Drawing by Peter Brown
A group of members met up on a lovely sunny day on 8th June to do some painting and drawing ‘en plein air’ around King’s Lynn. We met up at the iconic Custom House and then set off to find a good spot – some of us stayed more or less where we were while others wandered along the river and found interesting views there.
Read more …
For the past eighteen years I have been painting and drawing on Fisher Fleet, a little-known part of Lynn’s vast docks complex. Strangely, many Lynn locals are totally unaware of the Fleet’s existence!
I was first told of its whereabouts some 40 odd years ago by an artist friend who lived in Leicester!
Read more …
Artspace on the Prom
I can’t exactly remember how I heard about the Cromer Artspace but when I did, I just had to go see it. I love Cromer with its wild, wind swept sea, so there was no holding me back. Although I’ve been to Cromer countless times, I was surprised at discovering this gorgeous Art Deco building fused into the cliff at the end of Cromer’s West Prom.
The space is both beautiful and unique. Facing north, it meets the ideal prerequisites for an artist’s studio. The sun reflecting off the sea gives a rare light to the work exhibited within. Looking out from inside is the pure wide sea. And its story is like the unexpected unravelling of a large wonderful ball of wool.
In 2013 floods caused the closure of the building. The gift shop moved to higher ground leaving the building empty. It remained so until 2022 when Cromer Artspace gained the lease for the Artspace on the Prom which opened in April of that year.
The history of Cromer Artspace goes back further than that. It was set up as a charity in 2020 to promote publicly accessible art. A research project was undertaken to explore possibilities and compare similar ventures elsewhere.
2020 saw the first initiative ‘Lockdown Views’ an “online response to lockdown experiences.”
A group of artists started looking for a space that could be used for art exhibitions. The passion of the artists was rewarded with a huge positive response from the residents and council of Cromer but there was work to be done. The first volunteers meeting was held in February 2022 and attended by over 60 people. Now, there is a growing group of about 50 active volunteers. Help also came from a charity called Volunteer it Yourself by providing young people Not in Education, Employment or Training to gain useful experience. They installed an accessible toilet and decorated internally.
In April 2022, Artspace on the Prom was launched with a Silent Auction named ‘It All Starts Here’ to raise money for repairs and improvements to the building and there’s been no looking back since. Thanks to a grant of £20,000 (£5,000 short of what was needed) from the Norfolk Coast Partnership an inclusive access ramp was installed and further renovations took place just before the second Silent Auction ‘Tah dah, We’re Back’ and launch of the 2023 season.
The Artspace is offering a full programme of contemporary art exhibitions this summer. The season runs into November. (Mine will be in September.)
Boy bitten by a Lizard, Caravaggio
But this is not all they do! They also run Pictures Around Cromer, a way to bring art to the people. This year, in collaboration with the National Gallery, 30 life-size reproductions of works from the collection are dotted around the streets of Cromer. The pictures date from Van Eyck (1434) to Monet (1907) and include works by Botticelli, Rembrandt, Turner, Van Gogh to name but a few. Printed brochures are available at the Information Centre and the Artspace on the Prom.
The most impressive thing about the project is that Cromer wants art. It’s the efforts of many that is creating a buzz around the town. Not only is the Artspace a well loved venue, it’s through the support of artists, art lovers and volunteers that the iconic Art Deco building is being restored. But there is still a lot of work to be done. The last time I visited, there was a bit of water on the floor. Money needs to be raised for roof repairs …
So, if you are looking for an artistic outing, Cromer is worth a visit.
Esther Boehm
All images © Cromer Artspace
A selection of links:
Listing of this year’s exhibitions
Apply to exhibit
Renovation appeal
Pictures around Cromer
The paintings
Where to find paintings
Family Trail and Artwalks
Chatsworth looking out
A recent visit, with friends, to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire allowed me to reflect on the practice of exhibiting contemporary art amongst the paraphernalia of days gone by.
(We are all familiar with the annual exhibitions at Houghton Hall.)
The current exhibition at Chatsworth, Mirror Mirror, Reflections on Design, co-curated with writer, historian and curator, Glenn Adamson has the stated aim – “to place original works in direct relationship to the historic design at Chatsworth, creating unexpected connections with the house’s architecture, interiors, furniture, ceramics, as well as its essential materials of glass, stone, wood, and light”.
We wandered around the house and grounds coming across the pieces, some, in our view, placed more successfully than others. What is it that makes some pieces “work” in a setting? Were the creators artists or designers?
What to make of Italian design studio Formafantasma’s ‘Charcoal series’ a cabinet of glass vessels and pieces of charcoal, seeking to compare and contrast charcoal connections to destruction and purification? Most visitors hardly glanced at it.
In contrast Jay Sae Jung Oh’s seat assembled from musical instruments wrapped in leather cord stopped people in their tracks, In the music room, it prompted observers to try to identify the instruments, while acknowledging how well it had found its place in the room. The ornate outcroppings, reflected in the carving and decoration of the other much older furniture, the natural material sitting comfortably on the wood floor.
The enigmatic coil pots, ceramic stoneware of Andile Dyalvane lured us along the Chapel corridor where they were displayed amongst stone and marble statues commissioned long ago. Somehow he seamlessly combines elements from his South African tribal homeland with influences from a recent Cornish residency. The pots draw the observer in to begin to notice the details, small holes and seams and scars, eyes and lips. Each pot different but making a coherent whole.
We all agreed we would like to have the Enignum VIII Bed, by Joseph Walsh but how would we get it up the stairs?
Chatsworth Cascade
There are 16 global artist/designers represented through the house and grounds and as with many exhibitions, there are pieces which are thought provoking, interesting, beautiful or boring.
The exhibition is on all summer so if you are travelling in that direction, it’s well worth a visit.
(We got the bus from Matlock where we were staying. It delivered us to the door.)
Michele Summers
Chatsworth House
Bakewell Derbyshire DE45 1PP
Thornham Village Hall has been the venue for the West Norfolk Artists Association Spring Exhibition for many years. This year is no exception.
Our Spring Exhibition over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend was a great success, with higher visitor numbers and more sales than ever before.
Here some of the works in the exhibition.
Congratulations to Neil Adams for winning the Curators’ Prize with his painting “Mapperton Garden. (Photo Neil Adams and Esther Marshall chair of the West Norfolk Artists Association.)
This spring, KL Magazine contacted me with an interest to write an article on my King’s Lynn work. I am currently working on a self-initiated project, to illustrate a book about the town of King’s Lynn. It will include historical facts, stories, and details of my own personal thoughts on buildings and streets. Continue reading
Our exhibition at the Fermoy Gallery was beautifully curated this year by Lydia Haines and Helen Breach, so many thanks to them. Out of all the great art on display their Curators’ Choice was for mixed media work by Anto Morra. Read more …
The Gale 1883-93
National Gallery London until 8th January 2023.
I’ve been a Winslow Homer fan for a long time but was long resigned to no one here having ever heard of him, despite his standing as a major artist in the USA.
So, I lost no time booking my ticket when I realised the National Gallery were putting on a major exhibition “Force of Nature” featuring works from his long career.
To quote the National Gallery.
“For the first time in the UK, we present an overview of Winslow Homer (1836–1910), the great American Realist painter. Well known to many but not everyone, follow Homer’s journey from magazine illustrator to sought-after artist in oil and watercolour.”
Northeaster 1895
With more than fifty paintings, covering over forty years of Homer’s career, the exhibition is a lot to take in in one visit. Many of the paintings have travelled from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Homer first came to public notice as a war artist in the American civil war which had a massive impact on him. From exploring aspects of war, he went on to paint the lives of emancipated former slaves reflecting the difficulties they faced. He had a deep interest in people living in times of struggle. However, he also painted young society women and children.
He always let his work tell the story, not elucidating if asked for an explanation.
Apart from some early months in Paris, he lived and worked between the USA mainland and the Caribbean, Barbados and Bermuda.
The interlude that has always interested me is the 18 months he spent in Cullercoats, a coastal fishing village in the north of England. It was an artist’s colony, but he stayed through the winter when most visitors returned home. He made many sketches and paintings in his time there illustrating the tough lives of the women. These images also informed his later works.
Through his career he also had a love of seascapes painting the sea in a myriad of moods and the wild seas at Cullercoats added another dimension. He witnessed the life savers rowing out to rescue the crew of the Iron Crown inspiring a major work of his career. Towards the end of his life the sea, a central theme throughout his life became the dominant subject of his art.
The exhibition has a wonderful selection of watercolours and oils which trace the development of his painting style, always with the consistency and development of his colour palette and his attention to light.
It’s difficult to sum up such a huge body of work completed over 40 years, but I loved having the rare opportunity to see all these works together and would recommend a visit.
Michele Summers
A section of the installation showing the height increasing.
In September I was invited to take part in an Art Symposium in Neukirchen, Bavarian Forest, Germany.
The theme was Cosmos.
When thinking of Cosmos – the first impulse is to think of the universe. So when I took a look at my huge book by Alexander von Humboldt called ‘Cosmos’, I was surprised to find it more to do with natural science and geology than planets and stars – and that Cosmos can also mean order and harmony. Humboldt’s work had to do with the earth as an interconnected whole.
The objects are growing from the ground around an ant hill.
My concept for the Symposium took aspects of all. Based on my installation of 2019 in Norwich where I built pillar-like objects using armatures (wire structures) covered in plaster – I imagined these objects as a sequence growing out of the ground. The first of eleven was about 15 cms, the last over 2 metres. Symbolically, I was taking Humboldt’s earth and having it grow into the heavens.
The other aspect of my concept had to do with using natural elements and experimenting to see what would happen if I mixed them with cement instead of plaster.
At the Symposium, I met seven artists each with their own concept of Cosmos. We were able to choose to work in a former butcher’s/pub with rooms up above, post office or café (a sad sign of the times that villages are losing such services). For us, an amazing opportunity to develop our ideas and create.
The discovery of a neglected garden on site was the perfect spot for me to create. The Symposium and experimental nature of it, gave me the freedom to fail. It didn’t matter if the projects were complete or if your exact proposal was realised. It was the exchange and development of ideas that was important. For me, some of the ‘failures’ were the most exciting parts of my experience. One of them was mixing elderberries into the cement. All previous experiments worked wonderfully – so it was quite surprising when the cement didn’t set and crumbled when pressure was put on it. Also, my hope of colouring the cement purple turned to grey!
In the garden while clearing the long grass, I discovered several ant hills. Not wanting to disturb them, I used rubble found on site to ring each one, forming an ant hill constellation. It became part of my installation. My object placement therefore naturally included these mounds so that everything in the garden became it’s own system – Cosmos. I started creating the elements of my sculpture using chicken wire stuffed with crumpled newspaper for my sequence of evolving objects. I was going to use cement. Other artists suggested that it looked good as it was. So, this part of my work was complete.
In the time I had left, I devoted myself to two further objects using my original idea of oxide coloured cement mixed with natural materials. Rain set in. The rods for the pillar-like sculptures couldn’t hold the weight of the wet cement. With the help of a couple of the other artists, we constructed a support system. It didn’t end up looking as I had planned – the cement set with the addition of rose hips, bindweed roots, stinging nettle stalks, seed heads, berries (not elderberry) that I added to it. In the context of the Symposium I wasn’t able to see what would happen over time but it was a wonderful basis for new experiments.
What this Symposium showed me was that embracing mistakes made it much more fun. They weren’t ‘mistakes’ they were just an observation of the state of things – the magical part of learning. So often we restrict what we do because we are so intent on getting it right the first time. We can get it right in the end but why not have fun on the way?
My Studio is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 10-1. Visitors always welcome. (Do call first if you are coming from further away.) We could talk about projects to get you started be it lino-cut, clay, plaster and a whole lot more.
Esther Boehm
Studio @ 55 • 55 High Street • Heacham, PE31 7DW
https://www.studioat55.com • eb@estherboehm.com
T 01485 570 506 • M 07538 986 235
I’m sure you all know the beautiful Groundwork Gallery in King’s Lynn and may also have heard that Greyfriars Art Spaces have taken over the Customs House and will be staging regular exhibitions there – good news for local artists!
WNAA have just begun an exciting collaboration with Purfleet Brasserie, right next door to Groundwork Gallery. The owners of this refurbished restaurant are very keen to have regular, curated art exhibitions on their walls and Veronica Sekules from Groundwork put us in touch with each other.
The result is our first exhibition, which features work by Izzy Wingham and Lesley Williams, hopefully the first of many which we will organise for our members.
If you’re in King’s Lynn why not pop in for a coffee or if you fancy lunch, as a member you will get a 10% discount between 12 – 2.30 Monday to Saturday. (Brasserie open from midday every day).
We are planning an event to celebrate this collaboration and will send members an invitation.