Urban Jungle private view.

Last week Thursday 13th, was the private view of the exhibition Urban Jungle. It was a bit of a wet blustery night but inside was warm and welcoming. The exhibition looked good, a range of work prints, painting, photography and group pieces. I was particularly happy because the theme was trees which gave a particular energy and feel to the exhibition.
Children from Dance Explosion performed during the evening.



Katja, our great organizer met me with the news that I had sold my work which was great. There was a good attendance and quite a lot of work sold on the evening raising £1110 for Trees for Cities. I like Dean Reddick's painted plaster "Birch Landscape" and Naomi Mcllroy's stoneware ceramic tree plaques.Sieglinde Diabel's lovely "Laughing Tree of Life had me smiling and Amanda Taylor's linoprint "Roots" was vibrant and full of energy. Pirasteh Gourang's "Hampstead Heath" had a sense of the silent majesty of the trees and Jo Perkin's "Urban Drifters" was witty and colourful.

Urban Jungle Exhibition, City Hall.

Last weekend, I took my painting," Tree of Life" into City Hall for the exhibition, "Urban Jungle. It is an exhibition with a range of work from the East London Print makers,and other invited artists on the theme of trees.
The charity Trees For Cities will be benefiting from any sales in an online exhibition/auction.
The exhibition is open Saturday 1st till Friday 14th 8am-8pm and the private view is at the end of the show on 13th of November 6pm-8pm.

Drawing at the british Museum

Last week saw me having a few days to draw at the British Museum, through a WEA course. 2 or 3 years ago I went drawing at the museum with the Princes Drawing School and a lovely tutor Francis Hoyland. So when I saw this course advertised I thought it would be great to go back to the British museum collections and do some drawings. Pages from my sketch book here.



Jane was our tutor knowledgeable about the museum, encouraging and thoughtful. It was good to work with a range of materials conte, graphite, watercolour pencils and pen and ink. We spent time drawing in the Greek and Roman galleries, the Asian, African and Japanese galleries and I went into the Americas Gallery. Jane set us some tasks using materials and composition. I think it is good for me to work within some parameters sometimes, it helps break patterns of work, style and subject matter.

I also took photographs in the galleries, drawing really helps to see things more clearly, and this reflected in my photographic eye. There were still some objects that resisted being photographed but I was happy not to pursue them.