Ice Sculptures at Canary Wharf

There was an Ice Sculpture Festival at Canary Wharf a short while ago, and I went along to check out what was happening. It was a bit of a surprise to see all the chainsaws and heavy hand tools, I'm not sure what I was expecting, and fascinating to see the forms taking shape.



The theme was Cool Trading, so some more abstract shapes and figures were being carved. But there were also opportunities to try some ice sculpting for yourself.

Winter Exhibition at Vestry House.

The Waltham Forest Arts Club has a winter exhibition on at the Vestry House Museum at the moment. I have 2 small paintings in there and was invigilating on Sunday.
It's a small space in a quirky local museum, but it is valuable in being one of the few spaces available in the borough to show art work.

There is a range of work on show from video, printmaking, 3D, painting and photography. My paintings are imaginary winter landscapes referencing popular images used at this time of year to sell all sorts of wares. But there is something about these sorts of landscapes that appeals to me and others I presume. Perhaps something about the wildness or remoteness of these spaces and the sense of an idyllic place somewhere that we might visit.

Katja was showing a Memory Game using a number of artists images reflecting on the borough

Julie caves is showing a beautifully coloured painting Twilight Pauline Evans ceramic piece Lyme Avenue made me smile and DNA Dilemma an installation by Anna Spain was intriguing.

Tree of Life at St Andrews Leytonstone and E17 Designers

I have been pretty busy these last few weeks, I have started teaching my courses at the City Lit. (November and December) and have been sorting out cards and other items for the Christmas craft fairs coming up.
I also have 3 large photographs at the exhibition, "Roots and Remembrance" at St Andrews, Leytonstone. The exhibition is part of a programme for the arts, Tree of Life, more info here there and I am facilitating one of their lunchtime arts sessions on 18th November, in the cafe space.

I am showing 3 photographs of trees, one from Epping Forest,"A Path Through the Forest" one from the gardens next to me, "The Silver Dancing Tree and one from The Seekers Trust, "Reflections of Autumn Trees"

The first art and craft event I'm part of is the E17 Designers Fair on 27th November at the Asian Centre18a Orford road, Walthamstow. There is always a great range of designers there and a fabulous cake stand, which will be selling seasonal goodies.
I am also taking as well as a new range of cards, wooden decorations that I've painted and Ruth is printing wrapping paper this year. Info about the market here

Zoo Art Fair

This year I finally managed a couple of art fairs, I have been planning visits for a number of years but never manged to get to any. Autumn seems the time of year when all the fairs are happening, literally some at the same time. I suppose this is to encourage visitors/buyers from abroad to come over and see them all.
I didn't manage Frieze, but I got to Zoo, which this year was held in some old industrial buildings near Liverpool street station. There seems to be a trend to use old semi derelict buildings for exhibitions, the danger being some times that the buildings can be more interesting than the art shown in them.
At Zoo there were several buildings in use, one housing video work others with individual artists and galleries and there was some really good work there.

I really responded to Harald Smykla's work, Movie Protocol, which involves him watching films and transcribing them into a visual language. Info here There was something about these drawings that was really full of life and vitality. I talked to the artist for a few minutes about his work, which started when he was watching TV and thinking about what he could do with that time. I thought the work was full of life because it was done in the moment, fresh and without much deliberation.

In the building showing film and video work I watched and really enjoyed Kathrin Sonntay's film Dracula's Ghost 2009. It was witty and made good cultural and political comments about our love of vampires and our insistence of their history in Transylvania.

Other work I enjoyed were Per Kesselmar's Wide Screen series of paintings, oil on aluminium, which were beautiful pieces full of subtle and concentrated light. Info from the gallery here