My  painting "Flights of Fancy" is to be exhibited as part of the "Lust for Life" exhibition at the Menier Gallery this August. 

http://www.meniergallery.co.uk/Menier_Gallery/Plan_Your_Visit.html

The PV is this Thursday July 4th and it would be lovely to see some of you there. There will be a short talkat 7.00pm on PV night, given by Beatriz Acevedo.

I was contacted by Renee Rilexie the artist and curator from the Artists Pool last September, who let me know this exhibition was in the making. Coincidentally I had been working on some paintings inspired by the Argentine Giga, a giant hummingbird. I was also experimenting with the painting styles of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. I was using the Giga as a metaphor for how inspiration travels. At the same time I had visited the Alexander McQueen retrospective at the V & A, and so, "Flights of Fancy" came into being.

I loved making this painting, It has many wonderful associations which are very close to my heart. I am also looking forward to seeing the work of the other artists involved, so many responses to Frida Kahlo all in one location.

Hope to see you there.

Sun Pier House Gallery, Chatham, residency during the month of July. 

I was delighted to be offered the opportunity of a residency at Sun Pier House Gallery, during the Medway arts festival. 

I decided to use this opportunity to experiment with documenting the walk I had organised as a part of the Research Forum, A Journey with The Waste Land. 

For more about this:http://wasteland.onsocialengine.com/news

knots made by one of the participants.

“Quipu “(http://archaeology.about.com/od/qterms/qt/quipu.ht

Visitors were asked to walk on the paper to record their footprints and become a part of the walking memory.

I have been away so will post images of the marks on the paper when I return to Chatham.

Jennifer Deakin has been exhibiting some of  her photos of the walk in the gallery space next to the Quipu and it looks great. I hope some of you have time to visit before it comes down on July 31st.

The "Quipu", using the ropes which participants had knotted during the walk, now becomes the memory of that walk.

News from Walking with The Waste Land July17th 2016.
(photograhs courtesy of Jennifer Deakin)

Last Sunday July 17th, I led a walk with the Walking with The Waste Land group in Margate. For more about Walking with the Waste Land which is a part of the wider project, A journey with The Waste Land, at The Turner Contemporary in Margate :

http://wasteland.onsocialengine.com/news

The walk was designed  by the walking research group  following an invitation by The  University of Kent to create a walk for a Sunday event  for delegates at  their symposium "Writing Buildings."  The symposium brought together the schools of Architecture and Literature on a three day conference looking at the intersection of literature and architecture.

For details about this walk, please click on the document at:

http://wasteland.onsocialengine.com/categories/23679/walking-group

If you are interested in taking part in any future walks, please contact me:

elspethpenfold@yahoo.co.uk and I will add you to the mailing list.
You can also follow this blog to receive updates.

I will be documenting this walk during a residency at the Sun Pier house gallery in Chatham in collaboration with the photographer Jennifer Deakin. The work will be on display until July 31st. and explores using ropes as a way of recording memories in the form of a "Quipu." Jennifer will be exhibiting her photographs which were taken during the walk. We hope you have time to visit!

For more about the Sun Pier house gallery:

http://www.sunpierhouse.co.uk/sun-pier-home/about-us/

A big thank you to those of you who came on Wednesday June 29th and gave so willingly of your time, knowledge,  ideas, creativity and company. For those who couldn't make it, life does get in the way, and we missed you but hope to see you on July 17th. when we will be hosting delegates from the University of Kent symposium"Writing Buildings".

Sunday 17th Sunday 2016

Special events in Margate, Kent.

10:30 A Waste Land walk around Margate

In 1921 T.S Eliot wrote part of ‘The Waste Land’ in Margate whilst recuperating from a nervous breakdown. Join Turner Contemporary’s Waste Land Research Group for a multi-sited reading of the poem responding to the geography of the town. Locating the poem experimentally within the architecture of Margate, passages of ‘The Waste Land’ will be read on a walk exploring participants’ personal connections between the poem, the town and Eliot’s time here.

The Waste Land Research Group is made up of members of the Community working with Turner Contemporary to develop the gallery’s first major exhibition of 2018, A Journey with ‘The Waste Land’, which will explore the connections between the poem and the visual arts. Walking is being developed as a research method for understanding how the poem can be rooted experientially within the town.

The walk will start with an introduction to the project by external curator Professor Mike Tooby and end at Turner Contemporary in order to view work made by Community groups who have responsed to the poem as part of a related project ‘On Margate Sands’.​

for more about this walk

https://www.kent.ac.uk/architecture/conference/2016/writingbuildings/

Yesterday we walked in quite unfavourable weather, which is probably a good thing as who knows what will happen on the day. There are 10 locations which I had linked to the poem, many of these links came about as a result of the walks we have engaged in since last November. Yesterday the  walking group walked to these and tested them out by reading the sections at the site and discussing afterwards. There was a general consensus that these worked well. After the walk we had a cup of tea (courtesy of lovely Margaret, thank you.) and discussed the way forward.

I am presently undertaking a residency at Sun Pier house gallery in Chatham and am using this opportunity to experiment with documenting the walk. Please feel free to visit.