Identity Exhibition

I've just come home from the preview to the Identity exhibition at  Art with a Heart in Altrincham.  There was a wide range of art on offer including film.  The exhibition explores the theme of identity and how this can be expressed in art work.

Here is my offering with two of my drawings 'Behind The Chain Link Fence (left) and Water Reflections At Mourtzakis (right)!



 

 



The exhibition poster.

 



Passage Of Time

This is the latest work that is based on my 'Girl' themed art.  This project started at the end of 2013 with a series of drawings and paintings based on the face of a girl otherwise known as me in 1979.  I think back to my childhood a lot these days because I find it unsettling how long ago it was.  Time really has flown and changed.  I see films made at the end of the 1970s and I think about life then.  It was another world.  I suppose that is what happens when one gets older (and older).  I was born in Portsmouth and came up to Manchester in 1977.  I have a very good long term memory (not very good short term) which means that I remember clearly moving from Portsmouth to Longsight in Manchester.  I did not want to move 'up north' because I had images in my mind of two up two down rows of depressing terraced houses and dirty back alleys.  Longsight fulfilled all of my worst nightmares and more.  The area still suffered from thick smogs because it was still very industrial and near the centre of Manchester which was full of working mills.  On smog days one would stand outside with a scarf wrapped around my face (so that the particles from the pollution weren't breathed in).  I remember putting my hand out in front of me and it disappeared into the smog.  I couldn't see my feet.  On one occasion I and many other children stayed late into the evening at our nursery long after we should have been picked up by our carers because the smog was so thick the buses had been cancelled due to the lack of visibility.  Times have changed in that regard for the better.  This drawing has developed from my earlier drawing 'Girl' (2014).  I have been using fine line pens with coloured pencil and/or gouache paint more and more recently.  I thought it would be interesting to use these materials to revisit the theme of 'Girl' and see how I have developed or not in the two years since my earlier drawing.  I've focussed on a different section of the face in this latest drawing, with some more of the face shown (rather than just half of it as can be seen in 'Girl').

Passage Of Time, pen drawing and coloured pencil, A2 (2016)

 

Here is my earlier drawing from two years ago.

 

 



 

Girl, charcoal drawing, A1 (2014)



Anniversary Acer

Here is another one of my A5 size pen drawings.  I hope to do many more of these pictures.  The Acer in this drawing currently grows in our very small back garden at Autumn time.  I brought it for my husband in 2004 for our 1st wedding anniversary present.  We lived together for 10 years and finally decided to get married as a 10th anniversary celebration.  We now have two anniversaries each year, one that started in 1993 and one that started in 2003, both of which are in May.  The Acer has moved house with us twice and will probably continue to move with us as we move house.  It has lived in it's present situation since 2006 and is about 12 feet tall, somewhat larger than the size it was when it was bought.  I like plants such as Acers as a present because they grow with you. 

Anniversary Acer, fine line drawing and coloured pencil A5 (2016)

Section From The Temple Of Olympian Zeus 2013

This painting is based on a section of the temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens.  I've obviously added 'artistic license' because I wanted there to be more emphasis on colour.  This temple was the largest in Greece at the time that it was completed (during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian c. AD 120).  It took over 600 years to be built and less than 200 years after its completion it was ransacked by a barbarian invasion of Athens.  Christianity became popular across the Mediterranean during these times.  When Christianity became the main religion of the Roman Empire (approximately AD 330) there was no use for a temple that was dedicated to the king of the Polytheistic gods.


Section From The Temple Of Olympian Zeus 2013, oil painting on canvas (80x50cm)

 

Yellow Flower

This is another Walkden Gardens inspired drawing.  I like capturing detail in my art work, especially in my drawings.  Working with smaller pieces is quite different to my larger drawings, because although the area to be covered is so much smaller, it also means a greater amount of detail in a small space.  I will continue with the smaller drawings and try to accumulate a larger number for next year for an exhibition.  I think they could look quite interesting when exhibited together.

Yellow Flower, fine line pen and coloured pencil drawing, A5 (2015)

December Exhibitions

I have two exhibitions which include some of my art work this month.  Art with a heart in Altrincham is having a Christmas Carol exhibition which includes two of my pictures, The Changing of the Seasons (left) and Winter Tree (right).  The exhibition will be showing this art work until the beginning of January.

 

 

The second exhibition which includes some of my art work is art the ArtismUK  gallery in Stockport.  This is a Christmas exhibition which includes the work of artists from ArtismUK.

Marsland Road

This is a road I used to live on from October 2000-August 2003 and is the road which Walkden Gardens or the Maze gardens are.  The flat we lived in for 5 and a half years before moving to Marsland Road was in a lovely area but was itself not maintained.  It had no heating at all when we moved into it in May 1995 which was ok because that summer was a heat wave.  The winter was pretty cold and the lack of heating was very hard.  There was no central heating or fire of any description.  We used to cuddle our cats for warmth or switch on our small Baby Belling cooker (with two electric hob rings!) for warmth occasionally.  I got quite ill with flu which was bad enough to have to call the doctor out and I think the lack of heating was what made me so ill.  We finally got a fire when one was donated to us by our inlaws in the spring (yes the landlord didn't mind installing a fire if we got one for them to install first).  Moving to Marsland Road was complete luxury.  We had central heating which came on before we got up in the morning (never had that at all until Marsland Road), we were in a good sized Victorian house with a lovely long garden and best of all, it didn't have any damp or rot.  In our flat previous to our removal to Marsland Road, the damp was very bad.  One time I walked into our bathroom and my foot disappeared through the floor leaving a large hole, which the landlord patched up a few weeks later. 

Marsland Road, fine line pen drawing and coloured pencil, A5 (2015)

Marsland Road was an optimistic time where I was able to get on with my studies (MA and PGCE) and finally start my teaching career.  I still get a nice feeling when I go back around the area.