Press Release
ART IN ACTION July 2011 Thursday 21 – Sunday 24 July 2011
Highlights include:
Calligraphy
Paul Antonio has worked for top fashion houses including Polo Ralph Lauren and Burberry as well as scribing the wedding certificate of Marilyn Manson and Dita von Teese. Previous visits to Art in Action have seen him draw huge crowds with a charismatic demonstration of his extensive calligraphic styles.
Ceramics
Juliet Walters creates works that are a ’form within a form’. The techniques she uses of burnishing and carving require working with two types of clay, each of which has different shrinkage rates. This means that careful calculations are needed so that one form fits into the other. Juliet will be working on these pieces during Art in Action and will show how the carved shell, once fired, is used as a mould for the inner form.
Drawing
Rebecca Glover is a young artist who trained at Edinburgh College of Art graduating in 2009. She recently took part in The Market Estate Project where 76 artists gained access to a housing estate next to Caledonian Road tube station, to do with as they wish, before it was
demolished. She currently has her first solo exhibition at the PM House & Gallery in Ealing which is a response to environmental disasters and what this means for our perception of stability. She works in a variety of media from installation to painting.
Glass
Sarah Hornik is from Israel and a star in the world of glass. Originally a web designer, she started making glass beads in 2005 as a hobby and now teaches all over the world. She is the author of several books on the subject and is particularly well known for her use of colour.
Illustration
Sarah Morpeth is an illustrator and book maker who creates an extraordinary range of 3D and pop up books, wall hung pieces, paper cut baubles and more. She works mainly in paper and textiles finding inspiration in her obsession with British films of the 40s, poetry, philosophy, science fiction and stories. At Art in Action she will be scalpel cutting, painting, folding, stitching and binding books.
International Arts
Maximo Laura is a consultant, designer and lecturer in Art and Contemporary Andean textile design and has been declared a National Living Human Treasure and Grand Master of Peruvian handcraft. He is internationally recognised as one of South America’s pre-eminent textile artists. His work is nourished by symbols, stories, traditions, rituals, experiences, and by permanently returning to admire the iconography of ancestral world cultures, especially Peruvian culture.
Metalwork & Jewellery
Rod Kelly is renowned as the finest silversmith working in the UK today. At Art in Action he will be demonstrating the various stages of chasing a decorative hand raised beaker in silver, showing how to lay out the design from completed sketches and how he designs and
conceives his ideas for decorative images. Rod has recently made a gift for the Royal wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William.
Nature in Art
Anna Knights is a self taught artist who discovered in 2006 that she has an innate talent for botanical painting. She paints plants, fruits and vegetables with a vibrancy and immediacy that transcends tradition and display a photographic realism. She will be demonstrating the bold, modern approach to botanical watercolour painting that she has developed herself.
Painting
Hanna Ward worked as an interior designer before completing an MA at the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts. Now her main interest is church interiors and she has been researching sacred geometry and underlying symbolism in church architecture. She paints icons and this
summer she will be a fresco painting apprentice in a Romanian church. At Art in Action she will be demonstrating all aspects of producing icons.
Printmaking
Laura Boswell uses traditional Japanese woodblock techniques to create her prints based on the rural landscape. She will be using skills learned during a unique eight week residency at the Nagasawa Art Park in Japan to reveal the techniques and tools behind the iconic
Japanese print and how this method can be adapted to contemporary western printmaking.
Sculpture
The European Boxwood and Topiary Society (EBTS) was formed in 1996 to increase the knowledge, appreciation and science of boxwood and topiary and to explore topiary as an art form. They will be presenting ’live sculpture’ including the clipping and pruning of box and
other species and giving talks on box and topiary and how they feature in gardens, both in the past and today.
Textiles
Rosalind Wyatt uses collage, textiles and calligraphy in her pieces, which combines personal stories and histories with authentic textiles and extraordinary stitch work. At Art in Action she will be working on If Shoes Could Talk, the first part of her epic textiles installation piece The
Stitch Lives of London. With a projected 8 year completion plan, this 40-100m long piece is destined to reside permanently in a waist high case along the river Thames.
Woodwork
Robert Ingham is a furniture maker who has trained and inspired a generation of craftsmen who are now the backbone of the British designer-maker elite. He spent over 20 years as Principal of the School for Craftsmen in Wood at Parnham College, Dorset as well as running his own hugely successful business, Robert Ingham Designs. He was invited to join the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers, been granted the freedom of the City of London and been made a fellow of the Society of Designer Craftsmen. Renowned for making
jewellery boxes, at Art in Action he will be demonstrating miniature dovetails.