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
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
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
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!?