This weekend and next sees the first Open Studios in my local area, BEAT – Borough of Ealing Art Trail. It is amazing that Ealing has never had an Open Studios art trail event before as most west London Boroughs and surrounding areas do, in fact last year I took part in the Richmond Open Studios. BEAT was bought together by a group of enthusiastic, dedicated and determined artists who felt it was about time Ealing had an event run by artists for artists in order to showcase the vast wealth of art and creativity that lives in the borough of Ealing. Have a look at the great video on their Home Page. Kitty, who I do my weekly workshop with, has been a key player and I am sure she and the rest of the team must be delighted with the outcome – 130 artists in 54 locations.
It also seems amazing that there is (at last) a local art event and I am not part of it! That is because next weekend I am doing a 10 mile night time walk in central London in order to raise money for Maggies Centres. It seemed unrealistic to have to hire a venue to show my work just for one weekend so I decided to wish my fellow artists good luck and become a visitor instead this year. So yesturday I set off with my friend Nita to see 3 local venues – 6 hours and 13 artists later we arrived home, thoroughly exhausted but exhilarated by the art we had seen and the artists we had met. If you have the chance, download a brochure and visit Ealing to see some incredible art that is on show.
Seascape on Slate
Talking to all the artists made me really proud to be part of the local and wider art community – although I still feel like the new girl on the block. It was really lovely to meet a group of people who had that same passion and a need to express their creativity rather than doing so purely for commercial reasons. I am very well aware that my main ‘drivers’ are certainly not monetary but a desire to continually improve my work, receive peer recognition and reach a wider audience in order for people to see the wonderful possibilities the great art form of mosaic making offers.
Nature Inspired Wall Panels
To that end, I was delighted to see that a new Gallery has opened in Northumberland in the village we often stay in. The Tower House Gallery, which is an octagonal shape building and originally the Harbour Masters House, has now been bought privately and turned into a stunning display area. It will be a real boon for the village and the local artists. I have been given the opportunity to take some work in for consideration on my next visit – so fingers crossed.
I have decided to make some pieces especially that I feel would work well in the space. I am looking at making more ‘glass-on-glass’ and I will also take some of my long panels shown here.
So wish me luck, wish all the Ealing artists luck for BEAT and also wish my walking boots luck for my charity walk next weekend.
If you would like to donate to Maggies Centres please see my Just Giving Page.
However, when I made the sun/moon mosaic, I knew it needed a face so I had to give it a go. With this mosaic the main focus was the radiating rays and the face was the ‘link’. I am quite pleased with the result even though it does have ‘piggy eyes’ ! So far it is one of my favourite pieces.
We have now completed 7 stages of the Capital Ring and have crossed the river to north London. Combining stages 4 & 5 took us from Crystal Palace to Wimbledon Park via Streatham, Tooting and Wandsworth Commons. Stage 6 was probably one of our favourite routes starting at Wimbledon Park with its massive boating lake and overlooking the City skyline, passing the famous windmill on Wimbledon Common, lovely walking over Putney Heath which took us up into Richmond Park. Now we felt we were on ‘home territory’
On the day 10 children arrived and were immediately attracted to the beautiful glass tiles, shiny ceramic beads and glittery adornments. Working in pairs, they selected the sections they wanted to work on and then, armed with their handfuls of ‘coloured treasure’, started to design their section before placing and sticking them in the main piece. They were totally engrossed and were determined that the mosaic would be finished within the session, so all of them were working flat out. Each section is very individual – some of the children were incredibly neat, others were colour focused, many had an abstract slant. The end result is a fantastic ‘mix n match’ of different styles, all very distinctive but they all work in harmony as a whole.
After the huge amount of compliments I received for my 
I am delighted that as the weather has cheered up I can get back into my ‘Grout House’ to work on my mosaics. There is something really special about being in 
Each month they feature a video on their website called ‘Make of the Month’. For May it is a ‘Decoupage Challenge.’ It was filmed at the 
Rosanna's Mosaics and Glass 