Exhibitions

THESE LANCASHIRE WOMEN ARE WITCHES IN POLITICS

THE TURNPIKE – LEIGH

JULY 9TH – JULY 23RD 2021

In march 2020 artist Helen Mather put a call out on social media to get involved with her an Anna FC Smith’s upcoming exhibition. They wre asking people to stitch an image of a monster they were providing on to an old t shirt that was no longer wanted. The artists sent out free beastly banner packs with ribbon, fringing, thread and material.

HERE COMES THE SUN – BURY ART MUSEUM

MAY 18TH – JULY 16TH 2021

In July 2020 I found an open call on the Arts Council Website. Artist Lois Blackburn was inviting people from across the world to make embroidery to create a quilt. The name of this quilt was to be ‘Here Comes the Sun’ . Lois asked people of all ages from all backgrounds to make a square of embroidery. A sun on a blue background. The idea was to focus on someone who had been your ray of sunshine during lockdown.  

My focus was my partner Pete Watts. Using the intials of his name I created the beams of sunlight radiating from the sun. Adding beading and detail afterwards.

108 people participated in this project creating 126 squares. These people included professional artists, some children and some hadn’t picked up a needle and thread for years. A team of volunteers stitched the designs of people who needed extra help due to struggles with homelessness, economic hardship or physical disabilities.  

TERM ART CLASSES – ON/LINE – WIGAN STEAM – 10TH – 26TH JUNE

Since February 2021 I have been attending Term Art Classes (in association with Wigan Steam). The classes include Life Drawing and Practical Art History as well as other specialist courses that are run by wonderful artists Klaire Doyle and Anna FC Smith as well as some guest artists.

In Practical Art History we focus on a different artist each week, learning about their life and work. We then participate in three different tasks to create work in the style of that particular artist. One of my pieces was from a Practical Art History Class where we focused on Keith Haring ‘Pride for Haring’ uses the colours of the pride flag cut into hearts and then adorned with Harings classic black and white characters. Each individual is given a tiny heart to show how far we have come and showing Harings influence on the world.

There are two types of life drawing class on offer each week. One is a long pose class that takes place on a Sunday and the other is a themed life drawing class which another one of my pieces came from. ‘Alices Adventures in Underwater Land’ was from an Alice in Wonderland themed class. The models have props to pose with and then we let our imaginations do the work. The giant octopus came from one of the models teddies that she had as a prop.

In May it was announced that there would be an exhbition to show our work at Wigan Steam . We were invited to submit three works to be shown and were able to get them framed for the exhibition at Standards of the Wiend in Wigan who offered us a discount price. I was absolutley delighted to be part of this exhibition and to be invited to the opening and meet some of the people that before then I had only seen on zoom!