March 2019 – “We Grow into the Forest”
An exhibition at Mile End Art Pavilion, East London, curated by Judit Prieto Rovira on the theme of man’s relationship with the natural world.
My pieces were pen and ink drawings, shown below: the first, “The Maker’s Yard – Fire-pit”, was drawn in the yard outside a group of art workshops in East London where the outside space was as important to the occupants as the inside: the workshop buildings were surrounded by trees and shrubs that seemed integral to the semi-permanent structures. The yard in the middle was used for making and for exhibitions and there was a feeling of being part of the natural world.
In “Churchyard”, the man-made forms, the gravestones, are almost consumed by the earth and natural forms around them. Even something as robust as a gravestone gives in eventually to the forces of nature.
December 2018 – Bad Oeynhausen Advent Calendar Project.
The artwork I have produced for the Advent Calendar Project is my interpretation of the theme “Peace” and shows woodland stretching from the ground beneath our feet through the undergrowth with bluebells, following tree trunks up to the canopy and sky beyond. The picture is occupied by a child running freely.
It is intended as an optimistic piece that dwells on the freedoms I associate with my own childhood. The tall, thin format gave me the opportunity to focus on the different elements of the work in a linear way, which in turn suggests time passing.
March 2018 – “In a Country Far, Far Away”
George and the Dragon – my piece of work for Katja Rosenberg’s massive exhibition at Mile End Pavillion, East London. A memorable show with 70-80 artists taking part, accompanied by workshops and performances over the two-week period. The show then toured to Bad Oeynhausen in Germany, where it was exhibited in the German Fairytale Museum – how exciting!
October 2017
Fantastic group of children in my Buckhurst Hill After School Art Club – here are some Halloween Spookies:
Fun Group Projects from 2017 students at Wanstead House Community Assoc.
Landscapes 1 & 2 in acrylics – Tuesday class, and 3 in pastels – Wednesday class.
June 2017 “1000 Swifts” – part of E17 Art Trail 2017
Following the Wetlands theme, and partly in promotion of the up-coming new Wetlands Centre at Walthamstow Reservoirs, the “1000 Swifts” project was launched in June
alongside the E17 Art Trail 2017. Many people took part by making their own swifts and displaying them at their house or place of work. My swifts are shown below and will also be appearing at the great, big Walthamstow Garden Party in July 2017
.
March 2017 “Wonderful Wetlands” – a celebration of the wildlife, history and development of the amazing Walthamstow Wetlands. Works by local artists, historical artifacts and news on the “Swifts over Walthamstow” project.
Along with the other artists in this exhibition, I put in two pieces – oil paintings – inspired by my visits to the Wetlands recently. Small paintings featuring some of the birds you can see there including the grey heron, canada geese, and the peregrine falcon. It was a pleasure to be part of this exciting project that opens up a little-known part of Walthamstow for the public to enjoy and appreciate the precious wildlife and natural habitats on our doorstep.
“Pylons” 2017
“Coppermill” 2017
November 2016 Walthamstow Wetlands Project Part 1.
Interesting to take part in this opportunity to put forward proposals for public artworks in the St James Street area of Walthamstow which, through Coppermill Lane, leads directly to Walthamstow Marshes and on to the Wetlands area. St James Street Big Local is the body that has been formed to organise community development in the area and part of it’s remit is to commission several new pieces of public art. My proposal shown below, called “Window on the Wetlands” was to be a steel structure in the shape of an oriel window, echoing the shape of another window that still exists, with coloured steel pieces added, painting a “picture”, my particular picture, of the Wetlands site. Details were taken from walks and other research around the Wetlands area. Although the proposal was not chosen, the work gave me a fascinating insight into a another exciting new development for Walthamstow – one to watch.
August 2016 – A recent fun project with my adult students at Wanstead House Community Association and one that I am really excited about is this film that merged a series of drawings of our model, Ursula, into a sequence and set them to music. The music, a beautiful clarinet piece by Paul Harris, creates a wonderful tone for the drawings and brings out the best in them, again giving a sense of our lovely model’s creative and caring personality. Go to the Vimeo button on the home page to view.
April 2016 – More work from the Young Artists – learning to draw and paint the face –
June 2016
Putting one of my new paintings into Danny Coope’s Walthamstow Village Window Gallery for Summer exhibition of Flowers. One of a set of three, ”Dragon Vase” (No.2) is a watercolour and features a jug which came from my Mum’s house, which I love. See “Recent Work” page for the other works.
February 2016
Exhibition of “Step-up” workshops at The Mill, Walthamstow, including sculpture, mosaic, creative writing and animation – my workshops were for children and parents/carers and explored Matisse’s “Cut-outs”. We were all cutting and glueing like crazy and some lovely drawings as well as collages were produced from the starting point of figures in movement:
“Gymnast with a ribbon”
“Dancers”
“Dancers”
“Fishing”
November 2015
Leading Our Lives: Youth Group< Hainault:
With Alice Stanley, puppeteer, I have been working on a puppet show – my role to help the young people produce scenery for the show, “The Party” produced by “The Little Puppet Theatre” (that’s us!): “Festival”, “Garden” and “Sports Hall”.
Young Artists Buckhurst Hill: Acrylics:
September 2015.
Here are some pictures from my Young Artists workshops in Buckhurst Hill this year.
I have a small group of about 10 children aged between 8 and 12 who are learning various drawing and painting techniques – from them I am learning that you don’t necessarily need to provide loads of reference material to get great work! We have been working in pencil, charcoal, pastels and acrylics. These are from the “Animal Magic” project in pastels – we ended up working on the floor due to the size of it. Next week: Acrylics.
June 2015
E17 Art Trail – I was invited to put the sculpture “Peace Dove for Wanstead” in to St Barnabus Church in Walthamstow. This was very exciting because vicar Steven Saxby was very keen to have it suspended above the font. This is properly how I envisaged the work being seen and as the light in the church is also quite dramatic, the sculpture did look quite at home. This is a beautiful, red-brick church, built in 1905 in the Arts and Crafts tradition, so it has been a privilege and a pleasure to have the work placed here.
