24 Degrees, at the Sidney Cooper Gallery Canterbury.

Ruth and I went to Canterbury at the weekend to see the Degree show at the Sidney Cooper Gallery.

link here   The show called 24 Degrees, BA Fine and Applied Arts Degree Show is on till the 11th June.

It's always interesting to see what art colleges are doing, and the range of work was wide and varied.
From more traditional painting and sculpture to installations with beer cans and moulded black plastic.

Sharon Abayomi was showing work, with a great combination of sculptural forms of wood and Nigerian textiles influenced by Yinka Shonibare who is also showing work at Turner Contemporary at the moment.

The bubbles in Valentina Arno's work intrigued me, her work inspired by Joos van Cleeve painting called Homo Bulla.

Rosie Clay was showing ceramics, I loved the sculpted surfaces and the inclusion of the pieces of cut out clay.

Vicky Finch had set up an installation of forms of fantasy birds and insects and microscopic life in black and white. Formed by lino cuts wrapped around paper and mod rock sculptures. There was a mythic and totem like quality that I responded to.

Cyd Parker's paintings also explored allegory, signs and symbols with painterly stokes of colour.

Other artists and works include Holly Hickmore's amazing horse sculptures, Kevin Monk's "Realm of the Dream Nightmare" and Sam Webbs sculptural forms from found materials.

 

Drawing with Light

 

I went to a very interesting workshop on Saturday at the Sidney Cooper gallery in Canterbury.

Lead by Matt Rowe we explored the idea of sketching or drawing with light using a camera with a long exposure to capture the light and movement.

We first worked with the theme of trees, using charcoal to draw tree shapes in 30seconds. Not a lot of time you realise when trying to do it.

Then it was envisioning how the drawing would work using light from torches and El wire.
I chose a magenta and green filter for the torches and a piece of blue El wire that was hung up and then moved during the long exposure.

The idea was of the trunk of the tree, drawn with the green and magenta light from the torches and with the blue as foliage on top.

It was very enjoyable and I can see possibilities for future work.

Canterbury and the Sidney Cooper Gallery

I went over to Canterbury recently to visit the Sidney Cooper Gallery and take some photographs of the city.

The gallery was showing The Jerwood Drawing Prize competition, Gallery website here
The exhibition had a range of works covered by the term drawing. I'm always interested in what drawing might mean today and here was a work called Cato lived for 8025 Days by Emma Douglas, which was a large coil of coloured watercolor paper and graphite  with numbers written on it. A poignant piece  made in response to the death of her son. Link to Emma's site here

A small group of work caught my eye including Colleen Brewer's Pimp my Corpse, which explores our notion of death and ideas of perfection. The work was made on an old piece of salvaged MDF board and shows a bird painted in inks and acrylics with some of its feathers missing.

Along side was Sue Williams A Court's  piece entitled Liminal Space 22. Sue's website here

I was interested in what Sue writes about her latest works "My latest work was developed from 64 experimental collages i made inspired by seeing some rare Tantric images by anonymous modern painters in northwest india intended to further the practice of meditation.  I started to look at historical images representing the sublime and to contemplate the nature of "desire and longing". With this work i invite the viewer into a liminal space, presenting the  romantic landscape as a certain state of mind rather than a specific location; a place of transition in-between thoughts- impossible to find and at the same time unavoidable."



Gary Lawrence's large vibrant picture called St Stanstead and other stuff reminded me a little of Grayson Perry's Walthamstow Tapestry with the multitude of figures references and text on the piece.

Aideen Cusack Leggett's  Dance Walpaper had me reach for my sketch book to copy some of her great little drawings of people dancing. Probably my favourite piece in the show with it's movement and sheer love of life feel.

Canterbury was busy with visitors including a big influx of school groups with their clipboards and the Westgate Gardens were looking very picturesque in the sunshine with the trees in blossom and the river reflecting the blue sky.