THE LEIGH ART TRAIL

Every year for the past five years, during the first week of June, Leigh on Sea in S.E. Essex becomes a hub of activity as all local artists exhibit their work in unusual venues scattered throughout the village - from their studios through to shops, hairdressers, travel agents, caf�s, bars and restaurants.
Visitors are given a map and then are left to meander through the streets, looking for a number on an orange card, signposting the next venue. Sometimes places are not immediately obvious, and sometimes the search becomes a real treasure hunt, as works of art can be found amongst a shop's goods, or by leaning over diners in a restaurant! All this increases the fun and heightens the community spirit.
This year's Art Trail features 36 artists in 27 venues and is sponsored by 42 local businesses. Collection boxes are also to be found in every venue to support the Leigh charity "Serving the Homeless".

Art & Technology

Although many exhibiting artists now have an e-mail address, only two seem to take advantage of the internet, by having their own, or a shared, website and listing themselves with a search engine. Please click here for a map (whose work I have reviewed below) and Mark Bradford (not featured on this page).
Even so, it would seem that the artists are not using their website as a catalogue of their work, or as an on-line gallery to transcend local boundaries and make themselves known in the rest of the UK and abroad.
I have noticed that there were no video works this year, and art created exclusively for the internet is yet to come.

Your web reporter has compiled a carefully selected list, with reviews, of some of the best artists in the 5th Leigh Art Trail. Enjoy the read!

2-D Art (including Painting, Illustration, Printmaking, Photography)

The majority of artists are presenting abstract, rather than figurative, work. The common denominator is the use of mixed media, collage and appliqu� techniques, which creates interesting textures. Many artists display a strong sense of the sea and are inspired by local landscapes.

Sheila Appleton�(painter)

A well known Leigh artist. In her flamboyant watercolours and ink drawings she portrays local views of the Thames Estuary and expresses her humourous, joyous take on life. I liked her "fairy frolics".

Heidi Wigmore�(painter)

A celebration of the female body, bold nudes in a riot of crimsons and purples. Or, as she describes them, "somebodies and beautiful bad things".

Jonathan Trim�(painter)

An artist fascinated by the relationship between the landscape and human activity connected with the land. Images of pathways and borders, with touches of precious gold.

Peter Knock�(illustrator)

A long time collaborator of leading magazines and journals, his images are tongue-in-cheek and reminiscent of the painter Magritte. Unfortunately Peter's only view of the web is that students spend too much time surfing porn sites, as his work "Internet" testifies.

Lisa Meehan�(printmaker)

My absolute favourite. Using the technique of monoprinting, she creates ethereal images of sky and water, at various times of the day. Hazes and brumes, ever changing.

David Shields�(photographer)

His black & white photos are inspired by travel - Scotland, Ireland, Juliet's house in Verona, Italy, Paris and New York. You then enter a room where the walls are covered with colour photos of a beautiful forest, only to discover they are the trees surrounding the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. A CD in the background plays Gorecki's "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs". Very poignant.

Charlie Skelton�(photographer)

Black & white photographs of wild places, amazing rock formations.

3-D Art (including Sculpture, Pottery, Ceramics)

Here again we can find the use of mixed and unusual materials and glazes. In sculpture, the human figure predominates.

Gwen Simpson�(sculptor)

A naked couple made of chicken wire (which took 35 hours to model!) and three blindfolded male heads in copper, all in imposing life size.

Joseph Dyas�(sculptor)

Originally from New York City and now living in Leigh, Joseph makes incredibly lightweight wall reliefs with recycled materials, such as styrofoam and discarded industrial parts.

Richard Baxter�(potter)

Richard has now diversified from his more traditional earthenware domestic vessels to produce unique decorative pieces, whose ripples and wave forms are inspired by the local surroundings. He is also successfully selling his work through Bonham's, the auction house in Knightsbridge.

Madeleine Murphy�(ceramicist)

She has said to like "the formality of sculpture and the informality of making pottery". Her work incorporates a bit of both, her raku objects are original and some reminiscent of Viking ships, dipped in turquoise glazes.

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