Festival of Cats in Margate.

I have two digital photographs in The Festival of Cats opening 29th March at The Viking Gallery in Macavity's Cat Salon.

The Festival of Cats is part of the Wasteland programme of events in association with Turner Contemporary's Wasteland exhibition.

 It is organised by Jemma Channing with  Resort studios and is based around a celebration of T.S.Eliots best selling work Old Possums Book of Practical Cats.

There is a programme of events alongside the exhibition including films and poetry.

In the Violet Hour exhibition at Nayland Rock Hotel.

In the Violet Hour exhibition was part of Turner Contemporary's Journeys with  'The Waste Land' programme and was Curated by Chiara Williams and Shaun Stamp.

It was set in a great location, the faded rooms of a once proud hotel on Margate's seafront, The Nayland Rock Hotel, now Grade II listed.

23 artists used the rooms and spaces in the hotel to explore the voices from TS Eliots, poem The Waste Land. The hotel overlooks on one side, the shelter where Eliot wrote part of his poem when convalescing.

Ruth and I explored the rooms, which displayed installations, photography and  painting and the views from the windows out onto the sea. The peeling wallpaper and plaster in some rooms echoed the fractured quality of Eliot's work and proved to be a good choice of space for the exhibition.

 The exhibition has just finished but Chiara Williams has other events and exhibitions planned. See her website for details

Exhibition. In a Country Far. Far Away, Mile End Pavillion, London

I have a piece in the exhibition In a Country Far Far Away, curated by Katja Rosenberg, at the Mile End Pavillion in London.

The exhibition runs form the 1st to the 17th March.
Link to details here.https://exhibitions.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/5/8/1258901/far_away_art_pav_folded_leaflet.pdf

There is a great programme of activities associated with the exhibition including film, music and drawing.

The theme was to choose and interpret a fairy story or fable from a war torn country. I choose The Calif Stork, a Middle Eastern fairy tale and have made a work in mixed media, using a large paper mache bowl.


The art work, Fragments of Reality is a bowl that has layers of images and painting, using ceramic designs from Persian pottery and other designs where people are turned into birds, such as the willow pattern.

There are painted images of the Calif and his Vizier being turned into storks and a silver moon.


The fragments are a reference to the tragedy of  the breaking of people and culture during war.

Photographic Response to the Journeys with Wasteland Exhibition at Turner Contemporary.

Turner Contemporary's new exhibition has taken TS Eliot's poem The Wasteland as it's theme.

Eliot stayed in Margate in 1921 convalescing after the first world war and the beach shelter at Nayland Rock is where he worked and wrote some of his poem The Wasteland.

This poem proved to be a pivotal work, moving poetry into a new modernist direction, with the fractured form, reflecting something of the aftermath of the war on body and mind.

It's not one of my favourite poems,  some of the imagery is powerful though and provoking.

I have taken the shelter at Nayland rock as my subject, exploring it in photography and with digital processes. These are the first images.

Illuminated boats in Ramsgate harbour.

I managed a visit to the harbour at Ramsgate to see the illuminated boats.

The wind was very chilly but it was great to see lots of people walking around to see the boats, many like me taking photographs.

I didn't see any real trees on the boats this year bu I might have missed them.

I think it's a lovely tradition which raises money for the RLNI.

Visit to A&C animation studios.

I enjoyed some mulled wine and a tour lead by Dan Richards of A&C animation studios this week, in aid of Thanet Winter Shelter.. They are a local company in Margate and specialize in stop motion animation.

It was great to get an insight into production, see the large infinity curve studio and the model making room and other production facilities

The cupboard full of  different colours of modelling medium was great as were the cabinets showing some of the models used in advertising campaigns.


It was really busy, lots of people interested in the studios and the Victorian laundry building it's based in.

Jelly Exhibition at the Pie Factory Margate.

I visited a great imaginative, playful and evocative exhibition at the Pie Factory in Margate Old Town today, called Jelly.

Four artists, Elizabeth Burman, Karen Crosby, Claire Manning and Ruth Payne are showing a range of works including, drawings, interactive installations, jelly and sweets.

I enjoyed Ruth Payne's colourful drawings some with a bit of a playful strong language. The energy and life of the works drew me to them. Ruth's website and Facebook sites

Karen Crosby's chemigrams are evocative incorporating natural elements and abstract forms. Karen's website and Facebook

Claire Manning's swirly word drawings combine energy with the text and colours. Claire Manning's website and Facebook

Elizabeth Burman's  Daily Ink drawings collected on the wall of the gallery are intriguing and remind me of the effectiveness on a continuity of practice. Elizabeth's Facebook page

The exhibition is on till November 21st. The Pie Factory gallery
Open 11am till 5pm.