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Alison Jones : botanical paintings

Alison Jones has been a member of Artworks since it began in the year 2000. She has contributed to the annual Artworks exhibitions with botanical paintings in watercolours and ‘still life’ in pastels. 
Hellibore ‘Cinnamon Snow’ © Alison Jones

Alison Jones has also exhibited at the Royal Horticultural Society. In 1990 and 1993 Alison Jones was awarded the prestigious Grenfell Silver medal at the Royal Horticultural Society’s annual exhibition for her exhibitions of fuchsias and cyclamen coum – and she has also been awarded the Grenfell Silver-Gilt medal twice, in 2000 and 2008.
Alison Jones has also exhibited at the Society of Botanical Artists in London, and is also a member of the Society of Floral Painters, exhibiting annually in the South of England. You can see more of Alison’s botanical paintings on Alison Jones profile page.
In August 2010 Alison joined twenty three other flower painters who had their first exhibition in the Edmund Gallery in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Following its success the Iceni Botanical Artists was born in October the same year, with aims of encouraging and practising a high standard of all forms of botanical art through annual exhibitions by members.  
The Iceni Botanical Artists (IBA) is now engaged in a unique project to record and document the rarest of Norfolk’s Breckland wild flowers.  The collection of original paintings will be available for exhibitions at different venues and will be included in a Florilegium of wild Breckland Plants. More news nearer the time.
Meanwhile, the The Iceni Botanical Artists will be exhibiting again at the Edmund Gallery from 3rd – 8th August, 2012.
The Iceni Botanical Artists
3rd – 8th August 2012
Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk
IP33 1LS

Chris Gamble : double success in the Eastern Open exhibition

One of Chris Gamble‘s pieces, ‘The Faces That You Meet‘, has been selected for the annual Eastern Open exhibition and it gained not one but two awards! The first award was the Exaclair Art Prize of artists’ materials and the second was the Bank House Hotel Purchase Award.

This year’s Eastern Open attracted 557 works by 280 artists from seven counties, with prize money totalling more than £4,000. The winners were announced during a packed ceremony at the King’s Lynn Arts Centre in Norfolk.

Chris Gamble‘s prize-winning work, ‘The Faces That You Meet‘, comprises thirty six small pen drawings of head portraits, and it represents part of an on-going body of work around the theme of ordinary people.

The faces that you meet  © Chris Gamble 2012

The annual Eastern Open exhibition is held in King’s Lynn Arts Centre, and it invites artist submissions from seven counties in the east of England: Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire & Hertfordshire.
A different group of selectors are invited each year to select wotk for this prestigious exhibition. On the judging panel for the Eastern Open 2012 were: Mark Hill, TV Presenter, 20th Century Design Expert and Applied Arts Patron of the King’s Lynn Arts Centre; Yasmin Canvin, freelance curator and Director of Fermynwoods Contemporary Art; Jessica Lack, Arts Writer for The Guardian for 12 years and co-author of “Tate Guide to Modern Art Terms
The selection panel selected forty one works for the 2012 Eastern Open exhibition, all currently on show in the Shakespeare and Fermoy galleries at the King’s Lynn Arts Centre. An alternative Community Choice panel selected works to hang in the Red Barn and the Old Warehouse galleries.
In addition to being a member of the Artworks group, Chris Gamble also belongs to Breckland Artists, who will be holding a tenth anniversary exhibition in the Forum, Norwich, from 27th May until 1st June 2012.
Chris’s husband, Roger Gamble, is also in Artworks, and he won the ‘Best in Show Award’ at the Eastern Open exhibition in 2002. Both Chris & Roger have had their art selected in previous years. Chris won also an award in 2009 for an acrylic painting called ‘Economic Downturn‘. 
The Artworks blog says well done to them both – a prize-winning duo!
The Eastern Open exhibition continues until the 19th May 2012, open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm.
Eastern Open exhibition 2012
31 March – 19 May 2012
King’s Lynn Arts Centre
King’s Lynn
Norfolk
PE30 1HA

Valerie Armstrong : printmaking school workshop

Each year Artworks offers the opportunity for local schools to apply for one of four fully-funded one-day artist workshops, with the schools selecting an artist of their choice from the Artworks exhibition. The four workshops are then planned, organised and run by the selected artists.

Schools are encouraged to visit the annual Artworks exhibition in September, and this is often the time when teachers (or the children!) decide on which artist they would like to work with later in the school year.

In 2011, Artworks artist Valerie Armstrong was selected to run a one day workshop with Great Whelnetham Primary School:

This year I was invited to Great Whelnetham primary school to run a printmaking workshop with eight and nine year old children.


Realising I would need considerable time to turn an organized multi purpose classroom into a printmaking studio, it was agreed that I should run the workshop in two sessions; an afternoon workshop followed up by a workshop the very next morning, giving me time to set up and clear up in the two lunch breaks.



I planned several ambitious techniques for the children to explore. To my delight they had just begun a classroom project on India, a country I have a deep involvement with, so I was able to provide lots of images and material to work from.



The children embraced the experience with focus, joy and enthusiasm and produced some vibrant and thoughtful pieces of art. The results of the two half day workshops will be on exhibition in the schools section of the next Artworks exhibition in September 2012.

Visit Valerie Armstrong‘s website.

www.valeriearmstrong.com

More information about planning school visits and applications for artist workshops is available on the Artworks Schools page. While some school groups simply enjoy looking at the exhibition, other groups come to sketch, paint and draw. There is always someone from Artworks on hand to offer more information on the art, encouraging the children to study, enjoy and absorb all the art in the exhibition.

N.b. To avoid possible clashes with other school visits please contact our Schools Coordinator who will assist you in planning your visit to the Artworks exhibition.

The Artworks exhibition this year runs from the 8th to 30th September 2012 at Blackthorpe Barn, open daily 10am to 5pm.