Cathy's Art Diary

Lovely art trail around East Sussex showing the work of local artists and crafts people in their studios. Sadly I didn’t have a lot of time the weekend I was there but did get to one in Isfield and a few in Kingston. My friend bought this sculpture from a wonderful stonemason, Tracy Steel, in Isfield and we saw lots of good landscape paintings of the Downs. Closes 17 September 2023  

Fun art trail around East Sussex of open studios with artists showing and selling their work direct to the public. We mainly followed the rural trail of the villages around Lewes but also stayed onto some of the Newhaven trail when we got lost! We made a good start by heading to Litlington where there were four good venues around a brewery. One of the joys of trails liked this is seeing fascinating new places. I loved a Youth Hostel in the grounds of a wonderful Tudor house and a fabulous layered garden in South Heighton. Shout outs go to the wonderful paintings of Anne Magill and Susan Ashworth, the former did ethereal scenes of people and the latter beautiful, calm still lives. I loved Peter Cutherbertson’s utilitarian pottery in lovely colours. Shown here is a burnt word sculpture from Walter Bailey. His studio was open, and he was in a group show of sculpture at North Chailey. Closes 20 September 2020

Excellent art trail around East Sussex featuring work by artists and makers from Lewes, Seaford, Newhaven and surrounding villages in their own homes and workshops. I have to admit we only had an afternoon to do this so we focused on the area around Lewes starting by heading to Ringmer and a show featuring work by Dion Salvador Lloyd, an artist we know from open houses in Brighton. We got a lovely welcome from his partner who had organised the show and were delighted to be shown his studio at the house. As well as his lovely calm seascapes there were lovely ceramics and work by complimentary artists. From there we headed to Glynde and had a wander round this lovely estate village dropping in at three or four events. The highlight was the show at Glynde Place which mainly featured sculpture both in the coach house and the garden. I particularly liked the stone carving there including work by Paulien Gluckman, Alyosha Moeran and Will Spankie. Closed 1 September 2019

Interesting sculpture trail around the City of London showcasing work by contemporary artists. I make the same criticism as last time that the map on the City website isn’t very easy to follow and it would help if it came with brief descriptions of the work to help you spot it. However it’s still a good chance to walk round the city and see some interesting work. The most incongruous piece was the huge Damien Hurst of an anatomical figure which dominated a small square but looked very striking. I loved Mark Wallinger’s “Black Horse” which did what it said on the tin, it was a life sized black horse., in fact a scan of a race horse he part owns. I also liked Bosco Sodi’s large lumps of volcanic rock with a ceramic glaze, a lovely tactile mix of rough and smooth. Closes in May 2018. Reviews Evening Standard

Innovative art trail around the Fruit Market in Hull of installations using paper from the Colorplan range of Hull paper merchant G.F. Smith. There were some delightful works in this trail but it was also a chance to visit unusual buildings such as smoke house. Some installations such as that by Adam Holloway which used the structural qualities of the strength of the paper to build a large spiral work in white and coloured paper. Others used the colour such as “The Fabric of Hull” which was hanging using the different coloured papers woven together and made by the employees of G.F. Smith. My favourite piece was Jacqueline Poncelet’s “Island Life” which placed folder shapes in different colours on the floor of a closed space. As you walked through it you could see the colours change as you saw them in different combinations. There was also a pop up shop featuring items in the World’s favourite colour, as researched through an online project. The colour was a called Mar...

Beautiful art trail around Canary Wharf by Mark Humphrey to mark Remembrance weekend. It consisted of seven sculptural installations around the site. Each one was dedicated to a different a charity set up to help x-service men. I suspect at peak times each was manned by a representative of the charities but I went mid-morning on a weekday and only one was represented. However each had a security man attached to it who were really enthusiastic and informative. My favourite piece was “Lost Soldiers” over by the new Crossrail station which had helmets on poles from different campaigns with the name of the campaign on the pole. All the helmets were contemporary with the campaign. The remains of a Battle of the Somme helmet were very poignant. This was a simple but effective idea. Another clever one   was “Point of Everyman’s Land” in the Jubilee Place shopping centre which consisted of Perspex cubes with different types of ground in the bottom and a poppy shape made b...

Fun sculpture trail round London featuring statues of Shaun the Sheep decorated by different artists. These are to raise money for Wallace and Gromit’s Children’s Charity and Grand Appeal. There is a good app which outlines the various trails of figures or can just show you where you nearest Shaun is. I’ve only found eight so far but I’ll be looking for more! There are about 50 in London. This will be followed by another trail of 70 Shauns in Bristol and then all the statues will be reunited for shows in Bristol and London (Covent Garden 24-27 September) before the statues are auction off. I love this sculpture trails and the mix of people you find looking at the figures from the hardened trail following type to the bemused!

Fun trail around Canary Wharf featuring light sculptures. Some of the works were beautiful and static such as the three dresses by   Tae Gon Kim and the deer by Cedric Le Borgne. Others were more interactive such as the cube you walked round the outside of pulling the light effect long with you and the Ice Angel by Cinimod which I had a play with.   Thank you to my companion for the afternoon Hilary for the photo! The event would have benefited from better signage. The map was good but only showed where the exhibits which are staying for the whole month are it didn’t show the ones for the specific Winter Lights weekend. Some of them were hard to find and it was hard to plan a route. I also admit it was blooming cold (not the exhibitions fault!) which made I more imperative to be able to move between objects quickly and accurately!

Fun public art trail art around London featuring work by different artists on model London buses to mark the Year of the Bus. I have not done the whole trail but have covered the Westminster area and South Bank. I preferred the buses that incorporate the shape of the bus on the design and acknowledge it has wheels and is not just a flat surface. Having said that I loved the bus which had been turned into Buckingham Palace complete with a small Queen taking the corgi’s out for a walk on the back! Some of the art work is really lovely and reminds you just how diverse and iconic London is.

Charming public art trail around London in aid of the NSPCC featuring fifty Paddington bears.  Each of the statues is created by artists, designers and celebrities with the trail following Paddington’s favourite places in London. I’ve not had time to do the full trail but I have found a few around Westminster and along the Southbank and I hope to track down more as I am out and about. My favourite has to be the bear by where I work which I can see from my window. Sponsored by the Telegraph his coat is covered in newspaper with appropriate headlines such as an article about marmalade. This is such a lovely idea and it’s fun to see all lots of children having their photos taken with the bears.