The LiterArties BLOG page. - LITERARTIES

KFL Gallery - the birth of a pop-up

7/31/2019

For Artweeks 2019 LiterArties Kamal Lathar and his partner Frauke Woenig decided to create a pop-up gallery in the centre of Summertown, Oxford. Conceived out of a shared, strong desire to "see what it was like to run a gallery" and to have a wonderful exhibition venue for his art in the heart of Summertown, an incredible space was eventually born for Kamal.

The Spice Lounge restaurant kindly offered an overgrown backyard that Kamal immediately saw tremendous potential for. Straight forward gestation...not in the least! After clearing the vegetation, several delays, construction issues (no surprises there) and other hurdles to overcome, a stunning, temporary gallery was erected. Just in time!

Bringing in the art and hanging... after several very long days, with a 'few pairs of helping hands, incorporating simple white paper and brilliant hanging technology, the exhibition was ready.

A stunning space, full of light displayed the LiterArties artwork to its best. Around 400 visitors were stunned that such an incredible area could be put together so imaginatively, to such effect.

Congratulations Kamal and Frauke!

RENTING THIS SPACE SUMMER 2019

Kamal Lathar has the entire pop-up stored safely ready for next year at the same venue, The Spice Lounge in Summertown. If you are interested in renting this structure over the summer 2019 for other purposes, or have any ideas for its use, Kamal and Frauke are interested to hear from you.

QUANTUM BEING - Its creation and use for meditation by Karen L French

6/27/2019

STEP 1 - First a Brusho water colour background was created, a chaotic cloud of potential, of many vibrant colours in the void. Then I had the urge to create circles in random locations.

3 'major' circles resulted, each a container and also a point, placed a-round a central copper circle. This middle copper circle is the focal Point of the painting.

Creating accurate circles with clearing defined edges is tricky. Any slight deviation or indent immediately shows. Straight edges are much easier! All the circles were made using 3 layers of lustre, applied with circular strokes, then polished and sealed.

STEP 2 and 3 - More circles of copper lustre were added, moving freely about the energetic domain. They all lie outside of the space delineated by the Trinity.

Each of the 'major' circles in the Trinity were haloed by a geometric shape - red circle:green square (space), green circle:pink circle (time), rose pink circle:green octagon (Directions). These 'major' circles are bound by force fields (symbolised by the yellow lines) to create a sacred space.

3 is the number of creation, of Mind Body Soul, different states of Being (such as liquid, solid, gas). From the Centre of 3 a created Being emerges.

The central copper circle, or sphere, has a crystal code within it that is the basis of the structure of the Being emerging out of the quantum field.

In Step 3, gold lines and patterns where then added around each of the shapes. Recognising the sacred nature of the creative process through the use of geometry and colours from light.

Step 2

Step 3

QUANTUM BEING - So much like the emergence of a form of being out of the Void, constructed out of geometry and light, so too did the geometric grid in the painting Quantum Being emerge out of the canvas.

Using it as a meditative tool for visualisation you can either focus of the centre and move outwards to see what form of being emerges, providing you with some insight for interpretation depending upon what is created. Or, you can choose your own body, or that of another object/animal/person/plant, and move inwards into their central code in the quantum field. At the end of your meditation move back to the point where you started. Reflect on the impressions you had as you move in and/or outwards, and also any insights you gained.

by LiterArties Karen L French

...and now Arts at The Old Fire Station

3/6/2019

LiterArties Arts at The Old Fire Station exhibition follows on very quickly from The Jam Factory exhibition. A wonderful light space, the gallery does everyone's work full justice and also showcases our books.

Old Fire Station, Oxford 8th March - 11th May

Installation

Our Exhibition

Our FIRST Exhibition Opens - The Jam Factory

2/28/2019

IT BEGINS! After 7 months of planning and preparation the first LiterArties exhibition has started at The Jam Factory, Oxford, on Tuesday 26th February 2019.

The Jam Factory 27th February - 16th April

Installation

Early in the morning all our art was laid out and the walls discussed. It was very clear that the largest wall would be dedicated landscapes in a free form style. A section was for abstract art and and another figurative.

Our Exhibition

Debrah and Karen left the hanging experts to it and this was the brilliant exhibition that showcases our artwork...

Private Viewing

A conversation with Rosie Phipps

2/20/2019

I went to see Rosie in her new studio. One she admits is really only used to do relatively clean work. Light and airy with a high roof and sliding glass doors that look straight out onto a small magical garden. At the back of her garden is a shed filled with paint and canvases, “mostly old”, she confesses, used to practice on over the 40 years she has lived in Oxford. Recently retired after creating and running Oxford Professional Education Group, an independent post graduate college. She is also a Tavistock trained organisational consultant.

As she made the coffee she said, “Every material is a medium that can be used for self expression. Including creating a business. It gives one a way of transcending the outside world. The medium, or indeed the ideas, becomes part of one in a way where one can feel love and a deep sense of relatedness to the world outside. A sense of equanimity. The paint on the paper creates what feels like a living being that takes one into a relationship with oneself. The deepest aspects of oneself. And then extends towards the outside world.”

She explained to me that the process of painting demands an emotional flexibility. The tolerance of the spoiling and imperfections of a creation for long enough so that one is able to delay destroying it in order to be able to take in a new point of view. Sometimes one can destroy what has been created, but the real purpose is not to tear it up, the real purpose is to be able to look at the imperfections for long enough so that they can be viewed in a different way. Sometimes this can take years. It is like the way one runs one's life. The liquid puddle of paint becomes an eternal presence from which new possibilities can be reached.

She said, “The canvas, is like bringing up a family , I work on it until it reaches the perfection I think is possible . And like a family it would never be abandoned, it would always be there. Something that I could never be able to walk away from.”

I looked around her studio and noticed the paintings that lined the walls. Others stacked up on the floor. “Yes, “ she admitted ,”The paintings stay on the easel until they reach in my mind, or rather create, in my mind, or heart the sort of equanimity I look for in real life." She laughed, ”A relationship that I can rely on. One I am able to retreat to when all relationships began to exhaust me. A unity. An eternal bond to the process of painting, to creation. A visual diary of my life.”

The subject turned to Rosie's choice of mediums. “I love the smell of turpentine and oil paint and the texture of gouache and watercolor. I sometimes say to myself, Why not try felt like Beuys, or straw like Anton Kiefer, or emblems of my body like hair like Barbara Kendrick, or blood ( Heman Nitsxh)."

When I asked her if she had exhibited many of her paintings, she replied to me that most of them had rarely been exhibited. “Never good enough.” She said she wanted her paintings to have “legs”, such that they would walk into another’s imagination and create an eternal presence. Perhaps even experienced by them as something that in the looking, or rather in the process of gazing would transform them as well, and reach a point when the atmosphere in the room in which the painting hung became one of contemplation.

Though Rosie said she liked her surfaces smooth, unbroken and unflawed, like skin, I noticed that some were painted on crumpled paper. She said she likes to start with disorder and chaos. But all were patterned, mostly deeply patterned. “Light creates the brush strokes and the forms, I follow those.” The broken surface of the collage did not attract her and she found them rather disturbing as she was required to bring the shattered pieces together, but she felt they always showed some area where the pieces could be pulled off. “Like some damned itch waiting to be scratched and always reminding one that the beauty that could be created could also be pulled apart. Exposing not mere skin, but the flesh behind it.” Peeled apart, what was she worried about? I understood from her that that what looked so good was merely a temporary state before decay set in. The boundary to the world was not complete and would face disintegration. A world glued together. An absurd fragmented world where the parts did not always fit. Her paintings did not remind me of this. she was concerned with wholeness and tranquility. She wondered if this was why people liked jigsaws. The disorder and then the satisfaction of seeing it all fit together. Painting had the same quality only nothing for her had to be preformed - but there again perhaps she needed a different sort of chaos and intensity to create her own finished jigsaw. A making sense of her life.

Currently Rosie is working on vases of flowers. "Like the flowers of life, growing, decaying. I feel the abundance of life. Life at 74 is full of beauty. A celebration. I have had a wonderful time living in Oxford with more flowers raining in on me every day.But they are also a reminder that the same flowers will soon decorate my grave." I asked her then about the landscapes. Small paintings in stunning white frames. “Ah, the landscapes. The pleasure of sitting in a field all day staring at the way the fields are shaped by the contours of the earth. And shaped again by the shadows of the clouds that tumble across the sky. Always changing. And always there giving one a sense of familiarity and stability. The Cotswold's. So different from where i was brought up. The wild and endless landscape of the Transvaal in South Africa. No neat fields.”

What are Rosie's next plans... “2019 Oxfordshire Artweeks. All my energy is now placed on preparing for the opening of my studio. I also belong to LiterArties and we have exhibitions coming up over the next year, and there are the Oxford Art Society exhibitions.

So, I concluded, a full life and one filled with peace.

LIVING CORAL - Pantone Colour for 2019

1/8/2019

'Living' pink with mellow yellow-gold undertones characterises Living Coral, Pantone Colour of the Year 2019, far softer than the vivid Ultra Violet of 2018. Certainly it brings some warmth to somewhat chilly times and draws our attention to the stunning beauty of the natural colours within the world of the fragile coral reefs.

Living Coral embraces us with warmth and nourishment to provide comfort and buoyancy in our continually shifting environment. Pantone

The various pigments giving corals their stunning variety of hues are believed to be important in their health and general resilience, even possibly the corals' ability to interact with their environment.

In reaction to the onslaught of digital technology and social media increasingly embedding into daily life, we are seeking authentic and immersive experiences that enable connection and intimacy. Sociable and spirited, the engaging nature of PANTONE 16-1546 Living Coral welcomes and encourages lighthearted activity. Symbolizing our innate need for optimism and joyful pursuits, PANTONE 16-1546 Living Coral embodies our desire for playful expression. Pantone

The first recorded use of coral pink as a color name in English was in 1892.

Complementing coral tones is the colour teal, which, you might notice, has been used by Pantone in the watery tones around the coral above.

Maeve Bayton - exhibiting in Stanton St John

12/10/2018

LiterArties Maeve Bayton is having a solo exhibition at the Stanton St John village shop, Oxford OX33 1HD (see map below). There will be a collection of her beautiful paintings, collages, lino prints and cards for the WHOLE of December 2019.

Stanton St John village shop
13 Middle Rd, Stanton St John, Oxford OX33 1HD
01865 351532

Shop opening hours:
Monday 8am–5pm
Tuesday 8am–5pm
Wednesday 8am–5pm
Thursday 8am–5pm
Friday 8am–5pm
Saturday 8am–3pm
Sunday 9–11am

by Lake Hayes

11/20/2018

Continuing with the theme of art inspired poetry....'capturing our creativity' in multiple modes.

LiterArties Kay Jamieson and Dennis Hamley are an artist, author partnership. The beauty of Lake Hayes, Queenstown, New Zealand, inspired Kay to paint her tranquil artwork that, in turn, inspired Dennis to pen a poem.

By Lake Hayes
Dennis Hamley

The sun makes soft shadows on the mountains
Beyond the opposite shore.
Far to our left, beyond the trees, past the town
And across mighty Wakatipu, the shadows are
Sharper, darker and the sun glares
On the jagged Remarkables.

But this is a gentler lake.
Far out on the blue Aotearoan water
A racing four, your granddaughter
Rowing at stroke, practices.

Only the soothing cry of a solitary bell-bird breaks the silence
As we sit companionably together
Under the trees which fringe the water’s edge.
I write and you sketch.

Wooden walkways snake towards us, pause,
Then slide away back into the bush.
Yes, people come here.
But, though a faint roar from far behind us
Says that plane after plane is making
Its approach through the gap in the mountains
Bringing yet more to the honeypot town,
They are not here today.

This scene is archetypal, permanent.
We and the rowers are impertinent intruders.
The lake is for ever.
We are not.

Yet what you and I do as we sketch and write
Will have outcomes.
Fledgling words will seek form,
Questing lines and shapes will strive for unity,
Until they are both complete and satisfying.
So, even if nobody reads them,
Nobody sees them,
They will be for ever too.

Painting Heatherlands Step-by Step

11/16/2018

LiterArties' Deborah Martin's painting technique illustrated by a step-by-step example.

"I thought it might be interesting to show a work in progress at the various stages from start to completion, as an example of the type of demo/talk/ workshops I offer. This painting I'm calling 'Heatherlands' ...

Step 1: Pick out the colours you see and place them onto the canvas in blocks of colour. Looks like a weird kind of patchwork, doesn’t it?

Step 2: Start smoothing with a fan brush. This is sfumato, a-la-Leonardo da Vinci; think Mona Lisa smile. Starting to look a little more like a sky now …

Step 3: Add more highlights and then go back to smoothing again. It doesn’t matter if the colours blend. They do in real life too. And it doesn’t have to be a carbon copy of anything either. It’s YOUR sky …

Step 4: Now look at your palette – ugh! What a mess; just the way I like it. What colours will you use, and which have you finished with? Get rid of the defunct colours- don’t be a messy Tike like me!

Step 5: Vary the type of fan brush you use to blend colours, I use about 6 different ones in total. Keep smoothing until you’re happy with the effect and you have ‘sky’.

Step 6: Start adding the landscape, starting with faint delineation, and then building until you’re happy with the transition form sky to land. Now start to add the foreground …

Step 7: Use blocks of colour again, but also go with the shape of the land or the foliage. In this case it’s banks of heather so an arc shape movement works best.

Step 8: Add the path. I used a palette knife – good for coverage and you can get good effects by smoothing and stippling and scarping with it. It’s not just black, white and grey either. Look at all the other colours that are in there – yellow, cerise, purple, green, etc. Nothing is ever a block colour. There are always at least two other colours involved too.

Step 9: Now briefly smooth – but only a minute amount – and then stipple using the varying shades of the heather banks, following the line of the foliage. Sweep grass and underlying stalks upwards with a small fan brush to give the effect of stems.

Step 10: Finalise the background, and you’re done … "

Actually, I should really call this ‘Ten Steps to Heather’, shouldn’t I?

Inspired to pen a poem

11/3/2018

Capturing our Creativity

LiterArties vision unites us. Each of us is 'Capturing our Creativity' through many modes and mediums. Change is a feature of every moment and as creative people we strive to 'capture' the essence of a moment, or moments, in our transient lives using our 'creativity' in words, images, music, clay,... any vehicle possible. Not only is this creative process very rewarding, but through it we can share our inner worlds and experiences with others, hopefully to make their life more pleasurable as well.

Inspirational images

So often a painting will resonate so much with us that it will inspire poetry to flow! It seems this happens frequently.

This blog was initiated as a result of meeting author Sylvia Veta at a recent Writers in Oxford Social (held jointly with the Society of Authors). Sylvia is a freelance writer on art, antiquities and history. She was showing us her latest project, An Anthology of Poems Inspired by Art. Syvia had approached some, mostly Oxford based, poets to contribute to this anthology. The idea is that all proceeds from direct sales will go to Standing Voice for the art summer school they run on the island of Ukerewe in the training centre built by Standing Voice.

Sylvia's latest book also has an artistic theme to it. Called Brushstrokes in Time it is a fictional memoir of a Chinese artist.

Dennis Hamley's Anthology

LiterArties' Dennis Hamley scoured the internet and his own shelves to search out other examples of art inspired poetry and found 21 examples! A book in itself and maybe he will publish it.

From his wide ranging and inspirational selection here are three examples. The first is about the experience of visiting the Tate Gallery:

Leaving the Tate
Fleur Adcock

Coming out with your clutch of postcards
in a Tate gallery bag and another clutch
of images packed into your head you pause
on the steps to look across the river

and there's a new one: light bright buildings,
a streak of brown water, and such a sky
you wonder who painted it - Constable? No:
too brilliant. Crome? No: too ecstatic -

a madly pure Pre-Raphaelite sky,
perhaps, sheer blue apart from the white plumes
rushing up it (today, that is,
April. Another day would be different

but it wouldn't matter. All skies work.)
Cut to the lower right for a detail:
seagulls pecking on mud, below
two office blocks and a Georgian terrace.

Now swing to the left, and take in plane-trees
bobbled with seeds, and that brick building,
and a red bus...Cut it off just there,
by the lamp-post. Leave the scaffolding in.

That's your next one. Curious how
these outdoor pictures didn't exist
before you'd looked at the indoor pictures,
the ones on the walls. But here they are now,

marching out of their panorama
and queuing up for the viewfinder
your eye's become. You can isolate them
by holding your optic muscles still.

You can zoom in on figure studies
(that boy with the rucksack), or still lives,
abstracts, townscapes. No one made them.
The light painted them. You're in charge

of the hanging committee. Put what space
you like around the ones you fix on,
and gloat. Art multiplies itself.
Art's whatever you choose to frame.

This second example was chosen as it gives a humorous insight into the challenges of creating a masterpiece in cramped physical conditions, in fact the Sistine Chapel.

"When the Author Was Painting the Vault of the Sistine Chapel”
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, 1509
(translated from the Italian by Gail Mazur)

I've already grown a goitre from this torture,
hunched up here like a cat in Lombardy
(or anywhere else where the stagnant water's poison).
My stomach's squashed under my chin, my beard's
pointing at heaven, my brain's crushed in a casket,
my breast twists like a harpy's. My brush,
above me all the time, dribbles paint
so my face makes a fine floor for droppings!
My haunches are grinding into my guts,
my poor ass strains to work as a counterweight,
every gesture I make is blind and aimless.
My skin hangs loose below me, my spine's
all knotted from folding over itself.
I'm bent taut as a Syrian bow.
Because I'm stuck like this, my thoughts
are crazy, perfidious tripe:
anyone shoots badly through a crooked blowpipe.
My painting is dead.
Defend it for me, Giovanni, protect my honour.
I am not in the right place—I am not a painter.

And thirdly, a short poem that encapsulates how a painting captures the moment:

The Painting
John Balaban

The stream runs clear to its stones;
the fish swim in sharp outline.
Girl, turn your face for me to draw.
Tomorrow, if we should drift apart,
I shall find you by this picture.

'Being Seen and Known' by Karen L French

LiterArties' Karen L French - "It was a great honour, and moving, to have a poem created by Liz Everett for my expressionistic painting Being Seen and Known, about allowing others to see you for who you really are rather than creating a facade to hide yourself. Having words to complement a work of art really brings home its message. It was really insightful to hear, in her own poetic words, how my artwork had influenced her, personally and creatively."

'Being Seen and Known' by Karen L French

I dropped the façade,
I let down my guard,
The veil was lifted it was 2012,
I couldn't hide no longer, illusions no longer.

The truth, tell no lies
I've come out of my shell; I cried.
I wished to be born again,
It didn't matter in the end.

I could wipe away the fears,
And tear away those rotten years.
I filled that gaping hole,
And looked deep down in my soul.

I strip back the layers one by one,
And find the cause behind it.
The truth lies deep within my soul,
I've nothing to hide, I'm energised.

Revealing myself, tell the truth, no lies.
And now I stand before you,
This is the real me for infinity.

When I pass away, my soul is saved,
And carries on – another journey.

Liz Everett: Author of An Inner Light That Shines So Bright
ISBN 9781906 954055