Opening of ‘Mutable’, the spring open exhibition at Cardiff MADE gallery last night. You can view all the work here. Featuring 22 Welsh and Wales-based artists, the work encompasses the theme ‘mutable’ with reference to nature, marking the arrival of Spring, and within the wider context of climate, seasons, ecology and world change. 4 April … More Spring Open Exhibition
A busy week of workshops at Llanover Hall and Wales Millennium Centre. Yesterday, a full class for the Storytelling and Art session for children aged 8-12. I asked them to count down from ten and write the first three words that came into their mind. Then to choose the word they liked best and do … More Summer Workshops
In the creative wellbeing sessions this week, I asked participants to create collages and sculptures to represent aspects of themselves. Searching through old magazines for words that resonated seemed to be conducive to both reflection and supportive conversations about elements of participants’ lives. I don’t initiate these conversations, as I am not an art therapist; … More Creative Journeys
“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
The exhibition Surface Work (11 April – 16 June 2018 at the Victoria Miro, Mayfair) was a rich feast, with abstract work by more than 50 artists, all women, from five continents, spanning every decade between 1918 and 2018. I knew of some of the artists who have “shaped and transformed, and continue to influence … More Exhibition: Pioneering Abstract Artists
The sessions that I am running at the lovely new mental health unit Hafan Y Coed have evolved into a combination of writing and art. As this is a new venture for me, it has been interesting to see how the planning of the course translates into practice. We have taken a generic theme for … More Whatever the Weather
For the past five months, I’ve been a creative practitioner in a primary school, working with a storyteller to produce a record of the stories about the local area surrounding the school. We have covered a vast time period, from the Bronze age, right up to the mid-19th century. I have been using printmaking with … More Voices on the Wind
Some stunning paintings made in response to two stories from Africa today on the Children’s Art and Storytelling course that I am running at Llanover Hall Arts Centre. ‘Why the Sun and Moon Live in the Sky’ – a Nigerian folktale, and ‘The Lion’s Whisker’ – an Ethiopian Folktale. Elements by Jim age 9 … More Natural Abstracts
This weekend, I travelled to Wakefield to see Human Landscapes, the first UK retrospective of the work of the much-overlooked Polish artist Alina Szapocznikow (1926–1973). Powerful, innovative, disturbing, these pieces have dark undertones, which isn’t surprising when you discover that Szapocznikow survived several of the Nazi camps as a teenager, and bouts of severe illness. … More Awkward Objects: The Work of Alina Szapocznikow
Children’s Storytelling and Art Course, Week four. The children were interested in the concept of having two heads after hearing the Indian folktale about a bird with two heads that can’t agree. They drew pictures of themselves with the head of something or someone they would or would not like to be attached to and … More Folktales from India
Sarah J Featherstone 