A127 Art Trail Brochure

Welcome to the A127 Trail 2011. Following on from the success of the Basildon District Art Trail last year, the newly retitled A127 Trail was established and is now recognised as a community event of some magnitude to the borough, which aims to bring the arts and business together.

Over 60 artists are taking part in the Art Trail this year between the 9th - 18th September. I am lucky enough to be exhibiting my drawings and paper sculptures at Glass From the Past, based at Barleylands Craft Village and will be posting pictures of my work over the next week.

You can pick up a copy of the brochure from any of the art venues including Dean Smith art at Barleylands Craft Village, Basildon Eastgate Art Gallery, Starbucks, Gateway 97.8, Eastgate Shopping centre, Past Times, Basildon Library, Towngate Theatre, The Fold in Billericay and Summerhill Garden Centre.

Whether you are a serious art collector, or just enjoy browsing there is something to suite everyone's taste on this years trail from drawings, painting, illustrations, photography, contemporary sculpture, textile work, mosaic and much more.

 The glorious Brochure

 And here I am Number 12, based at Glass From the Past at Barleylands Craft Village. To find out more about Glass From the Past have a look at their website www.glassfromthepast.co.uk

 The Trail at Barleylands

The trail at Basildon, Make sure you take some time to look in the Basildon Eastgate Art Gallery to see artwork by amateurs, professional artists and local children. A fabulous venue that illustrates how important art is to the local community. Since opening a couple of months ago the gallery has had 12000 visitors!

For more information about the trail have a look on the website http://www.a127trail.com/ or follow on Facebook A127 Trail - 2011

Live, Laugh Love - Working title

This weekend I have spent some time working on sculptures for the A127 art trail in September... yes I know, time is ticking!!! As I have often mentioned I love working with paper and I am especially interested in the quality of newspaper as a sculpture medium. For these pieces I am experimenting with the paper bowl technique used at a recent workshop for Access Art in Cambridge. I want to explore how these units can be manipulated and linked together. The idea that something that is easily discarded, thrown away or used to line a cat tray can be made into a thing of beauty, appeals to me. For the first time in a long while I am not sure where these pieces are taking me. I have ideas of the basic forms and am enjoying watching the pieces manifest themselves, grow and take on their own form. There is a lot of autobiography in my work and sitting writing the initial thought process evokes a personal response to life situations that I face at the moment. I use my art work to explore emotions, relay observations and discuss issues faced in day to day life. I am very lucky to be part of an extremely strong and close family, who unfortunately are facing a brutal battle against Cancer - My intention for this series is to explore family bonds, emotions, fears and hopes. This series is titled "Cell story" , the piece pictured below "Live, Laugh, Love".

 A series of units made ready to be worked on, these units are made

with rolled pieces of newspaper spiralled together

 Black acrylic paints has been used to bond the paper together and help to keep the form of the sculpture. PVA glue can work just as well.

 The three sections of the sculpture start to take form

 This is the general idea for the finished piece in it's raw form. The rolled newspaper produces a stunning finish to the sculptures which I think I will explore in additional sculptures.

The three units with their undercoats of white acrylic paint.

 I am still planning the final design for which I am planning a trip to the Tate Modern to have a look at some of Fiona Rae's, Jasper Johns and Chris Ofili's work for inspiration.

Medieval Mayhem

It never amazes me how much creative thinking and how imaginative a child can get when provided with a few bits of recyclable objects to make a piece of art with. This week we have run a series of workshops for 5-11 years old, based on a medieval theme. The pictures on this blog are from our sculpture challenge workshop, where the children were divided into teams, given a black bag of recycled materials and challenged to build a large sculpture. The children thoroughly enjoyed the junk modelling, they love to explore how objects can relate to one another, how they fit together and can be manipulated - letting their imaginations run riot. This activity is great for fine motor skills, problem solving, team building and self esteem.

With the expert help and guidance of tutors Angela Ferguson and Zoe Greenland the children dived into the black sacks of recyclable materials in order to see which team could create the most original medieval themed sculpture. After several rolls of duck tape, cello tape and masking tape here are their amazing sculptures.

 Rummaging through the materials to select the best parts

 Our medieval dragon in the making, I love the use of the red fur for his tail and tongue

 How cool is this knight and fellow steed? unfortunately only one eye would stay on so the children decided that he was a one eyed horse.

 This amazing knight was made by a group of 5-7 year olds working in a team of 8. I was so impressed with the sharing of ideas and collaborative work that went into this project. Lots of giggles, lots of tape and lots of mess - what more could you want.

All the materials we used for these sculptures were collected by the staff or sourced for The Pyramid Resource Centre. This is a fantastic place that collect large companies waste and recycles it for schools, clubs and artists to use. For £5 you can fill a whole black bag up with recycled plastic, wood, fabric, card etc etc. The staff are very helpful and the shop is like an Aladdin's cave. If you are near Chafford Hundred I highly recommend have a look for cheap resources for large projects. Have a look on their website http://www.thurrockplaynetwork.co.uk/pyrc.html