Yep, Leigh Art Trail 2020 is on the way and changes are afoot. No, we haven’t forgotten about the fallout following year’s drastic measures, but a new venue does call for a slightly new approach.
Here’s what SEVEN have got in mind for LAT 2020:
Our new venue, The Refill Room, is Leigh-on-Sea’s first zero waste store – so we wanted to honour this ethical and eco friendly ethos with our books
Our 2020 theme is Reclamation – a powerful word which has a plethora of meanings. According to etymonline.com:
Reclamation (n.) late 15c., “a revoking” (of a grant, etc.), from Old French réclamacion and directly from Latin reclamationem (nominative reclamatio) “a cry of ‘no,’ a shout of disapproval,” noun of action from past participle stem of reclamare “cry out against, protest” (see reclaim). From 1630s as “action of calling (someone) back” (from iniquity, etc.); meaning “action of claiming something taken awat” is from 1787. Of land from 1848.
We’re using altered books instead of ready-made sketchbooks or hand-making our own – phew!
Workshops have been reinstated – we’re each taking it in turns to share a creative process
Our goody bags are back – we loved the idea of using similar items across our books, it’s a great way to see how five people use the same materials very differently…
Summary
Watch this space to see how our 2020 altered books develop. The first step is to find just the right altered book to work in – it can be easier said than done. For tips on picking and creating your own altered book check out this earlier SEVEN blog post “The Library of Reclaimed Books – a collaborative project.”
Some blogs ago we talked about the importance of getting inspired by your art heroes, that’s all well and good, but copying alone isn’t going to get you far. The key to creativity is to put your spin on it.
So, when it came to our 2019 art books, just how had each SEVEN member put their individual stamp on their chosen artist or art movement?
Kim – Robert Rauschenberg
“My own practice – mixed media and collage – were a good fit. I threw everything at it really, including the printing we had previously done as a group, and the use of fabrics.”
Yep, SEVEN regularly get together to experiment with new creative techniques, one of which was gelli printing. Jo shared this technique with us early in the art book process, and the results were pretty interesting – although some of us wound up with mouldy gelli plates…
Jo – Hundertwasser
“Hundertwasser was primarily a painter, architect and ecologist, my practice is collage art, design and print.”
Jo continues:
“I reinterpreted a selection of his paintings in my collage style using found ephemera and tissue paper to emulate the translucent quality in his paintings.”
She also:
“[M]ade a lino cut of his spiral” and used it to “make prints on tissue paper”.
While a stream of consciousness doodle proved the ideal way in which to incorporate Hundertwasser’s spirals and organic shapes.
Then, taking inspiration from both Hundertwasser’s ecological interests and current Earth Day Network projects, Jo used her collage technique to:
“[Focus] on environmental issues using found ‘letters to the earth’ published by Extinction Rebellion…”.
Amanda – Matisse
“I am not sure my own style has shone through this book, I have borrowed heavily from Matisse, but perhaps the one area that is me is that the pages were created through chance experimentation with water based paint and ink, something I use a lot in my paintings.”
Amanda goes on to say:
“I felt that an additional ideas guide would be useful for the viewers as research into the themes brought my interests into play: history, mythology and the natural world. So another more conventional book [Amanda’s book was based on the Turkish map fold] was made for this purpose.”
Helen – Surrealism
“I had a few symbols and interests I wanted to explore. These include: Clarissa Pinkola Estes’s ideas around hands, red shoes and the handmade life; mythology and tales of metamorphosis; alchemy; Jung; dreams and nightmares; etc.”
She goes on to say:
“And I chose to do all this largely through collage. I’ve always been drawn to collage, and as it turned out, so were many of the Surrealists.”
Juliet – Art of the Pacific
Oceanic art is often filled with organic forms and intricate patterns, so Juliet brought her embroider’s eye to her art book:
“I wanted to do more stitching onto this theme, and also experiment more with gelli printing to create a variety of backgrounds.”
Summary
So, that’s how each SEVEN member put their personal spin on our 2019 art theme: A favourite artist or art movement. Finding your own artistic style is a process, a journey – an adventure! One that involves taking inspiration from the world around you, then playing with those ideas again and again in different ways. Enjoy it!
So, Leigh Art Trail 2019 came and went in a blink of an eye. And, while most of SEVEN just about manage showing our creative projects at one venue, some of us exhibited at two – yes Amanda Jackson, we’re talking about you.
Amanda’s #LAT2019
While most of SEVEN lead various creative lives Amanda also happens to be a talented painter who has shown her work at a number of Leigh Art Trails. This year she shared a space at the Birdwood Bakery with printmaker Shelley Jupitus, where she showcased a series of oil paintings which Amanda described thus:
“Painting the littoral zone; a celebration of the nature of the places where water meets land.”
Essex Is An Inspiration
As Amanda explains the natural Essex environs are key to her creative practice:
“I have lived beside the Thames Estuary in Leigh-on-sea and Westcliff-on-sea most of my life and my work explores my sense of this place and the surrounding landscape of Essex coast and countryside. My painting practice is sustained by a deep sense of the familiar and entrenched memories of the landscape, walking and drawing and returning to the studio to paint”
The Artistic Process
As you know SEVEN is always keen to peak behind the scenes of the artistic process, so how does Amanda take her painting from inspiration to finished artwork?
First off, Amanda has been honing her practice on the other side of the country at Newlyn School of Art:
“[L]earning more, making contacts, expanding my horizons – literally East to West – and whilst there, soaking up the landscape that I love.”
How has this experience impacted her practice then?
“My studio practice has changed – which is a good thing. I am learning what parts of my old practice can stay and what needs to step up a gear.”
She continues:
“I also made the move out of my home into studio space which allows me freedom to work on several paintings at a time enabling one painting to influence another.”
Amanda’s studio space
So how does Amanda go about a specific painting?
“I am working more intuitively,” Amanda tells us. “With a starting point but no idea of what the outcome might be, a particular painting had been troubling me for some weeks and I thought I would share the process with you.”
We’re all ears! Well…
“It begins with a rejected canvas that I had painted in the spring for an exhibition, but rejected it. I have become a champion of reusing canvases and rather than paint over in white, I just start painting.”
Does she work straight onto the canvas or does she have a sketchbook?
“Working from a photo of some rocks and associated drawings and colour studies, the initial process took place over a period of two months.”
Did she hit any rocky* patches? (*pun intended!)
“The final version has been turned through 90 degrees,” Amanda says.
“I needed to stop, there was something problematic about it, it is not unusual for me to like small areas of the painting more than others and at this point I knew that much of the existing painting needed to go.”
Sounds a bit dramatic! What happened next?
“The painting remained on the studio wall for a while, we had Open Studios and it was interesting to hear visitors’ thoughts about it, but it still niggled me. The painting journeyedto Newlyn and discussions with Marie Clare (one of the tutors) gave me more food for thought: Was I just trying to give too much information in one painting, should it be more pared back?”
The unresolved painting
So Amanda went back to some of her colour studies:
“I laid out all the photos and drawings from the beach at Newlyn, which is where the initial ideas sprung from. I was drawn to the pile of boulders. Other paintings in the series are hanging on my wall, drawings are laying out on the table and all of this feeds into the painting.”
Photos and drawings from the beach at Newlyn
What about the colours?
“The choice of colours that evolve from this point on were drawn from those already used and the colours in the landscape but I cannot explain how this comes about as it is an intuitive process.”
When does she decide it’s finally finished?
“The final version or should I say, this version to date will stay on the wall for a while, my pondering time… I am happier with it than I was.”
The final painting (to date…)
Find Out More
Follow Amanda on Instagram at @amandajacksonart to keep up to date with her latest artworks, exhibitions and inspirations. And of course, she also shares her creative sketchbook projects as part of SEVEN over at @sevenartistsuk.
Whether we were almost overcome by the merciless midday sun or a relentless confusion of children coming to cut, collage and create is debatable:
“As wave after wave of primary school kids and their teachers came to check out our art tables – think: mandala collage, collective doodling, and swing tag-making – it was all we could do to just muck in and make the most of it.
More gems you say? Certainly. Lost your prized sunglasses? We’ll help you find them. Want pictures of cars for your mandala collage? Coming up.”
Errgh! I’m feeling exhausted just thinking about it! But the upshot was we made note of what not to do next time…
Wish You Were Here?
For starters, this year, we had a theme: Wish You Were Here.
Postcards and luggage tags were the starting points for 2019’s miniature masterpieces
Our medium? Mostly collage. Think: animals, oceans, cars, stickers, old postage stamps – and, just the odd bit of bling!
While a huge roll of paper provided the backdrop for collective doodling – resulting in a kind of journey through stream of consciousness!
Boundaries v Boredom
Providing a starting point – however loose – definitely proved beneficial. The children were inspired to:
Remember journeys they’d taken
Imagine trips they’d love to go on
While others focused on the transport that would take them there
Or, wondered about the animals they might see …
One satisfied participant even commented:
“We thought it was going to be really boring, but it’s been really great!”
You can’t ask for much more than that, right?
Balloons, Breeze & Crawling on the Grass
Now we just have to fathom:
How to blow up numerous balloons without expiring – what seemed like an easy decorative addition soon became a lesson in breath control and our lack of lung capacity (apparently some tips on just how to blow up a balloon can be found here)
How to control Pritt stick usage – kids seem to be compelled to wind the glue up to the max, which results in mushed and broken glue sticks galore!
How to better manage breezy conditions – paperweights didn’t do much for our teensier collage cut outs which saw Kim crawling all over the grass to reclaim them!
All in All
Thanks to Metal Southend for the opportunity to share a few of SEVEN’s creative processes with some of our local kids. It’s always a pleasure and we take away so much in the form of memories and ideas!
Gene Simmons – you know, the Kiss guy with the graphic makeup and the wild tongue – once said:
“I crave ideas, and when an idea hits me, it grips me and it tortures me until I master it.”
That’s kinda how SEVEN’s 2019 creative art book project has taken us. Now the Leigh Art Trail 2019 is upon us and while all our art books are complete, some of us made it by the skin of our tortured teeth. Others, on the other hand, were much more organised (Kim!).
So we took this opportunity to look around and start asking ourselves some questions. What lessons have we learned? And what did we most enjoy while undertaking this particular SEVEN art project?
But first up, we asked…
Who Inspired Your Art Book?
Our unifying theme for 2019 was a favourite artist or art movement, but why did each SEVEN member choose their particular theme?
Kim – Robert Rauschenberg
Kim
Robert Rauschenberg (1925 – 2008) an American artist who worked in a variety of mediums – including painting, printmaking and performance – inspired Kim’s art book.
“…Rauschenberg has been called a forerunner of essentially every postwar movement since Abstract Expressionism.”
Which might have had a little something to do with why Kim picked him as her subject:
“For literally decades I would have said that Andy Warhol was my favourite artist, but when I saw the Robert Rauschenberg exhibition at Tate Modern, it made me think again. Such varied work, so inspiring, it made a big impression on me, and I wanted to find out more.”
Jo – Hundertwasser
Jo
Jo chose Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an artist, architect and ecologist, as her subject. Born in Vienna in 1928 Hundertwasser became recognised for his striking use of spirals and arabesque lines. Writing about his art work in the mid-1970s he said:
“The colourful, the abundant, the manifold, is always better than mediocre grey and uniformity”,
Explaining why she took Hundertwasser as her starting point Jo says:
“I first came across Hundertwasser and his work during University, where I studied textile design. I love his use of colour and I’m inspired by the pattern-like style in his paintings and architecture. More recently I visited an exhibition of Hundertwasser, Klimt and Schiele at Atelier des Lumières, in Paris, which was an immersive experience that rekindled my interest.”
Amanda – Matisse
Amanda
Amanda centred her project on Henri Matisse, (1869 –1954) a French artist, famed for his use of colour and decorative forms. But Amanda decided to concentrate on the legendary cut-outs, created towards the end of his career:
“I love his sense of colour and the playfulness he found in this late period of his work, when he was ill and had his assistants paint paper for him to cut into directly. I find fun in the work that I do with SEVEN and this playfulness in Matisse’s series fitted.”
“A twentieth-century literary, philosophical and artistic movement that explored the workings of the mind, championing the irrational, the poetic and the revolutionary.” – Tate Modern
While Salvador Dalí is probably the best known Surrealist artist – who were largely men – and Sigmund Freud their ‘patron saint’ Helen says:
“I was originally interested in some of the female Surrealists. Their use of myth, folklore, fantastic landscapes, Jung, alchemy, and more, fascinates me.”
Juliet – Oceania
Juliet
Juliet’s concertina creation is inspired by the Royal Academy exhibition Oceania, which explored the art of the people of the Pacific ocean. The RA says:
“From shell, greenstone and ceramic ornaments, to huge canoes and stunning god images, we explore important themes of voyaging, place making and encounter.” –
The exhibition featured works from the 18th century to the present and included:
“[S]eminal works produced by contemporary artists exploring history, identity and climate change.”
Juliet goes on to say that the reason for her choice was the fact that she:
“…loved how the art was so inspired by the world around them.”
Leigh Art Trail – at last!
So, it’s a wrap!
(From left) Jo, Helen, Kim, Amanda, Juliet
SEVEN are excited to be part of Leigh Art Trail 2019. Remember, the Trail is “…a not for profit, volunteer run, community engagement organisation, showcasing the work of local contemporary artists and designers”.
And, we love sharing both our creative art books and the ideas behind them with the many Trailers who take the opportunity to visit us at our lovely host venue Planet Leasing.
