Lisa Smith: The Green Centre

Saturday, 13 October 2012

Basildon Art Trail 2012

I love drawing. For as long as I can remember I have enjoyed drawing, painting, cutting, sticking, gluing and so on and so forth. As part of this year’s art trail I wanted to go back and explore drawing and painting for my work.

I was invited to create some pieces of work inspired by The Green Centre at Wat Tyler Country park – or to be more precise with The Essex Field Club based at the centre for this year’s art trail.

Works unwrapped and ready to be hung

The Essex Field Club has an impressive range of resources that can be accessed by the public, this includes Internet files, specimens donated form the Natural History Museum and localised specimens that the field club collect and collate.

Cytherea, Acrylic on Canvas

Murex, Acrylic on canvas

From Within, Acrylic on Canvas

Orchidea, Acrylic on Canvas

I decided to create a series of paintings exploring natural form images such as shells, flowers, patterns in nature inspired form images seen at the centre. I liked the idea of created textured canvases with bold and beautiful colours that would jump out and grab the viewer.

You'll feel it in my kiss, water-soluble crayon on paper

Too late to go back to sleep, water-soluble crayon on paper

That's a real good looking boy, Water-soluble crayon on paper

And she's watching him with those eyes, water-soluble crayon on paper

She's got big brown eyes, Water-soluble crayon on paper

Somewhere only we know, Water-soluble crayon on paper

In the time we are here, Water-soluble crayon on paper

Installation view at The Green Centre

In contrast to this I was intrigued at the specimens of bugs, spiders and insects that the centre has. I for one have often fled like a small child from a spider, a wasp or unknown creepy crawlie. But when you look at them up close they are an engineering phenomenon. They have stunning structure, colours, detail and are...dare I say actually quite cute! Using water-soluble crayons I created a series of six drawings depicting these creatures up close. The bold and bright colours, fine lines and frottage compliment the paintings colours and textured surface.

These pieces will be displayed at the centre until mid November, so if you are in the area pop in to view the works, and don’t forget to take some time to explore the diverse range of resources exhibited at the centre.

For more information about any of the pieces pictured in this blog please contact lisamart@hotmail.co.uk

Introducing David Smith

As part of this year’s Basildon Art Trail, I managed to convince my husband to finally exhibit some of his amazing photographs. For over 20 years he has been taking pictures for me to use for drawings, paintings, reference etc; and as you can image he has quite a collection. He has an eye for capturing the essence of the day, the space the subject in his work. So here....for the first time are some of his glorious photographs.

Installing works at Gallery 2

Winter 2012, Greets you as you enter the venue

Installation view of David's pictures in the Green Centre

David says

I have always been a keen photographer; wanting to capture that specific instance in time that would never be repeated.

It may have been a sunset, a summer’s day, an eagle in flight, or a field mouse gathering food. For me, it is nature that holds my attention; the shape and form that is so dramatic and beautiful.

I hope that my fascination with the natural world comes across in my work. I have no formal training and my Photos have not been digitally altered. What I photograph is what appears in the picture.