The covered-over town centre continues to inspire. Here, a snatched photograph of shoppers in the Malls becomes a comment on solitude as well as on the artificial environment.
Painted with a knife in acrylics.
Category Archives: Basingstoke
Four get waylaid in Basingstoke
Four of the five Artikinesians met up in Basingstoke on Monday for our first big sketching expedition in the town. We barely scratched the surface. Starting at Eastrop Park, it was all too easy to get waylaid by shiny buildings and busy pedestrians, not to mention the waterfowl and fountains. However, we did make it to Festival Place and beyond – to St Michael’s church – but time was running short and we decided to leave the remainder of our potential itinerary to a future time.
Yellow and Blue
This development is properly called Crown Heights, but also wears the moniker “The Costa del Basingstoke“. It is a distinctive landmark in Basingstoke and is particularly striking from the top of the Anvil car park.
This is the second 30 x 30 cm painting in a planned series that I am calling “Disjointed”.
A day sketching in Basingstoke
I took myself off to Basingstoke today, to the town centre. I wanted to capture the “Costa del Basingstoke”, a striking yellow and blue development that overlooks the Anvil car park. (The Anvil is Basingstoke’s main concert venue; its car park is conveniently close to the covered over part of the town centre, as well as the railway station and a particularly pretty part of not-covered-over town. The car park also has the benefit of not being the Festival Place car park, which is enormous and confusing. I think it might even have a roof that can’t be parked upon).
With a quick sketch (and several quicker photographs) complete, I headed off to outside-the Malls. I (re)discovered that the name of the church that dominates the area is St. Michaels, and was subsequently amused by the fact that Marks and Spencer have a back door opposite the church.
I then returned to my car via the Malls.
In Joices Yard – the Ghost of a Building
Joice’s Yard – once a stable yard, then the site of John Joice’s coach building business – is now a small town centre car park. It is surrounded by interesting buildings. This is one such; or perhaps it is two. For where the road cuts through from Winchester Road into the yard, this substantial property can be seen to bear, upon its end, the revenant of a former neighbour.
I find this sort of thing fascinating. So much so, indeed, that I painted this “ghost building” twice.
Labyrinth of Commerce (in acrylic)
Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 70 cm.
Festival Place, Basingstoke. It could almost be anytown, with its generic shiny shopping centre feel and standard collection of high street stores, but, for a extra confusing twist, there are gentle slopes as well as stairs and escalators and lifts, and all of these enable you to move from one floor to another, sometimes without realising it.
Related post: Labyrinth of Commerce
The Labyrinth of Commerce
Basingstoke town centre appears to have a roof over pretty much all of it. First, there was the Malls; this concrete complex was firmly in place when I first encountered Basingstoke in the 1990s. Then there was Festival Place. Such a bright, cheerful name! And inside, bright, cheerful shops. Everything you could want, on any high street, except for the outdoors.
I once got quite thoroughly lost in festival place. I couldn’t even find the reassuringly familiar greyness of the Malls. I was looking for the exit. It seemed to have vanished…
That was a few years ago. I still don’t trust that place, but have come to a sort of compromise with it. And I’ve carefully noted the various ways out.
On Monday, I steeled myself for the necessity of back to school shopping. And I took my sketchbook…
And you know what? It wasn’t as bad as all that. I’ll never be a keen shopper, and I’ll always prefer to be out of the shopping centre and in the older streets like those found in Basingstoke’s “top of town”, but we bought what was required and we didn’t get lost.
There’s more. Having set out to do this Project, I’m looking at Basingstoke with fresh eyes. The people thronging the shops are still people. The glossy veneer of the shopping centre and the frantic activity of consumers seeking bargains and popularity amongst their peers may be one of the less admirable signifiers of modern culture, but that’s not all there is. Not all there is to modern culture, and not all there is to Basingstoke.
I’m looking forward to discovering more.
The Labyrinth of Commerce
Basingstoke town centre appears to have a roof over pretty much all of it. First, there was the Malls; this concrete complex was firmly in place when I first encountered Basingstoke in the 1990s. Then there was Festival Place. Such a bright, cheerful name! And inside, bright, cheerful shops. Everything you could want, on any high street, except for the outdoors.
I once got quite thoroughly lost in festival place. I couldn’t even find the reassuringly familiar greyness of the Malls. I was looking for the exit. It seemed to have vanished…
That was a few years ago. I still don’t trust that place, but have come to a sort of compromise with it. And I’ve carefully noted the various ways out.
On Monday, I steeled myself for the necessity of back to school shopping. And I took my sketchbook…
And you know what? It wasn’t as bad as all that. I’ll never be a keen shopper, and I’ll always prefer to be out of the shopping centre and in the older streets like those found in Basingstoke’s “top of town”, but we bought what was required and we didn’t get lost.
There’s more. Having set out to do this Project, I’m looking at Basingstoke with fresh eyes. The people thronging the shops are still people. The glossy veneer of the shopping centre and the frantic activity of consumers seeking bargains and popularity amongst their peers may be one of the less admirable signifiers of modern culture, but that’s not all there is. Not all there is to modern culture, and not all there is to Basingstoke.
I’m looking forward to discovering more.
The Basingstoke Project – November 2015
Over the next couple of months we will be in Basingstoke, painting and sketching and talking to people, gathering ideas and material for our first project together as Artikinesis – The Basingstoke Project.
The project will culminate in an exhibition of brand new artworks from all five artists, to be held at the Creation Space gallery of Proteus Theatre, Council Rd, Basingstoke, RG21 3DH.
We all have homes in or links with Basingstoke and Deane, and we look forward to sharing our insights and perceptions of this surprising town.
We’ll keep you posted as we go, but meanwhile, for your diary:
Artikinesis presents…
The Basingstoke Project: an active, reactive, artistic response
to the people, places, buildings and character of Basingstoke.
A project to inspire and surprise.
Artikinesis is a recently formed group of artists based around Basingstoke and Deane.
Visit this exhibition of new artworks at Proteus Creation Space.
16 – 26 November
Mon – Fri 10am to 6pm, Sat 10am – 3pm
Closed Mon 1 – 3pm and Tue 1 – 2:15pm
Entry is free.
Basingstoke Revisited!
Looking out of a rain besprinkled window this afternoon, I would say we were very lucky with the weather yesterday in Basingstoke. The rain is now pouring heavily!
We wandered the streets and parks of Basingstoke in the hot sunshine. It was Sunday, but the town centre was abuzz with people, shopping, resting, strolling and taking refreshment.
We walked through the park of Eastrop, tracing the course of the old tired river of Loddon and finally came to countryside on the edge of the town.
There are many faces of Basingstoke and plenty to see, to experience and to record.
We settled, after our long circuitous walk, near the Anvil Concert Hall. I took out my sketchbook and fineliner pens and observed the scene.
The fortress-like walls of the shopping centre somehow fascinated me! (Did they have some symbolic significance?) The pedestrian bridge has a satisfying curve! The wide steps from the shops sweep down to the Anvil entrance. There shiny hand rails heavy and gleaming. All these structures came together to form an interesting assembly of modern urban shapes and spaces. Strong urban dominating forms, vaguely redolent of a scene from a J. G. Ballard story, further reinforced by the utilitarian concrete overpass above my head where we sat.
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