Exhibition at Ingrebourne Valley Visitors Centre, Hornchurch Country Park

Ingrebourne Visitors Centre at Hornchurch Country Park, where I teach my weekly art classes, kindly let me have the room for the day to have an exhibition on Saturday showcasing all of the work we've been creating. There was amazing artworks, as you can see, and I'm so proud of them all! There were so many positive comments from the public which just makes me even prouder especially when some were too nervous to put anything in. Plus they sold a few pieces too, adding a cheery on top of the icing!

Guess whose work I forgot on the day? My own mother!! Yep which was all framed and sitting in my house well before the exhibition. So a little dash back to the house from my other half, a re-jiggle of the work and she was in, receiving loads of positive comments for her lion! 

I even had a table set up to do some drawing and painting on the day, which of course the kids loved. It's funny how adults get too embarassed to join in whereas children have no worries whatsoever. 

Exhibition at Hornchurch Country Park Visitors Centre.....

On Sunday we had our exhibition at Hornchurch Country Park Visitors Centre, Ingrebourne Valley. This was a chance for all the learners from my Drawing class, Watercolour class and Painting and Drawing class to display their work in their first exhibition. 

I have to say I was so proud of them all as it looked absolutely fantastic. They've all worked incredibly hard and the results were amazing. Most of the learners are all complete beginners and haven't picked up a paintbrush or pencil since leaving school, which make their achievements even more applaudible.  
 

Some close ups of all their pieces..... It was really nice seeing the learners develop their own style during the courses and I love the wide range which you can see here

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It was always great to see their work in class but then to see the pieces framed or mounted for the exhibition was even more special.

My little section including the robin we did in one watercolour class....

It really was a lovely day especially as all the learners brought their friends and family to share the day too. The work is now going to be used for the Student Achievement night at Havering Adult College too, another great opportunity to celebrate their hard work. 

I cant wait for September to see their work develop further and meet some new students too. 

sap studios collective exhibition.......

finishes this Friday so if you didn't get the chance to see it pop along before the last day. Here's some pics of the lovely space and artwork.

Here's Nellum's black and white photographs....



This is my mum's textile pieces......


Here was my wall next to my mum's work.....



Some of James' lovely colourful creations, including his painting of London which featured at the Tate gallery.....

and lastly some of Asad's geometric and colourful creations......

Collective exhibition......

I'm very excited to announce we have our first exhibition of the year starting this week at St Johns Arc Gallery in Harlow. It's a collective exhibition along with the staff and workers of Sap Studios, at the Snaresbrook Arts Project. The Project, for those of you that haven't heard us talking about it before, is an arts project which employs adults with learning difficulties who make and sell art and craft items. The staff at the Project are a wide and talented group of people and this exhibition is a chance for them to exhibit their artistic talents along side work from the artists at the studios. It's a wide mix of work from photography, painting, textiles and print so hopefully something for everything.

The Private View is this Thursday night 6-8pm at the gallery where you can meet all the artists, hope to see you there.

Kirsten

Rag Factory Exhibition....

Last week we entered some pieces into an impromptu exhibition at the Rag Factory, off Brick Lane.

'ForSee-Arts of Mind' was a mixed media exhibition of established/up and coming artists ranging from paintings, filmakers, sculpture to photography, who came together to raise awareness of Parkinson’s disease. The exhibition collected one piece donated by each artist/photographer to be auctioned off on closing night to raise funds for Parkinsons UK Charity.

Here is the lovely organiser, Jessica Sarah, who did a great job organising the whole exhibition as part of her degree course:



Here are our pieces we entered (it's a shame that the bottom one hasn't come out that great but in-situ it looked really good, honest!!):



Here are some of the other artists:




Including Neil Benjamin, whose work I loved, you could stand for hours looking at it and still find something new in there... See more of his work on his website to get a better idea as I forgot to take my nice camera so these really don't do the work much justice!!



and here was some great work by new and upcoming illustrator Lucy Wragg:

Our case at the William Morris Gallery......

Here is our latest showcase at the William Morris Gallery. We have a prized position with a case taking centre stage as soon as you enter the gallery - we couldnt have picked a better position!

Hope you like the work - I'm really proud of the outcome and am looking forward to working into them further.

This is just the beginning and over the coming year we'll be working into them as our continued experiences in the gallery deepen. So watch this space for working progress.....





With the man himself in the background.....

Close up of the works, though it looks better in real life as I didnt use flash photography in the museum.


If you can, try to see some of the other work on the trail, you can download a guide by clicking here. The Inky Cuttlefish studios is a great one to go along to with a big variety of work. We met Nick Morley who has some amazing and quirky work and also had a nosey at Carl Harris' studio, who does his amazing signature Catboy images.

Sssshhhhh!!! Silent Auction at the Queens Theatre

One of the most exciting fundraising initiatives that the Theatre has planned is an exhibition of art work by local artists (including ourselves) running from 11-24 May 2009, displayed in the Queen's Theatre Cafebar.

There will also be a silent auction which will run throughout the course of the exhibition, and by the time the exhibition closes on 24 May, whoever has made the highest bid will win the artwork!

All money raised from the silent auction will go to the Queen's Theatre Development Fund helping to fund projects as workshops for local school children through to producing high quality entertainment for the whole community.

As you probably are aware, regular funding is gratefully received from the London Borough of Havering, Arts Council England (London) and London Councils, but this is barely sufficient to maintain current operations, so the Theatre must continually diversify its funding streams in order to plan for the future.

For more information about the theatre go to Queens Theatre