Grayson Perry's Essex Retreat

Wayhey!  Good 'ole Grayson. Giving Little Essex a mention!  He want to build a house right here in mine & his home county of Essex, dedicated to the Essex Girl 'Julie'.

Julie happens to be a resident ceramicist at my studios... I wonder if he is looking at her for inspiration?

Really looking forward to seeing this.  Dont think it will be built until 2014 or something anyway.. read more on the BBC news website..

Terry Sibson's Exhibition - Private View

What a lovely busy evening this was! Thanks everyone for coming!

By 4.25pm (we opened at 4pm) we were packed to the gunnels!  Terry's work obviously proved popular with the masses!

Here is a little bit of background info on the artist, Terry... as well as some images from the drinks reception!!


Terry Sibson is Southend born and bred.

She trained to be a teacher back in the distant past & for last 20 years has worked as a special needs coordinator.

Terry started painting 15 years ago when attending classes led by talented local painter and tutor Reg Smith -mainly as company for youngest daughter who was just embarking on a level art. Daughter stopped painting as soon as a- levels finished but Terry has been painting ever since.

Started painting journey working in oils but has recently discovered the many and varied benefits of working in acrylics. This medium suits her style which is to paint boldly and quickly ,without unnecessary detail ,yet allowing layers of colour to show through.
Subject matter is very eclectic and varies from holiday destinations, local scenes, interiors (particularly fond of cafes) to ,lately, a rather impressionist look at cows, sheep and ducks.
She has exhibited and sold works at the Beecroft Art Gallery, art fairs, cafes and other venues around Southend and the local area.

She has been constantly grateful for the wealth of guidance and support from local Leigh artist Peter Smith who she has painted with weekly for the last decade and who has been a real influence on her painting.

Amazing cakes, made by Terry and her Mum! Nom Nom Nom

You can see an example of Terry's work here : www.made-in-essex.com


The exhibition runs until Saturday 13th October.
During the exhibition, gallery will be open 11-5pm Monday - Saturday (closed Wednesdays, cos I work at Job number 2 then!)

ALL WELCOME!

Tales from the Two Puddings

My uncle Eddie has written a book about the time he was a Landlord in his pub The Two Puddings in the 1960s:

Ties in brilliantly with my work!  Alot of the photos used in my collection 'The Chewing Gum Floors' are featured in this book.  See of you can spot some of them in the video?

Later in the year I will be holding a book signing here at the gallery, so watch this space!

Pencil it in your diary for Saturday 10th November!

New Commission

For a 60th Wedding anniversary.  I was approached by the couple's son and daughter-in-law as they had seen my work before, and thought it would be a wonderful present for his

parents upcoming anniversary.

The couple were very well travelled and the son wanted to include various references to where they had married, lived and places they loved.

The supplied me with some lovely vintage photographs.  One from their wedding day, and others of which scrawled on the front was their promise of love to each other - from all those years ago!

Love doing projects like this!

approx h23cm x w11cm

aestheticodes

I have been working with my old university (UAL - Central Saint Martins) alongside Busaba Eathai and Brunel University creating a new type of 'barcode'

And I've just come back from the Launch held at the Old Street branch of the restaurant as part of London Design Week.

The idea is to have a code incorporated into a design, drawing or pattern  instead of a QR code - you know those square things you see on the corner of posters etc, which takes you directly to a website? Instead of one of those, which could make an item look ugly or ruin the overall look of a product.  You may understand better if you have a look at the images below.

Anyway, one of my designs was used on the press release and the invite sent out to potential sponsors and clients! Yippeeee!

Busaba "creates a tailor made dining experience triggered by smartphone recognition of decorative artwork which can be placed on objects such as tableware, menus and placemats.  Customers are enabled to explore tasks such as ordering, paying their bill, queue jumping and more"

The images above and below are my designs!  Unfortunately I had another design, but it broke coming out of the kiln (typical!) so it couldnt be used at the launch! Bummer!

Children's Workshops

Once a week during the summer holidays the gallery became a hub of excited chatter and activity as we held Children's Clay Workshops!

They proved a great success and were fully booked each week.  

Holly, Gemma & Violet getting their hands mucky!

Here are a few of my favourites from the first session.  We started out using terracotta, but found out this made the children quite dirty! I think we have some potters in the making here!

Check out the stance of Finlay's cat!  Couldnt have captured it more brilliantly!  Well impressed!

 George (4) made this T.Rex (with a little help from his Dad)

This fencer was inspired by the Olympics, Faith (10) had seen a match on the TV the day before - how inspiring?

After the inital making, some children came back and painted their pieces.  Typically you will glaze ceramics, but we thought this would be a bit dangerous for the little'uns (as we only have a spray booth)  Also paints provide instant and vivid colours.  Perfect for the workshops

Esme's Rainbow Cat

 Harry's Lion and Cat.  

It was really great fun.  You can see each child has their own individual style.

We are hoping to run some more workshops over the October Half Term and Christmas Holidays.

WATCH THIS SPACE!

Leigh Art Trail 'Hands'

Forgot to mention this before... To promote the Art Trail Kirsty McHattie & Stuart DeVoil, both contributors to the art trail visited each artist in their studios and photographed them working.  The images were then 'fly posted' around Leigh on Sea for the duration of the trail.

I love this idea of fly posting or the whole guerrilla art vibe... Ive dabbled in this area before and really enjoyed it. putting art up stealth-ily in the dead of night.  Infact, some of my pieces can still be seen in the City of London & Westcliff...  Sooo.. Leigh on Sea.. watch this space!.. I think you're in need of a miss annabel dee*make over....

Danny taking a look at my Hands...

I thought that his was a brilliant idea!  Every time I passed the posters there were people gathered around, trying to guess which hands belonged to which artist!  I hope they stay up for a while, as any publicity is good pulicity!  Here are some of the other 'Hands that make Leigh Art Trail 2012"