The Warli or Varli are an indigenous tribe of western India. I became aware of their paintings at an exhibition by Usha Dapur Kar, exploring her heritage, animism and storytelling. Usha told me that she has obtained funding to travel to India to learn more about Warli painting that is thought to originate from 3000BC. Warli artists – mostly … More Warli Painting Workshops
“It is not easy to paint. It is very strenuous. But it’s something you’ve got to do if you have the urge”. – Janet Sobel. This exhibition at The Gallery of Everything on Chiltern Street features over 30 astonishing works on paper by the acclaimed/reclaimed figuratist, impressionist, surrealist and abstract expressionist artist Janet Sobel (1893 – 1968). Like … More Janet Sobel: 20th Century Woman
For the past year, Katja Stiller and I have been facilitating sessions for the Creative Insights project, funded with assistance from Cardiff and Vale Health Lottery and Tanio Arts. We have been working with a group of people with lived experience of eating disorders, to develop creative content for the Cardiff and Vale Adult Eating … More Creative Insights Exhibition
One participant of the Friday Creative Wellbeing group is a wonderful surrealist poet in the style of Gisèle Prassinos. From one of her poems, ‘Reasoning Remains a Wealth‘, everyone has chosen a line that resonates with them, and created their own print or artwork, taking inspiration from the words of the poem. We are always discovering … More Structure for a Poem
“Suddenly, for a time, the door is open, the magic is working; a channel exists between the page and the shadowy cave in the mind.” ~ Susan Cooper One very hot summer, I went on a journey to meet an artist I have long admired. The artist had put out a call for people to … More An Otherworldly Journey
Automatic drawing or painting can be described as “expressing the subconscious” using any technique that eliminates conscious control and replaces it with chance. The basic techniques originate from spiritualism, practiced by artists such as Georgiana Houghton and Hilma Af Klint, both of whom have recently had their work exhibited in a revival of interest and … More Making a Mark: The Art of Automatism
There is something raw and deeply absorbing about Hannelore Baron’s multi-layered work. Found materials are combined with enigmatic text and abstract figures in her collages and box constructions. The work suggests both the condition of entrapment and the possibility of release, no doubt informed by her early traumatic experiences of war in Germany in … More Homage to Hannelore Baron
“If we make one criterion for defining the artist… the impulse to make something new… — a kind of divine discontent with all that has gone before, however good — then we can find such artists at every level of human culture, even when performing acts of great simplicity.” – Margaret Mead Following the threads … More Illustrating the Inner: The work of Anna Zemánková
Sarah J Featherstone 