Create to Connect
As we couldn’t have a physical degree show this year, this page shows a selection of the work I had made for the exhibition.
Portraits for NHS Heroes
Karen McSkimming who was a contender on the popular BBC1 programme ‘Home Is Where The Art Is’ with Nick Knowles and is known mainly for her beautiful ‘pet portraits’. Being in lockdown Karen came across the Tom Croft #portraitsfornhsheroes. Liking a challenge she put herself up for giving a FREE portrait to a NHS hero and was matched with a lovely Cumbrian Staff Nurse, Nic Kipling. See ArtfulRegards.co.uk for more of Karen’s Artwork.
Alston Creative Community
Located in the Old Brewery by the river on the edge of Alston, Brewhouse Studios is a new initiative combining the talents and experience of Julia Neubauer, a well established textile designer and facilitator with those of Sophie Howgego a textile artist who is just starting out as a business.
'Dreaming Through the Locking Glass'
Our new book, Dreaming through the locking glass, is an artistic response to these confined times.
We are calling on artists of all disciplines throughout Cumbria – painting, print-making, poetry, textiles, ceramics, illustration, 3D, prose, photography – to create an original piece of work that captures the artist’s personal experience of life during lockdown.
Artwork: 'Reflection' by Evelyn Sinclair.
The beautiful faces of Penrith
A day on the streets of Penrith meeting some wonderful business owners with photographer Trudie Smith.
Let's Draw- Free on line one pencil tutorials
I’ve seen several free art lessons on the internet but most require the student to have or buy art materials. So I thought about a different approach that uses a minimum of art materials that most people will have to hand.
'Finding Space in Silence'
BlueJam is teaming up with Jess from Growing Poetry to Find Space in Silence: that quiet place from where our imagination can emerge.
'Beacon Red'
During lockdown on his daily walks Simon began to look for Red Squirrels on the Beacon in Penrith.
‘KSCA Creates’
We are putting together ‘KSCA Creates’ packs for three different age groups (2-6yrs, 7-11yrs, 12+). Depending on the age groups, these will include bespoke colouring sheets, craft activities, seeds, postcards of local artwork, quizzes, jokes and nature walks.
Appleby Edibles
I am Chair of Appleby Edibles, based at The Appleby Heritage Centre, which went into administration the week before 'lockdown'. At the beginning of May the group was offered a small, new, community garden space in Appleby on Colby Lane to make publicly accessible. It has a greenhouse and shed for our tools and is just about big enough for a beehive. The garden will host design workshops initially and then supported sessions, story telling and artistic endeavor. Lucy Teather, Chair of Appleby Edibles Email: vegpatch7@gmail.com
Portraits for NHS Heroes
Artist Thomas Croft, at a loss as to what to paint during lockdown, put out an offer on Instagram, saying that he would paint a free portrait for the first NHS worker to reply. Artists across the country, if not the world, are now doing this for key workers.
Maria Burton joined in and put out a post on Facebook.
"I had the honour of painting this lovely person (Sarah P) for my commitment to #portraitsfornhsheroes. It was a very moving experience. Especially as I used to teach her boys and I kept seeing them in her eyes as I painted! Thank you Sarah for all you do!"
Landscapes of Alston Moor Exhibition
The Hive at Nenthead will celebrate reopening from lock-down with an exhibition of new paintings of Alston Moor by four well-known local artists.
'Leaves that fell in the spring 2020'
With time to walk the local wood and more importantly time to look more closely at trees, leaves and insects and try to sort one tree out from another, I decided to make leaves that could act as a memory for those I knew who had died and those unknown to me.
'Rain and Snow'
Musicians Gwen Bainbridge, June Swift, Peter Michael Rowan and Pete Moran, collectively known as the Errant Thieves performed this song "Rain and Snow" under lockdown together from their respective homes.
Creative Futures Festival 2020
This year our theme is 'Celebrating Equality, Diversity and Human Rights'. We are inviting ex-students and community representatives to contribute to our online experience and enrich our aims by creating a small piece of content for us to put onto our school social media platforms and later save as archive material onto our school website.
BE Part of History - Make it with Penrith and Eden Museum
Penrith and Eden Museum have launched a joint project with Eden Schools, and Karen Macdougall Art. It is an arts and heritage project aimed at children age 7+.
Lockdown Videos
The BlueJam creative team has been busy compiling our own You Tube channel of jazz, voice technique and assorted videos to share with anyone who wants to develop their musical, jazz and theory skills. Also downloadable from our website: bluejamarts.org
A Lockdown Video Project
We need your help! The Nightjrrs in association with The Studio Morland would like to invite you to help us create a video for a special piece of music that is currently video-less!
With the lockdown continuing we felt that we had an obligation to our musicians and audience to fill the void with an extra event on Sunday 7th June 2020. The event will use the same format as we have used before. The open mic submissions, sent as live pre-recordings, to be viewed on our Facebook group from 7pm and the main act live-streaming from 8pm.
Community Centre and Gallery
Now that restrictions are starting to ease we are slowly getting involvement from local artists and poets.
'Eden in Lockdown'
Penrith and Eden Museum has launched ‘Eden Life in Lockdown’, a collecting project where they would love to see images that reflect your story of living through a pandemic.
Virtual Exhibition
The Eden Valley Artistic Network Open Exhibitions give members the opportunity to display their work in the EVAN Gallery in Penrith. Sadly, due to the lockdown, we not able to stage the Spring Open this year. Instead EVAN is hosting a virtual exhibition on our Events website until the end of June. Around 50 artists submitted work and the exhibition has been enjoyed by around 2,000 visitors viewing the exhibition on-line. #virtuallyEVAN
'Wheel of Wellness'
Maggi created this wheel to use as a tool to explore how to remain in good emotional health, whilst enduring this present pandemic. It is a 5-a-day method of keeping you sane. Each segment is easier to do than you think and it will enhance your life beyond the end of lockdown.
Fellfoot Fables
This virtual creative writing series offers you the chance to share your experiences of the Fellfoot Forward Landscape Partnership scheme area during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Penrith Players normally perform at their own home, the Penrith Playhouse, but during lockdown that has not been possible. What they have been doing are play readings every Tuesday, works by Shakespeare, Shaw, Oscar Wilde, some modern playwrights and local writers. They are also planning for when they can reopen.
John Parkinson/Upfront Arts Venue/ Jon Stynes/Jon Stynes Designs /Chris Johnson & Creative Joinery of Cumbria have pulled together to help fund and produce protective face shields to support the brave and vulnerable workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Picturing Kirkby Stephen 2020
Due to the Caronavirus Picturing Kirkby Stephen is a little different this year. The competition is just for pleasure to stay artistically connected.
'Creating a New Rhythm'
Artist Sarah Reid has been collaborating with musicians and her paintings have now developed a new rhythm. Music has now become part of how I paint. Each mark represents a wider emotional experience. Every note / mark matters.
'Angel Wings'
UK’s Number 1 Tattoo Artist creates Mural as Thank You to NHS and Key Workers.
Luke Sayer, local tattoo artist and winner of E4’s Tattoo Artist of the Year, has created a huge ‘angel wings’ mural on the wall of a Penrith business, as a way of saying Thank you.
Free Pastel Workshops
During the lockdown, artist Emma Hunt offered free pastel workshops every week on Facebook, aimed at helping ease worry or pain and maintaining wellbeing during these unprecedented times. Emma has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (a painful condition affecting her joints) and understands that anything creative will take you away from your worries and/or pain for a while.