Tues to Friday, 10:00 to 17:00
Sat, 10:00 to 16:00
Free admisssion
We may have been a bit quiet lately, but we’ve been busy. And now, it is time to unveil…
(Volume 1: West Berkshire and North Hampshire)
There are a few things left to do on this project – a few drawings still, but the main thing is that it costs money to print things like colouring books. We’ve found a local printer who can do the job to our high specification, and now we just need to find the cash…
This is where Kickstarter comes in.
Kickstarter is a crowdfunding website. Somebody comes up with what they think is a fantastic creative idea, posts it on Kickstarter, and hopefully several other people find out about it and, if they like it, they might want to help by pledging some money towards getting the project going. They might do this just because they like it, but there is often an incentive – a reward – offered, such as a signed copy of a colouring book, say…
And if enough people pledge enough money towards the project, it will happen, and the rewards will happen, and everybody will be happy.
That’s how we hope it’s going to work for us. If the project gets its required funding, we will publish the book on 30th April 2016, the first day of the West Berkshire and North Hampshire Open Studios. The signed copies (and the other special rewards) will get posted before then, but the books will be on sale in Rosemary’s studio in Newbury, Adeliza and Elinor’s studio in Tadley, Amanda’s studio in Kingsclere, and a few other select outlets.
If you think you might be interested, do take a look at the project by clicking here.
The Newbury Weekly News published an online article on The Basingstoke Project today.
Read it here.
If you’re confused about where we’re from (Newbury? Basingstoke?), that’s easily explained – some of us live in West Berkshire, some of us in Basingstoke and Deane.
Artikinesis
are:
Adeliza Mole
Amanda Bates
Brian Marchant
Elinor Cooper
Rosemary Lawrey
We are all local artists, and we decided to join forces after discovering how much we had in common during last May’s West Berkshire and North Hampshire Open Studios.
The Basingstoke Project
is our first collaborative project, and our first exhibition together as a group. We decided to focus on the town because it is a natural focus point, and because we didn’t think that Basingstoke had come under artistic scrutiny very often in the past.
We set out to create:
an active, reactive, artistic response to the people, places, buildings and character of Basingstoke.
A project to inspire and surprise.
In the course of the project, we learned to look again at the town. We were inspired. We were surprised.
We found hidden gems; we found delight in the familiar; we found our own visions of Basingstoke.
We hope that you enjoy the exhibition, and that you leave with your eyes and your mind open, and with joy in your heart.
I’m hoping that there will be better pictures available, but for now, you’ll have to rely on my hastily shot not-quite-finished-installation view, taken this morning when we were finalising the exhibition for the Private View in the afternoon.
The Private View went very well, I think. I have only the vaguest idea of numbers, but there was a steady stream of visitors, lead by the Deputy Mayor of Basingstoke, in her official capacity – who actually did arrive before anybody else. She expressed a personal appreciation for art in general before entering the gallery and she certainly seemed to enjoy viewing our work. We also played host to a smattering (or should that be a splattering?) of fellow-artists, a couple of representatives from the churches we had depicted, the proprietor of the local Web site It’s Basingstoke not Boringstoke, and assorted others. It was truly lovely to see every single one of our visitors, and gratifying to hear their overwhelmingly positive responses to the exhibition.
I am looking forward to reading their comments in the Visitor’s Book.
Today we started installing the the Basingstoke Project. I had to leave early for domestic reasons, but I know it is in safe hands.
The following is a “pre-preview review” that I posted yesterday on my own blog:
I have seen the whole of the Basingstoke Project, and it is good. I speak not of my own work, but of the others’. Uncertainty and frustration may have plagued various members of the group at different times, but all five of us have pulled through and, indeed, pulled something rather magical out of the hat.
I can’t show you pictures (not yet), but I can describe how…
… Adeliza has produced an intriguing series of oil portraits in her distinctive style. How to describe that style? Ornate, chaotic, elaborate, deliberate, often tending towards red…
… Brian has demonstrated how the simple medium of pen and ink can have depth, and wit, and enormous variety. He has pushed his illustrative style into new realms (in one case, quite literally!) for this exhibition.
… Elinor has produced some of the most striking images. Hard lines and curves, perfectly placed, shown to perfection in gleaming prints on aluminium.
… Rosemary has scoured Basingstoke for the bold shapes and brilliant colours that typify her work. Dark dryads and thrillingly vibrant fruit meet the sharp lines of modern architecture. Abstraction is never far away, but is only fully expressed in one work.
I chose to seek special people in Basingstoke, and a couple of them I know, and so that meant I had a vision of the painting beforehand. In reality, it was very different and harder to manoeuver than I could have ever imagined, and, what’s more, I had a couple of images of different people on the go at the same time. Although it was very hard, I was in the end very pleased with the new way it made me work.
This is Rosemary. She is a wonderful person, so I just hope I have done her justice.
Two weeks ago, I sketched at Basingstoke Waterworks. Those sketches became the basis of a painting, which can be seen in the photograph and (of course) at the exhibition itself!
The article is currently live on the Gazette Web site and is due to be published in the paper.
Free Entry
Proteus Creation Space,
Council Road, Basingstoke, RG21 3DH
Remaining times summarised below:
27 November (Fri) – Open 10am to 12noon approx. Final day.
The Basingstoke Project: an active, reactive, artistic response to the people, places, buildings and character of Basingstoke.
A project to inspire and surprise.
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