Art In Action 2009 (Part One)

The is the first of my posts about Art In Action at Waterperry. Hope you enjoy it.

This is a digitally coloured drawing called Freedom. I found the deer image in my copyright free book of animals.

I am really into boats at the moment. This is The Navigator and is a pen and ink drawing. Probably not a terribly sea worthy vessel. If you enlarge the drawing you will see that she is holding an owl. The navigator is, of course, the cockerel.

This is called The Butterfly Collector. Of course she only collects butterflies to draw and paint them and then she sets them free. No nasty pins and glass cases for this lady.

Here it is in detail

I was very pleased to be able to get to the Art In Action event this year. The weather was quite kind to us too. Art In Action is an art and craft show where nearly every artistic discipline is demonstrated by experts. There were 250 artists present at this year's show. Sadly I didn't get a chance to see everything because there were over 35 huge tents and marquees to visit. You would have to take advantage of the 2-3 and 4 day tickets. If I lived closer I think I would have definitely gone back for another day. There was so much to see and experience. What I did see was wonderful and I hope the photos below give an indication of how great it was. This is my first post on the show and I will do a second next week.

One of the first marquees I went into on reaching the fair was the Illustration area where I met Jackie Morris. I have featured Jackie's art in a previous post and I was very keen to see some of it first hand. I was not disappointed. Her work is beautiful when reproduced but it is even more superb when seen in real life. The colours are quite incredible. Jackie was just as I imagined she would be. She was very busy with book signing and answering questions about the piece she was working on etc. Her husband was also present to lend his support. It was quite difficult to get close enough to see all her work as there was quite a press of interested people examing the pictures and books. The photo is of Jackie chatting to an interested spectator.

These are two Jackie Morris cards which I bought. They show her technique really well. Her ability with watercolour is amazing. They are handmade by Jude Howells.

This is the stand of Rosi Robinson who is a batik artist. Rosi was in the "Market" section of the show which meant she had a display stand for sales but didn't have to demonstrate her craft. She has a website here.

This is the Italian artist Michele Del Campo who was giving a painting demonstration. His work is bright, colourful and super realistic and he produces huge canvases. His website can be found here. I wish I could have had so much more time there in order to stand and watch all the artists and craftspeople demonstrating their art, but there was just so much to see.

This is the fabulous beaded African Crucifix. It was created by the Ubuhle artists. They are a group of African women who use tiny beads to create wonderful images on cloth. These ladies live a very poor lifestyle in rural Natal in South Africa and put their heart and soul into their craftwork. This piece was an incredible 7 and a half by 4 and a half metres and the detail of the beading was incredibly beautiful. If you enlarge the picture you can see the size of the piece by relation to the people below.

The story of Ubuhle is a wonderful one whereby many women have been taught to bead and make jewellery and other items in order to create an income for themselves and their families and to improve their lives. You can read all about them on their website here.

Detail of African Crucifix

This is a close-up of the beadwork but you will need to enlarge the image to see it properly.

In amongst all the art and craft it was necessary to feed the parts that need feeding and here is a shot of the afternoon tea table. All very yummy.

These are views of Robert Race's stand. Robert is a designer/maker of toys and sculptures made from wood. His work is delightful and I loved those quirky little birds. You can see some more pieces on his website here.

Jane Hickman was displaying her wonderful collection of batiks and cards. She is such a talented artist with a brilliant sense of colour. I posted earlier about my little collection of her beautifully batiked birds which I have prints of. I mentioned a new one which I really wanted and guess what... here it is. So beautiful. I love these colours. You can find Jane's website here.

Purple Partridge

The Mexican marquee was full of bright colours as you can image. It was a wonderful display of the native arts of the country.

Arturo Sosa Perez is one of the best crafters of tin ornaments in Mexico and was demonstrating his art. He had a wonderfully bright display of his craftwork. The colours were amazing as you can see here. The cut paper work above is by Adriana Amaya and the art is known as Papel Picado.

These sculptures are by Miriam Ladron De Guevara. She had some lovely work on display. She told me that she had only arrived in England a day or so ago and had come straight to AIA to demonstrate her work. I bought these two images below on cards but I had to help her out with the currency.

Juan Alcazar was another artist in the Mexican marquee. He is a painter and printmaker and his etchings are quite beautiful. There were quite a few I would have liked to carry off home with me. You can see more of his work here at the Davidson Gallery

Hojas al Viento

Nocturno

Caminando con las Miradas