Category Archives: Project

Adeliza at Blakes Lock

I have discovered so much around the area of Blakes Lock, it has been a real surprise. In a strange way, although it oozes a sense of industrial grittiness and history, it has also been rather romantic, especially with Artikinesis’ own collaborative poet reciting in the background above the constant rush of  pressured water underneath the Turbine Room.

My fellow artists’ enthusiasm and support has meant that, once again, we are creating a genuine  response to our location and there is an either literal or enigmatic relationship between the site and the Artwork.
I think this exhibition is going to be very special, as it has been unpremeditated and immediate.

Poetry and woodcuts

This is a prototype for the handmade books that we’ll be making for the Blake’s Lock exhibition. The covers and binding material will vary, but the books will all use a Japanese-style binding, and they will contain poems and woodcut prints based on artwork from our Blake’s Lock exhibition.
The poems are all written by an exciting young poet, Duncan Lawrey, who is working with us for this project. He is writing poems inspired by our artwork, and we are making woodcuts based on the same artwork. We are printing our woodcuts in a Japanese style, using the beautiful, translucent Kozo paper. The poems are to be printed onto another Japanese paper, Simili.
 
“The Screw” is Duncan’s poem for one of Amanda’s paintings, “Thomson Turbine”, which is shown below along with its woodcut print.
thescrew-illus
 
The books will be available to purchase at Blake’s Lock during the exhibition.

Artikinesis at Blake’s Lock
17 September – 1 October 2016

Riverside Museum at Blake’s Lock,
Kenavon Drive, Reading, RG1 3DH

Amanda's Blake's Lock

Nine squares of detail representing Amanda’s work for the Blake’s Lock exhibition.

Artikinesis at Blake’s Lock
17 September – 1 October 2016

Riverside Museum at Blake’s Lock,
Kenavon Drive, Reading, RG1 3DH

 

Rosemary's Blake's Lock

Nine squares of detail representing Rosemary’s work for the Blake’s Lock exhibition.

Artikinesis at Blake’s Lock
17 September – 1 October 2016

Riverside Museum at Blake’s Lock,
Kenavon Drive, Reading, RG1 3DH

Explore hidden Reading with Artikinesis

17 September – 1 October 2016 – free entry art exhibition

Not far from the hustle of central Reading there is Blake’s Lock. Along this quiet backwater, five artists and a poet came, saw, recorded their findings and expressed their feelings.
Now at the Riverside Museum’s Turbine House gallery, you can share their experiences and discover hidden Reading for yourself.

Riverside Museum at Blake’s Lock, off Kenavon Drive, Reading, RG1 3DH

(access through car park of the Bel and Dragon restaurant)

Exhibition opening times
Every day 17 Sept – 30 Sept: 10.00 – 18.00
Final day 1 October exhibition closes at 15.00

Our new project

We may have been a bit quiet lately, but we’ve been busy. And now, it is time to unveil…

The Artikinesis Art Colouring Book

GOOD3
(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.

Exhibition Statement: The Basingstoke Project

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.

Installing…

Today we started installing the the Basingstoke Project. I had to leave early for domestic reasons, but I know it is in safe hands.

install1 install2

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.

Basingstoke People

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.

Basingstoke Gazette Article

Photograph from Basingstoke Gazette article. “South East Water’s Douglas Whitfield with artists Amanda Bates, Rosemary Lawrey and Brian Marchant”

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.