Art exhibition uplifts Loch Arthur community

Beautiful and amazing

This is how a resident of Loch Arthur Camphill community described their recent art and craft exhibition.  Read on to find out more….

Over a weekend in March our community hall was transformed into an art gallery, complete with the all essential gallery café. The hall was filled with crafts and art made by Loch Arthur residents including paintings, drawings, collage, lino and woodblock prints and sculptures. There were also beautiful pieces of craftwork, pottery, hand-made lace, photographs, dolls and mosaics on show. The range of skill and talent on display was astonishing.

Encouraging creativity

So many people in the community quietly work away at crafts and art and this was an opportunity to share the fruits of their creativity with a wider audience (and to relax and eat a chocolate éclair).

Encouraging creativity in each other is important. The exhibition gave us an added incentive.  We ran group workshops on exploring image, colour and texture through collage and painting. In addition to the group work there were one-to-one sessions engaging with the medium of photography and of painting. These workshops produced remarkable work.

Covid bubbles

Loch Arthur has formed a bubble around the community during this Covid crisis. We are able to mix and mingle within its boundary though we do avoid large gatherings. The event ran on Saturday and Sunday with an earlier and a later session on each afternoon. The community was divided into four groups and each group was allocated a session so that we could keep the numbers in each session at an appropriate size.

Social delights

The art exhibition was a warm, social experience and it was exciting to see the quality of work that is being created. There was a great sense of pride and achievement for contributors to see their work displayed and appreciated.

It was a great event – relaxed, interesting artwork to look at, a great playlist and with delicious cream-cheese cake. What’s not to like?

 

Blog by Denis Chanarin, a vocational volunteer at Loch Arthur.