ARTISTS TALKING

# 26 [26 February 2010]

Nail-biting final arrangements with our artist in residence for the 2010 residency at St George's are taking place and we hope to soon be able to announce who will be with us this year. Meanwhile some thoughts and images from last year when we played host to Louise Nason who was our resident artist for 2009.

We have very much enjoyed working with Louise and seeing her project grow. She has made some wonderful work, inspired lots of local people to join in and will be sorely missed both as a brilliant addition to St George's and as a friend. Her family and friends have been frequent and very active visitors too and we hope she and they will keep in touch.

Good memories from the year include:

The complicated process of building the loom, shown speeded up as an unexpectedly slap-stick film loop.

Learning a little about the time consuming and methodical steps to thread the loom and work out the weave. I could understand why Louise said that the maths was what made her enjoy weaving at first.

Seeing a very determined 4 year-old mastering twill weaving with Louise's teaching. Also hearing from so many other people how much they had enjoyed working with her.

The magical atmosphere at the private view in January as so many people made their way through the snow to see her and her exhibition.

Thanks Louise, we hope everything goes well with your future projects.

Jane Ponsford

# 25 [18 February 2010]

Louise Nason artist in resident 2009.

This shall be my last post for my residency. My time at St Georges is now over. I have moved out of the studio and brought my loom home. The loom is in construction. Although it has only been a couple of weeks since my exhibition finish it seems a long time ago and I feel in a bit of a daze. I think the answer is to try and get back into the swing of creativity quickly.

My time at St Georges was wonderful. It came at a point in my career where I needed to broaden my skills and freshen my ideas. The skills I have learnt from teaching and running workshops have been invaluable.

St Georges and my experiences will defiently stay with me for a long time. I hope that I can still keep some kind of connection to the church and the people I have met along the way. 

I would like to thank all of who attended workshops and took part in the community weave it made a huge difference to the project. I would also like to thank the St Georges Art coordinator and friends.

Final word. Look out for a new blog in artist talking which I will publish in my own name Louise Nason.

# 24 [27 January 2010]

The St George’s Arts 2010 Residency has attracted some really exciting proposals and we are now contacting our shortlisted artists to arrange interviews. 

Some of the post over the application period was held up because of the snow so if you have applied and are yet to receive an emailed acknowledgment please contact us on:  st.georgesarts@btinternet.com

# 23 [8 January 2010]

There was a brilliant turn-out to the private view of Fabricate. Loads of people made their way through the snow to Louise's exhibition opening and joined us for mulled drinks. (In fact so many came along that we had to send someone out for more supplies!) There was a really magical atmosphere with pools of light illuminating Louise's work and catching on the carved stone and reflecting on the candelabras in the old building. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood too, possibly that was something to do with walking through the snow in the dark and then coming in to a welcoming and warm building. We will do more of an update in the next few days with some images but for now I just want to thank everyone for coming along. For anyone who missed the PV but intended to come along, the exhibition is on until 30 January and Louise is there for much of the time as she is using the last few weeks to work on another piece on her loom at St George's. 

# 22 [7 January 2010]

SNOW UPDATE:

We will be here with warm drinks (and the odd glass of wine) on Thursday 7 January at St George’s for Louise’s Private View of FABRICATE, to welcome any and all who manage to get here. 

You are invited to the Private View of:

FABRICATE, a woven response to place

on: Thursday 7 January 2010 6.30 – 8.30

Louise Nason will be showing work from her 8 – month residency at St George’s Arts
in an exhibition showcasing her site specific textiles pieces made in response to
the church building and its architecture.

Meet the artist: Saturday 9 January
Exhibition continues until 30 January
Opening times:
Monday, Wednesday, Saturday 10 – 4 pm
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 10 – 1 pm
Closed Sunday

St George’s Arts, Esher Park Avenue, Esher, Surrey KT10 9RQ
Project Blog: http://stgeorgesarts.wordpress.com/
Email: st.georgesarts@btinternet.com
St George’s Arts,

Visual Arts Organiser: Jane Ponsford 01372 467720
Louise Nason: 07775 646 892

# 21 [5 January 2010]

You are invited to the Private View of:

FABRICATE, a woven response to place

on: Thursday 7 January 2010 6.30 – 8.30

Louise Nason will be showing work from her 8 – month residency at St George’s Arts
in an exhibition showcasing her site specific textiles pieces made in response to
the church building and its architecture.

Meet the artist: Saturday 9 January
Exhibition continues until 30 January
Opening times:
Monday, Wednesday, Saturday 10 – 4 pm
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 10 – 1 pm
Closed Sunday

St George’s Arts, Esher Park Avenue, Esher, Surrey KT10 9RQ
Project Blog: http://stgeorgesarts.wordpress.com/
Email: st.georgesarts@btinternet.com
St George’s Arts,

Visual Arts Organiser: Jane Ponsford 01372 467720
Louise Nason: 07775 646 892

# 20 [25 November 2009]

Our artist-in-residence, Louise Nason is running the last workshops of her residency over the next few weeks, the first, on the 28 November is a natural dye workshop where she will be showing how to use a range of, not surprisingly, natural dyes such as cutch and indigo which she uses in her work. The second and final one is a children’s weaving workshop on 22 December. Looking ahead we have Louise's exhibition, 'Fabricate, a woven response to place' which will show the results of her 8 month residency at St George's. She will also be showing some of the work made by local people as part of the project. During her project Louise has involved lots of people in making their own work or responding in some way to the ideas she has brought to them but she has also had the opportunity to investigate different ways of working herself. So we are really looking forward to seeing the culmination of this time.

# 19 [11 November 2009]

Louise Nason Artist in residence.

Well it has been a couple of weeks since I last posted. I have been able to concentrate on my own work and have now finished weaving my major piece. I have sill to finish it. This is preparing the cloth, a technique called beetleing which gives a sheen to the cloth by ironing to give a burnished finish. I then need to work out the methods of displaying the piece.

I have also had some time to think about another piece of work. I have wound the warp and hope to make a start on the weaving once I rope in some family to wind the 4 meter warp on the loom again!!

# 18 [27 October 2009]

Jane Ponsford visual arts organiser

At St George's we are moving towards the end of this year's residency. Louise, our artist-in-residence for this year has completed most of the collaborative days and will be concentrating on finishing off her woven response to the building. She has become more and more interested in the architecture of the place which has influenced her work moving it into much heavier, more structural direction. In response to this she has decided that her final exhibition in January at St George's will be called 'Fabricate: a woven response to place'. 

In the meanwhile there is a natural dye workshop on the 28th of November and a last weaving workshop just before Christmas. The dye workshop is being hosted at the Riverhouse Gallery's Toshiba Studio.

We are just about to start the call-out for our next artist-in-residence and also developing more events and exhibitions to run concurrently during the year. However first we will be looking back over 2009 to learn from what we have done this year. Which things worked and which didn't? 

# 17 [22 October 2009]

Louise Nason Artist in residence.

Well we had a fantastic turn out for the Big Draw. Over eighty people came to St George's church on the Saturday. It was a lovely day so it mean that we could make use of the churchyard and take lots of rubbing from the headstones. Inside we had several different areas exploring looking from different points of view. We projected images of things found in the church and drew from them, we had children draw different textures by touch and we had an area with a large sheet of paper for ink drawing of close ups of the building.

I was especially pleased with the number of people who added to our community weave we even had a three year old with a little help having a go at weaving.