Isle of Man Art Festival Open Days
The studio was open last weekend as part of the Art Festival run by the Creative Network. It was such good fun to meet all of the lovely people who popped in and the response to the launch of the Isle of Man Nature Journal was overwhelmingly positive!
I got some very useful feedback about the art I had on display too and I now feel in a much better place to start producing items to sell. Some experimental pieces that I've made over the last couple of years got some interest too, which I wasn't expecting, and it shows that you never know until you show people!
The most significant thing I took away from the weekend was just how passionate people are about art and about our natural environment. It gave me great joy to meet such likeminded people and I can't wait to start sharing more of their work on the Nature Journal map.
Sharing Your Work
I was very excited to add Jo Lewy's collage paintings of Peel to the Nature Journal map and am so grateful that she wanted to be included in the project. They really are wonderful pieces and make great early additions to the map as they are in a very different style to my work and help to make the point that no two artists will work in the same way and that there's no right or wrong way to be creative.
To have your work included on the map please email a photo or scan of your sketch, drawing or painting to emma@iomnj.com. The artwork should be of the natural world on the Isle of Man, so that could be a wild plant or animal, stones, streams or a wider landscape. When you send your photo, make sure it's under 1MB in file size and tell me where the item in the artwork is located. That way I can add it to the appropriate place on the map. Work from all ages is welcome!
Journalling in Ramsey
At the open days, I had my recently drawn journal page of the Stone Bridge at Ramsey on display. People were very positive in their reactions and encouraged me to create more in this style, as well as giving me ideas for projects that I could create using this work. I'm very grateful to everyone who gave me ideas and I'll let you know how I get on with these projects in future blog posts. One of the great things about journalling in this way is that you observe and learn things about the location that you never noticed or knew before.
Despite living in Ramsey for almost two decades, when journalling, I saw species plant that I'd never noticed here before and learned the Latin names while I was annotating the page. I even found a very interesting article from the Buildings at Risk series in the Isle of Man Examiner* that told me all about the history of the Ramsey Stone Bridge.
Having travelled across the bridge almost daily for 17 years, I'd never given any thought to how old it was before. The article told me that it was built in the 1700's and that prior to it's construction, there was no bridge and people had to wait until low tide to ford the river. It's given me a whole new appreciation for the crossing and allows me to feel more connected to the town I live in.
Have a good week!
Emma
*(Dave Martin, 04/06/2019 accessed from http://www.abc.org.im/BAR/BAR075%202019-06-04%20Bridges%20&%20crossings%20on%20the%20Sulby%20river%20&%20its%20tributaries%20-%204.pdf on 01/08/23)
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