With 3 exhibitions back to back at West Ox Arts, Vale & Downland Museum and THIRTYEIGHT cafe in Summertown, it has been a very busy few weeks setting them up. Each has not been without its issues, but we have worked our way through and are ready for viewing!

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!

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. 

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

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.

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 …

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​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.