Nick developed his artistic practice as a mature student over the past 20 years. He has exhibited his work across the region and wider UK events and exhibitions.
Claire Atherton
Claire is a multidisciplinary visual artist also known as ‘eyeseethingsdifferently’. She is hugely inspired by nature, and since relocating to Norfolk from Essex, can often be found wandering around the Norfolk coastline and Broads, getting close up to the fascinating displays created naturally and being imbued with energy to create. Claire’s research revolves around assessing our impact on the environment and how the environment affects our mental health.
Emily Gardiner
As a sculptural based artist currently studying for my postgraduate degree in Fine Art my practice is comprised of several avenues, however predominantly explores themes of value, heritage, myth and narrative within the context of the object. Although my primary discipline is sculpture, I use a number of multi-disciplined techniques within my practice in order to do justice to the concepts I explore. I gather much of my inspiration from the fusion of historical and heritage based, themes, processes and locations merged with contemporary techniques, to create objects which are reminiscent of the past yet provocative and relevant to the present day. My work is often site-specific and uses fragments of memory and ambiguous forms. Material is of high importance to my way of working, as it correlates directly to the language of the object.
Instagram: @emily_gardiner101
And my website: www.emilygardinerart.com
Artist remote workshop brief, July 2020
Suffolk Coast & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Sustainable Development Fund supported video project based at Blythburgh Church, Suffolk
Please note, this opportunity is currently only open to W&BA members. Membership is £15 a year, providing many benefits for working artists. It can be purchased via our membership page.
Background
A series of videos will be commissioned by Waveney & Blyth Arts (W&BA) and created by an Ecologist, Artist(s) and Poet(s) taking inspiration from the landscape and species found at the Blythburgh Holy Trinity Church site in Suffolk. The aim of the video series is to creatively engage people within the natural landscape, which is also the organisational aim of Waveney & Blyth Arts.
The project is part of our ‘Bugs & Blossoms’ programme of events, taking a creative look at biodiversity in our patch.
The videos will encourage people to take notice of nature, learn more about the Blythburgh Church site and surrounding areas in the AONB, and encourage (safe) visits.
Outline
We are seeking 2 x Professional Artists to each facilitate a live 1-hour Zoom art workshop for families and adults. The activity will take inspiration from the Blythburgh Church site and surrounding areas.
The workshop will be recorded so that it can be shared to a wider audience later in the year.
The project has now commenced and we would like the Zoom art workshops to take place in August 2020, at a mutually convenient date as agreed with W&BA and the selected artists.
The 2 x successful artists will be paid a commission of £100 for a 1 hour online workshop inclusive of prep time. There is an additional budget for materials and for travel at £0.25p per mile for research visits to the site, if required – these will need to be pre-agreed with W&BA prior to claiming.
We ask that the selected artists have the following:
- Zoom application on their computer with a good, reliable internet connection
- Art facilitating skills with a clear and engaging communication approach
- Take into consideration the limited materials that people will have access to at home to take part – keep it simple but imaginative
- Create an arts workshop which will respond to the Blythburgh Holy Trinity Church and surrounding landscape
- Be familiar with the Suffolk Coast AONB area
- Provide a copy of a recent DBS check and suitable insurance cover
W&BA will provide a representative during the Zoom art workshops to provide technical support, e.g. muting participant microphones/cameras and asking questions submitted via the chat box from participants. W&BA will schedule a short test call before the live workshops take place to check that the set-up is working sufficiently.
The selected artists will be provided with support to work up a suitable plan with resources from Suffolk Coast AONB.
Submit an application
We particularly welcome applications from under-represented groups, including people with disabilities, Black and Minority Ethnic groups and those identifying as LGBTQ+.
To apply, please submit a written proposal (up to 400 words) or a video proposal (maximum 3 minutes).
Please outline in your application:
- Your relevant experience – digital/online arts engagement or workshops; family and intergeneration art projects; art projects inspired by place, nature and environment
- Your workshop idea and chosen art-form – how you will make this clear, accessible and enjoyable for people to take part in
We would also welcome a simple overview of your work and a CV.
Applications can be emailed to info@waveneyandblytharts.com.
The deadline for this opportunity is Friday 31st July 2020 at 5pm. We will notify all applicants within 1-2 weeks of the deadline.
Waveney & Blyth Arts
John Thompson
I have always had a passion for photography and strive to create images that bridge the gap between photography and art. Photographs that are not just a record but show a spirit of the subject and fire the imagination of the viewer. My work includes a range of subjects and techniques and I am always seeking to create new and different images. I exhibit regularly in art and photography exhibitions.
View some of John’s work at Beyond The Image Photographers’ Gallery
The Climate Coalition
This article is from The Climate Coalition newsletter on 1st June 2020
We are all dealing with a lot at the moment, and I hope over the weekend you were able to get outside and find moments of calm in nature.
This connection with green spaces is one of the things that many of us want to take forwards into the future. As we look ahead to a post-lockdown world, I’m sure that you are thinking about the changes you want to keep.
As people talk about building back from this pandemic, a phrase that you’ve probably heard is ‘Green Recovery’, and over the summer this will be a key focus of our campaign. Together we’ll be calling for a cleaner, greener future to be at the heart of plans to rebuild a strong economy after Coronavirus. Watch this space for ways to get involved.
In the meantime, here are three things you can do:
1. Read our Jargon Buster
If you want to know more about green recovery – and any other phrases related to climate action you might have heard recently – we’ve created a Jargon Buster to help you explain to your friends and family what this all means.
2. Share our vision of a brighter, greener future
This week on social media we have shared a series of illustrations showing our vision for a brighter, greener future where we have built back better. We want these images to be seen far and wide, so please download them, and share widely to show your friends and family what a green recovery can look like.
3. Donate to support us
Even during the current health crisis, we are seeing the impacts of climate change at home and abroad. Because of this we are more committed than ever to building a cleaner, greener future by asking our leaders to take the ambitious actions needed for urgent change. We can’t do this without the support of our donors.
As you look ahead to the changes you want to keep and make in the future, why not add a monthly donation to The Climate Coalition. Just £5 a month can help us to bring together people from all walks of life to call for a recovery that puts climate, nature and people at its heart.
Thank you for your support,
Beth and The Climate Coalition team
Right Away: The Railways of East Anglia
Right Away: The Railways of East Anglia
Railway histories are always popular and the continued regard for heritage railways around the UK highlights the nostalgia the industry evokes. Inevitably many concentrate on the locomotives, lost stations and lines that crisscrossed the region. What has often been missing have been the stories of the individual railway workers and the conditions under which they worked, despite some valuable autobiographies and memoirs of railwaymen who worked in the area. This volume aims to address this gap, bringing to life stories of railway workers within a context of the changing nature of the industry from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day.
Heavily influenced by his personal and family memories, Douglas Bourn draws on available memoirs, alongside other evidence from railway magazines and local and regional newspapers, to provide the reader with an introduction to the fascinating story of railways in the region. The book takes readers on a historical journey starting with the creation of the first railways in East Anglia, via the growth of a network that promoted and served the agricultural, industrial and tourist development of the towns throughout the three eastern counties, and ending with their almost inevitable decline, as transport needs changed in the post Second World War period.
Order it at Poppyland Publishing.
Lisa Gates
Lisa is a student at Norwich University of the Arts where she is doing an MA in Fine Art, exploring the relationship between landscape photography and painting. She is one of the artists selected to take part in Sculpture in the Valley 2020. Below are some images of her proposed work for the event. You can view more of her work on her Instagram account here.
“This panoramic imagery responds to locations around the source of the river Waveney. Similarities found in photography and painting processes are explored when composing imagery. By developing compositional methods to promote and hinder visual perception, the aim is to enhance awareness of the environment and how we perceive it.”
“My new photographic work is the starting point for a body of paintings I am developing. Due to the exceptional circumstances we find ourselves in, impact of social distancing has affected our lifestyles and our working practices. Adapting to lockdown, new work, ’50 steps from home’ is developing. These recents works in progress explore limitations on travel and access. The imagery plays with visual limitations, restricting and interrupting views of an ancient hedgerow located 50 steps from home.”
Gus Farnes
Gus Farnes is a British artist whose work explores the human condition. In response to geopolitics, the concerns of our times, people movement, alienation, the environment, he sculpts figures using materials selected from his local situation – remnants from a landscape, 3D printed patterns, found objects collaged, bound together, and fixed with wax on both an intimate and monumental scale and, by casting them directly to bronze, creates a body of unique work.
Gus cast his first bronze at the age of 16 which led him to Norwich School of Art in 2000. After leaving Norwich in 2004, he joined Sotheby’s as a graphic artist, where he learned more about art and the art market.
In 2016 Gus left Sotheby’s and London to pursue his practice as a sculptor, setting himself up in a studio and foundry located in Suffolk. His sculptures have been acquired for private collections throughout Europe, the US, Asia and Australasia.
Gus is one of the sculptors taking part in Sculpture in the Valley 2020. You can see more of his work at GusFarnes.co.uk
‘Man with hands in pockets’ is a unique bronze standing at 2 meters tall. “The sculpture is a scaled 3d print of a much smaller pice, the surface modelled with wax and combustible organic material gathered from the marshland surrounding my studio. Once finished the sculpture is cut into sections, an investment mould built and each section placed in a kiln where the combustible material is burnt out leaving a void to be filled with molten bronze.”
Ann Woolston
Ann is a retired interior designer, very well travelled and has lived all over the world. Her personal passions are Central Asian hand embroidered textiles and she also has an amazing collection of artefacts from many countries, which makes her home an interesting base or museum if you like! She runs The Folly Studio Bed and Breakfast, where you can also visit “The Folly Studio” – Ann’s tiny, pretty art studio, in a secret courtyard garden. Lots of art for sale and if you feel like painting you can join in! Tuition can also be arranged with Ann if you wish.