Category Archives: Art

Introducing a new artist

‘This’ by Delphine Seddon

This 
is what 
it feels like
on the worst days
all those black days
oil slicks on the brain
residue of my regret is 
clogging up the veins
slumping through
something like
a heartbeat
say bad things 
to the good people
only fuck the bad people
doubling over at the sight of
blue jeans ripped at the knees
leather jackets studs in noses
as I’m transparent now so
weightless cold drifting
can’t feel the breeze 
the colour of petals
can’t remember 
the taste of 
her hands as I
count each nail 
with my tongue
scared to  sleep
scared to wake
scared of not
feeling this
tie me to 
the bed
tie me 
to 
a
n
y
t
h
i
n
g

Meet the Poet

Delphine Seddon is a Faber Academy graduate and studied poetry at Goldsmiths, London. She has been short/long-listed in the WHSmith Young Writers Competition and Henshaw Press Short Story Competitions, and published by Muse Pie Press. She works in the music business.  

Still Life with Fabrice Poussin

For our regular readers, Fabrice is like an old friend. We know him as a fantastic writer, poet and artist. Today, we can enjoy and admire his still life photography in our slide gallery – just the right dose to remind ourselves that our world really is beautiful.

Meet the Author!

Fabrice Poussin is the Advisor for The Chimes, the Shorter University award-winning poetry and arts publication. His writing and photography have been published in print, including Kestrel, Symposium, La Pensée Universelle, Paris, and other art and literature magazines in the United States and abroad.

Susan Routledge – a Gift to See the Beauty around Us

Today we have a special pre-Christmas present to unwrap. We have the pleasure to introduce an exceptional international artist, Susan Routledge.


Susan was born in rural Northumberland, close to the Scottish border and the English Lake District. She was brought up with a love of country life that she captures in her paintings. After studying at Newcastle College of Art, she worked as a watercolour artist for Halcyon Days in London, which has a royal appointment as suppliers of objects d’art to Her Majesty the Queen.
In 1981 Susan came to California where she now lives and works. She has achieved her Master Signature from the California Watercolor Association and has studied under the late local artist, Jade Fon, as well as Tom Nicholas, Gerald Brommer, Betty Lynch, Frank Webb, Irving Shapiro, Leo Smith and Carrie Burns-Brown. She is the recipient of several “champagne awards” from Asilomar.
Each summer Susan returns to England where she spends time sketching and painting scenes of English country life.
Susan loves strong dynamic colours, and she enjoys challenging herself with complicated images and various textures. She has been invited to participate in national shows such as the Sand Diego Watercolor Society International exhibition, the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts exhibition in Massachusetts and the Sausalito Arts Festival.
Susan received the first-place award in the California Watercolor Association’s Twenty-Fifth Annual Open Watercolor Exhibition. She has received numerous awards from various artistic institutions. Her paintings are included in many private and corporate collections, including those of Genentech, Kaiser Permanente and the City of Vacaville.
Susan’s most recent work reflects her love of the scenic beauty of northern California and the Mendocino coast where she now has her studio.

Poetry in Photography by Carl Scharwath

Carl Scharwath is our regular contributor in prose, poetry and visual art, and there is a reason why we select his work. He has the gift to see things differently, seeing the unusual in the ordinary, which is what artists and writers do. The world changes because of the way we see it.

About the Author

Carl Scharwath, has appeared globally with 170+ journals selecting his poetry, short stories, interviews, essays, plays or art photography (His photography was featured on the cover of 7 journals.) Two poetry books ‘Journey To Become Forgotten’ (Kind of a Hurricane Press).and ‘Abandoned’ (ScarsTv) have been published. His first photography book was published by Praxis. His photography was also selected to be in the Mount Dora Center For The Arts gallery and their show “Be A Part Of It.”   Carl is the art editor for Minute Magazine, a competitive runner and 2nd degree black- belt in Taekwondo. 

Woodstock by Carl Scharwath
Arches by Carl Scharwath

Introducing Jane Burn

We know Jane as an outstanding poet from the North East of England whose skill with words is regularly recognised both nationally in the UK and internationally. Today, we introduce her as a supremely talented visual artist. She works in a wide variety of mediums, from watercolour, acrylics, pencil and pen & ink through to lino cutting and sculpture. Much of her work carries a strong environmental message, having been produced on or with reclaimed materials in order to lessen the burden on landfill. Most of her artwork is sold privately and her illustrations have been used as covers for many of the pamphlets published by BLERoom Press. She has provided the artwork for the covers of anthologies including Noble Dissent (Beautiful Dragons), Bloody Amazing (DragonYaffle), Be Not Afraid: An Anthology in Appreciation of Seamus Heaney (Lapwing) and Witches, Warriors. Workers (Culture Matters).

Images by Jane Burn (left to right, top to bottom): Bad Housewife; Blue Angel; Cover for the Witches, Warriors, Workers anthology (Culture Matters Press); Mother, Tunnel; Old Age, Cat and Books; Self-portrait as a Hare; Swan (previously published in One of These Dead Places, Culture Matters Press); Whale Queen

Introducing Stela Brix

Mojave by Stela Brix, 2018
A Girl by Stela Brix, 2020
Bridges by Stela Brix, 2018

 

 

Stela Brix’s illustrations have lifted many of our beautiful written pieces. Stela is a Slovak artist who has studied fine art at the universities in Britain and Australia. She is about to finish her fine art degree at the Newcastle University. In her art work, she is often inspired by nature and the elements of wonder. She likes working in various media. Her experience involve illustrating stories and books for children. We hope that you like her sensitive and delicate work as much as we do. Feel free to get inspired by her beautiful images. Today’s word is FLOW.

Introducing Kasia Grzelak

Our regular readers will be familiar with Kasia’s work. You can learn about her inspirations and background in her personal statement. We love Kasia’s work: both playful and satirical in its reflection of the world around us.

Inspired? Try writing something in response to one of her pieces!

Meet the Artist!

Kasia Grzelak paints on canvas and paper. She explores the concept of Polish Identity in England after immigrating to North West England in 2006.

As a Polish immigrant Kasia Grzelak has been using painting as a translatory form of expression throughout her experience of two cultures. Her large scale work on paper attempts to convey emotions through form-making, often placing Polish women against a symbol to represent individual experiences they had during immigration. She creates these large drawings to convey a certain vulnerability and alienation that Polish working-class women feel in the North of England. She is particularly fascinated by how psychological states can correspond to physical and social spaces. Through conversations with her subjects, she uses pets, reflections and objects to tie to an individual and become representative of their experience.

Her work on canvas captures a sense of moment in the painting. The scenes depict everyday life whilst capturing aspects of her culture in the details. Through her position of figures you will get an idea about the relationship dynamics between the people portrayed and what they represent.

Introducing Victoria Holt

Northumberland artist Victoria Holt studied Fine Art at Camberwell College of Arts, London, where she experimented with multiple approaches and media: from stop-motion animation to conceptualism. Since graduating she want back to basics, rediscovering her love of drawing and figurative painting. In the last four years, she has collaborated with poets and writers, which culminated with her illustrations appearing in three books in two different countries and two art exhibitions in The Forge, Allendale, and Queens Hall, Hexham, United Kingdom.

We hope that the illustrations, many of which you have seen in our online publication already, will, in return, inspire poets and writers to create something new. Today’s prompt: Search.

Left to right, top to bottom: A Lost Shoe;  A Child’s Hand; Friends;  The Shoe of Childhood; In the Cage; The Rutting Stag; A Moth to a Flame; Queen of Hearts; A Swallow

Moth to a Flame, Victoria Holt. 2016
Victoria Holt. 2017
Swallow by Victoria Holt, 2016

Introducing Roger Bloor

There are quite a few people in the British writing community who are familiar with Roger’s successful poetic output. His print-making may come as a surprise but we love this blend of verses with an image, both presented as a piece of art. Today’s prompt: CONNECT.

 

About the Author:

Roger Bloor is a poet and print maker from North Staffordshire. He has been published in a number of anthologies and magazines including Magma. His poetry pamphlets , ‘A Less Clear Dream’ and ‘Aldgedeslegh’ were shortlisted for the Arnold Bennett Book Prize 2018 and 2019 respectively. He has had poems commended in the Hippocrates Poetry Competition in 2017 and 2019.  He was poet in residence at Trentham Gardens 2018/19. He won the 2019 Poetry London Clore Competition.  His poems also appeared in the Bridges anthology, published earlier this year. http://www.rogerbloor.co.uk