Leigh Art Trail 2011
I have decided I like journeys. The saying ‘it is better to journey than to arrive’ sums it up. This could explain why I never finish anything I start!
So the idea of ‘art’ and a ‘trail’ has obvious appeal to me. I have ‘done’ the Leigh Art Trail probably every year since its inception (I may have missed the odd one or two especially in its early years) but certainly since I have become an art student. Every year has a different feel, which is the organisers stated intention, but I wonder if it is me who brings a different perspective each year as my own art journey evolves.
I started the 2011 trail at the ‘wrong’ end, carelessly missing venue 47 (sorry) I began at venue 46, just as the first of many showers of rain began. I met Susan Allen, who furnished me with my art trail map and my first passport stamp for the ‘event’ Camino. More on that later. I particularly like Susan’s drawings and I met an elderly gentleman and fellow ‘trailer’ pausing for a coffee in the Taste Eatery. Finding myself also on a Food Trail was an interesting addition. Pointing his finger at his Trail map the elderly gentleman recommended venue 29 St. Clements Church and I promised to take a look.
That’s one of the things I love about Leigh Art Trail you are immediately identified as a ‘trailer’ by the distinctively coloured map that you carry (which is well produced once again this year) and the thoughtful look on one’s face as you seek out your next stop or try to look interested in the art. I was stopped so many times for directions it made we wonder if I had accidently acquired an Art Trail sticker about my person or someone had playfully stuck a note on my back saying “ask me”. I was slightly perturbed when an elderly couple asked me where the Leigh Folk Festival was. Give me a break!
Onwards. Along Leigh Road – remember I am doing the trail backwards (that is in reverse order not actually walking backwards you understand but hey I might try that one year, could be a work of art in its own right!). A quick look in venue 40 and Howard Robinson’s lovely paintings. An established venue always very friendly and pleased to see you (unlike some I must say). Another passport stamp and a passport card for Camino. I was beginning to realise I didn’t understand this Camino passport idea, perhaps I should have researched it a bit more thoroughly but I’m sure they hadn’t accounted for my idiosyncratic movements through the trail nor the lack of cards available at venues and, to be fair, I don’t think the venues fully understood either when I asked for an explanation. I was later advised, too late to rectify my mistake, that the stamps should be collected in order and a completed card would spell out some kind of message. My sparsely and randomly filled, soggy card would not get full marks and I will never know!
With 47 venues you have to be pretty dedicated to complete the whole trail and have plenty of time too. So like me you probably would dip in and out where you think you might be interested. My criteria was to either see people I knew or that I wanted to meet or a venue that I hadn’t been to before. This took me to see a contact that I had never met in person and somebody I knew from school and as a bonus I was really impressed with their artwork!
What made this year’s trail for me wasn’t the established venues or artists or the expected mix of work. Leigh Art Trail is so democratic there is something for everyone to suit all ages, tastes and pockets I would venture. Personally I would like to see more ‘contemporary’ work but at the same time I love it because it’s accessible and not too ‘out there’.
As I stopped for a coffee and cake at venue 27 Went to Market Delicatessen and a look at Simon Feather’s work, another established pairing, and again a Food Trail venue. The first of many torrential, albeit short-lived downpours. This could be where I lost my olive green cardigan and the dye from my orange shoes came to stain my feet. This probably says more about my dodgy dress sense and my choice of inappropriate footwear than it does about the art trail but it is probably how I will remember this year’s event in years to come!
Liam Murphy at The Coffee Bean Company venue 26, a new venue this year with another recommendation from a very nice young man to visit venue 18 (a private house). Heading in the direction he pointed, I admit to visiting venue 9 en-route (The Estuary Gallery) just to shelter from the rain! Once again a familiar face and work but in a new venue this year. More space to show off Ian James' lovely photos.
Rain easing I was on a mission now to complete my journey. Forgetting to go to venue 18 after all but remembering the elderly man’s instructions earlier at Taste Eatery, I thought I should keep my word and visit St. Clements Church, However, as is often the case when you do the trail, I became side-tracked; met some people from college and spent a good deal of time looking at the Dovecote created by Madelaine Murphy before descending the steps to Old Leigh to discover if my sparsely completed passport card would offer any benefits at Camino. Also, I had a blind date, of sorts, which I was already late for.
The last part of my trail proved to be the most interesting. Slightly off-trail to be fair as two of the last four venues I visited were not on the map so to speak.
Another great thing about the Leigh Art Trail is the things that happen off the back of it, timed to coincide of course but the whole week is a testament to entrepreneurial spirit and I would suggest Leigh art trail week is now bigger than the event itself, if that makes sense. There is a whole community using the week as a platform for shop openings, gallery openings, exhibitions, websites, blogs, social networking - all spinning off the main event. And I think that’s a tremendously healthy thing to be happening.
Gallery 33, not on the trail map but definitely, geographically at least, on the trail for me. An associated blog and fledgling business in a great location, nice people and probably some of the best work I saw all day. I wish them well.
So finally I arrive at Camino. A big build up for sure and intriguingly called venue 0. A maze-like installation created from beach sand on the mud that is Leigh Beach when the tide is out. I had seen the artist Jo Hartle setting up early in the day and I had my, albeit few, passport stamps. The advertised times urged me to arrive before 2 pm before the tide took the work away. However arriving a bit later than planned at 12.50 the last remnants were just disappearing under the sea. An epic piece that, I was advised was originally a light installation, was well conceived and the artist’s enthusiasm for the work was infectious giving the work an international flavour by talking of touring and the mention of Nevada immediately putting me in mind of the land art of Robert Smithson’s in particular Spiral Jetty, an earthwork created in Utah. My passport was not needed of course as I couldn’t walk the piece, although the artist suggested it might be shallow enough to paddle round if I was prepared to wade into the water. Already wet - no thanks.
The build up to Camino was well engineered and the piece (probably) was very well executed. Apart from missing the work I felt like I missed the point a bit too. The connotations with pilgrimage and religious journey, an associated blog and the work billed as “Camino is a 44 day creation piece that will arrive and leave on 18th June”. I like journeys so I was hooked. I got the idea of the week-long ‘art trail’ journey and the passport stamps, but I couldn’t work out what the 44 day journey entailed or how the event was the climax. That’s probably just me, though.
So to my penultimate destination. Off-trail again and my blind date I alluded to earlier. An email contact from someone I had never met inviting me to his first show. Intriguing! How could I refuse? This is what I like best about art. People from all walks of life enjoying making art getting a buzz out of putting on a show. This show was a mix of paintings and photography by three friends. It was well executed and I received a warm welcome unlike a key art trail venue that I won’t mention where I felt I was intruding on a private gathering and was slightly in the way.
The biggest surprise? As an after thought I visited venue 3 at the Leigh Sailing Club. I was expecting just another mix of paintings, drawings and photography. I was not expecting to be handed a small UV torch and to be sent alone into a darkened room filled with smoke and ghoulish puppetry and assemblages. A great end to my trail and the artist John Adams seems a very nice man!
Thank you to everyone I met old and new. I’ll be back next year for more of the same and some more of the new hopefully.
Leigh Art Trail interactive map is here if you want more gen on the venues or artists. Sorry the trail has now finished for this year.
