Newbury Weekly News

69 / 96

Thursday, May 11, 2017 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
All good,
gritty
Godber
MEMBERS and guests of Newbury
Art Group were treated to a
demonstration of street scenes in
acrylics, by the inspiring artist
Hashim Akib.
Akib, who writes regular articles for
Artist and Illustrators magazine and
gives ongoing demonstrations of art
techniques to art groups around
the UK and overseas, gave a very
informative and colourful
demonstration.
His latest book, Painting Urban and
City Landscapes, is currently on
sale.
This art demonstration was one of
many arranged for members and
guests of the Newbury Art Group,
together with weekly painting groups,
art and sale of work exhibitions,
outdoor painting days, coach trips to
art galleries and more.
New members are welcome. Further
information can be obtained from
or
Facebook: Newbury Art Group.
BRENDA ROULLIER
The way of the ar tist
Exhibition
Nick Schlee: Drawing to
Painting, at Arlington Arts,
Snelsmore, until June 30
Acrylic street scenes inspire at group
Demonstration
Newbury Art Group:
Hashim Akib, at Shaw-cum-
Donnington village hall, on
Sunday, April 30
Drawing to Painting follows the creative process
JOHN Godber is a prolific writer of
gritty observational plays, many
based on his own experiences. The
Empty Nester’s Club! is his 60th
stage play and will resonate with
parents whose offspring have left
home to embrace the wide world at
university.
Vicky (Jane Hogarth) welcomes us to
this ‘support group’ that tries to help
parents come to terms with the
emotional turmoil caused by their
children leaving the comfort of their
‘nest’ as they explore a new life on their
journey of self-discovery.
Vicky, a teacher, and Phil Barrett
(Robert Angell) are a typical middle-
aged, middle-class couple who have
always wanted the best for their now
independent and somewhat precocious
daughter Mollie (Josie Morley).
Phil is a graduate from Bradford
University and tells us: “There’s no
rule book to follow when they are born,
but at least we’ve got her to university.”
But perhaps they should watch out as
you may “reap what you sow”.
When Mollie is fast-tracked for Oxbridge
the pride in the parents is palpable, but
Mollie doesn’t fancy going to Oxford,
causing consternation for the devoted
parents and decides to go to UCL in
London instead – well, it will be more
fun.
There are some hilarious moments
when accommodation issues are
debated. Does she really need en-suite
facilities and if so at what cost? Then
there are visits to IKEA to buy ‘stuff ’
and, of course, the painful process of
letting go.
For Phil and Vicky, this newfound
freedom creates its own tensions as
they try to fill the void. Perhaps a
holiday – after all it was 18 years when
they were last away on their own?
However, their relationship is becoming
a struggle and when Vicky returns from
a lone holiday in Brazil complete with
a tattoo and educational psychologist,
Phil has taken up kung fu and they both
find their new roles hard.
It’s all good Godber fare, filled with
funny witty one-liners and staged by
three accomplished actors, who bring
an honesty to their engaging
performances.
John Godber directs his company
with pace and humour, in what is an
entertaining, lighthearted sit-com
that was thoroughly enjoyed by the
appreciative audience.
ROBIN STRAPP
IF you’re interested in how painters
create their work, you’ll enjoy Nick
Schlee’s exhibition at Arlington Arts,
which takes the lid off the process of
painting.
His semi-abstracted, expressionistic
landscapes and cityscapes are vigorous
in line and colour. Working in a high-
key, saturated palette, often in non-
realistic colour equivalents, he applies
thick oil paint in energetic, directional
brushstrokes, which produce mobile and
thickly-textured surfaces and a feeling
of movement and excitement in the
images.
In this unusual show, finished oil
paintings are hung together with the
charcoal drawings and/or oil pastel
sketches which led up to them, with
short explanatory notes on the ideas,
approach, theory and making of each
work. You are thus able to see the stages
by which the finished paintings were
created, which initial ideas made their
way into the final work, which were
altered or which jettisoned altogether.
Sometimes notes also help the viewer to
‘read’ the composition, showing, for
example, in Copse in Meadow, how the
eye moves over the composition until it
rests at a certain point.
The show also includes explanatory
boards giving information on sizing up a
drawing, and on line, colour and tone.
The muscularity of Schlee’s paintings
often involves just that. Sometimes, he
says, as in The Manger, Uffington,
translating a small sketch stroke into
the size in which it appears in the final
painting “needs strong arm movement
… and the movement of the whole body”.
The dynamics of colour are at play in
Barn Roof at Stoke, painted with
panache. The roof was sketched initially
in charcoal, then in an intense oil pastel,
with the contrasts of the roof in the
final painting created by the tension
between opposite colours, here red and
green. In Barn at Streatley, painted in
blistering colour, two opposing colours
have created drama and light; in
Wittenham Clumps, this is achieved by
setting orange against blue.
In Covent Garden North, a composi-
tion of strong verticals and diagonals,
the finished oil painting bursts with
saturated, non-realistic colour; the
colour sketch, however, is much
quieter. In Barges at Blackfriars, the
charcoal sketch is a more dominant
composition than the finished oil,
which has a cool, limpid quietness, in
gentle whites, yellows and blues. In
Thames at Buscot, the artist made at
least five black and white drawings
before he found the composition he
wanted for the final painting.
In Under Blackfriars Bridge, both
the pastel sketch and the finished oil
concentrate on a deep, dramatic,
horizontal foreground of choppy,
agitated water contrasted with the
low, serene curves of the bridge in the
background. Non-realistic colour is
pushed to very pleasing extremes
here. Other works rely on linearity. In
Ploughed Field near Swindon, the
meandering lines of plough both
create and sustain the composition.
Some viewers may find they
sometimes prefer the sketches to the
finished works. In Railway Bridge
near Pangbourne, the two oil pastel
sketches have more dynamism, vigour
and colour contrasts than the more
placid, tonal, finished oil. Sometimes
the detail of a preliminary drawing or
sketch is simplified in the final oil, as
in Steep Hill and Trees; in other
works, only parts of the initial
sketches make it to the finished
painting. In Long Shadow over
Stubble, the heavy charcoal sky has
been abandoned in the final oil, but a
small, bright, rectangular field,
essential to the finished work,
remains, glowing at the top left. In Red
Pillars at Blackfriars, the artist has
concentrated on only part of the
original sketch in the final work.
This enjoyable show is not only an
exhibition in the accepted sense, but
also a tutorial in painting itself: on
ideas, composition, colour theory, line,
and the physical act of painting. So if
you often like a painting, but you’re
not sure why, this is the show for you.
It runs until June 30 (Mon-Fri, 10am-
4.30pm).
Not to be missed.
LIN WILKINSON
This enjoyable show is
not only an exhibition in
the accepted sense, but
also a tutorial in painting
itself: on ideas, composi-
tion, colour theory, line,
and the physical act of
painting
Children’s
aviatrix
WITH The Explorer, puppeteer Lori
Hopkins has created a short, sweet
show inspired by the life of aviatrix
Amy Johnson. Aimed at children
aged three to eight, the heroine is
an unnamed 12-year-old whose
plane runs out of fuel, splutters and
crashes. The pilot descends by
parachute into an alien environment
where she has adventures
underwater, in space in a silver rocket
and with a boxy elephant.
Every so often Hopkins disappears
behind a screen showing a reddish
desert landscape to bring out a new
puppet or prop. These are made by
Oxford-based puppet master Stephen
Mottram and Northampton Theatres’
propmaker Ross White. The aviatrix is
a complex marionette with 14 strings,
enabling the puppet to move realistically
on the stage. With aviation goggles, cap
and sandy coloured clothes, the aviatrix
encounters a flock of birds and a shoal
of fish, waved simply above her by
Hopkins. It’s an old-fashioned
production.
Although the show lasts no more than
20 minutes, there is a further 20 minutes
of questions and answers from the
audience. Hopkins gains the confidence
of the children with a cheerful
demeanour and hands power to them
with their suggestions and comments.
This session is educative because
Hopkins explains how each of the
strings pulls a different part of the
marionette’s body. She describes how
the aviatrix puppet was made out of
wood, then sanded, with glue and paper
for the head. Hopkins even asks the
children to name the puppet but rejects
the one popular suggestion of Dora the
Explorer.
Hannah writes: The puppet was funny
because she got shocked and she didn’t
know that the audience was there.
She went on an airplane and it fell
apart and she fell into space. There was
an elephant and it was different to our
elephant because it didn’t have any
eyes. The puppeteer said we needed to
blow so that she could move the boat but
there wasn’t any wind. We shouted for
the explorer at the end because she was
asleep. She went on an adventure and she
was tired. It was brilliant.
JON LEWIS
p Pictured left:Hashim Akibwithhis
demopainting
Theatre
The Explorer, at The North
Wall, Oxford, on Sunday, April
30
Theatre
Empty Nesters’ Club!, at the
Corn Exchange, on Thursday,
April 27, and Friday, April 28
UpperBasildonartistNickSchleeathisArlingtonArtsopeninglastweek Picture:GeoffFletcher
Newbury Weekly News