Norwich Hostry arts awards 2012

Norwich Hostry Awards 2012 at Norwich cathedral hostry. NNUH hospital arts was nominated for a prize by a secret admirer. So Emma Jarvis Director of art operations and I went along. It was nice for the hospital to be recognised for an award as its being going for over 15 years and it has multiple things happening all the time. It isn't an easy job at all and it pushed Emma and her volunteers well over the limit of a hard graft all the time. 

We were late for the awards because it was a Friday night and taxi's were all saying they would take hours to come. Emma had been working to 5.50 pm and had a 20 minute window to get ready. 

Stash Kirkbride who organised the awards and hosted the evening.

The audience made up of top dudes in Norwich. The Mayor, vicars, shop owners, top musicians etc.

A black tie event as you can see there all wearing black. It could pass as a funeral. I sort of imaged it would be sitting around tables with fancy dimly lit lamps and a nice dinner but these are early days in Norfolk awards.

Caroline from the John Jarrold project excepting and giving awards. Jarrolds is a great local shop in Norwich and have a art department on the top floor. Jarrold trust sponsor lots of projects in Norfolk.

We sat beside Caroline and she like me drawing the people.

Emma took a photo of me sketching the band that was playing. I have since coloured in the drawing watercolour and will photograph them tonight and blog them.

Simon on piano accompanying the singers.

Me getting ready at Emma's flat to go out to the award night.

Emma her in her 6 inch heals that match her dress that looks like the barrier reef.

Emma Jarvis before a glass of champagne. 

The right Honourable Mayor Ralph Gayton who wanted to see his sketch that I had drawn of him during the ceremonies. 

The red carpet more like a rug but much nice then the Fox studios one that I was on years ago when my friend Hugh Coffey was performing in a band on an Ozzie version of Top of the pops. I had made his costume for the show. The fox studio one is red astro turf. No one would know on watching on TV.

Photos by Anita Staff

Emma Networking 

Playing with fire at the Awards

Emma in her flaming dress.

More sketching the people.

Celebrating at Take 5 across the road from the cathedral. 

Emma and mucking around in the comfy room taking photos.

Photos of my false eyelashes and hair in action.

Photo of Emma outside our old nightclub Ritz's from the 1980's. The Bo Nanafan nightclub won an award for best club in Norwich. A lot was mentioned about Mr. Hy who owned Tombland and supported the arts in Norwich. Emma and I ended up at a new "club 21" and danced the evening away. 

Indian puppet man

Photo's by Anand Raj 

This is a photo of a puppet man in Delhi India. This puppet man is a duppelganaer of Norwich Puppet man and of similar age. In just a few days this photo has been shared around the facebook community majority of the people in india and he seems to be as popular as the Norwich Puppet man. 

I only came across the photos because a in 2010 I went out to Indian to stay with Anand Gurnani who is India's animation guru. Anand had a company called Animation Xpress and he makes the Indian animation popular. I have illustrated one of Anand's storys, because I became friends with him through my Facebook group women cartoonists. I also really liked the story that he wanted to tell. I painted the illustrations in Acrylic on paper and put them in my portfolio and set off for Mumbai and stayed with Anand's amazing family. Anand introduced me to some amazing people and we even went to meet Mumbai's deviant artists who were meeting up from the networking website for the first time. We made a claymation in his bedroom of the story thanks to the help of his top claymation friends. Then he took me on a photography holiday with a group called Life away from Life. We took a sleeper train to Rajasthan and hung out in Bundi. 

When I got back to the England, I made friends on Facebook with all my new friends from India and that is how I came across this photo from one of my friends Facebook pages, when I was posting about my new group exhibition Slick or Slack at The Art Project Shop in Norwich which runs for one month.

I sent the photos to the EDP newspaper in Norfolk but they are too lazy to publish the story so I thought I might as well publish the story on my own blog. A special thanks to Anand Raj for posting on facebook.

This is what was written with the photo. 

Last saturday I met a Sales Man With Puppet!!!!!(A note from Anand Rai)

I saw him last saturday around 6.30 pm in F block, Inner Circle, Connought Place. He is Well Dressed wearing ironed full-sleeved shirt which is tucked into trouser that has a black leather belt and a stick to support his steps.

His hand is covered with a puppet gloves which makes a "PPPPPIIIIPPPP" sound that enable him to attra

ct passerby.

I am curious to know about his life. What I got ! I wanted to share with you guys!

Let's meet Mr Sahay he is a live example for the people who scared from struggle. He is aged 75 

At this age he comes daily from rohtak with a bag full of puppets and a water bottle which is heavier & makes him uneasy to put each step.

He has a railway pass which enable him to commute daily from Rohtak. He earns for his wife, married daughter and her children. 

He is Retired Bank manager. He had a son who done chartered accountancy, he has spent all his saving for his carrier.

His son moved to Bahrain without informing him and after some time a news comes to him that his son died in an accident.

Now he is the only bread earner for his family.

Please buy a pair of puppet which cost Rs 40 to support Mr.Sahay! Not for Sympathy but to Salute Mr Sahay !!!!!

Slick or Slack private view

Slick or Slack private view opening night Tuesday the 23 October 2012. Here is one of the artists standing by his work which is the green painting on the left and the red painting on the right. It is a group show and will be up for a month. The Art Project shop/gallery has a new printing machine so prints can be made of the work. In the near future they would like to run art workshops.

Here I am having a laugh with the other artist. I only met everyone on the private view. The gallery is run by a group of people from NANSA and volunteers. They all had a meeting and decided who's work was going to be shown and then a group hung the work. Paper work was done by one of the volunteers. I just had to turn up at the private view which was fantastic. I had done some twittering and face booking of my own for publicity but the gallery did all the proper publicity.

Everyone was offered drinks and nibbles. My friend Ann Nicholls the photographer also know as Dandy Snap came along and her other half Roland.

Lots of discussions were had and everyone had fun.

Volunteers up since 8am hanging the artwork and adding finishing touches.

More fun to be had, Richard had been having fun with the new wall cabinet. Which they hope to put more expensive art materials. At the moment they sell brushes, paint, canvas, frames, art books and lots of very useful art materials.

A reflection in the mirror of the artists and visitors to the gallery.

Richard photographing Sarah Cullum with her dog paintings which she started painting when she went to art college. 

Here is the visitor's book, price list and posters.  

Ladies who came in to look at the work and got very excited by the paintings.

Richard on the left is an abstract painter and also works here at the Art Project Shop.

The gallery filled up with people coming to the exhibition.

A reflection in the window of the art on the walls and the scaffolding outside through the window.

Robert and Ann arrive by bicycle which is the best way to come to an art opening.

Earlham house shops in Norwich is under going some huge renovations which hope to be finished in February but this has not effected the shops like the Art Project Shop.

Stuart Cullum the artist standing with his portrait paintings and Richard photographing him.

Here is the words about the show taken from the website. 

Slick / Slack 24.10.2012

SIMON CARTER SARAH CULLUM STUART CULLUM

PAUL HACKETT ANTHONY HARRISON RICHARD MANN ELOISE O’HARE MARTIN PAYNE URSULA SPOTISWOODE

This show explores the far reaches of painterly taste. We have thrown into the pot a veritable clash of styles and idioms.

Edouard Manet, the original slick/slacker, turned the whole world of painting on its head in the 19^th century and set in motion the “decrepitude” of this medium. This show is a roundabout tribute to his achievement.

We invited a range of painters to submit to this show, and only a brave “few” have responded to the challenge.

Can “he” paint; is it “art”? How many times are these questions aimed in a barbed way at this subject? Since the mechanisation of the reproduction of three dimensions on a two dimensional surface the craft of painting has been put into question and the question of art too. So be it, we continue anyway!

Is knowledge of this debate a help or a hindrance? Well this show won’t necessarily help us answer this question but it is worth asking all the same. All the artists in this show have a way of tackling their medium as they see fit. There are those who take the paint by the scruff of the neck and go for the immediate effect - we are taking about Simon Carter,  Sarah Cullum,  Eloise O’Hare,  Martin Payne and Ursula Spotiswoode, its not simply expressionism, as we know it, but it is in that region. Others have a more considered approach and act as a counter to the ‘anarchy’ that is breaking out around them - Stuart Cullum and Paul Hackett represent this tendency. However Richard Mann approaches his subject with very little regard for any convention.

The title of the show doesn’t do any of the work justice, we are not asking you, the audience, to try and squeeze what you see into these very loose categories, it is just a way of commenting on what is fast becoming a prevalent and fashionable style amongst painters today as they turn their back on art in general and re-discover the basics of modernist painting before the orthodoxy of Greenberg took hold.

April flowers

Flowers in my garden in April. Nettles with white blossem.

Dandelion in the green grass.

Close up of the Dandelion

Two dandelions 

Blue bells 

Yellow Tulips

Heart flowers.

Honey Heart.

Bluebells and bamboo

Pink bee lovers

 Dead daffodil