Steve Elliott and Amanda Lowe have been commissioned to make a giant Jack Frost for Princes Quay Hull – I popped into the workshop on the ground floor of Princes Quay to see their work in progress. You can see the finished giant Jack Frost in the Christmas Parade happening in Hull City Center this sunday the 16th November 2014.
I shot this on a Canon 5d Mark 3 with a variety of Canon l series lenses and a beautiful very old russian helios lens from my first proper camera a Zenith E!
Great excitement this weekend as Musicport Festival sprung into life at The Pavillion in Whitby – musicians from all over the world came to play their music to excited crowds. As part of the festival a series of visual arts workshops took place with Primary School children from Whitby notably West Cliff School Primary and Airy Hill Primary – The giant boards had to be prepared and drawn up from elements of the children’s designs prior to the saturday and sunday painting workshops led by Whitby based fine artist Bridget Wilkinson and myself.
A fine time was had by all with the children showing remarkable levels of concentration throughout the workshops The children from West Cliff worked on the Jelly Fish with Bridget and I worked with the Airy Hill Children on the giant octopus.
The panels will join the 6 other panels completed by Whitby school children last year on permanent display at Whitby Pavillion.
The Fight For Freedom is a video art piece made from a series of co-authored animated films created by children from Maybury, Stockwell, Thorpe Park and Biggin Hill Primary Schools in Hull led by award winning artist and filmmaker Quentin Budworth.
The animated video is based on the theme of the ‘Fight For Freedom’ within the narratives and history of the transatlantic slave trade. The films explore these issues using light and shadow, narrative and music.
Over eighty year five children actively contributed to the creation of this work.
The work was exhibited at The Wise Institute on the Old High Street in Hull on the 4th and 5th of September 2014 as part of The Freedom Light Trail.
‘The Fight For Freedom’ is part of The Freedom Festival and Roots & Wings Joint Commissions ‘The Long Walk to Freedom’ Site Specific Commissions Programme 2014
In early August this year I was commissioned by The Musicport Festival in Whitby to work on an a visual arts project for the festival – initial discussions centred around a series of visual arts workshops that would engage and excite the local community in the weeks running up to the festival in mid October whilst leaving a permanent legacy for the community.
After a period of research and consultation I came up with the following approach to the delivery of the project. I established the themes that were appropriate and exciting to both the festival and the Pavilion – these were: Land, Sea, Whitby, Music, Dance and Festival – I then chose to develop ideas from the local community as a source for the designs for these panels. Big Drawing Workshops were organised in schools where children were asked to draw images appropriate to the theme of each panel on 30ft by 8ft pieces of paper and these drawings were then photographed on site after the workshop.
The most exciting elements were put together into a final design for a decorative panel which was then drawn out onto a 8 foot by 4 foot MDF board covered in canvas. Great care was used to ensure that the drawings were accurately replicated I used PhotoShop and a data projector to create the drawings on the panels. The panels were then returned to the school for painting. The painting work was then undertaken by the children supervised by Whitby Artist Bridget Wilkinson who ensured that the colours were kept clean and the children worked in a safe way on the panels.
The last panel was completed on the Wednesday lunch time before the festival opening and unveiling ceremony on the Friday. I hired a van for Thursday morning and collected all the panels from the schools and took them to the Pavilion with the help of a festival volunteer. We got the panels into the space and with the help of Bridget Wilkinson tidied up the panels outlining some of the elements and re-touching some of the paint work and decided on a hanging order.
The panels were then framed to give them more support and hung in the space ready for the opening of the festival and unveiling ceremony on Friday evening. the opening event of the festival took place at the Whalebones where children played music with Mambo Jambo and were entertained by fire jugglers. The 400 people who attended the event then processed to the Great Hall at the Whitby Pavilion to see the unveiling of the decorative panels in the Great Hall. A short introductory speech was made by Festival Director Jim Mc Goughlan I then explained some key facts about the project, that it had engaged over 300 children and that the images and paintings were all their own work unrolling one of the big drawings to show the wealth of creativity and imagination the children had brought to the work. The individual panels were then revealed one by one by the children to a delighted audience of parents, teachers, festival goers and local dignitaries to rapturous applause.
The final panel was created by festival participants during the course of the festival using the same process and was enjoyed by all participants. The painting proved particularly popular. Feedback on the panels has been excellent and they are now on permanent display in the Great Hall at Whitby Pavilion.
Hats off to Hull and congratulations to all the people who fought so hard to win the bid for city of culture – Its a fantastic achievement and great news for the city.
A few years ago I was commissioned by the larkin 25 Festival to produce a monograph based on Larkin’s poem ‘Here’ which is about Hull and the East Riding in it I sought to create images that matched, mirrored and commented on Larkin’s poem. You can see the exhibition online here
I was commissioned by Artlink in Hull to carry out this work a large scale public drawing event. Based on Peters Map – this is what happened ……
The earth is round. The challenge of any world map is to represent a round earth on a flat surface. Peters Map tries to redress this issue – by showing us an area accurate map of the world – of course in Peters Map Europe is still in the middle at the top – a legacy of the Eurocentric view of the world dominated by western culture and thinking. These were just some of the issues that came up for discussion – with participants in this map drawing event – my friend the illustrator and educator Gareth Sleightholme suggested that if you placed the Pacific ocean in the middle you would have a more representative and less hierarchical map – which I tend to agree with.
So lots of people joined in the map making process – here are some pictures of the days events – here are some images from the event
The growing season is a little late this year and there has been a lot of rain so there are many fine blooms and lush gardens to see – a real treat for the eye – I managed to take a tea and cakes brake and support Amnesty International – but didn’t quite have time for a curry. Many Thanks to artis Jackie Ward Lomax who lent me her trusty bike and treated me to fresh coffee at the end of the event – here is alink to the photo gallery so you can share some of the magic of the Hull Avenues Open Gardens one of the largest and most diverse open gardens events in the country.I was asked to photograph the Hull Avenues Open Gardens last Sunday the 1st of July they were fantastic –
https://quentinbudworth.com/photographer/hull-avenues-open-gardens-2012/
A lot of people have asked me if I do prints – yes of course and if they can license the images – yes of course! Just give me a call on 07877434739 or email quentinbudworth@btinternet.com.
http://avenuesopengardens.com/
In brief:
When: Sunday 1st and 8th July 1pm – 5pm 2012
Where: The Avenues – Victoria, Park, Westbourne and Marlborough Avenue
with gardens also opening on
Ella Street, Blenheim Street and Farnley Square, off Ella Street
HU5 postcode
Hull’s Avenues Open Gardens is possibly the biggest open garden event nationally, attracting around 2500 visitors over the two weekends the gardens are open.
£3 per adult gives admission to all gardens for both weekends and accompanied children are free. There is a free ‘Hail and Ride’ minibus making the event very accessible to all. Entrance to gardens is by a programme and programmes can be bought from gardens that are open on the day. Gardens that are open display a big green poster in their front windows visble from the street.
The Avenues gardens show a real diversity of gardening styles complimented with interesting and unique local architecture. Most of the gardens are huge, some going back 150 feet with original features from the times they were built, from the 1870’s until around WWI, such as old stables and out houses. Gardens are not inspected – the rules are ‘there are no rules’ – as a result the gardens that open are individual and distinctive. This gives the event a genuine feel of a celebration of the domestic gardens in our city’s conservation, urban environment. Some gardens offer refreshments, teas, cakes, art, music and other community activities.
For more information find our Facebook Group ‘Avenues Open Gardens’ or @AvenuesOpenGdns #avenuesopengardens on twitter to keep up to date with the event.
‘I love drawing and co-authored artworks ‘Big Drawing’ is a logical development of these two passions- I really enjoy the challenge of devising and facilitating ‘Big Drawing’ projects they are a great way to promote drawing as an activity, encourage co-operation, have fun, participate in an arts activity, and with a little thought they can help develop and encourage a community to work think, talk and reflect together’.
Quentin Budworth – Champion for Drawing
Early in September 2011 I was asked to create a Big Drawing at Artlink in Hull to launch their ‘ Making Marks Exhibition. I asked the public to create a drawing of Hull’s best bits the most beautiful, quirky, naughty, nice and memorable parts of the city.
The finished drawing was a very human map of Hull and people’s feelings about their City – contributors used chalks and charcoal to make a large scale drawing on a wall in the gallery so there was no need to feel nervous about drawing directly onto the wall as they could rub out and re-draw any bits they were unhappy with. Participants were also are invited to add to the drawing throughout the course of the exhibition through the local press and radio.
What was really surprising and delightful was the enthusiasm of the participants, the excitement and creativity in the room – everyone looked at the Making Marks exhibition and contributed to the Map of Hull.
In September 2011, Artlink did a call out for an artist to use a wall within the gallery to begin a drawing relating to the theme of the ’Making Marks’ exhibition which visitors would be encouraged to continue. Quentin took up this task and developed a project to encourage the public to assist in a drawing of Hull’s best bits; creating a human map of Hull, using chalk and charcoal. The response to this project has been fantastic, and as such the wall used was completely filled with individual drawings from people aged 3 – 80. Artlink would definitely support Quentin if he were to propose a similar project, as his enthusiasm and encouragement on the preview night was highly commendable.
Emma Dolman – Gallery Development Worker – Artlink, Hull
Quentin Budworth 