I Do Like To Be Beside The Lea exhibition

Waltham Forest Arts Club is showing work now at the Waterworks Nature Reserve info about the waterworks here in an exhibition called I Do Like To be beside The Lea. More info here There is a good mix of work, sculpture, including a large fascinating piece by Martin Adams, Martin's site here
Photographs,including some atmospheric photos by Paul Tucker, info about Paul's work here paintings and drawings, ceramics and textiles. The show is mixed in between the usual display about the Waterworks, the old filter beds that now make a sanctuary for birds. Perhaps surprisingly it works out pretty well.
There are other works out side including Katja's and Helen's pieces, like seaside amusements where you put your head through a hole in a picture. Katja's site here


I am showing an interactive 3D piece, Landscape by Design, made of acrylic cubes with photo images on 5 sides and a quote on the other. The photos are of landscapes in London, some from the waterworks, and other urban scenes. You can face the cubes to make different landscapes.



At the opening, the The Rose and Crown Singers (Director: Aaron Clingham) performed the premiere of "The Rival Engineers" by Eleanor Firman.

The Art of Politics

The Art of Politics exhibition has opened at The Changing Room gallery.


There is some great work on show, Martin Adams has several pieces that deal with the local political situation with wit and invention. His mixed media piece "Sweet Temptation" had edible sweet treats in a box,with piped lettering on the sweets including "Influence", "Power" and "Renumeration" As the text concluded "Get elected get appointed and dig into the box of delights" You can see more of Martin's work here.



May Ayers had two pieces of ceramic sculptures that dealt with government policies of locking up vulnerable young people, "Zero Tolerance, in dedication to Joseph Scholes" and human indifference, "Indifference" "Zero Tolerance" is a large piece made up of several sections. The base sections have text around them and incised images. The top section is a torso, hands wrapped around the body and the head is split to show other faces inside. It is a powerful piece and addresses real issues in government policies that have lethal consequences. You can see more of May's work here.

In "this space has been left intentionally blank", people from the fight the height campaign had gathered together the ideas people had put forward for the space at the top of the high street in Walthamstow. These are on postcards and paper and form an installation on one of the walls. Visitors to the gallery are asked to contribute as well.


I was pleased to see that visitors had also been responding to my "The pound in your pocket"installation piece, writing their ideas of how they would spend their Waltham Forest pounds.






On the theme of money Chandra Mora, showed "Veni, Vidi, Depradavi, I came , I saw, I plundered" A large copy of A Zimbabwe million dollar note, and text citing the corruption and exploitation of the Zimbabwe government, as well as drawing parallels closer to home.




The exhibition continues till Sunday 6th of September and is part of the E17 Art Trail which starts on Saturday 5th.

Leytonstone Art trail and Pic and Mix

My painting," The Call of the Soul" above is on show at the annual Leytonstone Festival and Art trail which is running at the moment. I have a piece in the Waltham Forest Arts Club group show in the One Stop shop and was part of the E17 designers craft fair in the library at the weekend.

In the One Stop shop,I really liked Martin Adam's piece ."Water lily" a lovely elegant and pure form. Shirley Pountney has a great relief painting on handmade paper using the symbolism of the temple. I enjoyed Roan Allen 's pieces using cows too.


The old Woolworths shop in Leytonstone has been taken over by a large group of local artists for the Art Trail called Pic and Mix and It was great to see the large space being used for something creative. I couldn't help but think how good it would be if the council had the foresight to help develop the space into something vibrant and creative long term. Quite a number of the artists re-used items left behind in the shop or made work in response to the site.




I liked Neil Irons installation, "Standing on one leg waiting for lunch" was a response to his remembering his stint of working in a Woolworth's store on Saturdays. The drawing has one tree for every hour he spent bored standing on one leg waiting for lunch.

The creative use of old plastic buckets as lamps made me smile and around the exhibition were a number of really interesting pieces. The exhibitions are running over the next two weeks.