It's that time of year again.....

when we all start to panic about Christmas presents. So pop along this Friday night or Saturday afternoon to the E17 Designers Christmas market to get a whole host of hand made goodies in one place. Completely unique gifts from jewellery, clothes and art aimed at the whole family. 

Hope to see you there x

Trails End Garden Party....

This Sunday to mark the end of the Wanstead Art Trail the Snaresbrook Arts Project is holding a garden party! Offering food, drink an arts and crafts market plus lots of fun and exciting activities for children. All proceeds made on the day go towards the Project, helping to support and train adults with learning difficulties.

The workers at the Project have been busy as bees getting everything ready to host a great party to finish off the trail. Including local artist at the Project, James Bull, who will be hosting his annual art competition. 

So if you know of any young budding artists then send their picture to the Project at:

34 Hollybush hill, Snaresbrook, E11 1PS 

for the chance to have their picture displayed at Wanstead Library and The ARC gallery space in Harlow.

 

Here's hoping the sun shines for us so we don't get rained out!!

Second time lucky.....

On our first attempt to visit the newly refurbished William Morris Gallery we arrived on a Tuesday to find it closed!! Note to self: always find out opening times before going anywhere!! So for anyone planning on going it's open from Wednesday through to Sunday. 

The new gallery is looooveeeellllyyy with lots more of his designs, wallpapers and textiles on display, which are my favourite. There are lots of deep drawers below glass cabinets filled with a whole host of work in amazing colour combinations i've not seen before. It's like visiting the gallery for the very first time!!

It's the infamous Art Trail in Walthamstow at the moment and outside the gallery is one of Morris' quotes:

Inside is a lovely etching from Anna Alcock of Inky Cuttlefish, of her daughter in the pose of this years theme 'bestow'. 

The books in the gallery are an illustrators dream! The painstaking detail gone into them is amazing. Also on display is the working drawings alongside final prints, so it's really good to see how they changed parts that didn't quite work and shows that by developing your work is key.

Sections to keep the kids entertained.....

Grayson Perry's Walthamstow tapestry.....

 

The tapestry charts man's passage from birth to death, with references to consumerism, branding and advertising in Perry's quirky style. Offered as a tribute to Morris, one of his heroes, the tapestry draws on Morris's ideals and brings contemporary arts and crafts back to his home. The colours are extremely vibrant and pop as soon as you walk into the room.

For this years Art Trail i'll be at Queens Road Adult College this Saturday along with fellow tutors and students so if you are passing by pop in to see the work and say hello. Also for any of my students who wish to display and sell some work pop along at 10am to drop off your work. 

Hope to see you there,

Sharon

Romford Art Trail update.......

We popped along to The Brentwood Road Gallery today to see all of the artists involved in the art trail. The Gallery is the hub for the art trail so all artists are exhibiting one piece there and then more at their chosen venue. Here's my main piece above. In the background are drawings of the historical aspects of the Brewery building including the main entrance gates, the old gas lamp and the main signage. I then added texture and paint to reflect the buildings and colours of the ale and beer that was produced there. Then I created a lino print of the architecture of the new Brewery development and printed on top. Next I painted some detailing from the Brewery Centenary brochure, which really inspired me as it was created in the arts and crafts movement so it contained some beautiful drawings and prints. Finally I added paint to blend all the elements together and to reflect the old dilapidated nature of the buildings. 

Here is some of the other great work on show, including Dizzy Di's below.......

We then headed on down to The Studio in the Woods, a collection of sculpture, painting and mosaics set in beautiful grounds on the edge of Romford, it feels like you're in the heart of the countryside. This was the idyllic entrance.....

 Here's the entrance to the studio with one of Gill Pendreich's lovely mosaics outside. 

Inside was work from Martin Torrington, James Quinn, Paul Kelsey, Franta Belsky, Jean Cairns, Richard Packer, James Quinn and Kirsty Packer had her sculpture hanging in the garden outside.

Here's little Maisie, who wanted her picture taken next to her favourite pieces.....

This is Romford's first art trail, so although it's a little small there's been an amazing selection of work, hopefully it'll grow every year as more artists in the area learn about it and take part. Tomorrow is the last day for the art trail so try to head over if you can as there's a great selection of work on offer at amazing prices too!!

Kirsten

Romford Art Trail

This is the final week of the Romford Art Trail, which for us Romfordians is quite exciting as it means a little bit of artistic culture is finally being recognised. You can catch my mum's beading work at Dizzy Di's bead shop along with a whole host of Di's students and artists. Dizzy Di's Shop is next to the Shopping Hall and there a whole host of colourful artists inside as well.

Here's all the great work displayed in the window, along with my mum's Egyptian themed work, below, if there are any beaders out there you can probably appreciate the amount of work that went into these....

 

This is Di's work along with my little Eloise's foot. Di is an artist who works in glass and created the glass flower, babies feet and fused glass piece of a little girl in a meadow. She also made these amazing glass hats, below, which are the size of a 50p just to give you an idea of how intricate the work is!!

My work is being showcased in the Havering Museum which is based in the old Romford Brewery building so I based the work specifically around the Brewery. They are mixed media pieces with drawings, paint and finally lino prints on top. I was a bit apprehensive at first doing it on the Brewery but I found the history of the site fascinating and I didn't realise quite how big the Brewery was in its day, providing beer for the whole South-East of England. It seems Romford has a strong history for a love of booze!! This is different to any work i've done in the past and I really enjoyed it, drawing historic pieces of architecture from the site and combining old elements of the building with the new Brewery development. There was great symmetry of curves from the old to the new which I loved playing with.

Here's the piece that's in The Brentwood Road Gallery, above, the hub for the Romford Art Trail. I'm hoping to go and visit more of the great work on show tomorrow. So if you're in the area then pick up a trail map and go hunting for some of Romford's artistic talents.

Kirsten x

Godiva Creates Motion......

 

 

Lady Godiva is coming to Walthamstow! As part of the Olympic celebrations a ten-metre high Lady Godiva puppet, set astride a horse powered by 100 cyclists, will make its way from Coventry to London. When she comes to Walthamstow her final destination will be the Town Hall and you can get the very chance to help Studio 3 Arts make-over the building. Pop along to any of the above workshops and get involved, no matter how talented you are all you need is a pop of creativity and bags of enthusiasm.

Here's an artists impression of the puppet to give you a hint of the flavour.....

Birthday shenanigans and printing workshops....

Last week was my birthday, which I managed to spread over the long Jubilee week end without even meaning to, honest!

So I started off with a nice day in Walthamstow shopping with the girlies and bought some lovely material for my friends wedding. I'm making the table runners and her theme is 'English countryside' so I got these below, it was a bit of a gamble as when you're there you just have to go for it as it may be gone by the next week! Luckily she loved it too and i'm hoping I have some left over to keep for myself!  Plus I also got some birthday treats, lots of summer dresses which i'm itching to wear but with this rain I might have to team them with thermals and wellies!

 

We went for pie and mash at Manze (one of my favourite places). You can't go to the East End and not have pie and mash! I gave the baby her first taster and here she is perfecting her cheeky cockney look, she even laughs like Catherine Tate's nan.....

  

Then the following night I got taken to PizzaEast in the Tea Building by Paul which was lovely, proper italian pizza's with real Italian ham and cheeses. Definitely recommend it to anyone who's in the area and loves wood fired pizza's or just loves good food!

  

Then on the Saturday we went to our Street Party for the Jubilee, all the family clad in red jumpers!! We have amazing neighbours who like to party so there was a children's entertainer, bouncy castle, DJ, party games, tug of war, fancy dress and tonnes of food and drink! Shame I forgot to take more pics.

  

 Then on Sunday we drove to Ockenden Manor in Sussex for Paul's friends wedding, after leaving baby with granny and grandad, for an indulgent adults only night away....

  

in a four poster bed, that wasn't made for really tall men!!

 

Then to top it off I came back to have a lovely Turkish meal at Alaya's in Hornchurch with the family. Again another place I would really recommend, food was great, service was amazing especially as....

  

they brought out a cake covered with cream, sprinkles and candles, got the whole restaurant to sing Happy Birthday and then gave me a birthday tipple of my choice!! The food was that good we even asked for a doggy bag as we didn't want to leave it : )

 

On Monday we're off on our first family holiday with Eloise and the rest of the Church clan to Norfolk. Fingers crossed the sun comes out!

 

When we get back i'm going to be running some lino printing workshops at The Brentwood Road's Summer Craft Fair. I'll be offering some kits, so you get to either print from pre-cut designs or design and cut your own lino and print them onto some lovely papers and a greetings card all using the printing press. I'll be taking my most popular prints and cards too for those that just want some retail therapy. There's going to be other workshops on the day too, I heard there's one for lazy fashion designers which sounds like lots of fun. So pop along and say hello and  join in some of the fun on offer.

Kirsten x