Orchard Café Sunday and Red 50

Orchard Cafe is behind West Ealing BHS

Yesterday (Day 3 Beat w/e 1) went well for us at Orchard Café which is 23+ in the excellent BEAT brochure.

Early on in the day we had  a visit from Naomi Healy who is a guiding light of the project and has been busy visiting as many of the locations as he can.

Interest was high particularly for John Kaye's work and a few items were sold.

Tim Layden who exhibited a broad range of work from figurative to abstract and some colour field in there too) was able to explain to many interested visitors his knowledge of Synesthesia a condition many artists have sought to represent (Wikipedia describes it as "a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second")

Large and varied canvases from Tim Layden

Colour Fields -A Touch of the Rothko's perhaps?

As you can see as well as interest for Tim Layden's work John too was busy selling

Tim Layden (left) chats with  Naomi Healy from the  BEAT committee  in front of  some of his  work

'Red dot' John

One of the works sold by John Kaye

Sadly there was a bit of dismantling and clearing to do as the site will be used for other things in the week to come - but so I can re-assemble it next week (and you can pretend you were there) here's a Photosynth image of my corner.

Red 50

Caught in the breeze - I can almost feel it

Blowing in the Wind

 [see the latest rough cut of the ongoing project here] 

The Ealing BEAT continues and Red 51

So our full day of BEAT at Orchard Cafe (11:00 am to 6:00 pm) and the good news was that we had a fair amount of visitors, many who came armed with the prize draw form (visit 5 'Studio' sites and enter a prize draw for money to spend on Art  seen on the Trail).


The bad news is that it's actually quite hard work - interacting with the visitors not because they're anything less than marvellous but because they are interested, involved and ask great questions.

Soundbite in Dean Gardens West Ealing

West Ealing is a busy area at the weekend with  a Farmer's Market and bargain shops including  £1 stores.

West Ealing Fruit and Veg Market

The area probably had some extra visitors to the area as Soundbite was on but sadly the weather wasn't great so as something outside people may have cut short that particular attraction.

Another Beat Artist at Orchard Cafe

I've known Gordon Cookson for over 3 years and he's a very knowledgeable  and skilled Wood Turner - his membership of Wood Turning groups means that he's sufficiently adept  to be able demonstrate  the skills of Wood turning and he's at Orchard Café this weekend and next-  making things and showing some of his best pieces (they're very varied too in terms of material, price and subject).

Gordon turning wood and producing

One of the pieces Gordon has on show

Gordon's work ranges from the small - he kindly made Mushroom shaped 'Card holders' for us all yesterday to the large - there's a big indoor vase he'd like to find a good home for.

 Part of the beauty of the items is that all the work is  individual and has a story - like this large piece  below (with a history tied to the Quakers) - it welcomes visitors to our collective 'Studio'.

The inscription draws from Quaker philosophy 

Gordon also provided input to me on my 'Red' theme ...

Red 51

Seems odd that I overlooked this - the stairs at OPEN in Singapore Road (where we're showing our work as part of the BEAT project)

Thanks Gordon for helping me see the obvious.

Red was 'Stair-ing' me in the face 

 [see the latest rough cut of the ongoing project here] 

The First Day of Ealing's New Art Trail and Red 52

Step right this way

So yesterday saw the unveiling of BEAT to the public at large - sadly the fact that those taking part are hosting at specific sites for the two weekends means that my impression is restricted to the location we're at.




Having said that we had visitors from shortly after 4:00 pm when the event kicked of to shortly before 8:00 pm when Day 1 finished felt good.

Our visitors though  spoke about other locations (specifically HelenTrevisol Duff's in Hanwell) in glowing terms.

John Kaye's Modernist work spans 50 years

He uses a mixture of materials 

John (Kaye) is undoubtedly the senior figure amongst us and has around 40 works on show.

Our visitors showed a genuine interest 

This one's called 'Forest Dance

What was really rewarding was how much work 'individual' visitors put into their visits- really engaging with the work .


Surprisingly tiring but by the end of the day we were operating as a group across our space and there'll be more on the other Artists in the soon to open (to West Ealing public)  Orchard Cafe (Gordon Cookson and Tim Layden) to come in the next couple of days

Red 52

Another satisfying thing is being able to enjoy a fine Red home produced Tomato Juice

 [see the latest rough cut of the ongoing project here] 

A glass of Red -Tomato Red

The BEAT starts (Ealing Art Trail) Red 53

Come and see us at the Orchard Café/OPEN Ealing

Well it's here (or very nearly anyway - it starts at 4:00 pm Today )  and I hope it brings some pleasure to those involved and those who come and take a look.

John Kaye 'in the House'

And a vision come to life

Yesterday John Kaye and I both made a start on putting together our individual areas - John's was looking pretty good at the end of proceedings.

Gordon (on the left) -will give demo's

I and 3 others will be showing at The Orchard Café at the back of the old BHS in West Ealing.



As well as static items we want to get people involved -Gordon Cookson the wood-turner will even be giving talks/demo's.




I'm hoping to get people involved with what I'm showing - so please do bring something Red and in return you get to look at over 300 Red images taken by me.

My own area is 'Under Construction'

My area as I got started

So if you get time either today or on Saturday or Sunday please do join Ealing's first Art trail.

Oh and talking about Red..

Red 53

A touch of Red at Street level on this man hole cover denotes 'attention'.

Keep Looking up and down

 [see the latest rough cut of the ongoing project here]