Fab Fridge at the Bath Fringe Festival and Peace Camp

Alban Low has organised a Fab Fridge Magnets event at the Bath Arts Festival opening tonight till the 13th June
The little miniature art works, over a 100, are going out on the streets of Bath to be picked up by passers by. details here, There is a blog spot with details of all the artists taking part in the event here One of my tree pastels is on one of the magnets. I liked the idea, similar to the way we put free art work on the trees as part of the E17 Art trail, and wanted to take part in this one.

Last week I went over to the Peace camp that has been set up on Parliament Square, opposite the Houses of Parliament. It was good to talk to some of the people there and see there well set up camp site with kitchen, marquee for communal events, flagpoles, compost toilet, garden and info stalls. There was a bit of a carnival spirit with people juggling and dancing, I wonder how long they will be able to stay there ?

Zebra finches at the Barbican Curve.

I had thought the exhibition finished but was really pleased to find that Celeste Boursier- Mouge's installation at the Curve in the Barbican was still there. ( on till 23rd May) It has a flock of Zebra finches loose in the large space with a number of electric guitars that pick up the sounds made by the birds perching and walking on the strings.

Absolutely fascinating, the finches are apparently getting tamer and some settle on people and especially check out things that look like nesting material including shoe laces.
They have been nesting in the boxes put up on the walls and staff have been finding eggs they told me, they are taken back to the centre where the birds come from for hatching.


Barbican website for details of the exhibition here The sounds that are made by the finches are played through speakers, and we hear them along with the chirps the birds are making.
It is a privilege to be with the finches flying free, squabbling and nesting and feeding, going about their everyday business I suppose not at all knowing they are part of a very popular art work.

Beyond Words Exhibition and Elephant Parade

Saturday 15th of May is the opening of the Waltham Forest Arts Club exhibition Beyond Words. Our new venue, since the Changing Room Gallery will be closed for redevelopment, is in the Red Room in the arts and theatre pub, Ye Olde Rose and Crown in Hoe street Walthamstow. info about the venue here

I have put in 2 pieces of work, one artists book called Bird and one mixed media piece a bird light with words written on it.
Arts Club website here

There have been dozens of painted elephants appearing on the streets of London over the last week or so. They are a fundraising installation for the charity Elephant Family info here

They have been painted by famous designers and artists and I have been photographing them as I go out and about.

Leighton House Museum

I have been wanting to see Frederic Leighton's house in Holland Park for some time, having heard about the amazing Arab room, when I finally decided to go I found out it was closed for major restoration work. But last week it re opened and I went along.
Leighton was born in 1830 he was a painter and president of the Royal Academy in 1878. He commissioned this studio house in 1864 and sitting in his studio, most of the upstairs floor save for a couple of small rooms one a small bedroom, I thought how marvellous to be able to work in such a space. Full of practical details artists will appreciate, a huge under the floor space for storing canvases and other items, a gallery so that he could work on the top of paintings with out having to stand on a ladder, and an narrow door opening direct to the outside for moving the large canvases in and out of the studio.
Some of the massive easels were in there as well as china pots of pigments, apparently Leighton loved the whole process of making colours, indeed the whole process of making art.

Downstairs the Arab Hall is amazing, the walls lined with tiles, mosaics and columns, the design taken from a reception room at La Zisa at Palermo in Sicily. Walter Crane designed the gold mosaic frieze, and William De Morgan worked on the tiles , most from Damascus, but as many were damaged, he saw to the repairs and copies if necessary. There is one panel where parrots perch on a fountain, on the left hand side is De Morgan's work while on the right are the original tiles.

In the centre of the floor is a sunken pond and fountain in black marble, and above a dome. Small windows are set with bright mosaic stained glass and sofas are places on each side of the room.
Though the lighting is quite dark inside the room, the sumptuous tiles in their blues and turquoise glow in the light. Altogether I am sold on the idea of such a room.