contemporary art exhibition at Glynde Place
Fri 12 April 6 – 9pm Opening night drinks, all welcome
Sat 13 & Sun 14 April 10.30 – 5.30pm
The Coach House, Glynde Place
Glynde, BN8 6SX
Paint, print, sculpture, drawing, performance art
Artists:  Jenny Arran Chiari Bianchi  Sarah Colbourne  Bob Dixon  Linda Felcey    Richard Gravett  Alexander Johnson  Jacky Misson Lucy Newman                Isobel Smith  Guy Stevens  Emily Warren
As part of Artwave this year I will be curating two Colour in nature walks along side Lewes District Council Ranger Thyone Outram.
Info and links to booking below…
Over the weekend I curated and contributed to the Chalkpit exhibition of contemporary art at Glynde Place.
It was a lovely, sunny weekend and we attracted over 300 visitors.
The incredibly talented and varied artists I asked to work alongside me were;Â Â Â Â Â Â Jenny Arran, Sarah Colbourne, Bob Dixon, Alexander Johnson, Lucy Newman, Isobel Smith, Guy Stevens and Emily Warren.
The exhibition pieces…
Visitor comments…
As Artist-in-residence for Glynde, I am working on a project based on the chalkpit at the back of Teddy Street.
Called Balcombe Pit, it was in operation from the 1840s right up until the 1980s.
I became interested in the chalkpit after doing some research at The Keep and coming across the 1881 census for the village…
As you can see, most of the people worked in the chalkpit.
Today, the chalkpit is unused apart from the odd dog walker and kids playing. It is tucked away and you would easily walk straight past the entrance without even knowing it is there.
I decided to make it the central point of my first project as Artist-in-residence.
Over the coming year I will be involving local residents of Glynde and other artists to put together a collection of work and hold a variety of events around Balcombe Pit.
Here is the overview I used for the public opening of my 99 ways to map a walk at Martyrs’ Gallery, Lewes…
This is a map I drew of the walk…
Here is the walk starting with your back to Martyrs’ Gallery in Fisher Street…
Here is the gallery on day 1:
And throughout the week…
And public opening for the weekend…
Some examples of the drawings by visitors (and me)…
A few more tweaks to get the gallery ready… and we’re off!!
Three people waiting to come in before we are even open. A promising start.
Two ex-art students set off on the walk. Keen to get drawing when they return…
I love their finished pieces…
And then, the dad and his 2 daughters from day 2 turn up… with 10 friends!
Soon the kids are asking if they can go on the walk, so off they all go.
And back they come…
along with more people. Just looking this time…
Some group drawing… with Jasper!
And one of my favourite contributions…
Which I think looks just right above my little map sculpture…
35 visitors today. Some of which went on the walk and contributed a drawing.
Loved every minute of it.
Loving the way the gallery looks this morning. Really coming together…
First people arrive…
and the floor is proving popular today…
another family pop in..
and the massive charcoal is out again…
Smiles all round…
and another cute dog…
Another enjoyable day.
Putting final touches to the gallery before it opens for public viewing tomorrow…
Decided to bring a little friend along with me today…
Jasper.
And soon people start arriving….
..and more…
The big charcoal is popular…
and the gallery is filling up…
lovely comments from people taking part…
and more people turn up…
SUCH a good day today.
Loads of people going on the walk and coming back inspired to pick up some charcoal and draw.
Just great 🙂
A slow start so I decided to make a small sculpture with some materials I had brought with me…
… some wire and some red wool…
…I imagined the walk and started twisting the wire right and left as I followed the route in my mind.
I then decided to stretch the wire into a 3d shape as opposed to a line, and link the start and finish with some red wool
This was the result..
I was pretty pleased with this. It will make it into the final exhibition alongside my shoes, continuous line drawing and all the visitor’s pictures.
Still quiet, so I decide to construct something else. More collected materials…
..and another structure…
I’m not so sure about this one, but I like the masking tape outline of the walk on the floor.
Still no visitors today so I decide to crack open the gigantic charcoal stick I bought yesterday..
Yep, it is MASSIVE!
Decide to do the walk again for inspiration.
When I walk through Market Tower and look up I particularly like the perspective of the lantern and the glass roof. So I draw a simple sketch and take it back to the gallery (and the charcoal…)
Had great fun doing this!
Going to tape some cardboard together into large ‘canvasses’ so people can have a go at using this.
First victims…
Got rather lucky this morning. A dad and his 2 daughters were waiting for their pottery class to start next door when I overheard a conversation…
Dad on phone: “We’re here but there doesn’t seem to be anyone around….. oh…. okay….. hmmmm… I’m sure my wife booked it…. ok… bye…”
Dad to daughters: “Now come on, it’s not that bad. Worse things have happened…..”
Me, calling out: “Excuse me….
To cut a short story even shorter, they agreed to do my walk and set off into the rain….
…back they came and set to work (alongside my mum who had just turned up for moral support – and to do the walk!)
Their drawings were the first ones to go up (below), and then more visitors turned up…
and more visitors…
who took an interesting approach and decided to drag a piece of cloth along the walk, collecting mud and all sorts along the way.
A few more people and I am very happy with how it is progressing 🙂
Rather quiet as the afternoon wore on so I popped out for some food. SO wet!! Absolutely chucking it down with rain. Shoes and socks soaked.
So, I decide to make some shoes… like you do!
And they were actually very comfy. I wore them all afternoon, than decided to include them as a mini sculpture.
All in all a very good day 🙂
Jacky Misson 