#artscouncil

[choelscherart]

🖼️Abstract Fluid Acrylic Painting - My First Juried Art Exhibition - Ope...

[stellabarak]

Rochester Square Arts, Camden

August in London. Hot and humid. I begin my residency as Project Space member at Rochester Square Arts, in Camden.

The first month goes by like a whirlwind, as expected! I hardly have time to catch my breath here, everything takes so much longer - need to account for travelling to and from destinations.

After a lot of anxious and eye-watering expensive accommodation options, none of which I can afford 🥹 I find a room in Hackney. And thank god for that. What is it with tourists and August in London, even an airb'n'b is ridiculously unaffordable.

I can't wait to start working on my coil pots, so I order 10 x 12kg bags of B17 Valentines clay, my go-to stoneware clay that I have used so far. That's a lot of clay to play with!

I love it here at Rochester Square! I could just spend my days sat in the garden, looking at the nasturtiums and vertical salads grow. It is a dreamy place, away from the madness of Camden Town. There are so many kilns, including a massive one. Apparently, they also have names: Green Goddess etc. Ewelina is so fast and my first test coil pots come out of the bisque so quickly.

Maria P., one of my longest term friends from back in the day, when we used to teach at Havering College in Romford, Essex, is one of the first visitors. Followed by Lucia, another one of my longest standing friends from when we studied for our PhD's at Goldsmiths.

On Wednesday, 16th August we have our very first mentoring session with photography curator, Susan Bright. Susan has been a great support and champion of my work. She has curated key photography exhibitions, including Home Truths and is the author of photography books: Photography Decoded and Feast for the Eyes. I am actually really lucky to have her and spend in-depth one to one time discussing my work. We talk about my recent change of material, my switch to clay and ceramics.

I mention how it was the need to go back to a material, and explore the senses through touch, that led me to clay. How it has now overtaken my photographic and installation practice. I haven't given up on photography of course! I explain how I envisage merging the two - photography and clay - together.

It takes a whole first session for me to air out my fears for taking a break from my photographic practice to focus on ceramics. It is Susan who assures me it is "totally okay" and that clay is what I am here to experiment with, at Rochester Square Arts.

I show her the kilns and my very first (unstable) coil pot that I have finished here.

The rest of August is intense; not just the extremely Mediterranean hot weather in London, but also because I make about three to five new coil pots. Some evenings working until late...including weekends and Sundays. But afterall thats what I am here for. Want to finish as many as I can because I'll be away in Athens come mid- September.

Planning for Art Athina 2023, next. Excited about the art fair and a home-coming back to Greece, with my pots. First they need to get there safely and I spend a considerable amount of time and budget organising their transport and crating. (And it is something that I don't really want to go through again any time soon, at least not until a gallery takes good care of that for me).

Before August is out, I have a visit from Marina Syrmakezi, founder and curator of the photography online Gold Circle, with whom I have exhibited on her online platform previously, with my photographic project Simple Flowers.

We talk about all things up and coming and I show her my new works in progress and she takes some snaps of me, posted here.

August has been far from quiet for me. But apparently, many of the members at Rochester Square Arts have been away. What this blog post doesn't reveal is how busy the Square is, every day with volunteers and members working intensely on their projects and with clay.

I need to post more photos of all the action! What I am looking forward to next is mixing my own custom made house glazes, and experimenting with different types of clay - beyond my B17. There are all types of clay supported here, from terracotta to black to porcelain. I can't wait to play with some porcelain next and see how it may work for my coil pots alongside the stoneware clay.

[stellabarak]

🐱🫶🏻Glazing course with Simeon Featherstone at Rochester Square Arts, May 15th & May 22nd 2023 🪴

In May I took my first ever introduction to the chemistry and science behind what is the make-up of glazes for ceramics! This is something I have been fascinated with for a while, after trying and trialling many ready-made glazes that I have at my disposal at Sunken Studios, as well as brush ons, that I have bought online.

Having recently been awarded an ACE funding for Developing Your Creative Practice, i thought it was time now to look in more depth into how I can create my own glazes.

A large part of my funding will go toward a residency at Rochester Square Arts, in London a magical place in Camden. Prior to its use as a ceramics making place, it used to be a former nursery for palm trees used in film and TV industry, then became a squat during the mid noughties. You can imagine when the founders told me that they have a short glazing course that I could book myself in for 😀.

Glazing with Simeon Featherstone was a two-day course that took place on Mondays in May. This meant very early starts on the train to London from Leeds, for the day-trip.

On Day 1 Monday 15th May, the sun came out and it was a gorgeous day introduced to the alchemy of silica, fluxes and alumina.

We talked about the fundamentals of a glaze, how the powders work inside the kiln in ridiculously high temperatures to interact and thermo-expand with the clay. It is alumina that assists in sticking the glazes to the body of the clay or tile, whereas silica (Quarts or Flint) is the glass forma. I kind of thought this was responsible for sticking the elements together, but apparently, silica doesn't melt. It is the combination of the primary or secondary flux (potassium, sodium, lead, boron) that is the "activator" changing in high temperatures and causing the melt.

After the intro, it was straight into it. We chose some recipes from books and Simeon demonstrated how to create the powder mixes. After lunch, I got my P2 disposable mask on, and away we go! We were a nice group of 8 working in pairs, so it was fun but quite messy overall!

We tried mixing a classic Bernard Leach recipe:

Potash Feldspar 40

Silica 30

Whiting 20

China Clay 10

on to which we later added different elements to vary it,

like 10% Bone Ash, 1,5% Silica Carbide and 0.2% chrome.

I believe this creates volcanic effects on the result!

We had two different types of clay for the test tiles, including porcelain.

It was a very intense first deep-dive into it all.

Day 2, 22nd May: we got to see our results from the test tiles! Unfortunately due to the ever-so precise and on-time trains from Leeds to London (not) I was delayed. I missed the first part of the chat or feed-back. But I got straight into mixing.

It was all about creating lines of glazes, with one base and adding. This is the Triaxial Blend, and this is how you can test up to three different base glazes to test colour, opacity, fluidity and others.

How did it go? Fine but don't ask! It is mind boggling trying to compute in my head the variations and increments!! I am not naturally good at numbers or math. Luckily I wasn't on my own.

Overall, it was a great introduction to the basics of glazing. I also now kind of have an idea as to why my glazes look very glossy. This is something I would like to fix. The recipes we tried have given me a great starting point to continue experimenting, when I do start my residency in August. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing our results soon with the group.

[artistopencalls]

🤍➡️ @mdp_info 🔜 🤍➡️ https://linktr.ee/MDP_info ⬅️ We’re pleased to offer our next online workshop to support artists & creatives who are planning an application to Round 17 of Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) programme. Taking place on Wednesday 29 March (10-11:30am) and led by Mark Devereux, this workshop will address the core questions helping you create a strong application. 💷 As one of the core funders for individual artists, Arts Council England grants can unlock and create important developmental opportunities to help you take your practice and ideas to the next level. The online workshop (via Zoom) will take an in-depth look at the application process for the DYCP programme – dissecting the questions, what they mean and the detail the assessors are looking for. ⭐️ This workshop is independent from Arts Council England, sharing the knowledge and experience Mark has built from previous successful grant applications. 👀 Find out more and book your place via our website (link in bio) 📷 Marfa Abstraction XVIII, Gareth Kemp (@garethkemp), 2020 (made as part of DYCP funded project, supported by Mark Devereux Projects) . . . #MarkDevereuxProjects #MDP #ArtsCouncil #ArtsCouncilEngland #ArtsCouncilFunding #ArtsCouncilEnglandFunding #ACE #ACEFunding #DevelopingYourCreativePractice #DYCP #DevelopingYourCreativePracticeFunding #DYCPFunding #DYCPFundingWorkshop #DYCPWorkshop #FundingWorkshop #ArtsFunding #ArtsFundingWorkshop #Artist #Artists #Artwork #ArtistDevelopment #ArtistMentor #ArtistMentoring #SupportingArtists #GetFunding #GetArtsFunding #Funding💸 #FundingSpecialist #ArtsFundraising #GarethKemp (at Mark Devereux Projects) https://www.instagram.com/p/CqIUYRfIL3s/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ralphroether]

40North Fundraiser Support Art Promo, Operation Parody.

[mikemooremedia]

Angela Fowler, Oral History Performance 03.31.22

[mikemooremedia]

Stokes County Arts Council Upcoming Events 03.23.22

[amdsarahjenkins]

No one can portray Chrisjen Avasarala like @saghdashloo , but it was fun for a day, supporting the Fairview Arts Council’s Mini Comic Con. We had a great turnout, raised money for the arts, and got to see some fabulous costumes! @fairviewarts @expanseonprime #comiccon #minicomiccon #artscouncil #art #creative #inspiration #community #theexpanse https://www.instagram.com/p/CbaS8gtg4Ka/?utm_medium=tumblr