Website of the month...

It's a little late, but I have had a lot on my plate recently, so here it is (finally!).

The website I have chosen this month shows work by Helen Owen. Here is a little taster of her work to tempt you to visit her site...

All these images are for sale in the BrainCell Gallery.

Last of the photos of ArtsFest Art Fair!

(Unless you have any you would like to send for me to post here...)

Membership scheme...

There is now a membership card available to BrainCell Artists, which allows 10% discount at Everyman Art Supplies (not in conjunction with any other offer or promotion), in Edgbaston and Solihull.

If you are already a member and would like one please send a stamped SAE and I shall send it out.

If you are an artist or maker and would like to join the Collective then please email me examples of your work, or a weblink, and a brief creative history, to info@braincellcollective.com.

Artist's success...

The ArtsFest Art Fair was a massive success - with hopefully more like it to come - and one of the artists did particularly well.

Paul Cross from Nottingham sold a staggering amount of work, and picked up a few possible commissions along the way. He was thrilled to sell so much, and was ecited to do something so different, so removed from showing work in a gallery.

"Both days of the Birmingham ArtsFest were a great success for me. I did much better than expected. When you're working in a studio, you become very attached and insular towards your work. I'm never sure how people will respond to it. I found it very refreshing to hear the comments and encouragement from people viewing my work. It's a great source of inspiration to listen to their enthusiasm. You often miss the feedback if your art work is hanging in a gallery.
All the other artists on the stalls were friendly, very easy to talk to and share ideas with. I came away feeling positive and raring to paint again. It was a very enjoyable weekend!"

We wish Paul further success with all future events and exhibitions, and shall look forward to seeing some more of his work.

Here is a little taster of his paintings...

"Mindful States" exhibition at Chameleon Gallery

Hi folks,

In tandem with the Walsall Wellbeing Festival,the Chameleon Gallery wishes to invite you all to the preview of "Mindful States",this will be held on friday 6th October from 6.30p.m.- 8.30p.m.
Mindful States is an exhibition of inspirational people exploring the issues and influences of mental health on their work and the use of art to explore their personalities.It runs from 6th-27th October and is open from weds-saturday 10.30a.m.-5.30p.m.

On world Mental Health Day,Tuesday 10th October from 12 noon-2p.m. their will be a celebration of the Dawn Jones Art Prize,where the finalists will be announced.Finger Buffet provided by Maureen Jones and prizes donated by Gadsbys,Artist Supplies of Queen Street ,Walsall.

Saturday 21st October will see the launch of "Confidences and Confessions" a series of conversations concerning local service users experiences produced by Alan Cheeseman onto a CD aimed at helping greater understanding of mental health issues.Funded by Arts Council England Tea,cake and conversation all day!


Chameleon Gallery,
23-25 Sandwell Street,
Walsall,WS1 3DR
01922 646724
www.chameleonarts.co.uk


With various local, national and international artists who suffer different mental health problems, the show will raise awareness of lots of issues! Participating Artists images can be arranged, as can interviews, get in touch if you require either!

Regards Alan Cheeseman,artist/curator of Chameleon Gallery

New member...

I would like to welcome a new member to the collective, Emily Mitchell...

Here is a small selection of her work - you will see much more of it in the future!

Here is the video from ArtsFest...

Recorded on the Sunday, 10th September 2006...

More ArtsFest Photos - from the Birmingham Flickr group

Thanks to everyone in the Birmingham Flickr Group for taking some great photos of the whole of ArtsFest 06, and for documenting a truly historical occasion... (I did try contacting someone to ask permission to use these photos, but couldn't, so I have linked back to Flickr for each photo - hope you don't mind!)

Here are some of the group's photos of the BrainCell Art Fair, from 9th & 10th September 2006.

Clicking on the photo will take you to the original Flickr page it was lifted from...








Please have a look at the other Flickr ArtsFest photos - you may be on them if you were there!

ArtsFest photos...

ArtsFest was an amazing success this year!

Only about half of the artists have reported back so far with the amounts they made and it's already over £5000 in total...

We took a couple of photos, with a vid which I shall attempt to embed, and there are some amusing photos that the Birmingham Flickr group took - I shall link to those later.

For now, here are the ones I took, and some Ken Hurd took as well...

Please click the image to viewer a larger version.


... and here are a couple of 360 degree shots, that I hope to import into a little java thing so you can scroll around freely...



And these are ken's:




I shall be uploading some more photos of all the individual artists soon...