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.”
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.
SEVEN has had busy year and is showing at the Leigh Art Trail for the third consecutive year at Venue 52: Planet Leasing. We’ll be open late on Thursday 13 June for drinks and nibbles and we’d like to invite you to join us and take a look through our books. This year we have been making our own books and taking inspiration from an artist or art movement.
Hot on the heels of the Leigh Art Trail, we decided to take the plunge and show our large-scale, timetable-inspired images, from Installation at the Station, at the Southend Art Trail too.
In contrast to Leigh’s more arty, community vibe, the Southend Art Trail seemed a bit more impersonal. Whereas artists are often encouraged to hang out at their LAT venues, the Southend Trail didn’t really demand that – after all the work was on show for a whole month. But ultimately all this left us with some questions…
About Southend Art Trail
Southend Art Trail is a free event that provides a democratic platform for local artists, using the High Street to exhibit their work. …From artists who have never shown before to seasoned exhibitors, around 40 artists will be displaying amazing artwork in town centre businesses. – Visit Southend
The Royal Hotel
Exhibition at the Royal Hotel
Our venue was the plush Royal Hotel, overlooking the Estuary, the pier and Adventure Island. In contrast to the tall, white walls of the waiting room the hotel walls here were packed with vintage-inspired, quirky prints.
Our exhibition pieces blended in with the existing artwork on the walls
Fortunately for us, SEVEN’s eclectic style and the wide range of themes already featured on the walls of the restaurant and bar, meant that after some careful scouting we were able to find the perfect place in which to showcase each piece.
Final Destination?
As tempting as it might have been to hang around the Royal Hotel bar, those who tried it didn’t find it all that fruitful. So unfortunately, we didn’t get to find out what people thought about our timetable-themed show. Which left us wondering.
Royal Hotel bar area
Did Southend Art Trail visitors find us without a trail sign to help them? Once, inside did people even know the difference between our SEVEN creations and the pub images? Did it matter? Who knows!? But one of Kerry’s pieces went walkies, so someone surely liked them…
One of the great things about being part of a creative group, like SEVEN, is sharing the very different artworks we each create, despite beginning with similar materials or themes. Which is why, for Leigh Art Trail 2018 we found ourselves in the waiting room at Leigh-on-Sea railway station grappling with vintage timetables and command strips…
Installation at the Station
Installation at Leigh-on-Sea station
Yep, in addition to our usual sketchbook work, for LAT 2018 we also created large-scale images using vintage train timetables as our prompt.
Dubbed the Installation at Leigh Station (Amanda thought of that!) the exhibition explored how a single creative starting point could develop into seven unique and unexpected destinations.
Each one of us took two timetables – arrival and departure – and did our individual thing. From Kerry’s fun and frivolous Ladies in Waiting to Juliet’s evacuee-inspired pieces, the results couldn’t have been more diverse.
A real departure from our book format, the large-scale poster-style images we created for the waiting room were mounted around the tall, white space, allowing visitors to view the resulting images in an altogether different way.
Exploring Estuarine
Concertina sketchbook – LAT 2018
In contrast, our creative sketchbook show at Planet Leasing kept to the A5 concertina style, which meant Trailers could get up close and have a good look at our explorations.
Estuarine: a word which sums up the ever shifting nature of the local coastline, part sea, part river, part land.
SEVEN Take On the Secret Auction
Secret Auction bid cards
In other news, SEVEN’s reputation for getting stuff done saw us get a bit more involved behind the scenes at Leigh Art Trail. This year, in addition to our creative sketchbooks and the Installation at the Station, we also helped organise the Secret Auction.
As a non-profit organisation Leigh Art Trail largely relies on members fees, commissions and proceeds from events like the Secret Auction to raise money and ensure the event happens. And that’s without even mentioning all the volunteers who donate their time (and much more) to the Trail – which just goes to show the power of groups, eh!?
