This week marks Oxford City Artweeks, and for two JKPP members in particular a chance to show some recent JKPP portraits and raise the profile of our exciting internet community to a real show! Jane Sherwood is exhibiting a number of her recent portraits, they are hung in a novel way on a wire line "like washing." These will be on display at a large Victorian church building called St Matthews, Marlborough Road, Oxford and will be shown until 29th May, the exhibition is open every afternoon, tea and coffee provided. Martin Beek is also showing JKPP work with seven recent pastel drawings based on the highly successful JKPP meeting in March at nearby St Luke's church. Along with these he has strung about 83 photographs of recent portraits on a wire alongside. They have printed out and displayed the JKPP concept too.
Martin is also showing (non JKPP work) at South Oxford Community Center, with a focus on some recent drawings, mainly of landscape and also the University Museum of Natural History. Artweeks is a chance to link art in with the local community, in a small way really what we aim for in our internet community of JKPP. Martin is a firm believer that art should not be hidden away, in one sense it is only half done if there is no audience for it, it is like an echo returning when one puts work up. Good or bad, comments are always valued and welcome, and Artweeks attracts an audience that possibly would not go to regular shows of modern art.
Both Jane and Martin were able to talk a little about their work at the church where they are showing during Sunday morning, and this too was a worthwhile venture. Martin says "It was interesting as I sat down there I could see all the many now familiar faces of our group members from our portraits displayed on the walls, it felt very much as if although absent they were a part of a great community, which really is very moving, and in my experience as an artist a unique one."
