If you happen to wander past my studio in the High Street, Heacham (Studio @ 55) you may ask yourself what exactly is going on here. The light could be on when most of Heacham is asleep. I may still be working. I have a deadline.

Each year a contemporary art exhibition takes place at Cley-next-the-Sea. Artists show their work in St. Margaret’s Church and churchyard, the NWT Visitor’s Centre or on the beach. (https://cleycontemporaryart.org/ Instagram @cleycontemporaryart)

Unfortunately, Cley 20 couldn’t take place but now, I can finally proceed with my work for Cley 21 which will take place from 1 July – 1 August.

The theme is “nowhere: not in or to anyplace, not anywhere – nowhere is now here.”

The installation piece I’m doing consists of eleven ‘skins’ that will be suspended above the baptismal font near the west window/entrance. Each ‘skin’ is made of tissue paper and acrylic medium and is approximately 2m long and 120cm at the widest point.

I set to work making a large form made of chicken wire and ‘Ciment Fondu’ that would serve as a mould for the ‘skins.’ They are translucent with soft edges reminiscent of alabaster or ice and will appear to be floating in space. I still have a lot of work to do before the hanging starts on 21 June, but you are welcome to visit me in my studio on Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 1pm or by appointment.

Model of installation piece. The largest figure represents a person 6′ tall.

While I’m waiting for the acrylic medium to dry, I’m working on my second installation project of the year. It’s for the Raveningham Sculpture Trail which will run from 31 July to 5 September. (https://raveninghamsculpturetrail.com/sculpture-trail-2021/ Instagram @raveninghamsculpturetrail) I will be using the same materials but suspend ‘skins’ in a tree to create a cocoon-like effect. My childhood love of tree climbing got put into practice again making the templates for the piece.

Clay Modelling is running and so is my new kiln. It’s exciting having a kiln on site and seeing student work after a firing. As things ease up, more courses will begin so please do let me know if you would like to join in. My classes are limited to 4 participants so each person can develop their own ideas with a maximum amount of support.

Esther Boehm

Further information: Esther Boehm BFA (sculpture) • Studio @ 55 • 55 High Street • Heacham, PE31 7DW
www.estherboehm.com • eb@estherboehm.com

Pines and crevasses ( an I-pad image, from memory, of autumn colours on an escarpment in the Alps whilst travelling along the highway)

Here are two quotes that I believe are very relevant for artists today.

Paul Gauguin :
 ‘Don’t copy nature too closely – art is an abstraction as you dream amid nature, extrapolate art from it and concentrate on what you will create as a result’. 

How I interpret this is: don’t slavishly copy what one sees in front of one (nature/photograph) but interpret it expressing one’s self in one’s own language on the final image. Continue reading →

When I was studying at university, it was a time when health and safety was just beginning to be a big deal. We did wear our Mickey Mouse ears when using power tools and respirators when working with resins and solvents. However, this practice wasn’t generally carried out when one wasn’t working. Continue reading →

“The Party’s Over” (what happened next?!)

What have I done?! 
Setting a challenge to produce a piece of artwork so depicting how you feel about your favourite piece of music.

Well, it was a challenge for me, as I dare say for many of you.

I have named my paintings with a musical title and found one that I had done some years ago of a pair of shoes lying on a discarded evening dress with my favourite silver bracelet so I called it “The Party’s Over” (what happened next?!)

“Port de Soller”

Then discovering a picture that I had painted in situ in my favourite holiday destination “Port de Soller” with a couple gazing out to sea on a sunny morning.

I titled this one “On days like these” by Matt Monro or it could have been Neil Diamond’s “Love on the Rocks”.

After being undecided these last six weeks, I decided to actually listen to some music. So, whilst playing a DVD of Einaudi’s haunting piano music especially, L’Onde, I found a piece of gessoed MDF & grabbed my acrylic inks and I poured, painted, stippled, glazed areas letting the ink take me into the music.

The whole process only took a couple of hours and when I had finished it felt like the end of lockdown.   
Maybe it’s a new me!

Hope all the members have enjoyed the challenge.

Jill Ilett

I am currently working on a self-initiated project to illustrate a book about King’s Lynn. It is a fascination town with much history. I felt inspired to create this project whilst invigilating at our summer exhibition in St Nicholas’ Chapel. One of the church staff was giving a guided tour about the church and was enthusiastically talking about the church’s history. This gave me the idea to create a book about the history of the town. I then spent many trips to King’s Lynn sketching around the town and taking photographs. Fortunately, when the first lock down happened, I already had a large number of images to be working from and have been able to continue since. I have so far created 10 drawings out of a list of 55 that keeps on growing as I discover more and more buildings to add!

When the book is complete, I hope to have it printed and perhaps crowd funded or sent to a publisher.

My process for creating each drawing involves:
1) drawing the outline in pencil
2) painting a wash of watercolour on areas to be in colour
3) adding detail to the drawing using colour pencil and graphite pencil

Izzy Wingham

Alexander of the second wave

What do you do if you are an artist and you are made to stay at home for a year?

Well, you produce art. And in my case, I’ve done so to such an extent, that the shed where I keep my finished works now resembles a crowd scene from a future dystopian world where random everyday objects have grouped together to start new lives of their own, and social distancing is strictly for the “Organics”.

Meanwhile, back in the real world. What is it that I have been making? I hear you ask.
My inspiration lately seems to be coming from the Classical world.

During the first lockdown, I created, from recycled milk bottles (one of my favourite materials) a life-size replica of a famous Michelangelo statue. When I say life-size, I mean the size of a person. Not the size of the original work.

I am keeping this one under wraps for the moment though. I don’t want to lessen the “Shock and Awe” value when it is finally unveiled at an exhibition.

All I can say is, it is surprising how much, from a distance, plastic milk bottles look like Carrara marble.

I have always been interested in Kinetic art. So, the next work that I produced, you may well have already seen. The mechanical Minatour called “Spode” (as in Spode china. You know? Bull in a china shop?) Anyway. The challenge with this one, was not constructing it, but in making the video that followed. Spode does not actually move on his own, but with the wonders of stop-go  animation he can be made to look that way. I did this using 300 separate still photographs to make the short film. The real task was synchronising the motion to the music. It kept me amused for many a long evening.

Finally, we come to my latest labour of love. I say that because I have spent more time producing this than anything else so far.
This one is entitled “Alexander of the second wave” (pictured)
I’m back on the recycled plastic here. Shampoo bottles, yoghurt pots, detergent boxes, whatever I could lay my hands on basically.
This is my re-creation of the mosaic of Alexander the Great that was un-earthed at Pompei. I am amazed at the level of detail in the original, considering it was made 2,000 years ago from tiny pieces of coloured stone. Apparently, they used a palette of 27 colours, compared to my measly 17. “Much respect. Romans”
Wouldn’t it be nice to think that in 2,000 years time someone might dig up one of our works of art, and try to copy it?
Oh, by the way. The second wave bit of the title is because I made it during the second wave of the pandemic.

Talking of which, being of mature years, I have had the jab now, and am feeling ready to face the world again.

And as for the shed full of “Non-Organics” Well, they seem to be multiplying of their own accord, and are now bursting out into the garden.
Only an exhibition can save us now.

Tom Sharp

During these difficult times I don’t think it is exaggerating to describe my studio as a life saver. I am able to walk to it every day, if I want to, and I take a flask of coffee and biscuit, and it brings me great joy and happiness to be able to create various pieces of artwork and keep myself busy.

There is no doubt that we will look back at the way we lived through this pandemic and wonder how we did it. For me, it has been having access to my own little space to do what I want, when I want.

Sandringham Church in van Gogh style

The added bonus of being a member of the WNAA has been the Challenges issued by our Committee. These have often set us off on a path which is out of our comfort zone; self-portraits being one, and Norfolk in the style of the French Impressionists another.

I have also found that to have the opportunity to prepare pictures for our Exhibitions online has been a challenge in itself. It’s obviously nothing like as exciting as being together in St. Nicholas Chapel, or Thornham Village Hall, hanging all the pictures, and placing the 3D Artwork on the plinths, etc. but at least it gave us a challenge and kept us busy.

I thought that the presentation of these online exhibitions was brilliant, and I thank Chandra and Steve and the committee for all their efforts on our behalf.

I was very pleased to be invited to join a local group down here in Snettisham, called Art 21 and, as we couldn’t have our weekly get togethers, they also issued us with challenges, which were both inspiring and difficult at the same time.

Self portrait

I was delighted to receive my first dose of the vaccine yesterday, and it was a very exciting experience. It is the first step along the road to recovery, in my view, and I just can’t wait to see my family and friends again and have the thing I have missed most- HUGS!

Helena Anderson

In the past many of my early mentors would deride the work of illustrators and graphic designers as ‘not real artists ‘. They were so wrong.
The art of illustration demands many creative skills. Not only in the handling of materials to produce an acceptable result for a paying client, but also it requires an imagination and storytelling ability which goes way beyond the mere copying of a subject, as so many artists tend to do. 

In the 70s I managed an art materials shop and gallery in the centre of Leicester. One of our artists was royal portrait painter, Bryan Organ who lived locally.

Ideas for David Attenborough (studies for Attenborough in Paradise) 2016*

In conversation one day I asked him “Bryan, what is the difference between a professional artist and an amateur? “

This was his reply. “A professional draws and an amateur paints”. I knew exactly what he meant through handling his work through our gallery. This interview with him explains the theory perfectly.

http://www.leicestersocietyofartists.co.uk/events/2016/bryan-organ-talk.php

He would find a subject and observe / dissect it from so many different angles via ‘working drawings ‘. 
For instance, he produced a major exhibition based solely around the life of a local pigeon fancier.  Small scale studies of the individual prized birds, the loft interiors, family portraits, and their lives which revolved around the world of pigeon racing.

Attenborough in Paradise 2016 **

He worked on a small scale using mainly pencil and gouache, creating endless studies which we framed and exhibited alongside several major finished paintings. These studies were the ‘nuts and bolts ‘ of Bryan’s art. The drawings showed the development of the theme throughout its entire process, to the major works hanging on the gallery wall.

How many of us just pick up a brush and paint a picture, and then move on to the next subject?
Where would the world of art be without the wonderful drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci? The Mona Lisa tells us little of the brilliant mind which existed behind a fairly ordinary portrait?

I spent many years teaching art to adults and children. There is very little difference when it comes to teaching art.
On enrolment nights the conversation would often go something like this-:

Such is the perception of ‘drawing ‘. Painting is drawing with a brush and colour. How can one exist successfully without the other?
It is all down to observation, and then using the information creatively. See, draw, understand, create.

So many people say, “I cannot draw,” yet they are capable of writing a legible letter in their own hand, so the dexterity is there.
 What they really mean is THEY CANNOT BE BOTHERED TO LOOK!
 By drawing you are undertaking intense observation of your subject, and therefore will have a far better chance of producing something which is far more intimate and creative in your finished work. 

How many of you even consider working from your own sketches? When drawing a subject, you can be very selective and note only the essentials which first caught your eye, as a possible subject ‘. Or you can study the finer details. A camera is nowhere near as selective and tends to ‘flatten everything out ‘. 
I do use my camera, but only to collect ‘information’. For instance, there is little point in sitting in front of buildings and drawing every single window, chimney and doorway. While travelling, time is often important, not to mention the weather conditions. 
I will take a photo, only draw from it, and then put it away, occasionally getting it out to check the local colour of such things as buildings, boats, street signs etc., By working from photographs you can easily fall into the trap of producing an exact copy of your photograph, and what is the point of that?

Mike Smith

*Organ, Bryan; Ideas for David Attenborough; Leicester Arts and Museums Service; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/ideas-for-david-attenborough-236360
**Organ, Bryan; Attenborough in Paradise (Portrait of Sir David Attenborough); Leicester Arts and Museums Service; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/attenborough-in-paradise-portrait-of-sir-david-attenborough-234869

Sometimes, as artists, whatever our style or medium it feels like a struggle to find the light. It gives life and form to our work, but we have to ask more than “where is the light coming from here?”

Pauline Prior-Pitt writes poetry which sings of her love of the Outer Hebrides…
It was no surprise to find Pauline is also an artist. As we leave summer behind and enter into winter Pauline is happy for me to share two of her poems which reflect her observations of how light changes with the seasons.

Summer Light

think of green water

no, turquoise
think of blue
more green than blue

no, more blue than green
but darker
ultramarine

no, deeper turquoise
emerald sapphire

think of them all

think of sand cream bays
when the tide is out
streaked with shallow pools
reflecting silver blue

no, make that milky green
though milky green is more
when the tide saunters back in
and water from the burn
mingles peat brown to violet streams

think bright green

no, brighter
a May green, like leaf buds
of rowan trees in spring
machair headlands turning
daisy white to pansy yellow
buttercup to clover pink

think all this together

Winter Light

Think mostly muted
as if seen through grey veils
Still think abundant green, duller
water-logged brown in places
moss green fringed fawn

think cinnamon and ginger
think peat brown dug deep, almost black
think grey burns, grey lochs
grey sea trailing white pray

Then think a low down sun
Think peat grass glowing crimson
on the moor

think marram glossing ochre
over pale sand against gold water

think brimming burns and lochs
holding ink blue light

Visit Pauline Prior-Pitt’s website

Michele Summers
Photos © Michele Summers

New Year’s Day 2020 feels like a lifetime ago now. I’m certain we all had plans, big plans, small plans, for the year – for me there were exhibitions, craft fairs, teaching, workshops and shows, with something booked all the way through from the beginning of March till Christmas. I was excited. This was going to be my busiest year ever. I worried whether I would have enough work, frames and mounts, worried about whether tools and lino would arrive in time for the classes.  I was worried it might all go well; I was worried it might all go badly – 

March arrived and setting up the first exhibition at Welney Wetland Trust was really good fun – it looked great and it felt like a lovely way to start the run of events. Corona Virus was on the way and I suppose there was a part of me assumed it would come and go and life would be much the same afterwards. It sounds so naïve now. 

One day I had a full calendar, a week later nothing – email after email came in to cancel all those carefully scheduled events, and with every media outlet talking about rising hospital admissions and so many people dying – although it hurt, my art seemed trivial by comparison 

I know lots of artists were inspired by the time in lockdown. I wasn’t – I was sad about my scuppered plans, unable to feel creative, and trying to manage a mother in care on end of life care, and an aging father who refused to stay in and was incredulous and annoyed when I pointed out he was high risk – the conflicting advice, the rising figures – I am sure we have all felt the stress and confusion of it.

Eventually I began to make new work, mostly of things I was missing, like walking on the beach. But what I have missed most is interacting with the people I love, enjoy, like and admire – the village that is the art and craft community – catching up with people you may have not seen since last year, setting up your stand or helping to invigilate or hang a show, the shared joys of selling or not, of swapping hints and tips and contact details of people who supply that wonderful thing, that perfect tool or run that wonderful fair. 

So, those few events that have gone ahead in 2020 with careful management have felt like gold dust, and one of the nicest has been the Open Exhibition at West Acre Gallery, which ran for most of September, and hosted a wide variety of 2 and 3 dimensional work from 27 local artists.

To quote the organiser, Abbey Stirling,’ In the mix we have painters, printmakers, sculptors, ceramicists, metalwork, needle felt and textile artists all bringing forth their unique skills for this mixed discipline exhibition, to showcase a truly diverse cross section of artistic talent. ‘

And on a very positive note there were a really good number of sales, both of original art works and also from the gift shop that ran alongside the main exhibition, selling cards and smaller pieces of the featured artists’ work. 

West Acre Gallery is the brainchild and baby of Abbey Stirling. Conceived as community Art Gallery it is entirely crowdfunded and sits amongst the ancient ruins of a 900 year old priory in Abbey Farm, West Acre, in what promises to be a thriving local artisan community which currently includes a craft brewery, woodworkers, framers, artists and a mosaicist with more studio spaces available to let. 

It is the kind of place that promises great things in the future, while offering some wonderful things right now.

This year more than ever this event has been a real treat – a bright light in a very dark year. 

I think lots of us are hoping the West Acre Gallery Open will become an annual feature – for more details about the gallery, to hire or admire it, to join their mailing list, or to find out what they have planned for the rest of the year, go and take a look at the Gallery website: https://www.westacregallery.co.uk

Sue Welfare