Between the 16th and 21st of August, as part of their ‘Look’ Summer Camp, we worked with Girl Guides, Brownies and Rainbows in the middle of a huge cow field at Stow-cum-Quy, near Cambridge, to create this sculpture - Look Out Post.

The weather was wet and windy, but luckily the girls didn’t mind and we were able to create our ‘Look’ themed piece out of plenty of colourful plastic rubbish items! The sculpture is based on the idea of a hiding place or den, somewhere that you can shelter and look out on the world. The structure winds its way around the tree, meaning you can get right inside and look out through the kaleidoscope of colours.

‘Look Out Post’ survived gusting winds and heavy rain, and was left standing so that it could be a focal piece for the Country Fair… but then it had to come down so that the cows could come back to their field and wouldn’t even notice that we’d been there!

We were lucky enough to be invited down to the woods the other week to take part in a super day of creative outdoors activities organised by the Community Development Team at Fenland District Council. It was a great chance for families to get out and about together and enjoy the free playground that is, the Great Outdoors! It was so much fun, and so inspiring that we decided to use it as the basis of our page in EOS magazine… so if you didn’t come down to the woods that day, and you fancy getting creative then check out the September issue of EOS!

http://educationoutsideschool.co.uk

Here is the poem we made with the words collected from our Poet Tree…

trees green tall tracks
sticky wonky proud
enthusiastic
natural habitat
spiky sticks growing prickly
bumpy brown bark
crunchy wood biscuit
strong inspiring wisdom
shade dappled sunlight
big bushy mossy
colourful
green

This opening night is a triumph and I always take pleasure in meeting fellow artists and art enthusiasts who share my passion for art. This Summer Exhibition has attracted works by artists ranging from local to all over UK as well as international artists and the organisation and the use of space is immaculate as always. I take a glass of Red and start my observation of different pieces being showcased. I notice a wall being dedicated to SAC Young Artists’ pieces which had I not read the labels would have assumed was done by professional artists. This fortuitous discovery prompts the question of who is an Artist, and indeed what is Art?

All children create art as part of their learning process, however for them there is a play element which they innocently explore until what they create goes further than what is seen as expression and it becomes muddled half finished sentences, as though they were bored with one idea whist they were expressing it and readily moved onto another within the same work. This is fundamentally what is different between the art produced by children and those who become interested in Art later on and rediscover the joy of producing artwork. So next time you find yourself in front of a Jackson Pollock please remember that a child could not have produced such complicated emotional work. SAC Young Artist exhibiting are just those who have rediscovered art and are on their way to finding their voice within the creating process. Brandon Mattless ‘Bottles’, Beth Keeley ‘Kung Fu Hedgehog’, After Van Gogh (Night Cafe) by Bethanie Eaglen and all other Young Artists’ work are finished thoughts and cannot have been produced by children, yet they contain a harmony and balance that lacks in older artists. Take Bethanie Eaglen’s homage to Van Gogh as an example: Vincent’s Café Terrace at Night is indeed a twisted emotional piece which produces a feeling of despair and self-destruction and is not what Eaglen had in mind; her homage is actually to that of hope and merriment which is evident by her use of bright colours and harmony which one finds invoked by her work. Vincent later on painted the Café again using similar contrasting colours writing: “I have tried to express the idea that the café is a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad or commit a crime. So I have tried to express, as it were, the powers of darkness in a low public house, by soft Louis XV green and malachite, contrasting with yellow-green and harsh blue-greens, and all this in an atmosphere like a devil’s furnace, of pale sulphur. And all with an appearance of Japanese gaiety, and the good nature of Tartarin” He also wrote: “It is colour not locally true from the point of view of the stereoscopic realist, but colour to suggest the emotion of an ardent temperament.” Indeed by labelling her work Night Cafe unintentionally and rightly Eaglen’s work is being separated from that of Vincent’s, which produces a piece that can be done only by her and evokes emotions deservingly unique to an original. In simple terms the question of mortality and death which was so bound to Vincent Van Gogh’s notion of art is less evident in the piece being exhibited, yet one cannot deny it still exists unconsciously in all artworks even those of SAC Young Artists.

And that is my point, all art created by man throughout history is an unconscious attempt of escaping our mortality, be they cave paintings in France, Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath, Manet’s Cut Flowers to Damien Hirst’s Diamond Skull. What we create is there to help us deal with our self conscious sense which we can claim unique only to us humans. You might point out that not all pieces being exhibited are alike in genre or even style; however I would argue that they all contain that desire so bound to our unconscious. Most figurative works in the Summer Exhibition like: You Were So Smart Then by Benedict Mayer; Memory by Yi-Han Chen; Woman in Blue and Ochre and Deep Reflection by Prue Pye; Nude by Rachel Ashby; Untitled by Moria Lahis; Reflective by Karen Radenkova; apart from the definitive portraits, share a common feature and that is the obscurity of facial features, those features which make us alive and recognisable are missing; as if the figures, who we must assume are still alive because of the contemporary nature of the works, are but a memory preserved for the future generation. It is their presence in the past which matters, not their features which we put so much importance on when we are alive. It is the idea of them which matters. We do not need to recognise them; we know that they are beautiful. A beauty which is timeless and immortal. No other work in the exhibition illustrates this notion more coherently than Hopes & Fears by Stuart Bush. The man in this painting seems like he is dissolving because we can observe the buildings through his arm. His face has no recognizable features, only outline of spectacles are visible and so we recognize him as a presence. The buildings behind him and the road he is walking on are solid, yet the man is not, he is perishing right before our eyes. But the artist knows even buildings and roads do not last forever, and eventually they will end which is why the road dissolves towards the edge of the painting. The streams of colour left on the unpainted canvas seem to awaken us to the fact that this is only a painting after all and what will survive it is the idea he presented, just like the idea of the man and the buildings and the roads. And isn’t that what Art does? Communicate an idea which awakens in us an emotion we might have forgotten or unconsciously repressed?

I cannot help but to think of all these works as beautiful. I have no interest in intellectual aesthetics and academic rules which govern certain schools of art. What interests me is the idea being expressed and communicated. Beauty has come to be dismissed in art for generation after generation and replaced by a form of anti religious ideology which forces artworks to seemingly cater for a few elitist groups. I do not think religion has the monopoly on beauty in the same way that it has stopped having the monopoly on light. For centuries light was associated with morally good and in particular religiously approved good against evil; however within our own secular society we have seen light return to represent what is good in art. In similar manner I can see beauty returning to reclaim its rightful place in art. When speaking of beauty one no longer has to picture holy radiant beauty which only virginal blessed or angelic supernatural beings posses. One can find beauty in all that exists and all that is being expressed. Take Christine Pike’s Archangel as an example with its crimson receding hair and wings resembling Lucifer being immortalized in stone, and one cannot help find it beautiful and sacred. One can also see the beauty in the very expressionist work of Dixie Turner titled Night Vision. And art posses that quality of being sacred which predates monotheism and polytheism. One can observe the sacred nature of art in the African Tribal and Aboriginal works. So one must assume, based on abundant evidence, that the beauty of art and the attraction it holds sacred in societies is not unique to religion, however it is related to the question of mortality and the desire for finding immortality. One can see these sacred qualities in Behold, Blessed, Beloved by Tim Howley; Venetian Tile by Jenny Furlong; Celestial Sphere by Samora Sanders –Yeboah and also West Facade by Helen Breach; or in the very creative work by Karen Fevyer titled Buttons.

When we talk of beauty we are not referring to physical beauty only of course, we are referring to what is appealing and desirable to us in all its aspects. They say art is subjective, and I tend to agree with that because what I find beautiful you might not, however that is beside the point. What matters is the fact that beauty exists within art, and I find certain pieces beautiful whereas others I give importance to because of the skills being portrayed by the artist or the techniques being used. I find Aldhams Barn by Verity Mansfield thoroughly beautiful, not just because of the style and technique used by the artist but because it produced a very secular sacred feeling in me, as though I could happily wake up every morning and spend my time exploring the work. The painting itself could not posses less colour, and when you find out that I spend years studying the impressionist, you might ask yourself why would I be attracted to this piece; and that is precisely my point, with Mansfield I am being transported somewhere deeper than my conscious, somewhere much darker in depth of my psyche. The gray Barn amidst darkness is where my unconscious comes alive, and my desire takes me further until I start comparing the painting with other beautiful unprecedented things. I am reminded of the first time I read Chekhov, I am being reminded of my first time falling in Love, I am being transported to the first time I saw a red toy train in the shop window on New Year 1985 and was actually given it as present the next day. There is a link between what we find beautiful and what our desire searches in all. This desire is much more complicated than desire to posses, eat, drink or sexual desire so essential to Freudian ideas of unconscious, although not unrelated; because all these desires are bound to the desire of escaping nothingness. We seek immortality, or more coherently we desire immortality and this is what we find in the beautiful. Evolutionary Theorists link this desire to the need to pass on our genes in terms of survival, and following their ideology when we find someone beautiful we want to produce offspring with them and thus survive. However for them this is an instinct built into us through millions of years of natural selection; however I would dispute that this desire is linked to desire for the beautiful because we cannot explain the affinity toward one’s own sex through this theory.  The desire for immortality can be linked to desire for the beautiful because we are aware of mortality with its inevitable path. We revere our dead, we build shrines to their memory; our cemeteries are filled with headstones trying to keep their idea alive because we know we will want to be remembered too. Life must not be in vain, and this doctrine is the corner stone of all sacred ideology, and indeed all human endeavours. I am reminded of this notion when I find Karen Harvey’s Japanese Vase which for me has the beauty and sacred nature of an urn; or when I see the photograph by Moria Lahis which for me tries to capture that very significant moment of a child’s life visiting the beach with one’s mother which one might have suppressed in fear of dealing with one’s mortality. So this question must be explored further: is all art we find beautiful linked to our desire for immortality?

I finally find myself face to face with that enchanting imageby Bob Davis titled Sun Below Cloud Over Sun which brings my thoughts into a conclusion. The image posses light in its glorious illumination shining from the division between the Heavens and Hades, as if the artists is placing us where we belong: on earth where it is far more brighter than anywhere else our imagination might take us. Bellow the horizon there is darkness just like the depth of our unconscious where the desires are born driving us up toward our consciousness. Above the horizon the faint light dictates our memory, our ideas and beauty which we leave behind and communicate after our inevitable end. But the horizon is light, it is where we are, it is where hope shines, it is where the power of art lies. I do, I make, I express, I communicate, and therefore I am. Evolution for mankind differs from that of other animals, because we keep sacred what could improve our lives. We learn from the past, so that our future might improve. For me Art does precisely that. Art brings beauty which in turn immortalizes our ideas, so that maybe, just maybe tomorrow someone might be inspired to do better.

If you don’t get a chance to pop in to the fabulous Wisbech & Fenland Museum to see this wonderful exhibition of work by some brilliant and talented artists (it runs from 6 Aug - 18 Sept) and would like to vote for your ‘Best in Show’ then please do it here!

Scroll down to the bottom, have a look at all the lovely images and then leave a comment- tell us what you think of the exhibition, and most importantly… which is your Best in Show?

Voting closes at 4pm on Saturday 18th September 2010. Votes will be counted by independent persons. Votes from the Museum and online will be combined and the winner will be announced within one month of the closing date.

(The image above is: Little Hummingbirds - Yi-Han Chen)

Here - Edward Bowie

Painted Evening - Bethe Bronson

Gold-Fumed Necklace - Bryony King

Jed & Bailey - Trish Collyer

Aldhams Barn - Verity Mansfield

Black Oil Slick Plate - Bryony King

Bottles - Brandon Mattless - SAC Young Artist

The Exhausted Scarecrow - Louise Stebbing

Bluebells, W Sussex 1 - Penny Carkeek

Dreamscape - Jenny Cox

Blue and White Flowers - Flo Thatcher

Column II - Neville Palmer

Kung Fu Hedgehog - Beth Keeley - SAC Young Artist

Still Life 8 - Sarah Caputo

After Van Gogh (Night Cafe) - Bethanie Eaglen - SAC Young Artist

Brooch- Bryony King

In the Yard - Charlotte Moulis

Beald - Alexandra Harley

Red Kite - Chris Vale

Tasmania - Chris Little

Koi - Isabel Frias

Japanese Vase - Karen Harvey

Christine Pike - Archangel

Pavane - Jenny Furlong

Venetian Tile - Jenny Furlong

Behold, Blessed, Beloved - Tim Howley

Untitled - Moria Lahis

Greetings - Gemma Cumming

Juicy Fruits - Judy Horman

Sweetie Pie - Hannah Robinson

Rose Bowl - Jenny Furlong

Beach Huts Bowl - Denise Brown

Woman in Blue and Ochre - Prue Pye

Crab & Starfish Dish - Denise Brown

The Pear - Ed Cooper

Crab & Fish Platter - Denise Brown

A Momentary Glance - Chitra Ramanathan

Sheepwash Bridge - Linda Dalton

Wheatfields near Thorney - Colin Watson

Fenland near Thorney - Colin Watson

Into the Blue - Joanna Scislowcz

Bluebells, W Sussex 2 - Penny Carkeek

Country Lane - Louise Stebbing

Clouds - Liz Murfitt

West Walton - Tim Howley

Degree of Difficulty Moderate - Neville Palmer

Read Between The Lines - Lulu Parent

Sun Below Cloud Over Sun - Bob Davis

Celestial Sphere - Samora Sanders -Yeboah

Buttons - Karen Fevyer

Nude - Rachel Ashby

Thomas Clarkson - Jon Wickes

Deep Reflection - Prue Pye

Black Tailed Godwit - Bob Ledger

Still Life 2 - Sarah Caputo

Clarkson Memorial, Wisbech - Rosemary Harvey

Across the City - Nick Smith

Alexander Boyd - Kayleigh Ann Wit

Dalmatian - Karen Fevyer

Goldeneye - Dave Nurney

Memory - Yi-Han Chen

You Were So Smart Then - Benedict Mayer

Who’s Going to Help me Look for my Spark? - Mark Badham-Moore

White Birds - Jon Wickes

Hopes & Fears - Stuart Bush

and love starts again - Taymaz Valley

Peacock Butterfly - Sue Gunn

W.I.T.S - Joanna Scislowicz

Night Vision - Dixie Turner

Cacti Rouge - Dan Donovan

Homeless Man - Gina Matthews

Summertime - Kathy Cossins

Camel - Benedict Mayer

Aimee - Kayleigh Ann Witt

Reflective - Karen Radenkova

West Facade - Helen Breach

Apple and Cherry - Ed Cooper

Good Food - Hannah Robinson

Barbet - Dave Nurney

Dusk - Simon Edwards

Memories of Amsterdam - Gali Timen

Charlie - Sarah Cousins

Winter - Sarah Cousins

Fudge - Sarah Cousins

Have you chosen your ‘Best in Show’ yet? If so, please enter a comment below to let us know who your winner is.

Thank you!

We are absolutely thrilled to have our 5th Annual Summer Exhibition at the fabulous Wisbech & Fenland Museum from 7th August through to 18th September 2010. It really is the most lovely venue! The exhibition is really varied and contains some amazing work- please do go and have a look if you have a chance, there’s so much to see… and a lot of it is for sale too… just in case you wondered!

The opening reception on Friday 6th August was a very enjoyable event and was attended by, well, lots of people- we lost count at 130! Thank you to everyone who came along and made it such a special night, and to Curator David Wright for giving us this wonderful opportunity.

Other BIG thank you’s go to Steve from the museum for all of the help hanging the work, Brandon Mattless our amazing Young Artist who helped to hang the show and put up his fellow Young Artists work, the lovely Charlie Brenchley and Georgina Heath for providing excellent and eclectic music on the evening (Ave Maria to The Little Mermaid- nice one!), our Fev for her brilliant foody skills, our Victoria for helping administrate everything, Cllr Simon King for having a big powerful raffle calling voice, the Trustees of the Museum who came and supported the event, the amazing artists and their friends and families… and the lovely Mayor Nick Meekins for coming along in his bling… thank you!

Don’t forget to vote here for your Best in Show!

The Wisbech Adventure Playground Documentary Group (WAPDoG) have been meeting every week to collect and share information about the new adventure playground being built at the Waterlees Spinney. The WAPDoG project is being managed by Atelier East, is funded by Cambridgeshire County Council and supported by Fenland District Council. All of the information collated by these Young Artists will be published in a beautiful book which will contain stories, poems, photos, paintings, drawings and more.

Now, over to the WAPDoG Young Artists…

Hi I’m Brandon. I am Lead Young Artist of the WAPDoG project. We have been meeting every week and we express our feelings for then new playground by drawing, painting, writing and even modelling! If you are interested in joining please send an email to me, Brandon via this website and include your name, age and telephone number. I will get back to you as soon as possible. thank you ; )

A poem about the Spinney, by Bethanie Eaglen.

The Spinney was an awful sight,
At first it was a mess.
Grass, mud and rubbish stuff,
And not to mention the rest.

But along came Sutcliffe Play,
and Cambridgeshire County Council,
who thought of an adventure playground,
and said, ‘one million pounds would be helpful!’

The people got some builders,
and site planners too,
Who all came together,
and built this just for you!

Play Day report by Brandon Mattless

Children and their families had a fantastic and enjoyable time at the Oasis Centre in Wisbech on August 4th, National Play Day. Children had the chance to do many activities, have fun and work together with other children of many ages! These activities included; bug box making, den building, toys and games, barbecue, blow up slide, model houses and generally having fun. The new playground that is being built at the Waterlees area, the Spinney, was temporarily open for children and adults to experience play!

Over 200 people came along to this event and all had a lovely time.  I interviewed some children and their parents and they replied to my questions by saying, “Fantastic. There is so much for my children to do”, “Enjoyed the whole day!” and  “I didn’t realise play could be something so big”. I was very pleased with the replies and so amazed by how many people were interested in play. I also asked many youngsters and their family relatives what the word play means to them. “Play is……… fun”, “where you can relax”, and “enjoy every moment”.

This event was a brilliant time for families to get together and play! Many children don’t have many opportunities to play so I think the play day event at the Oasis Centre was a grand success and I’m waiting patiently for next year!

On Thursday 26th August we held a tea and cake morning at the Oasis Centre for residents from the Waterlees area to share with us some history and information about the Spinney. We wanted to get pictures, info and lots more history about it so that it can be published in our WAPDoG book. We managed to get to talk to some older people and they were happy to share their information.

Thanks everyone who turned up : )

On 4th July 2010 we were lucky enough to be a part of Race 100, a marvellous celebration of 100 years of Girl Guiding… with over 1000 Girl Guides! Gulp!

The event took place on a beautifully sunny day at the famous Rowley Mile, Newmarket Race Course. The Atelier East team was there to create a junk sculpture out of loads of pink and red plastic rubbish items.

The theme for the event was Well-being, and working on the idea that well-being is about taking care of yourself and others, and that encompasses things like health and love- we decided to make a whopping great heart!

It was a brilliant day! We were up on the terrace, shaded from the direct sun, with a lovely breeze, fantastic view and… did I mention, 1000 Girl Guides?!

The sculpture has been donated to Cancer Research UK in Cambridge and will be on display there before moving on to one of their shop displays, and then eventually we hope to auction the piece off! (Get in touch if  you want a 5 foot plastic heart- its a beauty!)

Oooo, and… news just in- one of our Manea Young Artist’s spotted the Heart in transit… from the bungee trampoline! Nice one!

Theme: Letters and Names

Theme: Colour

We are absolutely delighted to be able to announce our call for entries to the 5th Annual Atelier East Summer Exhibition… yes, 5th!

This year we will be using the beautiful gallery space at Wisbech & Fenland Museum… and this means not only will we be able to accommodate lots more wall hanging work, but also sculpture and even smaller items that need the protection of a nice display case! It’s so exciting!

The exhibition will run from the 7th August right through until the 18th September, and of course there will be a marvelous Private View on the 6th August for the artists, friends and favourite people (that means you!) - with live music, a raffle and a lovely buffet too!

Artists working in all mediums are invited to submit up to three pieces of work to be considered for exhibition, the deadline for entries is the 23rd July… so get a wriggle on! Drop us an email if you would like an entry form, or pop into Wisbech & Fenland Museum and pick one up from the lovely ladies on reception!

Oh, and… there will be a public vote and a prize for the Best in Show!

4Children run the awards annually and are dedicated to supporting and creating opportunities, and building futures for all children. We are really pleased to be recognised for the work we are doing… but it wouldn’t be possible without some of the amazing Young Artists we get to work with… check out the Saturday Art Club for a good example!

http://www.atelier-east.co.uk/2010/06/saturday-art-club-at-wisbech-and-fenland-museum-2/