Festival - Art Workshop in Hailsham

Art of Movement

As part of the Hailsham Arts Festival this year I shall be running a painting workshop in Gallery North on Thursday 13th September. 'Art of Movement' is the theme. Although I specialise in Acrylics, this style of painting suits any medium so you can work in whatever medium you are comfortable using. I'll show you how to create a sense of flowing movement in paintings of birds and / or fish in this 3 hour workshop.
Gallery North is on the top corner of Hailsham High Street (opposite Prezzos) and will be open for the Festival Exhibition while the workshop is running so you can have a good look round at some inspirational pieces during the tea break.

10am - 1pm, Thurs 13th Sept.
£15.
Booking essential.
Book via Gallery North 01323 846938.
Bring your own materials and equipment.
Tea / coffee included.

Of weeding, water and wiggley waynes

The week didn't start too well for Jim as he had to have a small op on Monday but, even though it was on the NHS, it was done at the Esperance in Eastbourne which was a real eye-opener. Private rooms and individual service made what could have been terribly unpleasant, a bearable experience and it was all rather lovely from my point of view as the driver. I dropped him off, went shopping around town for 2 hours and returned in time to watch a little bit of live coverage of the olympic torch relay on the TV in his room while he waited to be discharged. The only problem was the resident doctor who had the task of putting the canula in Jim's arm just could not find a vein, or as she called it in her accent, wayne: 'Your wayne's are too wiggly'. The consultant had to do it finally and couldn't understand what the problems was as he descibed Jim's veins as 'like drainpipes'!

The evening got even better for me (Jim stayed home, poor love) as it was the first meeting of the 'Cabaret' year for the Dicker Players. We met for a meal and agreed the dates for the cabaret (www.dickerplayers.blogspot.com) while listening to some rude and funny songs with a view to performing them. It's great to be in a room full of friends who've already seen you make a complete arse of yourself many times in the past and just have a good old laugh and a natter. Our Cabaret rehearsals gradually build up over several weeks from some quiet sniggering to massive belly laughs then usually a few tantrums and frustrations until the final performances. These are over in a flash and we're left with a sense of relief that it's all over at the same time as a massive hole in our lives where 'Cabaret' used to be. But now we're back in the swing of planning another show and I can't wait. I shall be writing some sketches and this year they'll be better than ever.

 an old 'water' inspired pic

I got my head down and just painted on Wednesday. There were plenty of others things I could and probably should have been doing but now I have the space and the inspiration I'm not going to waste the precious painting time available to me faffing around with things that can wait! I completed the abstract I'd started - well, I say completed, I keep standing and gazing at it knowing something;s wrong, despite the fact I 'drew a line under it' and signed it. I'm intending to show it in one of the empty shops at the end of August so I have a few weeks to decide exactly what it needs.
I also completed another acetate painting, started a third, all of which have the usual flowing water theme  - I think perhaps the incessant rain is having an effect on my work. I also completed the fourth in my Rural Industrial series. Sorting out my studio out was a great thing to do - It focussed my mind on which works I really want to complete rather than needlessly slogging away at something I'm not convinced about to start with.
My next plan is to print off the images I have taken of pylons, cables etc and sketch out some alternative and decide how many of them I'm going to work up into final paintings.

And finally, weeding. In addition to a few snatched hours of gardening in between the thunderous rain downpours, I spent a fascinating few hours as part of the selection committee for the Gallery North Summer Open. Three of us viewed one piece at a time and several of them were unanimously given the thumbs up. Many of the others were a 2 to 1 vote and quite a few ended up in the 'possible's corner awaiting a final decision at the end of the selection depending on available space. Surprisingly there were very few that I really did not like but there were several that I could easily have taken home there and then. There are some interesting 3D works, quite a bit of photography, very little watercolour, a few abstracts, a couple of collages, some airbrush work, mono prints and mixed media. I think we chose a good variety of work and didn't have to disappoint too many artists. The exhibition starts on 24th July and is well worth a visit. Even if it's just so you can mutter 'how did that one get through the selection process'? Hey, I like Tom Jones, french opera and James Blunt, I never said I had good taste.

My walls of inspiration

Making space

OK, it may not look like much to you but this is heaven! I finally found the time to have a major clear up and, after 4 days of shifting drums, PA equipment, tools, a table tennis table, display screens, random bits of wood and sorting out lots of recycling, rubbish and saleable bits, I have SPACE to work. The ‘studio’ / spare bedroom really wasn’t working – there is a hedge right outside the window which blocks the light for most of the day and I have so many pictures that there really wasn’t room to stand and work. So now, the spare room is my storage space and there is room for a spare bed so we can have visitors for once, and I now have a lovely light and airy pace to work in the ‘garage’.


So today I got creative and have almost finished one large abstract canvas and a couple of small acetate pictures (I’ll post details of those another time).  My creative juices were really flowing after stewarding at Gallery North in the week for the Hailsham Community College A/AS and GCSE art and photography exhibition and talking with Corina Stupu Thomas about her forthcoming Art from the Soul workshop for the Hailsham Arts Festival. I also attended a demonstration and workshop with Teresa Currie  in chalk pastel and watercolour which got me thinking about textures and colours.

This afternoon I took in some more visual inspiration at the private view of the current exhibition at the Coach-house gallery in Alfriston, Wilde about Sussex,  featuring work from Elizabeth Brown and William de Wilde. Their styles are totally different – William’s landscapes are precise, detailed and very colourful whereas Elizabeth’s are bold, loose and atmospheric. I particulary liked Elizabeth’s use of colour in ‘Meanderings’ . The viewing was well attended and the Gallery is a lovely space.

I then popped into the Alfriston Gallery and had a look at the landscapes there and wandered round some of the gift shops and the Village stores where I worked 20 years ago. It’s changed a bit with the upstairs being open to the public, whereas it was always a storeroom while I was there. So, a wander down memory lane and some visual stimulation has set me up for some more creativity. Sadly, I’ll be at the office for the next couple of days and won’t have painting time ‘til wednesday so I’ve got to hold that thought. I’ve discovered Pinterest and have a look on there most days -there are some great images so there’s always some inspiration there to fall back on.

I am currently excited at the prospect of being part of the selection committee for the Gallery North Summer Open (part ll). Having been on the sticky end of selection committees in the past I'm looking forward to actually wealding the stick. Mind you, I will have to get out of the mindset of our Arlington Art & Craft Show where I won't judge any work and accept that if someone feels their work is worthy of showing that's good enough. But at the gallery there is a space limitation so sadly some may have to be rejected.
When I exhibited at the Autumn Art shows years back, their committee would view the work as it was walked past them, mark each picture out of 20 and if the average score was 16 or over, you were in. I suppose one of the main disadvantages of selections is that all of the work needs to be stored until the selection and again until the hanging and the rejected work must be collected, a bit of a logistical nightmare. There is also the matter of taste - if a selection committee is the same every year they must develop a leaning towards a particular style and subject so their exhibitions could end up a bit stale.
But at least at Gallery North the hanging fee is only payable for work that is accepted and everyone submitting work gets a response, unlike some exhibitions where you pay a £15 fee just to submit and 'if you haven't had an email by a certain date you have been unsuccessful'. Easy money, huh?

Getting ‘board’ of trees in Hailsham?

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We got wet and lots of people stopped to chat as we transformed a boarded up shop window into a silver birch forest. As soon as the insurance claim for the broken shop window is finalised the board will be taken down – in the meantime we had fun, we entertained the taxi drivers and bus queue and we’ve transformed an eyesore into a positive talking point. (Excuse the blurry photos, I had the macro setting on!)