Don't Misunderstand Me - Bilton Theatre

The next production from Bilton Amateur Dramatic Society, "Don't Misunderstand Me" by Patrick Cargill, takes place next week, from Tuesday 22nd May to Friday 25th May inclusive. The play is a comedy based on the complications and misunderstandings that arise when Charles and Margery prepare to entertain Charles's younger brother, Robert, and his new wife, Jane - whom they have never met. Robert arrives whilst Margery is out, without his new wife, and it transpires that Charles has had a brief fling with a young girl, Jaynie, in America during a short working vacation.  Much to Charles's surprise, Jaynie turns up at the house unexpectedly - Charles panics and tries to pass her off as Robert's new wife to Margery, whilst pretending to Jaynie that Robert is married to Margery. Matters get even more complicated when Robert's real wife, Jane, arrives and everyone is desperately trying to cover up for someone or pretend they are someone else!

At times fast and furious, the play is character-driven and, as director of this particular production, I am very pleased with the way in which the cast have all taken on their relative roles. We have a very competent team on stage and off - with Steve Haughey doing Sound & Lighting, and Keith Davison (my husband) doing Stage Management. We had our final "normal" rehearsal last night, which went remarkably well - only a couple of errors here and there. I hope Ellie has recovered from walking into the door that Nikki was using to go off-stage!

I will be proud to watch the play every night next week, as we will be having a couple of dress/technical rehearsals before the opening night - I will probably still take notes and ask the cast to slightly alter the way in which they do odd things, but that is my way - I always believe you can improve the whole production, even during the run.

If you are in the area, please book your seats now - or you could try turning up on the night if you are not sure which night you would like to go. The play commences at 7.45pm, doors open at 7. There is a car park right outside the theatre. Seats are £6, with all concessionary seats at £5. To book your seat, please ring Steve Dale on 01482 812750.

Children's Open Exhibition - Ferens Art Gallery, Hull

Just over a week ago I managed to get to the last day of the above exhibition, the annual Children's Open at the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull. I had particular interest in it this year as our grand-daughter had managed to secure a painting in it! Apparently, all the children were asked to paint a scene depicting poppies in some way - the teacher didn't let on that the children were perhaps being judged to take part in the exhibition, so when Matheea found out that her painting would be on display it was a lovely surprise for us all!

I managed to take some photos of several that I was really impressed with, or that appealed to me for one reason or another - including Matheea's painting, of course.

The 7 to 11 year old section - Matheea's is 2nd in on the top row.

"Poppy Fields" by Matheea Ellerby.

"The Blue Eyed Fox" by William McCulloch, aged 6.

This painting of the blue eyed fox was Highly Commended by the Friends of the Ferens, and I can understand why - such an appealing painting, and very well executed for a six year old!

"Jewels Under The Sea" by Megan Gore, age 14.

I was particularly drawn to this textile piece of art - I think she has got the balance just right and it is a very striking image.

Self Portrait by Chloe Hewson, age 11.

Of all the portraits on display, this was the one that I liked the most. I thought it was an excellent piece of work for someone of this age.

"It's Not All Black and White" by Francesca Wilkinson, age 11.

"The Lighthouse" by Fergus Croston, age 10.

The above two images are of a very high standard, in my opinion. I loved the image of the soldier in pencil drawing, as a stark contrast to the vibrantly painted poppy fields he's crouched down in - and to have been painted by an 11 year old, too! I love it. As for the lighthouse- I'm sure there are many adults who couldn't master watercolours in the same way as this young man obviously has! I shall be looking out for more from him in the future.

"Ballerina" by Andreea Voinea, age 11

I was also drawn (excuse the pun) to this portrayal of a ballerina, perfectly proportioned and rendered masterfully by 11 year old Andreea Voinea. Incredible!

I think my favourite was the pen drawing of a thistle, which had a First Place sticker next to it, so I was obviously not alone in my thinking:

"Thistle" by Adam Toomes, age 15.

It's the detail and texture that he has captured which enthral me - it is just a beautiful reproduction of the plant.

Whilst we were there, we also had a look at the Colin Gray exhibition, which was amazing. His photographs are of his parents and their life - right up to the death of his mother, which he has also photographed. It sounds macabre, but it is done with such style that you are admiring the skill of the photographer and not shying away from the subject matter.

One of the photographs I was most impressed with can be seen on the preview of the exhibition if you click on this link. The link will open in a new window for you. His exhibition runs until February 26th and I'm sure we will be back to see it again before then!

The Ferens Art Gallery is situated on Queen Victoria Square, in the centre of the town. Opened in 1927, the award winning Ferens Art Gallery combines internationally renowned permanent collections with a thriving programme of temporary exhibitions. There is also a lively education and events programme that includes talks and art workshops.

The gallery's first-class permanent collection of paintings and sculpture spans the medieval period to the present day. These include European Old Masters, particularly Dutch and Flemish, portraiture, marine paintings, modern and contemporary British art, including video. Highlights include masterpieces by Frans Hals, Antonio Canaletto, Stanley Spencer, David Hockney, Helen Chadwick and Gillian Wearing.

Part of the Designated Collections of national importance relating to the city and region of Kingston upon Hull are on display here.

Hours of opening are Monday to Saturday 10am - 5pm, Sunday 1.30pm - 4.30pm.

A Night On The Tiles

One week to go for the opening night of our next production at the Bilton Theatre. This is part of the reason I've not blogged since before Christmas! I have several ideas for blog posts to come, but for now, I just wanted to share the countdown to our production week!

Forthcoming production

.

The poster above is to advertise the forthcoming production by the amateur dramatic society of which I have been a member for over 20 years. My mind is overflowing with things to remember at this stage prior to a performance - it seems that this production in particular has given me even more things to think about.

A brief check-list would probably be something along the lines of:
1. Poster designed and printed.
2. Performance Rights applied for and paid.
3. Newsletter designed, written, printed, folded, stuffed into envelopes and posted to our patrons.
4. Front of House staff organised.
5. Source all props required.
6. Publicise on websites and pass on media contacts to resident Publicity Officer
7. Clean and tidy theatre including toilets, dressing room, stage and auditorium
8. Paint the required "scene" on the stage (the biggest job of all so far)
9. Distribute posters locally.
10. Check cast have all costume required.

I can at least say that most of those items are checked - however, I have been painting the back wall of the stage (an area of approximately 13.5ft wide by 8ft high) to represent the terrace and views out from a villa in the Sierra Blanca region of Spain.  This painting is becoming so much a part of my life that I am dreaming about the next stage each time I close my eyes! I have repainted whole areas of it on more than one occasion, and am sure I will still be adding to it right up to the opening night. I am also desperately trying to locate several ceramic ornaments/vases or money boxes cheaply that will break easily each night. Keith, my husband and fellow BADS fanatic, has already tried in the local Poundland, Wilko, Home Bargains and Boyes (a general store that often has really cheap household items) but to no avail. I went to Pound-stretcher this afternoon once I'd had enough of painting some bougainvillea that so far looks like some strange alien purple cloud formation (even though I know it will look better than that when I've finished, I hate letting others see my work in progress so am obviously stressing about this now). Pound-stretcher had some vases in that were £3.99. I would rather not spend that much per night (plus extras for rehearsing with) so am determined that tomorrow I will spend the morning scouring charity shops instead - and have a day off the painting!

Anyway, I have really enjoyed directing and producing this play, it still makes me laugh at rehearsals and the cast have all been very reliable and happy to be directed by me (or at least they appear to be).

You can read all about it on the Facebook Event I have created here.http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=182877285069255

I do plan to post photos of the scenic painting in progress, once I have the courage to share them!

Fantasia Dolls House Club Exhibition

On Wednesday, 11th August, we took our two grand-daughters to see this well-presented exhibition at the Hedon Museum, East Yorkshire. It was staged by the Fantasia Dolls House Club and we were greeted instantly by two members who were keen to inform us of many of their techniques, which was very interesting. The main display was of a set of Victorian terraced houses, all decorated in different ways. It was a bit awkward for children to see what was inside the houses, since they were all set up facing into the middle of the room, but Matheea and Evie were allowed to stand on a chair in order to see the insides - well worth doing. Matheea, who is 8, was so impressed she wanted to go and make a start on building a miniature house immediately! She sat down for ages, chatting to one of the women and looking at one of the books on how to create miniature items. Evie was impressed with the "Wedding Belle" house and the fact that there were so many small items hand-made. They did think about using their "Polly Pocket" dolls as part of such a creation, but soon realised that these houses and people in them are not designed to be played with, but are works of art to be looked at instead.

I was equally impressed with the whole exhibition - a couple of my favourites were the "Theatre Box" and "Sewing Box" which were part of another theme the club had used for a creation - simply by utilising a cardboard box (of a fairly small size) in an imaginative way.

These photos show most of what was on display. The exhibition is on until Wednesday September 8th and I would urge anyone with young children to go and have a look - or any of you with an interest in hand-made crafts of any kind. The tiles on the roof of most of the terraced houses, for instance, are mostly made of pieces of cardboard, painted individually and stuck on.

Another of my favourite pieces was the replica of the Preston Village Show - the cabbages and cakes were made from polymer clay and I was in awe of the detail that had gone into each piece.

Here are some photos of the exhibition that I took on the day.

Here's Evie admiring the row of Victorian terraced houses.

If you look closely you can see the mess left behind by a seagull or two on the roof of the house painted blue! The Wedding Belle shop on the left had a mirror on the back  wall at the top, which gave the impression of a much larger room inside - very clever!

This is the view of the houses from the back, looking over the tops of the other houses. Some of them had attic rooms, whereas others just had two levels.

My favourite box design was the Theatre Box above, but I also liked the Jewellery Box next to it, and the Hat Box and Sewing Box, below.

Here is a photo of the rear of "Mystic Maria" (I think, I've forgotten her name actually) - the lady at the exhibition turned the house around so that Evie could see the crystal ball properly!

Finally, here are 3 shots of the fantastically created replica of Preston Village Show:

The museum is only open on Wednesdays and Saturdays, from 10am to 5pm. I have exhibited some of my paintings there previously, and despite it only being a small museum, it's great for children and adults alike as they regularly have varied displays alongside the regular exhibits. It is on two floors, with refreshments available at a very affordable price and very friendly staff, too!

Random thoughts and activities

The past couple of days I have been progressing with some more of my recent mini canvas and easel paintings, which I am also matching with some of my painted/decorated trinket boxes. Hopefully by the end of today I will be able to upload 3 more images of these.

They will be on sale via my Etsy store as soon as I have completed all three:ArtyAitch

One of my Christmas gifts was a set of paint tube squeezing keys - you can buy them in the UK from "The Works" in a pack of 10 for only 99pence: Tube Squeezers

I have been going through my box(es) of paints to utilise these keys, and in doing so decided to paint a sample of each particular colour I have in my store! I have so far done yellow, green and blue. This will help me enormously when I am trying to decide which particular brand of paint I used for an area of colour on a painting if I leave it for a while and come back to it (which tends to happen regularly as I rotate my paintings constantly).

Changing topic completely now, I went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie last weekend with my brother and husband. It was thoroughly entertaining, well acted and cleverly directed. Robert Downey Jr. was an amusing yet charming Sherlock Holmes and he worked extremely well alongside Jude Law's Dr Watson. I really, really enjoyed it - there were, to be fair, an abundance of fight scenes which i really didn't expect from Sherlock Holmes (and which I normally am averse to)but they were all executed with great panache. I particularly loved the way in which Sherlock's thought process of how to deliver the blows each time was shown to us prior to the actual delivery. Even if you are not interested in Sherlock Holmes, this film is worth watching purely for the relationship on screen between Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr.

More painting is now on the agenda.....

Painting and crosswords

I have spent another day indoors due to this awful weather. I don't really care whether or not it looks pretty out there any more - I am quite fed up of it now. Snow is nice to look at but not so nice to get about in - I tend to walk like an old woman when I have to go out in snow or in icy conditions - each step takes forever and I walk along walls which I hold on to in case I slip!

Driving is out of the question. I am in a permanent state of anxiety about skidding and therefore feel a danger not only to myself, but any other drivers out there, too. From what I've heard over the past 24hours, every journey in a car is taking approximately 5 to 6 times longer than normal due to black ice on the roads and everyone having to drive so slowly! I am thankful that I do not have to go out to work. We have cancelled our usual rehearsals with the Junior and Youth sections at Bilton Amateur Dramatic Society this coming week - only hope the weather improves and we can start again before too long!

Anyway, I have spent the day working on a painting that is, at present, a bit of a secret project. I am doing my best to make it a perfect painting as it will be judged not only on its merit but on the content when it is finished. It may sound mysterious, but all will be revealed in a week or so. I have spent several hours on it during the past couple of days, and will continue to do so until I am completely happy with it. I can tell you that it is an acrylic painting on box canvas, but no more than that for fear of spoiling the secret!

I have been giving my brain a bit of a work-out today, too, with the crossword in "The Week" magazine. This is the only newspaper we get, and it is ideal as it is in the form of a magazine on a weekly basis, covering the main news and events from all the other daily newspapers combined but in a condensed format. The crossword is a cryptic one. Usually Keith (my husband) and I do the crossword together, taking it in turns to solve the clues until one of us gets stuck or bored. I was up earlier than him today so I had the first shot at it.

I read a great article on a fellow artist's blog today, too. It had some great advice about promoting yourself as an artist. If I can find out how to link to it, I will do so, then you can share the advice if you're interested. Oh, I think if you click on this, it will work: peter-williams-art.blogspot.com/2010/01/selling-your-art.html?spref=fb

Well, it's nearly time to do my daily (almost, I've only missed one this week) exercises on my Wii Fit Plus - the good thing about this regime is that it's fun to do as well as keeping me fit. I try to do at least half an hour each day, sometimes up to an hour.

I may write more on here later - I can see me using this as a diary of sorts, but I may get fed up of that, so we'll see!