ART4U2
ART4U2 is a local arts group who meet locally to paint, draw and create art. Participants range from experienced artists, graduates, enthusiasts and beginners, all who have an interest in art and network events.
May 15th - June 25th
Curated by Eliza Stone, St. Margaret’s House Art Curator
The artists displayed are: Ali Smith, Lin Baker, Tom Lyddon, Virginia Hawke, Maureen Payne, Rebecca Wilson, Shelle Taylor, and Mike Askew
Ginny, who facilitates the group, wrote:“We love taking part in arts events, festivals and exhibitions. We love charity events like art auctions and arts fairs. We have had the opportunity to exhibit at local venues like the Yurt Café, Brady Arts Centre, Idea Stores and Poplar Union. We are really pleased to be able to show at The Gallery Café. During lockdown we had time to reflect and reminisce, then the 70 years of the Queen’s reign celebrations gave us an opportunity to look at what we like to remember and sometimes what we would like to forget. In this exhibition, nostalgia and feelings capture our memories.”
For further interest and curiosities, email Ginny ginnyhawke5@hotmail.co.uk or connect via Instagram art4u2london.Mike Askew returned to artmaking relatively recently.
Mike is on a journey of trying out different styles and media. As an aphantasic (one how has very limited ability to internally visualise the world), Mike is drawn to producing art that involves manipulation of physical materials, and collage-making in particular.
Broken Britain Acrylic and mixed media
£75 This piece is double-edged. At one level it is an appreciation of Vivienne Westwood as the pioneer of a punk aesthetic (the orb is based on her trademark), at another level reflects how as the United Kingdom is increasingly fragmented and only continues to be tenuously held together.
Linda Baker has enjoyed painting and drawing since doing art at school.
Linda writes,
“I was born in London but my teaching career has taken me to Liverpool, Newcastle, Australia and Mexico and finally back to London, where I taught drama for 20 years before retiring. I particularly enjoy pen and ink, watercolour, oils and printmaking. I love drawing and painting trees and enjoy painting en plein air. I joined art4U2 at the Create Place for the Monday evening painting sessions and am now attending the Mixed Media sessions on Tuesdays at Shadwell.
I was very lucky to have grown up in the Sixties. This is a collage of some of my adventures and memories!”
Rebecca Wilson started painting recently when attending art group Art 4u2 sessions at Brady Arts Centre.
Rebecca writes,
It’s been an amazing experience to explore painting in oils and acrylic with no judgment just advice and support. I’m not a big fan of royalty so it was challenging to make an authentic artwork for memories of a Platinum Jubilee exhibition. With this piece I wanted to honour all the queens in the world he/she/they who may never wear a crown but deserve one.
I am also part of Women on the Edge @women.ontheedge, an artist group formed during the pandemic to make art and support mental health. An online class every week during lockdowns provided a mediative moment for us to make art together, experiment and share doing what we love. We continue to support each other beyond the pandemic. Having just had an exhibition at the Yurt Cafe, along with fellow artist Virginia. We are sharing our current work on the June E8 trail, consisting of contemporary paintings and prints inspired by pattern, shapes and colour. Find out more about the trail here https://www.e8artandcrafttrail.co.uk
Maureen Payne was born in 1951 and was lucky to be a part of the Swinging 60’s.
Maureen writes,
“Music and fashion were always a following, being a mod on the back of a young man’s scooter and dancing in the west end night clubs. At 15 I was working full time so had money to groove my way about town. At 17 I left home to live the Freedom lifestyle of becoming a Muswell Hillbilly Hippie for the next ten glorious years. Then finding Glam Rock and Glam Punk, I exchanged the Hippie Frock (with some sadness as I was sure I’d keep my Hippie Chick forever!) Muswell Hill was back in those days a very desirable musical place to live, many top bands and music artists lived and started out there, it was normal to stand in the local pubs or share a house communal living with a known artist. However music, fashion and simple nonmaterialistic style of living is all that we wanted. Free Spirits was the joy of
life. Local work and heaps of cheap shared accommodation in plenty, what more could anyone want and need! Got married and regretted moving to Hackney but here I still am. Times change, Hackney changed, I changed not all for the worst, the older I got the better life became. I’ve been retired now for 10 years, having always been a creative person lucky in my jobs, being a window dresser, florist, seamstress – I’ve incorporated my skills and abilities into being a creative pensioner. 7 years ago, my holy grail was finding The Create Place here at St Margaret’s House, I joined the weekly Beading Class and Art4u2 art group which I still enjoy immensely. I love mixing media like acrylics embellished with beading and fabrics, wiring etc.
Swinging 60’s 70’s
Medium - Acrylic paint Not for sale My own journey as a teenager inspired by mod fashion and music to Hippie Flower Power, Glam Rock, happy vibes, no TV’s just good old record players, and the boys sitting around playing their guitars, did we get stoned? Communal living in harmony, peace and love. It was my life plan to stay that way forever and ever.
Queen Elizabeth
Mediums - Acrylic Paint
Embellished with assortment of jewellery. £125 Watching documentaries and picking up royal interview’s information, I listened to her tell her favourite times and places. Her most beloved place was Balmoral in Scotland, freedom to ride her horse alone unchaperoned. Picnics, family fun living a normal lifestyle the best that she was able to and for as long as she was permitted to. What comfort and joy just to BE your own self away from public demands. This painting I hope is peace, just her silhouette crowned with heavy jewels the demands of being the Queen, but behind it all is her freedom peace of mind.
Vivienne Westwood
Mediums - Oil Painting
Embellished with fabric, jewellery. £125 After her Punk days she became very uniquely stylish and remained so all throughout her life. The fashion show that made the most impression on me was a range of Grandier 16th Century dresses literally made from carpets, fine corsets, jewellery, hair piled high, dinky shoes. Vivienne didn’t hold back on glamour but in her own unique ways. Most people know her Punk days but she was a history school teacher pre fashion, perhaps is where she found her love of her own creative works.
Shelle Taylor is a London based Embroidery Designer and Artist specialising in hand and freemotion Irish embroidery techniques. She was awarded a distinction by the Royal School of Needlework in Technical Hand Embroidery and graduated from London College of Fashion BA (Hons) Fashion Textiles Embroidery in 2022. Shelle’s work is inspired by the spaces found in between the interactions of people with their environment. This world is a busy place, however, when we stop and look at these spaces created when people interact with their environment, it reveals a new worlds and moments where beautiful things can be found.
Shelle was awarded the RSN Charrington Prize for Stitchcraft in 2019, a Commendation by the Bradford Textile Society in 2020 for hand embroidery and won a Design Award in the category of ‘Glove Fit for the Queen’ from the Worshipful Company of Glovers in 2022.
The Night Train (2021)
84cmx50cm (Approx.)
Framed
£75
The Night Train is a moment capturing in the otherworldly vibe of the London Underground. The memories of many adventures out in London have all ended with a journey home, a shared memory of all Londoners and visitors to this amazing city. The convergence of people to a particular journey, to a particular carriage with the same intentions is fascinating. Often, noisy late-night revellers will be lulled to silence with the gentle sway of a carriage as it makes it way under London and beyond. It has always been fascinating to me how a busy carriage full of people can be so quiet. People are lost in their thoughts, captivated by their tech or dozing away – almost as if then they enter the Underground, we all pause for a short time on a shared journey and with a shared memory, before we alight and continue with each of our individual lives.
Rush Hour Shuffle
40cmx30cm (Approx.)
Framed
£40
The Rush Hour Shuffle evokes memories of my journeys on the Central Line in the oppressive summer heat. There are no nostalgic memories for the experience of descending the escalators at Bethnal Green Station into the increasingly hot and humid conditions. This discomfort is further amplified by the milling of people moving and shuffling past each other along the platforms. However, the memories do not end there – the final part of this experience, and the one I try and block out, is the
process of squeezing onto a packed, hot and seeming airless train to get to where I need to go. No one finds comfort, and yet we all support each other and suffer in the oppressive heat until it’s time to alight. The transition of moving from the heat oppressed carriage through the station and upstairs to the street is truly liberating.
Virginia Hawke has been creating art since she was 3 years old.
Virginia writes,
I could never put a pen down. I work in mixed media but am really into word doodle art at the moment. Working with Tower Hamlets Community Art for 30 years, I love the challenge of doing collaboration projects like art trails, in fact my "words of covid" were featured in a couple of East London art trails. I loved art college and loved doing my PGCE, have always loved learning all about art and how to involve others. I also love exhibiting and selling affordable art for everyone and organise events for art4u2. Find out more via Instagram art4u2london.
Oojamaflip
Whatjamacallit
Thingimijig
Sharpie doodle art
£25 framed
I can never remember words, being the wrong side of 50 and quite frequently use eccentric oddities of a word that many may recognise, as replacements. Whilst doing an online creative writing course I started to collect words I like by doodling them. These 3 are my favourite replacement words and there are many many more…
Ali Smith grew up enjoying art and creativity but didn’t pursue it beyond A level.
Ali writes,
It wasn’t until 7 or 8 years that I really got back into art. This was initially through Tower Hamlets adult education ‘painting and drawing’ classes and then with a local art group, art4u2, which was being run at the Create Place. I was then encouraged by fellow classmates and tutors to join them in the printmaking studio and quickly discovered a love for all things printmaking! My work has gradually evolved into printing what I see around me in East London whilst walking my Irish Terrier, Monty. I’m drawn to everyday urban scenes rather than popular landmarks. I particularly enjoy routes along the canal and the mixture of characterful boats, buildings and graffiti. I mainly produce screen prints and reduction linocuts.
‘Regent’s canal’ (Blue boat) Original 7-layer screen print
£80 unframed (£95 framed)
Limited Edition of 10. July 2022.
Printed on acid free 300gsm Snowdon cartridge paper.
I often walk this local Regents Canal path with my dog. The colours of this particular canal boat and the buildings of Queen Mary College student campus behind caught my eye and seemed a good combination for a screen print.
‘Ringo’s Patch’ Original screen print
£75 unframed (£90 framed)
Limited Edition of 10. May 2022.
Printed on acid free 300gsm Snowdon cartridge paper.
This screen print was inspired by my wonderfully friendly road. Neighbours meet for daily street coffee which started during lockdown. This is a view from one particular meeting point. Ringo is the roaming street cat who has adopted many additional households in the area.
Propose an exhibition
If you’re looking for a space to exhibit your work, we want to hear from you. Whether you’re a solo artist, or a group who want to showcase your talents, we can’t wait for you to get in touch.
About our exhibitions
Our Exhibitions are run by our Volunteer Curator and aren’t just limited to displays in the cafe. The Curator role can last up to 12 months, during which time the curator can programme all kinds of exciting exhibitions of community work, brave and bold art, and celebrate different artists.
Applications are currently closed.