My day at The Other Art Fair

I must say I really enjoyed myself at The Other Art Fair last Saturday. I made my way to Ambika P3 on Marylebone Road and over to the Fabelist Marketplace at stand 186 where as part of their programme of activities I would be giving a masterclass-workshop.

Luckily I had enough time to go exploring before giving my workshop/demo. I walked through the mazes of white walls each demanding the attention of the eyes with the array of art hanging on them.
Some stood out more than others reaching beyond the retinas and straight to the soul. Artists beside their work and open to interrogation under the spotlight of the public lamp.

The atmosphere was great and not as stuffy as some events can be, relaxed and fun. Lots of bite size arty activities for the public such as the Cass Art Live Art Space and their drawing salons and wall. Jotta.com giving curated tours of the fair and the Fabelist Marketplace giving workshops, meet the artist talks, performances, art and even sensory experiments courtesy of The Edible Art Movement. These and many more.

I enjoyed visiting many of my other friends exhibiting at the fair and entering their mini worlds of art on display in their spaces, Beth Nicholas, Gloria Ceballos, Rosie Emerson, Kate Night, Hormazd Narielwalla, Sam Shendi, and Vikram. Finally meeting other members of the Fabelist collective and how incredibly supportive they all are with each other made me proud to stand alongside them.

Fabelist artists exhibiting at the marketplace were Chantal Powell, Tahnee Lonsdale, EC, Raj Kaur, Pernilla Iggstrom, Zoe Catherine Kendall, Polly Bagnall, Nicola Anthony.

After my workshop I stayed on and with a calmer demeanour walked around again as once is not enough to take it all in and still I managed to miss things. The smiles on the faces of my Fabelist brethren and of director Francesca Goodwin made me not want to leave.

Workshops: Silvia Krupinska, Carlos Martyn Burgos, Rachelle Allen Sherwood.

 Meet the Artist: Nicola Anthony, Rosie Emerson, Zoe Catherine Kendall, Ash Fitzgerald, Raj Kaur, Pernilla Iggstrom.

Entrance to The Other Art Fair

Right to Left: Francesca Goodwin, Director of Fabelist & artist Zoe Catherine Kendall

Giving my masterclass-workshop

Giving my masterclass-workshop ii

My drawing on the Cass Art wall

Making my mark - Cass Art art wall

Workshop at The Other art Fair

The Fabelist collective will be presenting a pop up market place curated exclusively for The Other Art Fair, London's newest art fair that delivers an open platform to connect art buyers of all tastes and experience directly with the most talented emerging artists before they are signed.

It runs from 10th - 13th May at Ambika P3, Marylebone Road, London NW1. Get your tickets here.

Fabelist artists will be showing their work and whilst you view, interact and learn from a series of performances, talks and master-classes from artists such as The Edible Art Movement, Polly Bagnall, Zoe Catherine Kendall, Nicola Anthony, Rosie Emerson, Ash Fitzgerald, Raj Kaur, Carlos M Burgos, Chantal Powell, Pernilla Iggstrom, Silvia Krupinska, Rachelle Allen Sherwood.

As part of this collective, I will be giving a workshop on Saturday 12th May, 2pm - 3.15pm.

I'll be carrying out a drawing exercise in imagination and creativity. Using everyday objects we will be looking at them differently and putting aside their original function and size etc and letting our own imagination combine them to create new mechanical creations bringing them to life.
The bug in the picture above was inspired and made from a watch and its strap and the nib of a ballpoint pen which then grew wings, eyeballs and insect characteristics.

Follow the link for the Fabelist Marketplace programme of activities:
Fabelist Programme

A chat with Director of the Fabelist Francesca Goodwin on plans for The Other Art Fair: LINK

A Spot of Tea?

Over the last few months I've created a series of drawings, painted, stained and splattered with tea bags. These were first seen and displayed as part of a project I was involved in by an arts collective called The Fabelist, at their IMPRINT exhibition. (Read more about the project here and in my blog post)

I use not only the tea as pigment but also the tea bag to create playful and spontaneous splatters and drops that try and complement the clean line work of the drawing in pencil and pen.

I enjoy the hues the tea produces and mainly its staining properties giving a used and vintage feel to the work. I build layers of splats and drops, fusing the natural pigment of the tea further into the paper as if time has ravaged the work and the hues change and the stains take a life of their own as the results can never be certain but always unexpected.

A cultural ritual of sorts also as tea for us british is a much sought after pause from our daily lives, a moment to reflect, to breath, to talk over, to energize or unwind. These drawings hold ideas and emotions to ponder and reflect upon, based on the world around us and how it stains and permeates over time, just like thoughts and ideas which have an impact on our minds and hearts.

(Facebook photo album)

Neko, a photo by Carlos Martyn Burgos on Flickr.

Building Blocks, a photo by Carlos Martyn Burgos on Flickr.

It's Cold Outside, a photo by Carlos Martyn Burgos on Flickr.

IMPRINT - A Fabelist Exhibition

'Simple Man' detail of my tea stained drawing

The Fabelist's exhibition IMPRINT opened on Friday 27th at The Serpentine Centre For possible Studies, London. For the last few months I have been part of an artist's collective called The Fabelist, working on our individual responses to the 'Imprint' theme. I created a set of new work and together with 29 other artists creations we unleashed them on to the public.

The visionary and talented young woman behind the exhibition and director of The Fabelist is Francesca Goodwin who also curated the works.

"I have a firm belief that art should be in conversation with the surroundings that it is exhibited in. I have seen with the Fabelist group how artistic practice is a really strong adhesive to building communities and I want to share that message with a wider public audience- to give people the opportunity to access contemporary art at whatever level they can identify with".

 You can read an interview with Francesca Goodwin about the project, her goals and inspirations at Run-riot.com

Read more about Fridays festival of curiosities in this great write up by Nicola Anthony on her blog HERE.

The exhibition runs until the Friday 3rd February. 21 Gloucester Place, London W1U 8HR. 1pm - 6pm.

Exhibitors:
Chantal Powell, Hormazd Narielwalla, Abigail Box, Cassandra Batterby, Carlos M Burgos, Zoe Catherine Kendall, Dean Melbourne, EC, Raj Kaur, Nicola Anthony, Emilie Pugh, Anthony Boswell, Ryan Seslow, Nikki Schiro, Tamsin Relly Twinkle Troughton, Katie Ann Edwards, Matthew Lewis, Carrie May, Tahnee Lonsdale, Polly Bagnall, Darren MacPherson, Luke Thompson, Joshua Raffell, Francesca Goodwin, Laura Evelyn, Sarah Stewart, Tinsel Edwards, Sarah Perry.

Find out more about the works here: LINK

Photo by Frederick W T Thiede

Banquet by The Edible Art Movement

Festival Musicians 

Poppy's Paper Doll Parlour