Urgent warning as high street suffers blow from ‘one of quietest Christmases’

GDP Q1 data - “It’s more a question of how long we have left rather than how well we’re doing”

‘We lost a third of our orders after the Tories raised taxes’

Forget ‘Black Friday’ - support Banbury’s independent businesses on ‘Colour Friday’ instead

Will small businesses benefit from Black Friday this year?

What it’s like to own a small business on Black Friday

Retail sales fell 1.6% in August, latest ONS data shows

Inflation takes toll as UK economy contracts in March

Firms will carry on making staff who test positive self-isolate

Let’s not kid ourselves: the real economy is a mess

Boost for retailers as government says we can all shop around the clock - Business & Innovation Magazine

‘My online art classes helped people switch off’: how creativity became a lifeline in lockdown

UK economy grows after boost from camping holidays and meals out

Banbury’s art classes go global in response to lockdown

Barry has been teaching art for over 25 years alongside working in retail. He understands the need of the student and consumer, and adapts to the current need or climate. 
Barry teaches watercolour, acrylics, drawing, oils, and art history in ove rthirty classes every month, all year round. He is an artist in his own right and has paintings across the globe and now specialises in animal portraits.

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Barry Whitehouse

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Banbury-based art shop, The Artery, has seen its Facebook following surge into the thousands after providing daily one-minute-long art tutorials and tips. During the last four weeks, follower numbers have risen from just a few thousand to almost twenty thousand, with video views in the hundreds of thousands.<blockquote>We are gobsmacked by the level of success of our minute-long tutorials and are seeing huge numbers of followers of all ages and backgrounds from all over the world. It just shows how the love of art transcends all boundaries. We are such a small shop, so it is staggering to see almost twenty thousand people following our escapades!</blockquote>

Art Shop Sees Social Media Surge After Mini Tutorials

An Oxfordshire art shop has begun researching and labelling all of their products to help their customers with ethical purchases. The symbols created by The Artery show which products are Vegan friendly, which are cruelty free, and those which are environmentally friendly, in a drive to help consumers make more conscientious choices as to where the products they buy originate.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/newspage.com-staging/company/479/images/a64b1477b51b16985e1e4f356322d2a33803bc9984907a97a528743c0950363944cd89376742d24c4a6d6f594af7fc255234da25ca1dae6ae1ca19f4454e5581.png"><figcaption>The three new symbosl created by The Artery for Conscientious creativity: Cruelty free, Environmentally friendly, and Vegan friendly,&nbsp;</figcaption></figure> &nbsp;<blockquote>Business owner Barry Whitehouse had been approached a few times from customers asking which products were vegan friendly, and so decided to take matters into his own hands and create a new labelling system for his art supplies in his Banbury based shop. What spurred this on, was a request for paintbrushes that were both vegan and plastic free. "We have been surprised just how much information is available, but not contained in one easy to access area. Almost all of the art supplies we sell are cruelty free, with the majority being vegan too. Some colours and papers, still use traditional methods of animal derived byproducts in manufacture, so we wanted to help show the distinction between them." said Barry. "What is more surprising is that vegan products and environmentally friendly products are not necessarily the same. Many of the vegan items use plastic based materials, which are not good for the environment. We really want to use our new symbols to help conscientious creativity blossom so our customers know where and how the products they use are made, so they can make purchasing decisions based on their own beliefs and ethics" The Artery also made the news several years ago by being one of the first small businesses in Banbury to stop the use of plastic bags in favour of paper or biodegradable carriers.&nbsp;</blockquote>

Conscientious Creativity urged as art shops helps customers' ethical purchases.

Banbury based art shop, The Artery, creates calming online art classes to help ease the stresses of the pandemic.<figure class="image image-style-align-left"><img src="https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/newspage.com-staging/company/479/images/f90a0a89c1d8cf9b3c415d9e5614087bc845f5aeeb4017a6eb8fbc0d5a38281f7a428501395c179c591eb7a0bf40ab94d25d172d634c5f517a6c97ec63b836ee.jpeg"><figcaption>Barry painting in watercolour</figcaption></figure> &nbsp;<blockquote>It is so important to find time for yourself, and also to switch your thoughts away from problems and worries. What better way to do this than taking an art class?!&nbsp;So many of our students from all over the world look forward to our classes and view them as a form of escape into a creative oasis. With soothing birdsong playing quietly in the background as I teach various subjects in watercolour, acrylics, drawing, and art history, my students feel totally refreshed at the end of the lesson, and they end up completing a piece of artwork too!&nbsp;<figure class="image image-style-align-left"><img src="https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/newspage.com-staging/company/479/images/6fcb73c6da5dea488b548512acf488ae063a8b160c1ea15538683e58ffa91358093e9bbc0da809a32be451233c07756ce5d03ca812cf7318eada087651b5d9f9.jpeg"><figcaption>Part of the classroom in The Artery</figcaption></figure>Over the years we have had many students join us that suffer with anxiety and mental health issues, and they tell me how much art and in particular my lessons has helped them. I have suffered with mental health issues most of my adult life, and I know how important art has been for me, so it was only natural that I wanted to pass that comfort onto others.&nbsp;It is a joy to not only see how the lessons help create confidence and watch a student who was once too anxious to join in flourish and become an integral part of the creative community we have, but also to their skills develop as some even begin to get commissions in some cases!&nbsp;<figure class="image image-style-align-left"><img src="https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/newspage.com-staging/company/479/images/a442db6d2d154080747ab654b9ac07348627ed513ffaf9e36c72c713ca026b1c28639ffe852000e3ed4b986f4cbf84f2fa1a3ceaca7a1fee1e116eba2845d6e8.jpeg"><figcaption>One of Barry's students learning to draw hands</figcaption></figure>Art is such a healing pastime, so much so that I have also begun to take an online introduction to Art Therapy course to see how I can better improve my arty offerings to my students and help their mindfulness grow, as well as their creative skills.</blockquote>

The Art of Mindfulness: how one art shop helps people create an oasis of calm in a stressful world

A small Banbury art supplies store is continuing with the successful changes made during lockdown beyond the reopening of their shop this week. Their online lessons are here to stay after being a global hit! &nbsp;<blockquote>The uncertainty of non-essential retail throughout the three lockdowns of 2020-21 meant I had to totally rework my business model of nine years, and look at ways of reaching customers both old and new while they and I were stuck at home.&nbsp;I wanted The Artery to keep operating, but also to help make a difference during such a stressful time. I knew how many of our existing students said how relaxing and mindful our classes were, and I set about creating affordable online classes, as well as free art demonstrations and paint-along session through our Facebook page. The response we got was overlwhelming. I truly thought we would just get a few of our regular students joining in, I didn't expect people joining in from all over the UK. . . and I certainly didn't expect people joining in from India, Canada, Australia, Hawaii, USA, Ireland, Lanzarote, and South Africa!&nbsp;We still get so many messages from people saying that our art classes 'saved' them during the lockdowns and that they felt they had company, structure, enjoyment, and a chance to escape what was going on, along with the creative community we had built up along the way. We now regularly have students and customers ordering online classes and art supplies UK-wide through our online shop on ShopAppy which we also only set up during the first lockdown.&nbsp;Seeing how much of a difference our classes have made to people's lives globally, means that we plan to continue them now we have reopened the shop, and are looking at ways to run them alongside our face-to-face classes when our classroom hopefully reopens this summer.</blockquote>

Bricks and Clicks help keep small art shop thriving

Barry has been teaching art for over 25 years alongside working in retail. He understands the need of the student and consumer, and adapts to the current need or climate. Barry teaches watercolour, acrylics, drawing, oils, and art history in ove rthirty classes every month, all year round. He is an artist in his own right and has paintings across the globe and now specialises in animal portraits.

Owner / Tutor

The Artery

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Media Coverage

Urgent warning as high street suffers blow from ‘one of quietest Christmases’

GDP Q1 data - “It’s more a question of how long we have left rather than how well we’re doing”

‘We lost a third of our orders after the Tories raised taxes’

Forget ‘Black Friday’ - support Banbury’s independent businesses on ‘Colour Friday’ instead

Will small businesses benefit from Black Friday this year?

What it’s like to own a small business on Black Friday

Retail sales fell 1.6% in August, latest ONS data shows

Inflation takes toll as UK economy contracts in March

Inflation takes toll as UK economy contracts in March

Firms will carry on making staff who test positive self-isolate

Let’s not kid ourselves: the real economy is a mess

Let’s not kid ourselves: the real economy is a mess

Boost for retailers as government says we can all shop around the clock - Business & Innovation Magazine

‘My online art classes helped people switch off’: how creativity became a lifeline in lockdown

UK economy grows after boost from camping holidays and meals out

Banbury’s art classes go global in response to lockdown