The Cank Street Gallery closes in June 2019

I have been deeply saddened to hear the news of the closure of The Cank Street Gallery, 'the largest independent art gallery in Leicester.' Owner Dayle Flude and her team gave myself and many local artists the opportunity to exhibit our work, offering support and advice and giving us credibility to be in her gallery.  We all became part of a 'family', which I'll surely miss.
I don't think the Leicester art community will ever recapture that sort of atmosphere again and it's very sad walking past that area of town.  Just as the Leicester Mercury describes it, "it's hard to imagine now the art landscape of Leicester without them" and "Leicester will be a visually poorer place without this gallery."
A huge thanks to Dayle and her team for their tireless work and efforts to support us creatives!

One of my last paintings sold at Cank Street of The Globe, Leicester to art collector Steve Brewin.

Leicester City FC - Back in the Premier League!

I've had no option but to get to like football since the early days of taking photographs for the Leicester Mercury. Hours spent in the Filbert Street Stadium either results in total boredom or some degree of interest in the game.

So what cool news this weekend when everything fell just right and local heroes Leicester City FC found themselves back in the Premier League after a decade in the First Division. (Full story here.) CONGRATULATIONS THE FOXES & FOXES FANS!!

Leicester City Football Club - back in the Premier League after a decade!

OPEN 25 Private View

OPEN 25 art exhibition & competition

Valentine's night and it's the Private View for OPEN 25 2014! My drawing of Notre Dame is included & stupidly I'm quite excited! Primarily though I'm here tonight to take photographs of the event for this blog, not so easy when everyone is slurping wine and there's a real danger of knocking glasses over & damaging artworks.

Everyone from Leicester's world of arts & culture appears to have turned out, including my photo chums from the Leicester Mercury & Leicester City Council. We chat & slurp.

My mum arrives - she's so proud! (I'm in tears at this point - too much slurping, methinks!) To have a drawing chosen for a major exhibition in my hometown is a significant achievement & I'm genuinely pleased for myself & my mum who's no mean artist herself.

I reflect that my Royal painting (A Right Royal Street Party!) wasn't selected; it would have looked fabulous in this huge museum space with all ages to enjoy it. But I've bored you before about how one never knows what a judging panel is looking for. 

Sacre Blue Baleine by Oliver Marc Thomas Leger, winner of the Attenborough Prize 2014

In the end the Attenborough Prize 2014 was awarded to Oliver Marc Thomas Leger for a drawing of a habitat-providing whale. Very detailed, it must have taken ages.

The exhibition runs at New Walk Museum & Art Gallery, Leicester, until 27 April. There's some amazing work here. Pop along!

The Private View crowd remained for the 

announcement of prize winners

Leicester's New Walk Art Gallery was packed for the Private View

Artist Louise Ellerington (front, right) at the Private View

Lizzy beside her drawing of Notre Dame showing the space in Leicester's New Walk Art Gallery

Admiring Notre Dame. With permission

Lizzy's mum is so proud!

My Photos make the Nationals!

Admiring the stately Parish Church of St Mary in Melton Mowbray (despoiled by Cromwell & working home to organist Sir Malcolm Sargent for a decade from 1914) with good friend Duncan in the middle of the afternoon, the last thing I expected was to receive a call from the picture editor of the Daily Telegraph.

To local snappers like me, who in the main take feature & PR pictures, getting a call from one of the national newspapers is a SERIOUSLY BIG DEAL! If my photos were used in a major news story they could be seen by a huge audience, would possibly also appear online and might bring in some unexpected and much-needed cash!

Liz Hewitt's photos appeared in the Daily Telegraph, 15.11.13.

To cut a long story short, I'd taken some shots of a Leicestershire businessman & his wife who were now engaged in a multi-£ million divorce battle - and no-one had any pictures of the pair. Except me.

The Leicester Mercury was the Daily Telegraph's first port of call. They sent the Telegraph a snap with my by-line. So here they were, asking how soon I could send through the picture as they'd like it for next day's paper!

Liz Hewitt's photos appeared in the Daily Mail & online, 15.11.13.

I didn't time the drive back to Leicester but I doubt I've ever managed it more quickly! It was close to 5pm when I found the picture files. A couple of years old, I could see they were good, a smiling portrait of the couple taken originally for the Mercury's lifestyle magazine.

I emailed the files across to the Telegraph and relaxed only once the picture desk confirmed receipt. Phew! It wasn't the most pleasant of news stories with which to be associated but that's the business I'm in.

Laying back on the sofa with a much needed cuppa, the phone went again, "Hello. Is that Liz Hewitt? It's the Daily Mail picture desk here..."

Liz Hewitt's photos appeared in the Daily Express & online, 5.12.13.

The photos finally appeared in;
The Daily Telegraph, Friday 15.11.
The Daily Mail, Friday 15.11 & online
The Daily Express, Thursday 5.12 & online
The Leicester Mercury. 5.12 & online

Ad hoc photographic course from Glen Tillyard!

Lizzy by Glen Tillyard

My award-winning photographer friend, Glen Tillyard, and I went to a photographic exhibition last week.
The weather was so good that we walked from my home to the exhibition in the centre of Leicester and as you can see, Glen brought his camera along.
Glen, who used to work as a photographer for the Leicester Mercury, is one of the best technically skilled photographers I know, so much so that he now runs popular courses in photography, manipulating and managing pictures.
Find details of his courses here: www.glentillyard.co.uk

Glen uses available resources for unusual images

Taking photos where the sky meets the earth; Beacon Hill

After a frantic month of exhibiting my paintings I've been taking photos once again this week. 

With such a view who can blame druids for worshiping from this site?

It was a joy to sell posters and prints of 'A Right Royal Street Party' but running around for 4 weeks, fetching, delivering, doing PR, none of which I'd anticipated being a part of the exhibition process, ate up time & money as fast as it became available. 
Anyway, I had a call from the Leicester Mercury photo desk and off I went to snap druids on Beacon Hill. So, in a matter of days I've moved from the Royals at Buckingham Palace to the Charnwood Grove of Druids at the Bronze Age site near Loughborough; all grist to the artistic mill.
PS The ceremony was also being filmed for TV's The Hairy Bikers. Look out for it on BBC later in the year.

The druid story picture as it appeared in the 25.9 Leicester Mercury

Leicester Mercury article, 10 July 2012

Lizzy Hewitt & 'A Right Royal Street Party' in Leicester Mercury, 10 July

Photographing the LOROS Twilight Walk

LOROS Twilight Walk & balloon release

One of the benefits of taking photos for the Leicester Mercury is having the opportunity to attend a variety of events; last night I was at the football stadium for the annual LOROS Hospice fundraisers' Twilight Walk and balloon release.

LOROS fundraisers are a hard working lot. I see them a number of times through the year but the Twilight Walk is always colourful, particularly with this year's Hawaiian theme.

Cancer effects many people and touches so many lives that it's good to know volunteers can have fun whilst raising money essential to keep our Leicester & Leicestershire hospice doing its valuable work. 
I'm only glad I was there to take photos and not to run six miles around the city centre!

Health project makes Leicester Mercury

Loughborough's NHS campaign appears in the Leicester Mercury

My recently completed NHS project featured in the Leicester Mercury this week, as the Loughborough health campaign made it into our regional newspaper - which is good advertising for the project and for me!