Commercial Square Studios

Pop Up Gallery

27 Spittal Street

Marlow

From now until the end of October 2014

Tuesday - Saturday 9.30 - 5.30

Commercial Square Studios

Showing my latest work - fragile, subtle images of butterflies and dragonflies pierced into paper and back lit, sparkling like tiny diamonds.

Another tree drawing

Here is another drawing of a pollard at Burnham Beeches! The image is cut off but it shows enough, I think...

Throwing Paint

We tried something different in class this week - my Chorleywood group aren't usually this adventurous!

We started by blocking out a landscape or seascape on a large canvas - in acrylics - then masked off the parts we didn't want to throw paint at.

Mixing up lots of paint

we turned the canvas on its side, then threw the paint on to the canvas using a largish brush.

The results are quite interesting - marks you couldn't achieve with the usual method and happy accidents galore!

Now we need to finish off the rest of the picture...

Olympic Angels 2012

In conjunction with Flux Gallery and Mona Lisa Arts & Media - see http://www.thefluxgallery.co.uk/ - I am working with pupils at Burnham Grammar School to create our very own Olympic Angels.

Pupils have been imagining what Tree Angels might look like....

... and using computer graphics to digitally enhance/change photographs of actual trees, making wonderfully colourful and striking images.

We shall be having an exhibition of their work at Burnham Park Hall in April, and again at Taplow Court from May to September.

Exhibiting in May 2012 at Barn Galleries

I'm delighted that I shall be exhibiting at Barn Galleries in May - see www.barngalleries.com

I'm working on a series of drawings of ancient pollarded trees from Burnham Beeches - here's a sample...

Exhibition in Burnham Park Hall

IN THE TIME OF TREES

Currently exhibiting a mix of drawings and digital prints of trees from 80 years ago alongside some from Burnham Beeches today.

The exhibition is at
Burnham Park Hall
Windsor Lane
Burnham, SL1 7HR

and will run from now until the end of October
Monday - Friday 9.30 - 3.30 and Thursday evenings 6-8pm by appointment
Contact Rhonda Fenwick on 01628 298584
mona.lisa@thefluxgallery.co.uk

Autumn term about to start

Sign up NOW for drawing and painting classes starting end September.

Here is the information about the classes I'm teaching this term...

artsmart School of Art

LIFE DRAWING - all abilities
Course code 4005
MONDAY - St Michael's Hall, Beaconsfield
Time: 19.30 - 21.30
Starts Monday 19 September 2011
Drawing from life has always been the mainstay of an artist's practice. This course will introduce beginners to the fundamentals of life drawing and for those with experience the opportunity to expand their portfolio. Experience male and female models are featured throughout the 10 week term.

ADVANCED DRAWING - intermediate and up
Course code 4012
TUESDAY - artsmart studio, Beaconsfield Old Town
TIme 14.00 - 16.00
Starts Tuesday 20 September 2011

A course for those with some previous experience who now want to advance to another level. This course offers students the opportunity to choose their own subject matter and then be guided by the tutor. You can choose your own medium and either concentrate on a specific aspect such as portraiture or cover a variety of topics including still life and urban landscapes. This a new course concept and designed to be both challenging and fun!

See http://www.artsmartuk.com/ for more details.


MISSENDEN ABBEY

Drawing and Painting for Beginners
Course code S3AR03AAM/T1
WEDNESDAY
Starts 28 September 2011
Time: 09.30 - 15.00

This course aims to develop skills of observational drawing whilst practising a method of working that starts with finding inspiration from the environment and developing an idea, then takes that idea through to a finished piece of work, which may be a drawing or a painting.
It is for beginners, though experienced artists may also benefit from the concentrated time spent drawing and painting.

See http://www.missendenabbey-al.co.uk/arca/index.php?option=com_courses&Itemid=98 for more details.

Colour changing trees

Here's a short movie created of images from Burnham Beeches....

Burnham Festival of Light

Thursday 2nd December
Burnham High Street
Festival of Light

In seriously sub-zero temperatures thousands of people attended the late night opening and Festival of Light in Burnham this week.

In conjunction with Flux Gallery, Mona Lisa Arts & Media http://www.thefluxgallery.co.uk/ and Outdoor Culture http://www.outdoorculture.com/
and with a lot of help from Tim Hand Production http://www.timhandproduction.co.uk/ we projected large scale images of the ancient trees of Burnham Beeches on to the walls of buildings in the High Street at 4 different locations in a project called

The Beeches come to Burnham.




The project was sponsored by Awards for All, part of the Big Lottery Fund.



Working with Transformers Youth Group in Burnham, we visited the Beeches where we drew and photographed the pollarded and ancient trees, some of which have grown into wonderfully weird shapes. Viewing some of these from unusual angles gave interesting perspectives...
The character of the trees has been formed over hundreds of years - the oldest tree in the forest is The Druid, over 800 years old. And it wasn't just trees that the group took photographs of!


Working with computer software I transformed these trees into even more colourful images and put together a show of everchanging shapes and colours.

We visited the Beeches at night - there was an almost full moon and as we walked through the forest we stopped to listen to the sounds of the woods at night. We heard owls and unknown creatures moving through the undergrowth, and our own loud heartbeats.














The youth group made paper trees in the shapes they had seen in the forest and we collaged these into their own forest on canvas, then the children painted over them to create this colourful silhouette.

The photographs taken at night were an inspiration to work with negative images and create a spooky night forest....















During the evening Flux Gallery was open with the current exhibition of images of Burnham Beeches by Andy Barnard and myself.

Have a look at this artist's blog...

I think you might like this blog by James Aldridge, it gives his view of the launch of Hide!

http://blog.jamesaldridge-artist.co/

And now to Burnham Beeches...

I have been commisioned to run a community art project with local children/young people living in and around Burnham village. The project will bring the trees of the nearby ancient forest into the town on the night of 2 December for the Burnham Festival of Light.

On Saturday I led a group of young people through Burnham Beeches - drawing and photographing the ancient pollarded trees, and anything else that caught their imagination. Students from Burnham Grammar School will also join in the project, which aims to forge stronger links between the inhabitants of the forest and the village.

Images of the Beeches will be manipulated and the resulting 'characters' projected on to the walls of buildings in the High Street, and smaller scale works will be displayed at Flux Gallery during and after the Festival.

A few more images of my installation for Hide!

The film is installed and here are just a couple more images...

Visitors stopped at the hide and were intrigued to know the background - you'll have to look back over previous posts for that!

New project at Burnham

I've started working on a new project at Burnham Village in South Bucks, where we plan to bring the trees from the ancient local forest at Burnham Beeches into the village for the annual Festival of Light on Friday 3 December. I was asked to make some work for this event because of my interest in colour/light and light installations.

Local children are helping me create several pieces for display in and around the village and the Flux Gallery. We aim to make several large-scale projections on to the buildings in the High Street which will be supported by an exhibition to be shown at Flux Gallery from 3 December for several weeks.

We are making several excursions into Burnham Beeches - one of them a night hike - to view the 'characters' who live there. The children will draw and photograph the trees, then manipulate them digitally to create a shifting forest of light.

More details to follow as we get going with the project, but here are a couple of my photographs to give you the idea...

Launch of 'Hide!' at College Lake

Please join us at ‘Hide!’ at College Lake Nature Reserve, HP23 5QG, from Tuesday 16 November onwards. Open from 9.30 - 4pm, last entry 3pm.

Four artists and two hundred children have transformed the interiors of four bird hides into works of art that reflect and enhance their setting and purpose. This is functioning environmental art re-imagined for the 2010s.

James Aldridge brings together found objects, historical data, vintage luggage and manipulated maps to explore bird migration and industrial heritage.

Martin Prothero creates new work by enabling the plants and animals of the reserve to draw directly in the soil and represent themselves as art.

Lynda Cornwell illuminates the ultraviolet markings of local birds and insects with shifting rainbows of white light diffracted from the sun.

Stu McLellan plays with the format of the graphic novel to portray his hide as a portal to a surreal and surprising universe.

Children from Ashmead School and Bierton School in Aylesbury Vale have worked with James and Martin as part of the creative process. Whenever you visit please come prepared for bad weather and mud, just in case. You’ll be able to wander around the lake, visit the bird hide installations and meet the artists.

College Lake is managed for wildlife and people by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust: http://www.bbowt.org.uk/content.asp?did=23523

Here’s a map to help you find us: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl This project was made possible by a grant from the Aylesbury Vale Community Chest.

Back at the Hide

At the hide again today for just an hour in the late afternoon - captured some sun - and some visitors!

Almost done there now - need to clean the windows and finish applying the film this week. Response from those I met has been good - it helps when they know the reasoning behind it - ultraviolet spectrum and bird's superior vision - see earlier posts....

Finishing the Drawings...

After many days in Tump Hide I am almost finished with the drawings. There hasn't been much sun recently when I've been there, so I haven't any new photos of the prisms.

The drawings are in white so that when the sun shines through the prismatic film they will take on the hue of the rainbow.

It is known that feathers of all colours have a biologically significant UV reflectance but that the least likely to fluoresce are black, brown and possibly red. In birds thought to have similar plumage for male/female we now know they are different - the difference shows up in the ultraviolet spectrum - this different colours of the sexes is known as dichromatism.

Because there has not been conclusive research done I have chosen to highlight those that I imagine fluoresce in ultraviolet light, and those whose feathers are iridescent, such as kingfishers.

I have used the species that are commonly found at College Lake amongst them lapwing, plover, red admiral and comma butterflies, and many kinds of dragon and damselflies.