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 …

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.

“Autumn along the River” (acrylic painting)

For over forty years my interest in painting has continued to flourish and I have continued to experiment with various techniques and mediums. I also studied Art and Photography to advanced levels through college courses and developed skills in various media and subject matter through the wonderful classes taught by Helena Anderson from whom I learned so much, over a period of five years or more, as did many other student artists, many of whom are still painting today.

I now concentrate on oils and acrylics and occasionally use an air brush to produce out of focus backgrounds in my wildlife paintings. My style is realism, but not necessarily photo realism as I may start off using many photos to create the composition and then using photos for reference when painting detailed elements within the painting, not just copying one photo, many times deviating completely from photographs and just using my imagination. But always trying to end up with a realistic looking piece of work, as I have always been inspired by realism whether landscapes, wildlife or still life. I think my love of detail came from my occupation as a Maxillo- Facial Technician at the hospital, constructing splints for fractured jaws and facial and body prostheses for cancer patients, where detailed accuracy was paramount.

“Bright Eyes” (acrylic and oil painting)

The process of a painting starts with cutting hardboard or MDF (medium density fibre board) and coating with five or six thin layers of gesso, painted on with a small foam roller to create a very fine tooth, so that the surface looks smooth to the eye but has a fine texture. This helps with the blending of either acrylics or oils and stops the paint just sliding around.
Next is the block -in, where I am roughly blocking in the colours that I can see, but looking generally for the mid-tones, this is all done in acrylics. The painting at this stage looks dull and lifeless and this is the stage you can easily give up and think it’s not working; this is the advantage of acrylics as you can press on and keep painting. I find if I’ve done the block-in in oils, I must wait for this to dry over many days, by which time I may lose interest in the painting, and I have done many times!!

Next stage is getting the colours and tones as near as I can and adding some detail and getting the painting ready for the final details and highlights to bring it all together and to create light within the picture.

Sometimes for the final stage I may switch to oils, depending on how the painting is looking. The oils allow for better blending and more realistic graduations of colour and also don’t darken on drying as acrylics do. Many times, I will complete the whole painting in acrylics but if I’m struggling to get the look I want I will switch to oils, the painting then becomes an acrylic / oil painting, if the whole painting is gone over in oils I class it as an oil painting.

Finally, I spray the picture with a matt solvent-based varnish that can be used for both acrylics and oils. I use matt as I hate the glare from lights that reflect in a gloss varnish, I think this preference came from my early days working in gouache, with its lovely matt finish.

Brushes I use are anything from large flats to the tiniest miniature painting brushes for the smallest details, I keep all brushes, even when worn out, quite often cutting into them to make my own specialist brushes for grasses etc. I find small flats excellent for foliage on trees by using just the corners to gently dab on different shapes.

The paint I use varies; at present I use acrylic gouache (matt acrylic) as this gives a matt finish and allows oil paint to adhere much more easily than a gloss acrylic; if using a glossier acrylic, I would use a matt medium added to the paint. I use standard oil paints with Zest-it brush cleaner and thinner to let the paint down and speed up drying (I can’t use alkyd paints or mediums such as Liquin as I am highly allergic to them). If painting more than one layer of oil, I then mix in linseed or walnut oil into the paint to create the fat over lean principle.

I have held a lifelong passion for walking in the countryside of England, Wales and Scotland and I endeavour to capture the varied and ever-changing lighting conditions which make the scenery in the countryside so spectacular. Mountains are particularly close to my heart, and I enjoy using the above techniques to capture their majesty, equally I like to paint the beautiful scenery provided by the Norfolk landscape where I have lived for almost 40 years. My wildlife paintings are inspired by my studies of the works of: Carl Brenders, Robert Bateman and Daniel Smith whose work may not be known in the general art world but are top world-class wildlife painters with exceptional talent.

I am a member of the West Norfolk Artists Association, Art 21, and the Wash Group, I exhibit regularly in the Norfolk area. I also enjoy passing on my skills and knowledge to budding artists and have taught in various workshops in the use of oils, acrylic and pastel painting.

I love to paint in a realistic style and classical realism has a special interest to me with its chiaroscuro lighting effect of the old masters still life paintings, I quite often try to emulate this in my own still life works.

I hope this has been of some interest to the WNAA members of how I go about my painting process.

Keith Powell