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
I'm going through a tricky patch. We all have them. I'm still not up to much though I promise to get back to the blog as soon as my spirits reach optimum! Art work is something else - I'm simply not able to concentrate on painting when I'm below par. I don't want you all to think that I'm seriously ill, because I'm not, although the cold greyness of the season doesn't help. In that I'm no different to anyone else. Things are just a bit hard to deal with right now. But they're getting easier; thankfully the light at the end of the tunnel is no longer the headlights of an on-coming train! To end this post in a more upbeat fashion, I saw the following quote recently. I do hope Albert really said it. Yo, Albert!
OPEN 25 is a well-established Leicester art exhibition & competition. This year my friend Louise Ellerington, who had asked me to exhibit in her Yuletide Exhibition, suggested I should enter. So Max & I packed & loaded three of my artworks into the car and headed off to Leicester's New Walk Museum & Art Gallery.
Leicester's New Walk Museum & Art Gallery
Readers of my blog will appreciate that my experience of entering art exhibitions has been varied, so it was with mixed feelings that I presented my pictures and saw them taken away to join the competition for inclusion in the exhibition.
Lizzy's artwork is received by Hugo Worthy, Exhibitions Officer, for exhibition consideration. With permission.
OPEN 25 is now in its 25th year. Run by Leicester City Council and supported & sponsored by well known Leicester businesses & arts organisations, the Open exhibition allows young, emerging & established artists from the East Midlands a showcase plus the chance to win one of a number of prizes including the prestigious Attenborough Prize 2014. Art forms accepted include painting, photography, illustration, sculpture, textiles & ceramics, and all works exhibited are for sale. Since the show is traditionally well attended, there's a good chance to sell, but first work has to be accepted into the exhibition. Even handing in my work I observed the standard of competition to be very high and as ever wondered if any of my pieces would be accepted.
Lined up to be judged for inclusion on Selection Day
POSTSCRIPT: My Gaudi-inspired drawing of Notre Dame has been accepted into the exhibition!! Hooray!! If you'd like to pop down and take a look, OPEN 25 runs 15 Feb - 27 April at New Walk Museum & Art Gallery, Leicester.
Christmas is the only time of year you'll catch me talking on the topics of religion or politics. So much horror has taken place in the world this past year; famine, disease, terror, disaster, war; the horsemen of the apocalypse are once again upon us.
Yet we ordinary souls can do much to prevent situations from worsening & help them to improve; our voices & our money can make a real difference.
Time & again we've seen essential supplies provided through the Overseas Development Agencies & Non-Governmental Organisations of the DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee), together with specialist organisations such as Medecins Sans Frontieres, save hundreds of thousands of lives. But better still & more long-lasting, our raised voices can influence decision-makers & ensure wars & terror are brought to an end.
This Christmas I'll be contributing to the DEC, helping to support its work, world-wide. And I'll be hoping & praying for peace. I hope you will too.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL!! from Lizzy & Mitch x
'Strange Imaginings' Yuletide Art Exhibition at the Ellerington Gallery, Leicester
The Yuletide Art Exhibition at Ellerington's Gallery has been in full swing for two months. A good number of my family and friends have popped in over recent weeks and apparently enjoyed the experience, in particular the mix of drawings & Christmas goodies; skillfully made jewellery, beautifully colourful ceramics, delicate metalwork & luxurious fabrics gathered for the event. Coming at it cold I'm rather impressed by the second of my drawings, of a wobbly Big Ben. It's fun - more fun than my drawing of Notre Dame, possibly because Big Ben is such a familiar structure. My 'Jelly' Ben now even makes me laugh! And as Louise says, one day someone will fall in love with it & buy it :)
Liz Hewitt's Gaudi-inspired drawing of wobbly Big 'Jelly' Ben!
Lizzy Hewitt & her Gaudi-inspired drawing of Notre Dame at 'Strange Imaginings' Yuletide Exhibition, Ellerington Fine Art Gallery, Leicester
Arguably the most important corner of the Yuletide Exhibition!
Ellerington Gallery looks warm & inviting, lit up to welcome Christmas visitors
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
What is it about nutty knitters that so engages the public? It is the touchy-feely-ness, the unusual look of these things in the street, the involvement of lots of the public in public art, the colour, or the sheer barmy-ness of knitting around trees, lamp posts and other features & public places? One thing's for sure, I've never had so many comments as I did after the first post that featured Leicester's knitted bollard-jackets and the like (here), so much so that I've sought out some more crazy knitted art projects from around the world for you to enjoy. All express art in its communal, public sense. So get out there and get knitting now!
Tree knit, Cleveland, USA
Tree knit, Austin, Texas, USA
Tree knit, Durban, South Africa
Tree knit, Reykjavik, Iceland
USA Knit Knot Tree
Tree knits, Helsinki, Finland
Tree restoration knit, Walkenswaard, Netherlands
Tree knit, Eumundi, Australia
Tree knit, Sao Paulo, Brazil
With thanks to all the photographers of all the above pictures. We tried to find your identities, without success. If you'd care to provide them we'll very happily credit you :)
