E17 Art Trail Art Grows on Trees part one

It was great yesterday to meet up with a group of fellow artists to hang our art offerings on the Lime trees near Walthamstow bus station. It was part of the E17 Art Trail, Art Grows on Trees.
I have been part of this from the beginning some years ago, and it was good to have some new artists involved this year, with even more art work on the trees.



I had been making lots of tiny Tree Spirit faces to put in the trees this year, (below)plaster, paint and pen work. More to follow for next Saturday, we arrive about 9.30am so you need to get there early to pick your own art work.



Amongst the artists taking part, Julie Cave put up delicate bird watercolours,(above) Julie's site here

Dean Roddick brought along a new variety of fruit his hairy pears, Deans site here. He also brought along one of his sparrows, there are more on display as part of the trail. That was snapped up with in minutes.



Katja Rosenberg included some cacti in great pots decorated with quotes among her offerings. Katja's exhibition site here.

Rachel L'Anson brought some lovely photographic prints, from urban scenes to trees and snakes.
Rachel's site here.

Alban Low brought more fridge magnets, this year with great birds and tweets on them.Alban's site here.



Valeria had some great climbing pictures colouful prints and bark, appreciated by one young art picker here. Valeria here


Helen Porter, used one of her umbrella frames to hang a variety of decorative and quirky prints.

E17 Art Trail part 3

I was in the Central library in Walthamstow for the artists books event with Laura yesterday. It was great to see Laura's collection of artists books, I added a few myself and we put out the collection on tables for people to browse through.

We also had a good selection of materials for people if they wanted to try making a simple book themselves. Although we didn't get a huge amount of people passing through, we did have some good conversations with people and some people tried their hands at making books. I found more ideas for books to make myself and really liked the artists book as sculpture, a ball of twisted newspaper twine with some tags of print left on that Julian Beere brought in. Julien's blog here

In the library itself were a number of small exhibitions, Dan Green's The Frozen Lake, was a series of winter landscapes taken in the cold winter earlier in the year. They were atmospheric images, the sun low in the sky and the sense of cold palpable. The lakes had a quality of stillness and other worldliness.

Ron Bowman has a show of his watercolours in the main entrance, he is a photographer more recently moving into watercolours. Neon Nature, Jakie Whalen's paintings in the main library held their own in the busy space. Her designs and bright colours were being enjoyed by the visitors.

There was a range of photographs from the Walthamstow & district Photographic Society in the corridors, and With my love of birds I was taken by the great photo of a Jay facing a squirrel on a bird table by Trevor Weatherley. Peter Tomlinson was also showing a series of portraits, Lochkamera Portraits, exploring the use of a lensless camera. The images were soft and had a subtle quality of colours and they invited you in for a closer look.

Inspired by William Morris Exhibition

I've been invigilating at the Inspired by William Morris exhibition at the Changing room Gallery this morning. It is a great little exhibition and seems to create a mood of uplift and inquiry.


My painting, entitled" Invoking the Spirit of Morris," is an attempt to invoke in the viewer something of the spirit of William Morris as they enter the woodland landscape woven with Morris patterns and designs. I was thinking as I painted the image how might the forest or woodland appear to William Morris? The painting also recalls other visionary painters such as William Blake and Samuel Palmer.



There is some great work in the gallery, from 19 different artists, including, painting, photography, printmaking, stained glass, installations and 3D work.Martin Adams, "River of Fire" brings the ideals and struggles of the Socialist League that Morris was part of into the present day, with his installation of Morris designed wallpaper hanging, old photo and leaflets for a troops out demonstration this weekend.


Ann Fuston and Linda Green showed evokative stained glass pieces,Alison Chaplin captures the essence of the bare trees in her painting, and with Jenny L'Estrange produced the decorative borders around the walls of the gallery. In the corner is a garden full of gnomes, arising and standing on the ground, they are adorned with William Morris inspired designs and bring a smile to peoples faces. Some visiting children have to be restrained from picking them up and taking them home. I think they have all found good homes now.



Great entertainment was provided at our Inspired event by Russ Chandler, the clip here. Roger Huddle, Theresa, and Kevin Sheils.