallery’s credit the former far outweighs the latter. As with most galleries, my art budget is limited to a couple of quid a month on comic books, but when I visited the gallery staff treated me, in my scruffy jeans and hoody, with just as much attention and respect as the smartly dressed couple at the counter with their credit cards out — for this alone the gallery deserves four stars.

I visited Art of Gold whilst I was strolling around the shops on a lazy day and was quite amazed at what they did. Amongst the paintings and art prints was a Jewellery section.
After speaking to the lady in the shop, I found that her son designs and makes his own jewellery in a workshop based inside the shop. he’d trained in Italy for around 5 years before he came back to England to start his own business. All of the jewellery is bespoke and 18 carat.
Amongst other jewellery designers, you will find the likes of; Deborah Kelly, Shona Carnegie, Iain Henderson & Lora Leedham.
The shop also intends to stock Pandora in the future which I suspect will be extremely popular with the younger crowd.
The lady who runs the shop is polite and passionate about the work they display and spent ages chatting over the background behind the art to me. Go speak her, she’s got some very funny stories to tell!