Burnham Art & Rail Community

Burnham Art & Rail Community

The mostly disused station building, (apart from a nice cafe and a part time ticket office), is almost derelict. The windows have been boarded up with chipboard and the peeling paint tells you how long they have been there. It was a sad state of a building and when travelling by rail, is the first impression arriving in Burnham on Crouch, Essex. Beyond the platform and out to the car park and Station Road, are thriving gardens, planted and developed by volunteers who have already made this a more beautiful place.

The 10th anniversary of the Burnham Art Trail and 125 years of the railway to the town, became a celebratory community art project and refurbishment of the station.
Young people age 6-18 were asked to put forward a design they would like to see on the boarded windows on the theme of Travel – past, present and future. Winning designs could be painted by the designer or if very young, the painting was done by a volunteer artist.
I painted this board from a design drawn by a six year old girl. The expressions on the faces were a delight and I was conscious not to change essential elements so it could remain as close as possible to her original idea.
If you would like to see more images of painted window boards visit http://www.burnhamarttrail.co.uk

Venice – Window shutters – Jenny Hill

Venice - Window shutters - Jenny Hill

Layered posters on the window shutters of a shop in Venice.
Control of this outside exhibition space was with the shop owner as it looked like the shutters could only be easily accessed from inside the shop, or by a person standing on a box or a ladder in a boat in the narrow canal.
The overlaid posters appear to be carefully placed, allowing the older images to be seen, (or for the faces to look through to the viewer).

Pumpkin Marina di Chioggia – Oil pastel – Jenny Hill

Pumpkin Marina di Chioggia - Oil pastel - Jenny Hill

Marina di Chioggia fantastic pumpkin, fleshy folds of dense nutty sweet orange flesh, originates from Chioggia, Italy. I use it for coconut and pumpkin soup or oven baked vegetables for pasta or rice.
Initially I added this to the list of regulars grown in the vegetable garden because of the connection to Italy and memories of a good holiday in Venice but I now know the value of the fruit and it is there on merit. (Just as I wrote ‘fruit’, I had to check to see if it was fruit or vegetable).
Definitions of fruit and vegetables –
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/10129729/Do-you-know-your-fruit-from-your-vegetables.html
This is an oil pastel sketch for development into an ink painting or print.

art supplies, Kyoto – Jenny Hill

art supplies, Kyoto - Jenny Hill

A traditional art supplies shop in Kyoto for Japanese painting. Look at the size of those brushes – they would take a lot of ink or paint.
A couple of days earlier I bought a brush from a temple market in Kyoto, which was just as well as it curbed the urge to buy at this shop without really knowing what I wanted.
I enjoy using this type of brush for my ink paintings as it can be loaded with ink, hold the colour without dripping but still flow smoothly when less saturated. And it makes a nice dry brush mark.

Persimmon no. 1 – ink – Jenny Hill

Persimmon no. 1 - ink - Jenny Hill

Colchester Art Society’s winter exhibition – Digby Gallery, Mercury Theatre, Colchester, Essex.
3rd December – 27th December. It’s pantomine season at the theatre – Sleeping Beauty.
http://www.mercurytheatre.co.uk/
Persimmon is one of my favourite fruits at this time of year and thankfully available in our local supermarkets. It brings back good memories of a late autumn visit to Japan and train journeys through suburban Kyoto and Tokyo. From a high up advantage in the train I could look down on Persimmon trees showing small splashes of orange in wintry gardens. We knew it as Kaki.
‘Persimmon no.1’ ink painting in the CAS winter exhibition.