Manchester we LOVE you! Part 2

I came back.

2 weeks later.

This time I came with the lovelies from Pure Arts Group https://www.pureartsgroup.co.uk/and we did a day of galleries. First, we went to The Lowry where we were given a tour of the Lowry exhibition. Now I’m not normally a huge fan of Lowry but I really fell in love with his beautiful drawings. They were so free and confident. The talk was fascinating, and it really hit home that every artist must start somewhere, and even the ‘greats’ are often plagued by self-doubt. Lowry, as with many others, was discouraged from his art path and got himself a ‘normal’ job before art found him again.

We then had a mini photoshoot outside Whitworth Art Gallery for use on the Pure Arts website. Myself, Sculpture Ollie Holman , Chérie Lubbock , Freya Niamh and Lesley Samms were filmed strutting our stuff by Caitlin Lock Photography. All in a days work lol.

We all had a leisurely, very tasty lunch at the Whitworth café, with lots of swopping of advice and ideas. The last 2 years of being a member of Pure Arts has really shown me the importance of these meet ups. To hang out and chat with other artists is so refreshing as you don’t feel like you are boring the pants off them, because they are just as art obsessed as meee!

The gallery was showing a fabulous exhibition of textiles by Althea McNish Colour is Mine

She designed prints and fabrics for Liberty and Heals in the 60’s. This was obviously right up my street, as I kind of, totally love 60’s and 70’s fabrics. My work is heavily inspired by retro. Plus I was fascinated to read about her start in life, as she originally hailed from the West Indies, which is where my Mum grew up. The photos from that time in her life were intriguing, as I just imagined my Mum there too.

After this I resisted the temptation to buy everything in the Whitworth shop. This book The Art of Drag - Jake Hall really caught my eye, so if anyone needs any present ideas…

Manchester, we will be back.