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  Image: Graffiti Theft No2 – spray paint transfer on cotton- 110x196cm. (c) SimonWilliams/Jakbox2018. All rights reserved

Archway-based artist Simon Williams’ work questions the relationship that we have with the world, inviting us to rediscover and appreciate beauty in our environment that might otherwise be overlooked.  The viewer is encouraged to explore and reappraise objects, textures and surfaces that Simon believes are powerful, “full of history and memories”.  He has a deep appreciation for the “accidental aesthetics” created by the city, the marks that industry, commerce and everyday life leave behind.

Whether their origins are in the local streets like the ‘Pavement’ series or in a domestic setting such as the ‘Marking Time’ series, Simon is fascinated with the impact of time on the objects around us.  He uses of a wide range of materials and media – including silicone, wood, metal and paper – which reveal the different forms that beauty can take, depending on the relationship the viewer shares with, or the feelings they project onto, those objects.  The materials can be industrial, like metal, then subjected to chemical erosion, or created by inks or graphite on paper, recreating natural marks made by time.  These works are shown alongside the “ready-mades” or found objects, and demand a response from the viewer.

Engaging with the viewer has always been an important element in Simon’s work.  Whilst studying architecture at Liverpool University Simon worked as a pavement artist, and was voted Time Out’s ‘Street Artist of the Year’ in 1987.  He also started designing theatre posters for the Liverpool Playhouse, which was the beginning of a successful career in the field, as he subsequently established his own studio which was rebranded as ‘Feast’ in 2005 and is based in Camden.  In 2018 the poster image for ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ was given the ‘Best Theatre Poster Award’ of all time by ‘What’s on Stage’.

During this time Simon has always had other artistic work going on, whether sculptures, photographic documentary work, a conceptual project called ‘Under the Hammer’ – a project of 17 weekly art auctions inspired by different famous artists – or collaborative work with the JakBox creative team in his Camden studio.  He created the ‘Points of View’ concept in 2009 which directs the public’s gaze from the pavement to unusual viewpoints or juxtapositions, turning the urban landscape itself into a work of art.  In 2015 JakBox was commissioned by Camden Council to create a ‘Points of View’ in Cobden Junction near Mornington Crescent.  Finding interest or beauty in what might otherwise be ignored or considered mundane is also a preoccupation in this highly original show at Highgate Gallery.

See also the website: JakBox.co.uk.  Simon has had two short pieces on London Live:

http://www.jakbox.co.uk/news/london-live-feature

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqcEMWNeeao

Exhibition continues until 21 March.

  Image: Graffiti Theft No2 – spray paint transfer on cotton- 110x196cm. (c) SimonWilliams/Jakbox2018. All rights reserved

Archway-based artist Simon Williams’ work questions the relationship that we have with the world, inviting us to rediscover and appreciate beauty in our environment that might otherwise be overlooked.  The viewer is encouraged to explore and reappraise objects, textures and surfaces that Simon believes are powerful, “full of history and memories”.  He has a deep appreciation for the “accidental aesthetics” created by the city, the marks that industry, commerce and everyday life leave behind.

Whether their origins are in the local streets like the ‘Pavement’ series or in a domestic setting such as the ‘Marking Time’ series, Simon is fascinated with the impact of time on the objects around us.  He uses of a wide range of materials and media – including silicone, wood, metal and paper – which reveal the different forms that beauty can take, depending on the relationship the viewer shares with, or the feelings they project onto, those objects.  The materials can be industrial, like metal, then subjected to chemical erosion, or created by inks or graphite on paper, recreating natural marks made by time.  These works are shown alongside the “ready-mades” or found objects, and demand a response from the viewer.

Engaging with the viewer has always been an important element in Simon’s work.  Whilst studying architecture at Liverpool University Simon worked as a pavement artist, and was voted Time Out’s ‘Street Artist of the Year’ in 1987.  He also started designing theatre posters for the Liverpool Playhouse, which was the beginning of a successful career in the field, as he subsequently established his own studio which was rebranded as ‘Feast’ in 2005 and is based in Camden.  In 2018 the poster image for ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ was given the ‘Best Theatre Poster Award’ of all time by ‘What’s on Stage’.

During this time Simon has always had other artistic work going on, whether sculptures, photographic documentary work, a conceptual project called ‘Under the Hammer’ – a project of 17 weekly art auctions inspired by different famous artists – or collaborative work with the JakBox creative team in his Camden studio.  He created the ‘Points of View’ concept in 2009 which directs the public’s gaze from the pavement to unusual viewpoints or juxtapositions, turning the urban landscape itself into a work of art.  In 2015 JakBox was commissioned by Camden Council to create a ‘Points of View’ in Cobden Junction near Mornington Crescent.  Finding interest or beauty in what might otherwise be ignored or considered mundane is also a preoccupation in this highly original show at Highgate Gallery.

See also the website: JakBox.co.uk.  Simon has had two short pieces on London Live:

http://www.jakbox.co.uk/news/london-live-feature

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqcEMWNeeao

Exhibition continues until 21 March.

  Image: Graffiti Theft No2 – spray paint transfer on cotton- 110x196cm. (c) SimonWilliams/Jakbox2018. All rights reserved

Archway-based artist Simon Williams’ work questions the relationship that we have with the world, inviting us to rediscover and appreciate beauty in our environment that might otherwise be overlooked.  The viewer is encouraged to explore and reappraise objects, textures and surfaces that Simon believes are powerful, “full of history and memories”.  He has a deep appreciation for the “accidental aesthetics” created by the city, the marks that industry, commerce and everyday life leave behind.

Whether their origins are in the local streets like the ‘Pavement’ series or in a domestic setting such as the ‘Marking Time’ series, Simon is fascinated with the impact of time on the objects around us.  He uses of a wide range of materials and media – including silicone, wood, metal and paper – which reveal the different forms that beauty can take, depending on the relationship the viewer shares with, or the feelings they project onto, those objects.  The materials can be industrial, like metal, then subjected to chemical erosion, or created by inks or graphite on paper, recreating natural marks made by time.  These works are shown alongside the “ready-mades” or found objects, and demand a response from the viewer.

Engaging with the viewer has always been an important element in Simon’s work.  Whilst studying architecture at Liverpool University Simon worked as a pavement artist, and was voted Time Out’s ‘Street Artist of the Year’ in 1987.  He also started designing theatre posters for the Liverpool Playhouse, which was the beginning of a successful career in the field, as he subsequently established his own studio which was rebranded as ‘Feast’ in 2005 and is based in Camden.  In 2018 the poster image for ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ was given the ‘Best Theatre Poster Award’ of all time by ‘What’s on Stage’.

During this time Simon has always had other artistic work going on, whether sculptures, photographic documentary work, a conceptual project called ‘Under the Hammer’ – a project of 17 weekly art auctions inspired by different famous artists – or collaborative work with the JakBox creative team in his Camden studio.  He created the ‘Points of View’ concept in 2009 which directs the public’s gaze from the pavement to unusual viewpoints or juxtapositions, turning the urban landscape itself into a work of art.  In 2015 JakBox was commissioned by Camden Council to create a ‘Points of View’ in Cobden Junction near Mornington Crescent.  Finding interest or beauty in what might otherwise be ignored or considered mundane is also a preoccupation in this highly original show at Highgate Gallery.

See also the website: JakBox.co.uk.  Simon has had two short pieces on London Live:

http://www.jakbox.co.uk/news/london-live-feature

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqcEMWNeeao

Exhibition continues until 21 March.

  Image: Graffiti Theft No2 – spray paint transfer on cotton- 110x196cm. (c) SimonWilliams/Jakbox2018. All rights reserved

Archway-based artist Simon Williams’ work questions the relationship that we have with the world, inviting us to rediscover and appreciate beauty in our environment that might otherwise be overlooked.  The viewer is encouraged to explore and reappraise objects, textures and surfaces that Simon believes are powerful, “full of history and memories”.  He has a deep appreciation for the “accidental aesthetics” created by the city, the marks that industry, commerce and everyday life leave behind.

Whether their origins are in the local streets like the ‘Pavement’ series or in a domestic setting such as the ‘Marking Time’ series, Simon is fascinated with the impact of time on the objects around us.  He uses of a wide range of materials and media – including silicone, wood, metal and paper – which reveal the different forms that beauty can take, depending on the relationship the viewer shares with, or the feelings they project onto, those objects.  The materials can be industrial, like metal, then subjected to chemical erosion, or created by inks or graphite on paper, recreating natural marks made by time.  These works are shown alongside the “ready-mades” or found objects, and demand a response from the viewer.

Engaging with the viewer has always been an important element in Simon’s work.  Whilst studying architecture at Liverpool University Simon worked as a pavement artist, and was voted Time Out’s ‘Street Artist of the Year’ in 1987.  He also started designing theatre posters for the Liverpool Playhouse, which was the beginning of a successful career in the field, as he subsequently established his own studio which was rebranded as ‘Feast’ in 2005 and is based in Camden.  In 2018 the poster image for ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ was given the ‘Best Theatre Poster Award’ of all time by ‘What’s on Stage’.

During this time Simon has always had other artistic work going on, whether sculptures, photographic documentary work, a conceptual project called ‘Under the Hammer’ – a project of 17 weekly art auctions inspired by different famous artists – or collaborative work with the JakBox creative team in his Camden studio.  He created the ‘Points of View’ concept in 2009 which directs the public’s gaze from the pavement to unusual viewpoints or juxtapositions, turning the urban landscape itself into a work of art.  In 2015 JakBox was commissioned by Camden Council to create a ‘Points of View’ in Cobden Junction near Mornington Crescent.  Finding interest or beauty in what might otherwise be ignored or considered mundane is also a preoccupation in this highly original show at Highgate Gallery.

See also the website: JakBox.co.uk.  Simon has had two short pieces on London Live:

http://www.jakbox.co.uk/news/london-live-feature

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqcEMWNeeao

Exhibition continues until 21 March.

Crossing16.05.2016

The fallibility of longitudinal memory and the memory of fleeting everyday experiences make up the two different parts of this exhibition.  What do we keep of our lives, is this a reminder to ourselves and how much is it how we want others to remember us?  The first is subject to self-selection and the second to the fallibility of others’ interpretation. Both play on the material in this first part of this exhibition.

Helen de Mouilpied was born in 1914 and died in 1987.  Thirty years later the material she kept about herself is presented by the artist through his own memories.  The viewer’s interpretation will confer significance to these memories.  Why was this material kept and other items discarded?  What has determined the selection from the material for this exhibition?  How does this material trigger our own ways of remembering?

The first part of this exhibition is made up of diaries, photos, letters and other physical memories.  Displayed chronologically it makes up the substance of one remembered life.

The second part of the exhibition is the culmination of a photographic project in Hackney.  Fleeting interactions are committed to photographic memory.  The same photograph was taken every day for a year, but not at the same time of day.  The photographer (the artist) was not in Hackney every day; it took nearly eighteen months to accrue 365 photos.  These are displayed in the form of a slide show: Hackney Crossing 365.  The momentary memory of that instant has been captured through photographs, drawings, painting and lithographs.

The passing of time, observing everyday street scenes and surveillance have been recurrent themes in Adam Forman’s work; travel scenes in Imminent Public Spaces (2006) and the CCTV Series (2010).  Being watched, watching and observing are ever present in these images, as is the act of clandestine photography on the closely observed crossing.

Much of the work in the exhibition is for sale.  Open Tues-Fri 1-5, Sat 11-4, Sun 11-5; closed Mon.  Exhibition continues until 11 April.

The Highgate Society’s infrastructure committee has planned monthly clean up events for 2019. Please join us. Details below and all are welcome.

Time: meeting 930 am on the dates shown (all Saturdays). Each event will last an hour.

2019 Dates: 2nd February (Highgate Hill), 30th March (Archway Road), 27th April (Highgate Station), 8th June (Highgate Hill), 6th July (Archway Road),

3rd August (Highgate Station), 31st August (Highgate Hill), 28th September (Archway Road), 26th October (Highgate Station), 23rd November (Highgate Hill), 7^th December (Archway Road)

Meeting points: For Highgate Station area meet in Shepherds Hill, outside the library, for Highgate Hill area meet outside 10a South Grove and for Archway Road area meet in Highgate Station car park meet at the end nearest Shepherds Hill.

Purpose: collect litter and reporting any other issues we find to the relevant Council team for follow up action. The June and September dates are noticeboard clean up events.

Equipment: We will supply litter picker sticks, gloves and rubbish bags. Please bring your own litter picker if you have one. Buckets are also useful as an alternative to keeping litter bags open. For the June and September dates please bring small pliers if you have some. Casual clothes. We will collect in rubbish bags at the end.

Safety: We’ll give a short briefing at the start of each session and will stick together as a group. We will have a first aid kit.

Any questions: please e mail infrastructure@highgatesociety.com

Crossing16.05.2016

The fallibility of longitudinal memory and the memory of fleeting everyday experiences make up the two different parts of this exhibition.  What do we keep of our lives, is this a reminder to ourselves and how much is it how we want others to remember us?  The first is subject to self-selection and the second to the fallibility of others’ interpretation. Both play on the material in this first part of this exhibition.

Helen de Mouilpied was born in 1914 and died in 1987.  Thirty years later the material she kept about herself is presented by the artist through his own memories.  The viewer’s interpretation will confer significance to these memories.  Why was this material kept and other items discarded?  What has determined the selection from the material for this exhibition?  How does this material trigger our own ways of remembering?

The first part of this exhibition is made up of diaries, photos, letters and other physical memories.  Displayed chronologically it makes up the substance of one remembered life.

The second part of the exhibition is the culmination of a photographic project in Hackney.  Fleeting interactions are committed to photographic memory.  The same photograph was taken every day for a year, but not at the same time of day.  The photographer (the artist) was not in Hackney every day; it took nearly eighteen months to accrue 365 photos.  These are displayed in the form of a slide show: Hackney Crossing 365.  The momentary memory of that instant has been captured through photographs, drawings, painting and lithographs.

The passing of time, observing everyday street scenes and surveillance have been recurrent themes in Adam Forman’s work; travel scenes in Imminent Public Spaces (2006) and the CCTV Series (2010).  Being watched, watching and observing are ever present in these images, as is the act of clandestine photography on the closely observed crossing.

Much of the work in the exhibition is for sale.  Open Tues-Fri 1-5, Sat 11-4, Sun 11-5; closed Mon.  Exhibition continues until 11 April.

Crossing 16.05.2016

The fallibility of longitudinal memory and the memory of fleeting everyday experiences make up the two different parts of this exhibition.  What do we keep of our lives, is this a reminder to ourselves and how much is it how we want others to remember us?  The first is subject to self-selection and the second to the fallibility of others’ interpretation. Both play on the material in this first part of this exhibition.

Helen de Mouilpied was born in 1914 and died in 1987.  Thirty years later the material she kept about herself is presented by the artist through his own memories.  The viewer’s interpretation will confer significance to these memories.  Why was this material kept and other items discarded?  What has determined the selection from the material for this exhibition?  How does this material trigger our own ways of remembering?

The first part of this exhibition is made up of diaries, photos, letters and other physical memories.  Displayed chronologically it makes up the substance of one remembered life.

The second part of the exhibition is the culmination of a photographic project in Hackney.  Fleeting interactions are committed to photographic memory.  The same photograph was taken every day for a year, but not at the same time of day.  The photographer (the artist) was not in Hackney every day; it took nearly eighteen months to accrue 365 photos.  These are displayed in the form of a slide show: Hackney Crossing 365.  The momentary memory of that instant has been captured through photographs, drawings, painting and lithographs.

The passing of time, observing everyday street scenes and surveillance have been recurrent themes in Adam Forman’s work; travel scenes in Imminent Public Spaces (2006) and the CCTV Series (2010).  Being watched, watching and observing are ever present in these images, as is the act of clandestine photography on the closely observed crossing.

Much of the work in the exhibition is for sale.  Open Tues-Fri 1-5, Sat 11-4, Sun 11-5; closed Mon.  Exhibition continues until 11 April.

Crossing16.05.2016

The fallibility of longitudinal memory and the memory of fleeting everyday experiences make up the two different parts of this exhibition.  What do we keep of our lives, is this a reminder to ourselves and how much is it how we want others to remember us?  The first is subject to self-selection and the second to the fallibility of others’ interpretation. Both play on the material in this first part of this exhibition.

Helen de Mouilpied was born in 1914 and died in 1987.  Thirty years later the material she kept about herself is presented by the artist through his own memories.  The viewer’s interpretation will confer significance to these memories.  Why was this material kept and other items discarded?  What has determined the selection from the material for this exhibition?  How does this material trigger our own ways of remembering?

The first part of this exhibition is made up of diaries, photos, letters and other physical memories.  Displayed chronologically it makes up the substance of one remembered life.

The second part of the exhibition is the culmination of a photographic project in Hackney.  Fleeting interactions are committed to photographic memory.  The same photograph was taken every day for a year, but not at the same time of day.  The photographer (the artist) was not in Hackney every day; it took nearly eighteen months to accrue 365 photos.  These are displayed in the form of a slide show: Hackney Crossing 365.  The momentary memory of that instant has been captured through photographs, drawings, painting and lithographs.

The passing of time, observing everyday street scenes and surveillance have been recurrent themes in Adam Forman’s work; travel scenes in Imminent Public Spaces (2006) and the CCTV Series (2010).  Being watched, watching and observing are ever present in these images, as is the act of clandestine photography on the closely observed crossing.

Much of the work in the exhibition is for sale.  Open Tues-Fri 1-5, Sat 11-4, Sun 11-5; closed Mon.  Exhibition continues until 11 April.

Crossing16.05.2016

The fallibility of longitudinal memory and the memory of fleeting everyday experiences make up the two different parts of this exhibition.  What do we keep of our lives, is this a reminder to ourselves and how much is it how we want others to remember us?  The first is subject to self-selection and the second to the fallibility of others’ interpretation. Both play on the material in this first part of this exhibition.

Helen de Mouilpied was born in 1914 and died in 1987.  Thirty years later the material she kept about herself is presented by the artist through his own memories.  The viewer’s interpretation will confer significance to these memories.  Why was this material kept and other items discarded?  What has determined the selection from the material for this exhibition?  How does this material trigger our own ways of remembering?

The first part of this exhibition is made up of diaries, photos, letters and other physical memories.  Displayed chronologically it makes up the substance of one remembered life.

The second part of the exhibition is the culmination of a photographic project in Hackney.  Fleeting interactions are committed to photographic memory.  The same photograph was taken every day for a year, but not at the same time of day.  The photographer (the artist) was not in Hackney every day; it took nearly eighteen months to accrue 365 photos.  These are displayed in the form of a slide show: Hackney Crossing 365.  The momentary memory of that instant has been captured through photographs, drawings, painting and lithographs.

The passing of time, observing everyday street scenes and surveillance have been recurrent themes in Adam Forman’s work; travel scenes in Imminent Public Spaces (2006) and the CCTV Series (2010).  Being watched, watching and observing are ever present in these images, as is the act of clandestine photography on the closely observed crossing.

Much of the work in the exhibition is for sale.  Open Tues-Fri 1-5, Sat 11-4, Sun 11-5; closed Mon.  Exhibition continues until 11 April.

Discutons… racontons…

Crossing16.05.2016

The fallibility of longitudinal memory and the memory of fleeting everyday experiences make up the two different parts of this exhibition.  What do we keep of our lives, is this a reminder to ourselves and how much is it how we want others to remember us?  The first is subject to self-selection and the second to the fallibility of others’ interpretation. Both play on the material in this first part of this exhibition.

Helen de Mouilpied was born in 1914 and died in 1987.  Thirty years later the material she kept about herself is presented by the artist through his own memories.  The viewer’s interpretation will confer significance to these memories.  Why was this material kept and other items discarded?  What has determined the selection from the material for this exhibition?  How does this material trigger our own ways of remembering?

The first part of this exhibition is made up of diaries, photos, letters and other physical memories.  Displayed chronologically it makes up the substance of one remembered life.

The second part of the exhibition is the culmination of a photographic project in Hackney.  Fleeting interactions are committed to photographic memory.  The same photograph was taken every day for a year, but not at the same time of day.  The photographer (the artist) was not in Hackney every day; it took nearly eighteen months to accrue 365 photos.  These are displayed in the form of a slide show: Hackney Crossing 365.  The momentary memory of that instant has been captured through photographs, drawings, painting and lithographs.

The passing of time, observing everyday street scenes and surveillance have been recurrent themes in Adam Forman’s work; travel scenes in Imminent Public Spaces (2006) and the CCTV Series (2010).  Being watched, watching and observing are ever present in these images, as is the act of clandestine photography on the closely observed crossing.

Much of the work in the exhibition is for sale.  Open Tues-Fri 1-5, Sat 11-4, Sun 11-5; closed Mon.  Exhibition continues until 11 April.

Crossing16.05.2016

The fallibility of longitudinal memory and the memory of fleeting everyday experiences make up the two different parts of this exhibition.  What do we keep of our lives, is this a reminder to ourselves and how much is it how we want others to remember us?  The first is subject to self-selection and the second to the fallibility of others’ interpretation. Both play on the material in this first part of this exhibition.

Helen de Mouilpied was born in 1914 and died in 1987.  Thirty years later the material she kept about herself is presented by the artist through his own memories.  The viewer’s interpretation will confer significance to these memories.  Why was this material kept and other items discarded?  What has determined the selection from the material for this exhibition?  How does this material trigger our own ways of remembering?

The first part of this exhibition is made up of diaries, photos, letters and other physical memories.  Displayed chronologically it makes up the substance of one remembered life.

The second part of the exhibition is the culmination of a photographic project in Hackney.  Fleeting interactions are committed to photographic memory.  The same photograph was taken every day for a year, but not at the same time of day.  The photographer (the artist) was not in Hackney every day; it took nearly eighteen months to accrue 365 photos.  These are displayed in the form of a slide show: Hackney Crossing 365.  The momentary memory of that instant has been captured through photographs, drawings, painting and lithographs.

The passing of time, observing everyday street scenes and surveillance have been recurrent themes in Adam Forman’s work; travel scenes in Imminent Public Spaces (2006) and the CCTV Series (2010).  Being watched, watching and observing are ever present in these images, as is the act of clandestine photography on the closely observed crossing.

Much of the work in the exhibition is for sale.  Open Tues-Fri 1-5, Sat 11-4, Sun 11-5; closed Mon.  Exhibition continues until 11 April.

Crossing16.05.2016

The fallibility of longitudinal memory and the memory of fleeting everyday experiences make up the two different parts of this exhibition.  What do we keep of our lives, is this a reminder to ourselves and how much is it how we want others to remember us?  The first is subject to self-selection and the second to the fallibility of others’ interpretation. Both play on the material in this first part of this exhibition.

Helen de Mouilpied was born in 1914 and died in 1987.  Thirty years later the material she kept about herself is presented by the artist through his own memories.  The viewer’s interpretation will confer significance to these memories.  Why was this material kept and other items discarded?  What has determined the selection from the material for this exhibition?  How does this material trigger our own ways of remembering?

The first part of this exhibition is made up of diaries, photos, letters and other physical memories.  Displayed chronologically it makes up the substance of one remembered life.

The second part of the exhibition is the culmination of a photographic project in Hackney.  Fleeting interactions are committed to photographic memory.  The same photograph was taken every day for a year, but not at the same time of day.  The photographer (the artist) was not in Hackney every day; it took nearly eighteen months to accrue 365 photos.  These are displayed in the form of a slide show: Hackney Crossing 365.  The momentary memory of that instant has been captured through photographs, drawings, painting and lithographs.

The passing of time, observing everyday street scenes and surveillance have been recurrent themes in Adam Forman’s work; travel scenes in Imminent Public Spaces (2006) and the CCTV Series (2010).  Being watched, watching and observing are ever present in these images, as is the act of clandestine photography on the closely observed crossing.

Much of the work in the exhibition is for sale.  Open Tues-Fri 1-5, Sat 11-4, Sun 11-5; closed Mon.  Exhibition continues until 11 April.

Crossing 16.05.2016

The fallibility of longitudinal memory and the memory of fleeting everyday experiences make up the two different parts of this exhibition.  What do we keep of our lives, is this a reminder to ourselves and how much is it how we want others to remember us?  The first is subject to self-selection and the second to the fallibility of others’ interpretation. Both play on the material in this first part of this exhibition.

Helen de Mouilpied was born in 1914 and died in 1987.  Thirty years later the material she kept about herself is presented by the artist through his own memories.  The viewer’s interpretation will confer significance to these memories.  Why was this material kept and other items discarded?  What has determined the selection from the material for this exhibition?  How does this material trigger our own ways of remembering?

The first part of this exhibition is made up of diaries, photos, letters and other physical memories.  Displayed chronologically it makes up the substance of one remembered life.

The second part of the exhibition is the culmination of a photographic project in Hackney.  Fleeting interactions are committed to photographic memory.  The same photograph was taken every day for a year, but not at the same time of day.  The photographer (the artist) was not in Hackney every day; it took nearly eighteen months to accrue 365 photos.  These are displayed in the form of a slide show: Hackney Crossing 365.  The momentary memory of that instant has been captured through photographs, drawings, painting and lithographs.

The passing of time, observing everyday street scenes and surveillance have been recurrent themes in Adam Forman’s work; travel scenes in Imminent Public Spaces (2006) and the CCTV Series (2010).  Being watched, watching and observing are ever present in these images, as is the act of clandestine photography on the closely observed crossing.

Much of the work in the exhibition is for sale.  Open Tues-Fri 1-5, Sat 11-4, Sun 11-5; closed Mon.  Exhibition continues until 11 April.

Join the Highgate Society Poetry Group on April Fools Day
Open Mic, 2 poems each plus a third if you have completed the Groups Challenge which this month is based on a Frank O’Hara Walk which basically translates as go for a walk and write a poem about it.

Tea, coffee, biscuits, occasionally cake and wine thrown in

Crossing16.05.2016

The fallibility of longitudinal memory and the memory of fleeting everyday experiences make up the two different parts of this exhibition.  What do we keep of our lives, is this a reminder to ourselves and how much is it how we want others to remember us?  The first is subject to self-selection and the second to the fallibility of others’ interpretation. Both play on the material in this first part of this exhibition.

Helen de Mouilpied was born in 1914 and died in 1987.  Thirty years later the material she kept about herself is presented by the artist through his own memories.  The viewer’s interpretation will confer significance to these memories.  Why was this material kept and other items discarded?  What has determined the selection from the material for this exhibition?  How does this material trigger our own ways of remembering?

The first part of this exhibition is made up of diaries, photos, letters and other physical memories.  Displayed chronologically it makes up the substance of one remembered life.

The second part of the exhibition is the culmination of a photographic project in Hackney.  Fleeting interactions are committed to photographic memory.  The same photograph was taken every day for a year, but not at the same time of day.  The photographer (the artist) was not in Hackney every day; it took nearly eighteen months to accrue 365 photos.  These are displayed in the form of a slide show: Hackney Crossing 365.  The momentary memory of that instant has been captured through photographs, drawings, painting and lithographs.

The passing of time, observing everyday street scenes and surveillance have been recurrent themes in Adam Forman’s work; travel scenes in Imminent Public Spaces (2006) and the CCTV Series (2010).  Being watched, watching and observing are ever present in these images, as is the act of clandestine photography on the closely observed crossing.

Much of the work in the exhibition is for sale.  Open Tues-Fri 1-5, Sat 11-4, Sun 11-5; closed Mon.  Exhibition continues until 11 April.

Crossing16.05.2016

The fallibility of longitudinal memory and the memory of fleeting everyday experiences make up the two different parts of this exhibition.  What do we keep of our lives, is this a reminder to ourselves and how much is it how we want others to remember us?  The first is subject to self-selection and the second to the fallibility of others’ interpretation. Both play on the material in this first part of this exhibition.

Helen de Mouilpied was born in 1914 and died in 1987.  Thirty years later the material she kept about herself is presented by the artist through his own memories.  The viewer’s interpretation will confer significance to these memories.  Why was this material kept and other items discarded?  What has determined the selection from the material for this exhibition?  How does this material trigger our own ways of remembering?

The first part of this exhibition is made up of diaries, photos, letters and other physical memories.  Displayed chronologically it makes up the substance of one remembered life.

The second part of the exhibition is the culmination of a photographic project in Hackney.  Fleeting interactions are committed to photographic memory.  The same photograph was taken every day for a year, but not at the same time of day.  The photographer (the artist) was not in Hackney every day; it took nearly eighteen months to accrue 365 photos.  These are displayed in the form of a slide show: Hackney Crossing 365.  The momentary memory of that instant has been captured through photographs, drawings, painting and lithographs.

The passing of time, observing everyday street scenes and surveillance have been recurrent themes in Adam Forman’s work; travel scenes in Imminent Public Spaces (2006) and the CCTV Series (2010).  Being watched, watching and observing are ever present in these images, as is the act of clandestine photography on the closely observed crossing.

Much of the work in the exhibition is for sale.  Open Tues-Fri 1-5, Sat 11-4, Sun 11-5; closed Mon.  Exhibition continues until 11 April.

Crossing16.05.2016

The fallibility of longitudinal memory and the memory of fleeting everyday experiences make up the two different parts of this exhibition.  What do we keep of our lives, is this a reminder to ourselves and how much is it how we want others to remember us?  The first is subject to self-selection and the second to the fallibility of others’ interpretation. Both play on the material in this first part of this exhibition.

Helen de Mouilpied was born in 1914 and died in 1987.  Thirty years later the material she kept about herself is presented by the artist through his own memories.  The viewer’s interpretation will confer significance to these memories.  Why was this material kept and other items discarded?  What has determined the selection from the material for this exhibition?  How does this material trigger our own ways of remembering?

The first part of this exhibition is made up of diaries, photos, letters and other physical memories.  Displayed chronologically it makes up the substance of one remembered life.

The second part of the exhibition is the culmination of a photographic project in Hackney.  Fleeting interactions are committed to photographic memory.  The same photograph was taken every day for a year, but not at the same time of day.  The photographer (the artist) was not in Hackney every day; it took nearly eighteen months to accrue 365 photos.  These are displayed in the form of a slide show: Hackney Crossing 365.  The momentary memory of that instant has been captured through photographs, drawings, painting and lithographs.

The passing of time, observing everyday street scenes and surveillance have been recurrent themes in Adam Forman’s work; travel scenes in Imminent Public Spaces (2006) and the CCTV Series (2010).  Being watched, watching and observing are ever present in these images, as is the act of clandestine photography on the closely observed crossing.

Much of the work in the exhibition is for sale.  Open Tues-Fri 1-5, Sat 11-4, Sun 11-5; closed Mon.  Exhibition continues until 11 April.

Come and meet friends and neighbours at 10A; learn about the Society; everyone welcome.

The Highgate Society’s infrastructure committee has planned monthly clean up events for 2019. Please join us. Details below and all are welcome.

Time: meeting 930 am on the dates shown (all Saturdays). Each event will last an hour.

2019 Dates: 2nd February (Highgate Hill), 30th March (Archway Road), 27th April (Highgate Station), 8th June (Highgate Hill), 6th July (Archway Road),

3rd August (Highgate Station), 31st August (Highgate Hill), 28th September (Archway Road), 26th October (Highgate Station), 23rd November (Highgate Hill), 7^th December (Archway Road)

Meeting points: For Highgate Station area meet in Shepherds Hill, outside the library, for Highgate Hill area meet outside 10a South Grove and for Archway Road area meet in Highgate Station car park meet at the end nearest Shepherds Hill.

Purpose: collect litter and reporting any other issues we find to the relevant Council team for follow up action. The June and September dates are noticeboard clean up events.

Equipment: We will supply litter picker sticks, gloves and rubbish bags. Please bring your own litter picker if you have one. Buckets are also useful as an alternative to keeping litter bags open. For the June and September dates please bring small pliers if you have some. Casual clothes. We will collect in rubbish bags at the end.

Safety: We’ll give a short briefing at the start of each session and will stick together as a group. We will have a first aid kit.

Any questions: please e mail infrastructure@highgatesociety.com

‘A Piece of Bavaria in Hampstead Garden Suburb’ Meet ‘Old Bull and Bush’ North End Way, between Jack Straws Castle and Golders Green, 2.30 pm (on the 210 bus route).

“Artichokes”

This exhibition celebrates the life and work of Judith Downie (1934-2016), Kentish Town painter, etcher, teacher and cook.

Judith was born in Ashington, Northumberland and studied painting and etching at King’s College, Newcastle in the 1950s, under Lawrence Gowing, Richard Hamilton and Victor Pasmore.  This was at the time when Newcastle was pioneering the famous ‘Basic Design’ course, which created a revolution in art education in the UK.  Judith went on to teach at Newcastle before going to Paris to work at SW Hayter’s etching studio, Atelier 17.

After leaving Art School, Judith lived and worked in Paris, London and New York.  She taught at Leicester Polytechnic and Chelsea School of Art.  In 1968 she and her friend Zena Flax established a group of printmakers in North London, called Printers Inc, holding annual exhibitions of their work.  In retirement Judith continued to teach etching from her home in Kentish Town – her kitchen famously was dominated by her large etching press which doubled as a kitchen counter.

Judith’s early work was largely abstract and concerned with process, but counter-intuitively became increasingly figurative as her natural pre-occupation with landscape, animals and food re-asserted itself. Her later work expresses her life-long obsession with drawing, form, pattern and technique while anchoring itself explicitly in her day-to-day life and cultural influences.

Her love of animals began in childhood; after retiring from teaching she owned a pet shop, and for the last twenty years of her life she lived with a tyrannical ‘free range’ cockatiel called ‘Beaky’, who features prominently in her work, along with the pets of friends and other animals that caught her eye; all were closely observed.  Food was the other lifelong passion, which increasingly found expression in both her etching and painting.  Judith was a semi-professional cook and generous host who owned over 1000 cookery books; the place food occupies in her work expresses the excitement of her post-war generation newly brought into contact with French and Mediterranean cooking.  Just as Cezanne was a continuous reference point in her painting, so Elizabeth David was her touchstone in cooking.  Her etching ‘Homage to Elizabeth David’, which depicts both the casserole belonging to David, which Judith bought at auction, and her well-used copy of French Provincial Cooking, perfectly captures both these influences.

‘I paint and etch the things I live with, like and eat, as I need to gaze at them for a long time.  Richard Gregory (he of ‘The Eye and the Brain’) says that painting is impossible, but I think of figurative painting as more like magic.  It is wonderful that some brush, pencil or ink marks on a flat surface can vividly conjure up the three-dimensional world.  It is magic to look at paint and feel the weight of an apple, to know that brush-marks are brush-marks, but to see in them the distance between solid objects or between trees and hills.  The complexity of perception is a mystery and the ultimate subject matter.’

All work will be for sale.

Highgate Gallery open Tuesday-Friday 1-5pm, Saturday 11am-4pm, Sunday 11am-5pm; closed Mondays.  Exhibition continues until 16 May.

“Artichokes”

This exhibition celebrates the life and work of Judith Downie (1934-2016), Kentish Town painter, etcher, teacher and cook.

Judith was born in Ashington, Northumberland and studied painting and etching at King’s College, Newcastle in the 1950s, under Lawrence Gowing, Richard Hamilton and Victor Pasmore.  This was at the time when Newcastle was pioneering the famous ‘Basic Design’ course, which created a revolution in art education in the UK.  Judith went on to teach at Newcastle before going to Paris to work at SW Hayter’s etching studio, Atelier 17.

After leaving Art School, Judith lived and worked in Paris, London and New York.  She taught at Leicester Polytechnic and Chelsea School of Art.  In 1968 she and her friend Zena Flax established a group of printmakers in North London, called Printers Inc, holding annual exhibitions of their work.  In retirement Judith continued to teach etching from her home in Kentish Town – her kitchen famously was dominated by her large etching press which doubled as a kitchen counter.

Judith’s early work was largely abstract and concerned with process, but counter-intuitively became increasingly figurative as her natural pre-occupation with landscape, animals and food re-asserted itself. Her later work expresses her life-long obsession with drawing, form, pattern and technique while anchoring itself explicitly in her day-to-day life and cultural influences.

Her love of animals began in childhood; after retiring from teaching she owned a pet shop, and for the last twenty years of her life she lived with a tyrannical ‘free range’ cockatiel called ‘Beaky’, who features prominently in her work, along with the pets of friends and other animals that caught her eye; all were closely observed.  Food was the other lifelong passion, which increasingly found expression in both her etching and painting.  Judith was a semi-professional cook and generous host who owned over 1000 cookery books; the place food occupies in her work expresses the excitement of her post-war generation newly brought into contact with French and Mediterranean cooking.  Just as Cezanne was a continuous reference point in her painting, so Elizabeth David was her touchstone in cooking.  Her etching ‘Homage to Elizabeth David’, which depicts both the casserole belonging to David, which Judith bought at auction, and her well-used copy of French Provincial Cooking, perfectly captures both these influences.

‘I paint and etch the things I live with, like and eat, as I need to gaze at them for a long time.  Richard Gregory (he of ‘The Eye and the Brain’) says that painting is impossible, but I think of figurative painting as more like magic.  It is wonderful that some brush, pencil or ink marks on a flat surface can vividly conjure up the three-dimensional world.  It is magic to look at paint and feel the weight of an apple, to know that brush-marks are brush-marks, but to see in them the distance between solid objects or between trees and hills.  The complexity of perception is a mystery and the ultimate subject matter.’

All work will be for sale.

Highgate Gallery open Tuesday-Friday 1-5pm, Saturday 11am-4pm, Sunday 11am-5pm; closed Mondays.  Exhibition continues until 16 May.

“Artichokes”

This exhibition celebrates the life and work of Judith Downie (1934-2016), Kentish Town painter, etcher, teacher and cook.

Judith was born in Ashington, Northumberland and studied painting and etching at King’s College, Newcastle in the 1950s, under Lawrence Gowing, Richard Hamilton and Victor Pasmore.  This was at the time when Newcastle was pioneering the famous ‘Basic Design’ course, which created a revolution in art education in the UK.  Judith went on to teach at Newcastle before going to Paris to work at SW Hayter’s etching studio, Atelier 17.

After leaving Art School, Judith lived and worked in Paris, London and New York.  She taught at Leicester Polytechnic and Chelsea School of Art.  In 1968 she and her friend Zena Flax established a group of printmakers in North London, called Printers Inc, holding annual exhibitions of their work.  In retirement Judith continued to teach etching from her home in Kentish Town – her kitchen famously was dominated by her large etching press which doubled as a kitchen counter.

Judith’s early work was largely abstract and concerned with process, but counter-intuitively became increasingly figurative as her natural pre-occupation with landscape, animals and food re-asserted itself. Her later work expresses her life-long obsession with drawing, form, pattern and technique while anchoring itself explicitly in her day-to-day life and cultural influences.

Her love of animals began in childhood; after retiring from teaching she owned a pet shop, and for the last twenty years of her life she lived with a tyrannical ‘free range’ cockatiel called ‘Beaky’, who features prominently in her work, along with the pets of friends and other animals that caught her eye; all were closely observed.  Food was the other lifelong passion, which increasingly found expression in both her etching and painting.  Judith was a semi-professional cook and generous host who owned over 1000 cookery books; the place food occupies in her work expresses the excitement of her post-war generation newly brought into contact with French and Mediterranean cooking.  Just as Cezanne was a continuous reference point in her painting, so Elizabeth David was her touchstone in cooking.  Her etching ‘Homage to Elizabeth David’, which depicts both the casserole belonging to David, which Judith bought at auction, and her well-used copy of French Provincial Cooking, perfectly captures both these influences.

‘I paint and etch the things I live with, like and eat, as I need to gaze at them for a long time.  Richard Gregory (he of ‘The Eye and the Brain’) says that painting is impossible, but I think of figurative painting as more like magic.  It is wonderful that some brush, pencil or ink marks on a flat surface can vividly conjure up the three-dimensional world.  It is magic to look at paint and feel the weight of an apple, to know that brush-marks are brush-marks, but to see in them the distance between solid objects or between trees and hills.  The complexity of perception is a mystery and the ultimate subject matter.’

All work will be for sale.

Highgate Gallery open Tuesday-Friday 1-5pm, Saturday 11am-4pm, Sunday 11am-5pm; closed Mondays.  Exhibition continues until 16 May.

Join us for our open mic session where we strive to give poets at least two poems to read. Three if you have responded to the Highgate Challenge which this month is simply to use a form/style of poetry that you don’t usually use.

Your £2 admittance as a poet or audience member includes, tea, coffee and biscuits. Wine, cake and chocolate have been known to turn up every now and again. You may get lucky this time. Who knows which way the muse goes?

“Artichokes”

This exhibition celebrates the life and work of Judith Downie (1934-2016), Kentish Town painter, etcher, teacher and cook.

Judith was born in Ashington, Northumberland and studied painting and etching at King’s College, Newcastle in the 1950s, under Lawrence Gowing, Richard Hamilton and Victor Pasmore.  This was at the time when Newcastle was pioneering the famous ‘Basic Design’ course, which created a revolution in art education in the UK.  Judith went on to teach at Newcastle before going to Paris to work at SW Hayter’s etching studio, Atelier 17.

After leaving Art School, Judith lived and worked in Paris, London and New York.  She taught at Leicester Polytechnic and Chelsea School of Art.  In 1968 she and her friend Zena Flax established a group of printmakers in North London, called Printers Inc, holding annual exhibitions of their work.  In retirement Judith continued to teach etching from her home in Kentish Town – her kitchen famously was dominated by her large etching press which doubled as a kitchen counter.

Judith’s early work was largely abstract and concerned with process, but counter-intuitively became increasingly figurative as her natural pre-occupation with landscape, animals and food re-asserted itself. Her later work expresses her life-long obsession with drawing, form, pattern and technique while anchoring itself explicitly in her day-to-day life and cultural influences.

Her love of animals began in childhood; after retiring from teaching she owned a pet shop, and for the last twenty years of her life she lived with a tyrannical ‘free range’ cockatiel called ‘Beaky’, who features prominently in her work, along with the pets of friends and other animals that caught her eye; all were closely observed.  Food was the other lifelong passion, which increasingly found expression in both her etching and painting.  Judith was a semi-professional cook and generous host who owned over 1000 cookery books; the place food occupies in her work expresses the excitement of her post-war generation newly brought into contact with French and Mediterranean cooking.  Just as Cezanne was a continuous reference point in her painting, so Elizabeth David was her touchstone in cooking.  Her etching ‘Homage to Elizabeth David’, which depicts both the casserole belonging to David, which Judith bought at auction, and her well-used copy of French Provincial Cooking, perfectly captures both these influences.

‘I paint and etch the things I live with, like and eat, as I need to gaze at them for a long time.  Richard Gregory (he of ‘The Eye and the Brain’) says that painting is impossible, but I think of figurative painting as more like magic.  It is wonderful that some brush, pencil or ink marks on a flat surface can vividly conjure up the three-dimensional world.  It is magic to look at paint and feel the weight of an apple, to know that brush-marks are brush-marks, but to see in them the distance between solid objects or between trees and hills.  The complexity of perception is a mystery and the ultimate subject matter.’

All work will be for sale.

Highgate Gallery open Tuesday-Friday 1-5pm, Saturday 11am-4pm, Sunday 11am-5pm; closed Mondays.  Exhibition continues until 16 May.

“Artichokes”

This exhibition celebrates the life and work of Judith Downie (1934-2016), Kentish Town painter, etcher, teacher and cook.

Judith was born in Ashington, Northumberland and studied painting and etching at King’s College, Newcastle in the 1950s, under Lawrence Gowing, Richard Hamilton and Victor Pasmore.  This was at the time when Newcastle was pioneering the famous ‘Basic Design’ course, which created a revolution in art education in the UK.  Judith went on to teach at Newcastle before going to Paris to work at SW Hayter’s etching studio, Atelier 17.

After leaving Art School, Judith lived and worked in Paris, London and New York.  She taught at Leicester Polytechnic and Chelsea School of Art.  In 1968 she and her friend Zena Flax established a group of printmakers in North London, called Printers Inc, holding annual exhibitions of their work.  In retirement Judith continued to teach etching from her home in Kentish Town – her kitchen famously was dominated by her large etching press which doubled as a kitchen counter.

Judith’s early work was largely abstract and concerned with process, but counter-intuitively became increasingly figurative as her natural pre-occupation with landscape, animals and food re-asserted itself. Her later work expresses her life-long obsession with drawing, form, pattern and technique while anchoring itself explicitly in her day-to-day life and cultural influences.

Her love of animals began in childhood; after retiring from teaching she owned a pet shop, and for the last twenty years of her life she lived with a tyrannical ‘free range’ cockatiel called ‘Beaky’, who features prominently in her work, along with the pets of friends and other animals that caught her eye; all were closely observed.  Food was the other lifelong passion, which increasingly found expression in both her etching and painting.  Judith was a semi-professional cook and generous host who owned over 1000 cookery books; the place food occupies in her work expresses the excitement of her post-war generation newly brought into contact with French and Mediterranean cooking.  Just as Cezanne was a continuous reference point in her painting, so Elizabeth David was her touchstone in cooking.  Her etching ‘Homage to Elizabeth David’, which depicts both the casserole belonging to David, which Judith bought at auction, and her well-used copy of French Provincial Cooking, perfectly captures both these influences.

‘I paint and etch the things I live with, like and eat, as I need to gaze at them for a long time.  Richard Gregory (he of ‘The Eye and the Brain’) says that painting is impossible, but I think of figurative painting as more like magic.  It is wonderful that some brush, pencil or ink marks on a flat surface can vividly conjure up the three-dimensional world.  It is magic to look at paint and feel the weight of an apple, to know that brush-marks are brush-marks, but to see in them the distance between solid objects or between trees and hills.  The complexity of perception is a mystery and the ultimate subject matter.’

All work will be for sale.

Highgate Gallery open Tuesday-Friday 1-5pm, Saturday 11am-4pm, Sunday 11am-5pm; closed Mondays.  Exhibition continues until 16 May.

“Artichokes”

This exhibition celebrates the life and work of Judith Downie (1934-2016), Kentish Town painter, etcher, teacher and cook.

Judith was born in Ashington, Northumberland and studied painting and etching at King’s College, Newcastle in the 1950s, under Lawrence Gowing, Richard Hamilton and Victor Pasmore.  This was at the time when Newcastle was pioneering the famous ‘Basic Design’ course, which created a revolution in art education in the UK.  Judith went on to teach at Newcastle before going to Paris to work at SW Hayter’s etching studio, Atelier 17.

After leaving Art School, Judith lived and worked in Paris, London and New York.  She taught at Leicester Polytechnic and Chelsea School of Art.  In 1968 she and her friend Zena Flax established a group of printmakers in North London, called Printers Inc, holding annual exhibitions of their work.  In retirement Judith continued to teach etching from her home in Kentish Town – her kitchen famously was dominated by her large etching press which doubled as a kitchen counter.

Judith’s early work was largely abstract and concerned with process, but counter-intuitively became increasingly figurative as her natural pre-occupation with landscape, animals and food re-asserted itself. Her later work expresses her life-long obsession with drawing, form, pattern and technique while anchoring itself explicitly in her day-to-day life and cultural influences.

Her love of animals began in childhood; after retiring from teaching she owned a pet shop, and for the last twenty years of her life she lived with a tyrannical ‘free range’ cockatiel called ‘Beaky’, who features prominently in her work, along with the pets of friends and other animals that caught her eye; all were closely observed.  Food was the other lifelong passion, which increasingly found expression in both her etching and painting.  Judith was a semi-professional cook and generous host who owned over 1000 cookery books; the place food occupies in her work expresses the excitement of her post-war generation newly brought into contact with French and Mediterranean cooking.  Just as Cezanne was a continuous reference point in her painting, so Elizabeth David was her touchstone in cooking.  Her etching ‘Homage to Elizabeth David’, which depicts both the casserole belonging to David, which Judith bought at auction, and her well-used copy of French Provincial Cooking, perfectly captures both these influences.

‘I paint and etch the things I live with, like and eat, as I need to gaze at them for a long time.  Richard Gregory (he of ‘The Eye and the Brain’) says that painting is impossible, but I think of figurative painting as more like magic.  It is wonderful that some brush, pencil or ink marks on a flat surface can vividly conjure up the three-dimensional world.  It is magic to look at paint and feel the weight of an apple, to know that brush-marks are brush-marks, but to see in them the distance between solid objects or between trees and hills.  The complexity of perception is a mystery and the ultimate subject matter.’

All work will be for sale.

Highgate Gallery open Tuesday-Friday 1-5pm, Saturday 11am-4pm, Sunday 11am-5pm; closed Mondays.  Exhibition continues until 16 May.

“Artichokes”

This exhibition celebrates the life and work of Judith Downie (1934-2016), Kentish Town painter, etcher, teacher and cook.

Judith was born in Ashington, Northumberland and studied painting and etching at King’s College, Newcastle in the 1950s, under Lawrence Gowing, Richard Hamilton and Victor Pasmore.  This was at the time when Newcastle was pioneering the famous ‘Basic Design’ course, which created a revolution in art education in the UK.  Judith went on to teach at Newcastle before going to Paris to work at SW Hayter’s etching studio, Atelier 17.

After leaving Art School, Judith lived and worked in Paris, London and New York.  She taught at Leicester Polytechnic and Chelsea School of Art.  In 1968 she and her friend Zena Flax established a group of printmakers in North London, called Printers Inc, holding annual exhibitions of their work.  In retirement Judith continued to teach etching from her home in Kentish Town – her kitchen famously was dominated by her large etching press which doubled as a kitchen counter.

Judith’s early work was largely abstract and concerned with process, but counter-intuitively became increasingly figurative as her natural pre-occupation with landscape, animals and food re-asserted itself. Her later work expresses her life-long obsession with drawing, form, pattern and technique while anchoring itself explicitly in her day-to-day life and cultural influences.

Her love of animals began in childhood; after retiring from teaching she owned a pet shop, and for the last twenty years of her life she lived with a tyrannical ‘free range’ cockatiel called ‘Beaky’, who features prominently in her work, along with the pets of friends and other animals that caught her eye; all were closely observed.  Food was the other lifelong passion, which increasingly found expression in both her etching and painting.  Judith was a semi-professional cook and generous host who owned over 1000 cookery books; the place food occupies in her work expresses the excitement of her post-war generation newly brought into contact with French and Mediterranean cooking.  Just as Cezanne was a continuous reference point in her painting, so Elizabeth David was her touchstone in cooking.  Her etching ‘Homage to Elizabeth David’, which depicts both the casserole belonging to David, which Judith bought at auction, and her well-used copy of French Provincial Cooking, perfectly captures both these influences.

‘I paint and etch the things I live with, like and eat, as I need to gaze at them for a long time.  Richard Gregory (he of ‘The Eye and the Brain’) says that painting is impossible, but I think of figurative painting as more like magic.  It is wonderful that some brush, pencil or ink marks on a flat surface can vividly conjure up the three-dimensional world.  It is magic to look at paint and feel the weight of an apple, to know that brush-marks are brush-marks, but to see in them the distance between solid objects or between trees and hills.  The complexity of perception is a mystery and the ultimate subject matter.’

All work will be for sale.

Highgate Gallery open Tuesday-Friday 1-5pm, Saturday 11am-4pm, Sunday 11am-5pm; closed Mondays.  Exhibition continues until 16 May.

“Artichokes”

This exhibition celebrates the life and work of Judith Downie (1934-2016), Kentish Town painter, etcher, teacher and cook.

Judith was born in Ashington, Northumberland and studied painting and etching at King’s College, Newcastle in the 1950s, under Lawrence Gowing, Richard Hamilton and Victor Pasmore.  This was at the time when Newcastle was pioneering the famous ‘Basic Design’ course, which created a revolution in art education in the UK.  Judith went on to teach at Newcastle before going to Paris to work at SW Hayter’s etching studio, Atelier 17.

After leaving Art School, Judith lived and worked in Paris, London and New York.  She taught at Leicester Polytechnic and Chelsea School of Art.  In 1968 she and her friend Zena Flax established a group of printmakers in North London, called Printers Inc, holding annual exhibitions of their work.  In retirement Judith continued to teach etching from her home in Kentish Town – her kitchen famously was dominated by her large etching press which doubled as a kitchen counter.

Judith’s early work was largely abstract and concerned with process, but counter-intuitively became increasingly figurative as her natural pre-occupation with landscape, animals and food re-asserted itself. Her later work expresses her life-long obsession with drawing, form, pattern and technique while anchoring itself explicitly in her day-to-day life and cultural influences.

Her love of animals began in childhood; after retiring from teaching she owned a pet shop, and for the last twenty years of her life she lived with a tyrannical ‘free range’ cockatiel called ‘Beaky’, who features prominently in her work, along with the pets of friends and other animals that caught her eye; all were closely observed.  Food was the other lifelong passion, which increasingly found expression in both her etching and painting.  Judith was a semi-professional cook and generous host who owned over 1000 cookery books; the place food occupies in her work expresses the excitement of her post-war generation newly brought into contact with French and Mediterranean cooking.  Just as Cezanne was a continuous reference point in her painting, so Elizabeth David was her touchstone in cooking.  Her etching ‘Homage to Elizabeth David’, which depicts both the casserole belonging to David, which Judith bought at auction, and her well-used copy of French Provincial Cooking, perfectly captures both these influences.

‘I paint and etch the things I live with, like and eat, as I need to gaze at them for a long time.  Richard Gregory (he of ‘The Eye and the Brain’) says that painting is impossible, but I think of figurative painting as more like magic.  It is wonderful that some brush, pencil or ink marks on a flat surface can vividly conjure up the three-dimensional world.  It is magic to look at paint and feel the weight of an apple, to know that brush-marks are brush-marks, but to see in them the distance between solid objects or between trees and hills.  The complexity of perception is a mystery and the ultimate subject matter.’

All work will be for sale.

Highgate Gallery open Tuesday-Friday 1-5pm, Saturday 11am-4pm, Sunday 11am-5pm; closed Mondays.  Exhibition continues until 16 May.

“Artichokes”

This exhibition celebrates the life and work of Judith Downie (1934-2016), Kentish Town painter, etcher, teacher and cook.

Judith was born in Ashington, Northumberland and studied painting and etching at King’s College, Newcastle in the 1950s, under Lawrence Gowing, Richard Hamilton and Victor Pasmore.  This was at the time when Newcastle was pioneering the famous ‘Basic Design’ course, which created a revolution in art education in the UK.  Judith went on to teach at Newcastle before going to Paris to work at SW Hayter’s etching studio, Atelier 17.

After leaving Art School, Judith lived and worked in Paris, London and New York.  She taught at Leicester Polytechnic and Chelsea School of Art.  In 1968 she and her friend Zena Flax established a group of printmakers in North London, called Printers Inc, holding annual exhibitions of their work.  In retirement Judith continued to teach etching from her home in Kentish Town – her kitchen famously was dominated by her large etching press which doubled as a kitchen counter.

Judith’s early work was largely abstract and concerned with process, but counter-intuitively became increasingly figurative as her natural pre-occupation with landscape, animals and food re-asserted itself. Her later work expresses her life-long obsession with drawing, form, pattern and technique while anchoring itself explicitly in her day-to-day life and cultural influences.

Her love of animals began in childhood; after retiring from teaching she owned a pet shop, and for the last twenty years of her life she lived with a tyrannical ‘free range’ cockatiel called ‘Beaky’, who features prominently in her work, along with the pets of friends and other animals that caught her eye; all were closely observed.  Food was the other lifelong passion, which increasingly found expression in both her etching and painting.  Judith was a semi-professional cook and generous host who owned over 1000 cookery books; the place food occupies in her work expresses the excitement of her post-war generation newly brought into contact with French and Mediterranean cooking.  Just as Cezanne was a continuous reference point in her painting, so Elizabeth David was her touchstone in cooking.  Her etching ‘Homage to Elizabeth David’, which depicts both the casserole belonging to David, which Judith bought at auction, and her well-used copy of French Provincial Cooking, perfectly captures both these influences.

‘I paint and etch the things I live with, like and eat, as I need to gaze at them for a long time.  Richard Gregory (he of ‘The Eye and the Brain’) says that painting is impossible, but I think of figurative painting as more like magic.  It is wonderful that some brush, pencil or ink marks on a flat surface can vividly conjure up the three-dimensional world.  It is magic to look at paint and feel the weight of an apple, to know that brush-marks are brush-marks, but to see in them the distance between solid objects or between trees and hills.  The complexity of perception is a mystery and the ultimate subject matter.’

All work will be for sale.

Highgate Gallery open Tuesday-Friday 1-5pm, Saturday 11am-4pm, Sunday 11am-5pm; closed Mondays.  Exhibition continues until 16 May.

“Artichokes”

This exhibition celebrates the life and work of Judith Downie (1934-2016), Kentish Town painter, etcher, teacher and cook.

Judith was born in Ashington, Northumberland and studied painting and etching at King’s College, Newcastle in the 1950s, under Lawrence Gowing, Richard Hamilton and Victor Pasmore.  This was at the time when Newcastle was pioneering the famous ‘Basic Design’ course, which created a revolution in art education in the UK.  Judith went on to teach at Newcastle before going to Paris to work at SW Hayter’s etching studio, Atelier 17.

After leaving Art School, Judith lived and worked in Paris, London and New York.  She taught at Leicester Polytechnic and Chelsea School of Art.  In 1968 she and her friend Zena Flax established a group of printmakers in North London, called Printers Inc, holding annual exhibitions of their work.  In retirement Judith continued to teach etching from her home in Kentish Town – her kitchen famously was dominated by her large etching press which doubled as a kitchen counter.

Judith’s early work was largely abstract and concerned with process, but counter-intuitively became increasingly figurative as her natural pre-occupation with landscape, animals and food re-asserted itself. Her later work expresses her life-long obsession with drawing, form, pattern and technique while anchoring itself explicitly in her day-to-day life and cultural influences.

Her love of animals began in childhood; after retiring from teaching she owned a pet shop, and for the last twenty years of her life she lived with a tyrannical ‘free range’ cockatiel called ‘Beaky’, who features prominently in her work, along with the pets of friends and other animals that caught her eye; all were closely observed.  Food was the other lifelong passion, which increasingly found expression in both her etching and painting.  Judith was a semi-professional cook and generous host who owned over 1000 cookery books; the place food occupies in her work expresses the excitement of her post-war generation newly brought into contact with French and Mediterranean cooking.  Just as Cezanne was a continuous reference point in her painting, so Elizabeth David was her touchstone in cooking.  Her etching ‘Homage to Elizabeth David’, which depicts both the casserole belonging to David, which Judith bought at auction, and her well-used copy of French Provincial Cooking, perfectly captures both these influences.

‘I paint and etch the things I live with, like and eat, as I need to gaze at them for a long time.  Richard Gregory (he of ‘The Eye and the Brain’) says that painting is impossible, but I think of figurative painting as more like magic.  It is wonderful that some brush, pencil or ink marks on a flat surface can vividly conjure up the three-dimensional world.  It is magic to look at paint and feel the weight of an apple, to know that brush-marks are brush-marks, but to see in them the distance between solid objects or between trees and hills.  The complexity of perception is a mystery and the ultimate subject matter.’

All work will be for sale.

Highgate Gallery open Tuesday-Friday 1-5pm, Saturday 11am-4pm, Sunday 11am-5pm; closed Mondays.  Exhibition continues until 16 May.

“Artichokes”

This exhibition celebrates the life and work of Judith Downie (1934-2016), Kentish Town painter, etcher, teacher and cook.

Judith was born in Ashington, Northumberland and studied painting and etching at King’s College, Newcastle in the 1950s, under Lawrence Gowing, Richard Hamilton and Victor Pasmore.  This was at the time when Newcastle was pioneering the famous ‘Basic Design’ course, which created a revolution in art education in the UK.  Judith went on to teach at Newcastle before going to Paris to work at SW Hayter’s etching studio, Atelier 17.

After leaving Art School, Judith lived and worked in Paris, London and New York.  She taught at Leicester Polytechnic and Chelsea School of Art.  In 1968 she and her friend Zena Flax established a group of printmakers in North London, called Printers Inc, holding annual exhibitions of their work.  In retirement Judith continued to teach etching from her home in Kentish Town – her kitchen famously was dominated by her large etching press which doubled as a kitchen counter.

Judith’s early work was largely abstract and concerned with process, but counter-intuitively became increasingly figurative as her natural pre-occupation with landscape, animals and food re-asserted itself. Her later work expresses her life-long obsession with drawing, form, pattern and technique while anchoring itself explicitly in her day-to-day life and cultural influences.

Her love of animals began in childhood; after retiring from teaching she owned a pet shop, and for the last twenty years of her life she lived with a tyrannical ‘free range’ cockatiel called ‘Beaky’, who features prominently in her work, along with the pets of friends and other animals that caught her eye; all were closely observed.  Food was the other lifelong passion, which increasingly found expression in both her etching and painting.  Judith was a semi-professional cook and generous host who owned over 1000 cookery books; the place food occupies in her work expresses the excitement of her post-war generation newly brought into contact with French and Mediterranean cooking.  Just as Cezanne was a continuous reference point in her painting, so Elizabeth David was her touchstone in cooking.  Her etching ‘Homage to Elizabeth David’, which depicts both the casserole belonging to David, which Judith bought at auction, and her well-used copy of French Provincial Cooking, perfectly captures both these influences.

‘I paint and etch the things I live with, like and eat, as I need to gaze at them for a long time.  Richard Gregory (he of ‘The Eye and the Brain’) says that painting is impossible, but I think of figurative painting as more like magic.  It is wonderful that some brush, pencil or ink marks on a flat surface can vividly conjure up the three-dimensional world.  It is magic to look at paint and feel the weight of an apple, to know that brush-marks are brush-marks, but to see in them the distance between solid objects or between trees and hills.  The complexity of perception is a mystery and the ultimate subject matter.’

All work will be for sale.

Highgate Gallery open Tuesday-Friday 1-5pm, Saturday 11am-4pm, Sunday 11am-5pm; closed Mondays.  Exhibition continues until 16 May.

“Artichokes”

This exhibition celebrates the life and work of Judith Downie (1934-2016), Kentish Town painter, etcher, teacher and cook.

Judith was born in Ashington, Northumberland and studied painting and etching at King’s College, Newcastle in the 1950s, under Lawrence Gowing, Richard Hamilton and Victor Pasmore.  This was at the time when Newcastle was pioneering the famous ‘Basic Design’ course, which created a revolution in art education in the UK.  Judith went on to teach at Newcastle before going to Paris to work at SW Hayter’s etching studio, Atelier 17.

After leaving Art School, Judith lived and worked in Paris, London and New York.  She taught at Leicester Polytechnic and Chelsea School of Art.  In 1968 she and her friend Zena Flax established a group of printmakers in North London, called Printers Inc, holding annual exhibitions of their work.  In retirement Judith continued to teach etching from her home in Kentish Town – her kitchen famously was dominated by her large etching press which doubled as a kitchen counter.

Judith’s early work was largely abstract and concerned with process, but counter-intuitively became increasingly figurative as her natural pre-occupation with landscape, animals and food re-asserted itself. Her later work expresses her life-long obsession with drawing, form, pattern and technique while anchoring itself explicitly in her day-to-day life and cultural influences.

Her love of animals began in childhood; after retiring from teaching she owned a pet shop, and for the last twenty years of her life she lived with a tyrannical ‘free range’ cockatiel called ‘Beaky’, who features prominently in her work, along with the pets of friends and other animals that caught her eye; all were closely observed.  Food was the other lifelong passion, which increasingly found expression in both her etching and painting.  Judith was a semi-professional cook and generous host who owned over 1000 cookery books; the place food occupies in her work expresses the excitement of her post-war generation newly brought into contact with French and Mediterranean cooking.  Just as Cezanne was a continuous reference point in her painting, so Elizabeth David was her touchstone in cooking.  Her etching ‘Homage to Elizabeth David’, which depicts both the casserole belonging to David, which Judith bought at auction, and her well-used copy of French Provincial Cooking, perfectly captures both these influences.

‘I paint and etch the things I live with, like and eat, as I need to gaze at them for a long time.  Richard Gregory (he of ‘The Eye and the Brain’) says that painting is impossible, but I think of figurative painting as more like magic.  It is wonderful that some brush, pencil or ink marks on a flat surface can vividly conjure up the three-dimensional world.  It is magic to look at paint and feel the weight of an apple, to know that brush-marks are brush-marks, but to see in them the distance between solid objects or between trees and hills.  The complexity of perception is a mystery and the ultimate subject matter.’

All work will be for sale.

Highgate Gallery open Tuesday-Friday 1-5pm, Saturday 11am-4pm, Sunday 11am-5pm; closed Mondays.  Exhibition continues until 16 May.

Peace and Resolution Solo exhibition by Katy Sayers Green

31 May – 13 June 2019

Highgate Gallery is delighted to host Katy Sayers Green’s ‘Peace and Resolution’, an exhibition of large mixed media paintings, alongside small scale relief sculpture.  This work focuses on intractable conflict; from the personal to the political, using the conflict in the Middle East as the central focus and inspiration.

The emphasis is to explore through visual means routes to peace and resolution and hope for the future.  Whilst focusing on this particular conflict, Katy also hopes that the resonances in the artwork are universal.

This body of work has been produced as a result of a two month sojourn in Israel in 2018: a summer programme at Hebrew University looking at the complexities of the region and possible paths to peace, followed by a ceramic art residency at the inspirational Benyamini Contemporary Ceramics Centre in Tel Aviv.  Katy is a painter with a strong interest in layers and 3-dimensional form; working with ceramics for the first time opened up wonderful new possibilities.

The visual language came about during the Tel Aviv Art Residency.  Seeds and fruit and other natural produce of the region started appearing in her ceramic work.  Seeds offer a promise of hope, of renewal, of something shared between the two peoples.  This organic source material is very connected to the land and therefore to the identities of all those involved.  Katy expresses visually the connection of both peoples to the land in a visceral way.  This work could be described as a form of figurative abstraction.

Katy pressed porcelain into the seeds and fruit to create small-scale impressions, often fragile and transparent – like the seeds of hope themselves.  On her return to the UK, she started thinking of the converse of this situation, by pressing and laying the seeds and fruit on to the canvas to make a reverse impression.

The narratives of the two peoples are entirely different and by approaching the project from the other side, in a literal sense, she replicates what is happening in this conflict in visual form.  Perhaps, at the interface between these two sides is where peace and resolution can be found.

Katy has recently started an Art Instagram  @katy_sayers_green where she is documenting her art practice in the run up to this exhibition.

There will be four accompanying events to this exhibition which are open to the public (see below).

The exhibition is supported by StandWithUs UK – https://standwithus.co.uk – an Israel education charity.  The art collection is inspired by a love for Israel and a wish to creatively visualise what a just society for all its inhabitants might look like in the future.

 Events

• Friday 31 May, 6-8pm – Private View of Exhibition.
• Sunday 2 June, 11.30am.  Artist tour of exhibition.  (Please gather at 11.20am.) The tour will last approximately one hour and light refreshments will be available.  Katy will talk about her time in Israel and how it relates to her work.
• Thursday 6 June, 8pm (doors open 7.30pm).  £10 on the door. Highgate Film Society: “Frantz”, 2017.  The film explores healing and forgiveness across borders.  Writer-director François Ozon thoughtfully probes the aftermath of World War I through memories and relationships of loved ones left behind.
• Tuesday 11 June, 8pm (doors open at 7.30pm).  £5 on the door.  Lecture: Sana Knaneh, Development Director for UK Friends of the Bereaved Families Forum, is a Palestinian who grew up in the Galilee region of Israel.  She will discuss the reconciliation and peace building work of this organisation in the region.  Light refreshments will be available.

Peace and Resolution.  Solo exhibition by Katy Sayers Green.  31 May – 13 June 2019

Highgate Gallery is delighted to host Katy Sayers Green’s ‘Peace and Resolution’, an exhibition of large mixed media paintings, alongside small scale relief sculpture.  This work focuses on intractable conflict; from the personal to the political, using the conflict in the Middle East as the central focus and inspiration.

The emphasis is to explore through visual means routes to peace and resolution and hope for the future.  Whilst focusing on this particular conflict, Katy also hopes that the resonances in the artwork are universal.

This body of work has been produced as a result of a two month sojourn in Israel in 2018: a summer programme at Hebrew University looking at the complexities of the region and possible paths to peace, followed by a ceramic art residency at the inspirational Benyamini Contemporary Ceramics Centre in Tel Aviv.  Katy is a painter with a strong interest in layers and 3-dimensional form; working with ceramics for the first time opened up wonderful new possibilities.

The visual language came about during the Tel Aviv Art Residency.  Seeds and fruit and other natural produce of the region started appearing in her ceramic work.  Seeds offer a promise of hope, of renewal, of something shared between the two peoples.  This organic source material is very connected to the land and therefore to the identities of all those involved.  Katy expresses visually the connection of both peoples to the land in a visceral way.  This work could be described as a form of figurative abstraction.

Katy pressed porcelain into the seeds and fruit to create small-scale impressions, often fragile and transparent – like the seeds of hope themselves.  On her return to the UK, she started thinking of the converse of this situation, by pressing and laying the seeds and fruit on to the canvas to make a reverse impression.

The narratives of the two peoples are entirely different and by approaching the project from the other side, in a literal sense, she replicates what is happening in this conflict in visual form.  Perhaps, at the interface between these two sides is where peace and resolution can be found.

Katy has recently started an Art Instagram  @katy_sayers_green where she is documenting her art practice in the run up to this exhibition.

There will be four accompanying events to this exhibition which are open to the public (see below).

Image: ‘Seeds I’, 150 x 120cm, mixed media on canvas.

Gallery open Tuesday-Friday 1-5pm, Saturday 11am-4pm, Sunday 11am-5pm; closed Mondays.

The exhibition is supported by StandWithUs UK – https://standwithus.co.uk – an Israel education charity.  The art collection is inspired by a love for Israel and a wish to creatively visualise what a just society for all its inhabitants might look like in the future.

 Events

• Friday 31 May, 6-8pm – Private View of Exhibition.
• Sunday 2 June, 11.30am.  Artist tour of exhibition.  (Please gather at 11.20am.) The tour will last approximately one hour and light refreshments will be available.  Katy will talk about her time in Israel and how it relates to her work.
• Thursday 6 June, 8pm (doors open 7.30pm).  £10 on the door. Highgate Film Society: “Frantz”, 2017.  The film explores healing and forgiveness across borders.  Writer-director François Ozon thoughtfully probes the aftermath of World War I through memories and relationships of loved ones left behind.
• Tuesday 11 June, 8pm (doors open at 7.30pm).  £5 on the door.  Lecture: Sana Knaneh, Development Director for UK Friends of the Bereaved Families Forum, is a Palestinian who grew up in the Galilee region of Israel.  She will discuss the reconciliation and peace building work of this organisation in the region.  Light refreshments will be available.

Peace and Resolution.  Solo exhibition by Katy Sayers Green.  31 May – 13 June 2019

Highgate Gallery is delighted to host Katy Sayers Green’s ‘Peace and Resolution’, an exhibition of large mixed media paintings, alongside small scale relief sculpture.  This work focuses on intractable conflict; from the personal to the political, using the conflict in the Middle East as the central focus and inspiration.

The emphasis is to explore through visual means routes to peace and resolution and hope for the future.  Whilst focusing on this particular conflict, Katy also hopes that the resonances in the artwork are universal.

This body of work has been produced as a result of a two month sojourn in Israel in 2018: a summer programme at Hebrew University looking at the complexities of the region and possible paths to peace, followed by a ceramic art residency at the inspirational Benyamini Contemporary Ceramics Centre in Tel Aviv.  Katy is a painter with a strong interest in layers and 3-dimensional form; working with ceramics for the first time opened up wonderful new possibilities.

The visual language came about during the Tel Aviv Art Residency.  Seeds and fruit and other natural produce of the region started appearing in her ceramic work.  Seeds offer a promise of hope, of renewal, of something shared between the two peoples.  This organic source material is very connected to the land and therefore to the identities of all those involved.  Katy expresses visually the connection of both peoples to the land in a visceral way.  This work could be described as a form of figurative abstraction.

Katy pressed porcelain into the seeds and fruit to create small-scale impressions, often fragile and transparent – like the seeds of hope themselves.  On her return to the UK, she started thinking of the converse of this situation, by pressing and laying the seeds and fruit on to the canvas to make a reverse impression.

The narratives of the two peoples are entirely different and by approaching the project from the other side, in a literal sense, she replicates what is happening in this conflict in visual form.  Perhaps, at the interface between these two sides is where peace and resolution can be found.

Katy has recently started an Art Instagram  @katy_sayers_green where she is documenting her art practice in the run up to this exhibition.

There will be four accompanying events to this exhibition which are open to the public (see below).

Image: ‘Seeds I’, 150 x 120cm, mixed media on canvas.

Gallery open Tuesday-Friday 1-5pm, Saturday 11am-4pm, Sunday 11am-5pm; closed Mondays.

The exhibition is supported by StandWithUs UK – https://standwithus.co.uk – an Israel education charity.  The art collection is inspired by a love for Israel and a wish to creatively visualise what a just society for all its inhabitants might look like in the future.

 Events

• Friday 31 May, 6-8pm – Private View of Exhibition.
• Sunday 2 June, 11.30am.  Artist tour of exhibition.  (Please gather at 11.20am.) The tour will last approximately one hour and light refreshments will be available.  Katy will talk about her time in Israel and how it relates to her work.
• Thursday 6 June, 8pm (doors open 7.30pm).  £10 on the door. Highgate Film Society: “Frantz”, 2017.  The film explores healing and forgiveness across borders.  Writer-director François Ozon thoughtfully probes the aftermath of World War I through memories and relationships of loved ones left behind.
• Tuesday 11 June, 8pm (doors open at 7.30pm).  £5 on the door.  Lecture: Sana Knaneh, Development Director for UK Friends of the Bereaved Families Forum, is a Palestinian who grew up in the Galilee region of Israel.  She will discuss the reconciliation and peace building work of this organisation in the region.  Light refreshments will be available.