Bookface Bookender at the Rising Sun Arts Centre, Reading continues Sunday 9 October, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Today Artikinesis took some of our remaining colouring and poetry books to the Bookface Bookender artists’ handmade book fair in Reading where our contributions were admired by many. There was indeed much to admire at all the stalls with some exquisite handmade books. Those of particular note, in my opinion, were ones that explored the relationship between art and science. The Rising Sun arts centre is at 30 Silver Street, Reading RG1 2ST, and is full of life and has a wonderful welcoming atmosphere with plenty going on including bookbinding workshops upstairs during the book fair. If you missed the book fair there is still chance to visit it tomorrow between 11 and 5pm though sadly Artikinesis will not be there tomorrow. You can still obtain a copy of either our colouring book or our beautiful hand-printed, hand-bound poetry book by contacting us through this website. Every one is a unique work of art in itself, or so say our happy customers.

Last day of Artikinesis at Blake's Lock

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We’re open 10am to 3pm today. It’s your last chance to see the exhibition.

The Turbine House,
part of the Riverside Museum at Blake’s Lock,
off Kenavon Drive, Reading, RG1 3DH

(access through car park of the Bel and Dragon restaurant – you can park there, too)

10:00 to 15:00 Saturday 1 October

Two days to go!

This is one of Rosemary’s oil pastel drawings made during the exhibition period, showing some of the objects that accumulate in the water.
Our exhibition only has two days left, now – tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday. At 3 o’clock on Saturday, we will start taking the exhibition down, although a few of the sold works are due to be collected before that time. Don’t worry – we have a couple of reserve pieces that will fill the gaps, so if you can’t make it until later on on Saturday, you won’t find the walls empty!

The Turbine House,
part of the Riverside Museum at Blake’s Lock,
off Kenavon Drive, Reading, RG1 3DH

(access through car park of the Bel and Dragon restaurant – you can park there, too)

10:00 to 18:00 on 30 September; 10:00 to 15:00 on 1 October

Colour and texture at Blake’s Lock

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Duncan Lawrey reads his poem, Texture, written in response to Adeliza’s Intelligent Congress, part of our exhibition at The Turbine House, Blake’s Lock, Reading.

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

Three days to go!

Just Thursday, Friday and a short Saturday left of Artikinesis at Blake’s Lock.
Today’s picture is a sketch, made during the exhibition’s run, of some of that handsome Victorian machinery that I mentioned yesterday.

Four days to go!

I’ve been spending so much time at the Turbine House recently, and it’s such a great location, that I think I shall miss it after we close our exhibition at 3 pm on Saturday. (I won’t miss the traffic in Reading, though.) Water all around (and under our feet), exceptional views, handsome historic engineering, and a splendid exhibition to show…
Much of my contribution to that exhibition is about the surface of the water. Today, during a quiet spell, I used nearly every media that I had to hand to try and portray the energy of the rushing wave patterns generated by the weir. The resulting sketch is shown above, but you can see my other (more considered) studies of the river’s ever-changing surface as part of the Artikinesis at Blake’s Lock exhibition.

The Turbine House,
part of the Riverside Museum at Blake’s Lock,
off Kenavon Drive, Reading, RG1 3DH

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

10:00 to 18:00 until 30 September; 10:00 to 15:00 on the final day, 1 October

A tiny tale from the Turbine House

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While looking after our exhibition at the Turbine House today, Brian and I were surprised to spy a little boat chugging up the Kennet towards us. Now, the Turbine House juts out over a weir that spans the river; there’s no way past that weir on that side of the island (unless you’re a crazy canoeist going downriver, but that was a different incident on a different day, and yes, he survived unscathed). At first, we assumed that they were lost and would eventually turn round and pass on the other side of the island, through the lock. But the vessel, with its three occupants and a trailed dinghy full of gear , carried on and moored to one of the Turbine House’s piers just below a window.
The young men in the vessel produced rods and lines and began to fish. A resident of one of the riverside houses came to the foot of his garden to talk to them. Our windows don’t open, so it was a silent scene, but we imagined that the conversation was about fishing rights. The householder retired and the trio carried on casting and attending to their lines. It was quite surprising how active they were, but one of their number kept his position well enough for me to make a quick sketch before a couple of visitors arrived in the gallery.
As far as I could tell, the only catch that the boaters made was a bright green football that had been bobbing around that stretch of water for a few days, but I could easily be mistaken.