Art Market Maidstone September 19th

 

I am pleased to have been  accepted for the first Art Market in Maidstone, September 19th at the Market Hall, ME16 8LW.  Website here 

 

The organizers are modelling the market  roughly on the Art Car Boot Fairs and an Art fair and have a lot of interesting artists lined up.

I will be taking along a selection of my paintings and art work, prints and cards and looking forward to meeting people at the Market.

Pilgrimage and Urbanize exhibition at The Pie Factory

 

There was an interesting exhibition at The Pie Factory in Margate this week. Called Pilgrimage, and one continuing exhibition called Urbanize.

 Pilgrimage showed work by a number of artists in mediums including photography, etching, painting and sculpture. Many of the artists exhibiting works were graduates from the Kent Institute of Art and Design in Maidstone and the University of the Creative Arts in Rochester.

The exhibition’s curator was Emma Frye, who wanted the show to show traditional methods of making art.

Ed Thompson's work The Red Forest, more info on his website. Photography exploring the landscape and forests in Chernobyl using infra red film, made me think again about the long term effects of radiation, as well as being strangely beautiful images.

In Gallery 7 Tommy Gurr has an exhibition called Urbanize. The exhibition continues till the 19th of August.
It is his first solo show and includes his stencil work, more images on his website
The images are striking and contemporary, reflecting the urban world around us.

Experiments in photography for Mr Lion film.

We are finishing our project on Mr Lion at Blank Canvas with a film about this mysterious character.

 

All of us have different ideas about who or what he might be and have explored this through, sound, print, photography and other visual arts. This culminated in an exhibition earlier in the year at Turner Contemporary.

Following our explorations with Lucy Steggles, our lead artist and others, we have decided that Mr Lion is essentially ungraspable and this is what our film will be about.  At the moment all our photography and filming is being put together for an edit. And will hopefully be ready for a screening in the Autumn.

As part of this exploration of the ungraspable and mysterious, we have been using various props including, balloons, glass balls and shadows. I have enjoyed these experimentations and the painterly effects that some abstract photographs have. I can see more cross overs from these abstract works with painting.

Grayson Perry at Turner Contemporary

photo from Turner Contemporary website

 

I have down to visit the Grayson Perry exhibition, Provincial Punk, at Turner Contemporary a few times, since its opening. I still haven't watched all the videos, but have spent time with the pots and tapestries and maps that Grayson Perry makes so well.

In the first room there is a good selection of his pots, from the 1980's to the present day. I responded to the Anti Thatcherite, class war themes, sexual freedoms and anti war messages, collaged, written and painted on the vases and pots of various types.

photo from Turner Contemporary website

Grayson Perry describes them as "stealth bombs"  as they are visually attractive and decorative at first glance, then a closer inspection shows the messages he wants to convey.

Photo from Turner Contemporary website

In the other gallery rooms, some of Grayson Perry's collages, maps and videos are showing, along side his large tapestries, including the Walthamstow Tapestry, which I'd seen in Walthamstow when it was first exhibited.

 

The maps and tapestries include many of the labels we seem to be in love with as consumers, as well as modern tribes and tourist destinations. The tapestries are bright and visually arresting, woven in Flanders, as were so many historic pieces. I am pleased that we still have places left doing such crafts.

Photo from Turner Contemporary website.

I made a few visual notes in my sketch book and will spend a bit more time looking at the work again.

Photo from Turner Contemporary website.

The exhibition is on till September 13th   and is well worth visiting, though if you have young children be aware that there are some themes that are adult in nature, the gallery is closed on Mondays.