Tony Nero’s Art
NEWS
The really random newsletter all about my art
l Flux
3 Exhibition
l Peterborough
Open Studios
Artists
l Featured
Artist Process Smith
l Most
recent works
l What’s
#ArtofTonyNero
on!
January 2017 issue 13
Welcome
Mini Art Workshop
What initially looked like being just one main exhibition for me this year, turned out to be a series of back to back exhibitions. At one point I found myself showing at three different venues in the same week. Now that’s some record for me.
With huge thanks to Keely Mills, the Green Backyard and the City College I was able to take part in a couple of Mini Art Workshops at the Green Backyard. The workshops took place in May and June with the first one being a small group but a much larger group the second time around.
Welcome to the 13th issue of my newsletter. I must say although it’s supposed to be random, I haven’t done one of these newsletters for quite a while. Its been a crazy year, with so much going on but pleased to be finally giving you an update to some of the things i’ve been up to.
It was also exciting to be invited this year to judge a couple of art and photographic competitions.
Cover Photo This issue’s front cover shows the painting ‘A moment in time’. This painting was spicifically created for the Flux Mini Masterpiece collection and shown at Flux 3 exhibition in Novemver at the Old Truman Brewery in London.
It was great fun working outside but we almost got blown away by the wind. It was more cozy working in the hub for the second event. I think everyone enjoyed themselves as they were asking when were the next sessions.
Faces of Change
So I managed to sneak a few new pieces into the ‘Faces of Change’ exhibition at the Norman Cross Gallery. When Derek Lopez, the owner of the gallery asked me to drop off two pieces for this new exhibition...excited, I thought ok cool! But seeing that I love a challenge I decided to try and do a new piece for this exhibition. This resulted in two new pieces plus a charcoal drawing of Usain Bolt, of which I had just finished a few days before. Also exhibiting at this exhibition, artists included Gilson Lavis, Francis Reynolds, Melissa Lopez, Davina Brett & HMP Prison Artists.
The gallery itself is a beautiful space tucked away in the quiet grounds at Norman Cross House. The Exhibition begun on 24th September and was due to finish on 31st October but was extended to the end of November. Find out more about the gallery visit www.normancrossgallery.com
Did I hear you say #FLUX Wowza! What a super experience and such fun meeting so many cool people. Thanks goes out to Charron Pugsley-Hill for drawing my attention to the first FLUX event and a massive thanks to Lisa Gray for accepting my work to such an exciting exhibition. The exhibition Flux 3, held at The Old Truman Brewery in the heart of Bricklane, is the sort of event that you really have to experience. It’s not for the likes of me to write about it to try and do it justice. These are just a few pictures to give you an idea of the spirit of Flux and the great time we had.
Robert Adam and Rosso Emerald Crimson.
Fellow artist Pedro Sousa Louro and his work
My work looking kinda cool on the walls
Lisa Gray (the force behind Flux) with hubby Phil
I wasn’t involved in FLUX 2, which was held at The Royal College of Art in December 2015. I was really chuffed to be involved with FLUX
3 and as this event has rapidly grown in strength, I can only wait in anticipation to see what Lisa has up her sleeves for FLUX 4.
Reflections & Shadows
Such an exciting time showing at this exhibition, especially sharing the space with lots of cool friends. The Yarrow Gallery boast an upstairs balcony which lends itself to the mood of the space. I always say that what ever you hang on these walls will always look quite impressive, because of the feel of the gallery. With 16 artists showing, there were so much variety of art to see, as well as live demonstrations.
A huge thanks to Caroline Kisby and Caroline Hawkins for all their hard work, putting this project together and making it a success.
Farewell City Buzz
It’s always a pleasure sitting in the hot seat, chit chatting to (Mr B) Brian ‘The Lion’ Watson, on City Buzz, over at Peterborough FM. But this was Brian’s final show as he signed off to fulfill other commitments. And what a send off it was... it was like a party in the studio, with lots of other guest and some cool live music. Also with other presenters popping in, and of course tea and cakes. Jo Feather & Doc Mason
Laurette Evelyn, Chris Watson and Brian.
Tony’s Shout Out! In this issue my shout goes out to a dear friend Sue and her family. During the last year one of her daughters was expecting twins, but then miscarried at 5 months, while she cared for her mum who at the time was fighting with cancer. I was asked to do this commission as a gift to celebrate the birth of the new baby.
Baby now older as pic from over a year ago.
Sue said ‘I want something she will look at every day and be thankful to nature’. I’ve really enjoyed working on this lovely oil painting, entitled ‘wings of Love’ Recieving the finished painting Sue said ‘I can’t begin to tell you what’s in my heart, I can’t put it into words, just looking at it has made me feel very emotional. Thank you so much my friend’.
Peterborough Artists Open Studios 2016
Display at City Gallery
What an exciting and progressive year 2016 turned out to be for PAOS. A new website, early in the year, up and running in time for Open Studios. The annual launch in Cathedral Square, a second helping of the winpaos competition and a variety of group exhibitions at prime locations. This included the launch of Art in the Heart’s
Preview evening at City Gallery
Ophelia collection, City College, Black Cab Studio, St Mark’s Church and John and Jerome at Stamford Arts Centre. Last but no means least, the icing on the cake was an exhibition held at the City Gallery, with 36 artists and over 100 pieces of work. Great to see new members taking part in Open Studios and shearing their work.
Exquisite mosaic table top by Muni’s Mosaic
PAOS 2016 in pictures
Jaroslaw Jacek Sokol’s garden
Ophelia display at Art in the Heart
Jerome Hunt at Stamford Arts Centre
Jim Tovey
At René Viner’s
City College
Ann Belamy’s
At Sue Shields
Featured Artist
Process Smith
Concrete Soul It’s always intriguing visiting other artists’ studios or workspace, not only do you get a feel for how they work but you sometimes leave feeling inspired to create some work. In this case visiting Process’ studio, while he worked on final pieces for his exhibition Concrete Soul, I just felt like moving in. With a cheeky smile on my face I went in with the killer question, the one we always get asked, ‘what’s your inspiration?’ He could have chucked a spray can at me at that point but I guess he didn’t want to spill his freshly made cuppa. Being curious about his choice of materials for this exhibition, we
went on to talk about his personal experiences of skateboarding and grafitti art, since the age of 15. While working on an earlier project and exploring materials, he realise how exciting concrete was as a material to produce art. So with his inspiration being concrete, skateboarding, grafitti, colours and the urban landscape, he set about producing work for this exhibition over a period of just 60 days. Process’ philosophy of art is ‘engaging in the world in a thoughtful way’. Visit his exhibition at the City Gallery, open 13 Jan to 25 Feb.
Smiles 4 Miles with Janey Jane
was living next door to my mum and pops in London. Great to catch up with her again recently at the Green Backyard’s Christmas fair, promoting her Smiles 4 Miles book.
So I met this well cool graffiti artist Janey Jane (Pixie) some years ago at a Blok Collective Arts Jam at the Green Backyard. After we got chatting I found out that she
The books are a collaberation of 40 professional artists from all over the world, filled with 45 exciting child friendly drawings to colour in. Each book cost £5 and half of that money goes back into buying other books and crayons for refugee children.
For further info, to buy a book or to donate, please jump on the weblink http://smiles4milesbooks.wixsite.com/refugeeaid
Body & Soul Exciting exhibition featuring figurative works from
Solo exhibition by
Tony Nero
Prue Pye Davina Brett & Tony Nero
4th to 25th March 2017
Norman Cross Gallery Norman House, Norman Cross, Peterborough, Cambs PE7 3TB. www.normancrossgallery.com
Pieces of a Dream 2 Fri 14 to Fri 28 April 2017 Stamford Arts Centre. 27 St Mary’s Street, Stamford PE9 2DL
Christmas Competition Winner
In full Christmas spirit, I decided to run a little competition, to give away a painting, to one of my lucky supporters. It was nice and easy, participants only had to post their best Christmas joke on my facebook art page, for a chance to win the lil fella below. This is what lucky winner Neville Roberts had to say, ‘Your painting arrived this morning, made me very emotional and humbled, had some losses over the last few years and believe this was sent from our loved ones. Thanks again, much love Nev and Dawn.’
Here comes the Judges
Great fun earlier in the year with some arty pals judging the #rethinkyourmind art competition. Huge thanks to the Peterborough Regional College for inviting us on to the judging pannel and for the cool entry in the PRC Yellow Book 2016.
Pictured: Kathryn Wells, Charley Genever, Tony N, Anne Welton and Lauren Irving. Other judges included Barry Devereux, Ruth Campbell and Keely Mills.
It was a tough one, but a pleasure to be on the judging panel for the Peterborough Cathedral at Night Photo Competition. An excellent response with entries and a great selection of photos, followed by a lovely exhibition.
Alexandra Carton, Jonathan Baker, Matthew Roberts and Mark Edwards.
Most recent works
It’s been another busy year producing new works and here are some of the most recent offerings. The above pieces were created for various exhixibitions. Faces of Change, Flux 3 and Reflection and Shadows. The ones below were for recent Christmas commissions.
In the picture!
Samantha Creedon-Gray looking pleased to see her portrait. Started this at the PAOS launch event in Cathedral Square in May.
Jasmine Kelly-gobuiwang met ‘Colours of Jasmine’ - Photo by Josephine Kelly
Sam Gowans looks real chuffed with this pencil drawing of his mum and dad.
Izzy Brown with his Christmas portrait. Thanks to Lynette Mees for this super pic
Frank Vernon with a print of the Springbok, an old pic but worth a mention.
Lovely pic sent in by Jenny Dahn after receiving her Xmas surprise drawing of Prince.
Gerry Warren comes face to face with himself. Charcoal drawing on paper
Photo of the day In this issue my picture of the day is that of myself and the great poet Benjamin Zephaniah. This was taken at a poetry event curated by poet laureate Charley Genever. The event ‘Freak Speak’, took place in October as part of Black History Month, and was held at Radius Club in Peterborough. A huge thank you to Charley for inviting me to show my Black Heroes collection of paintings at her Freak Speak event. It turned out to be an exciting evening of spoken words and entertainment. An added treat having Benjamin in the audience.
What’s on Concrete Souls: Solo exhibition by Process Smith at the City Gallery, Peterborough Museum, Priestgate PE1 1LF 13th Jan to 25th Feb 2017 l
Exquisite Heritage: Exhibition featuring artists Faye Gagel-Panchal, Liz Hunt & Lynne Collins at Stamford Arts Centre. 27 St Mary’s Street, Stamford PE9 2DL. 28th Jan to 12th Feb 2017 l
Body & Soul: Exciting exhibition featuring figurative works from artists Prue Pye, Davina Brett and Tony Nero. Norman Cross Gallery, Norman House, Norman Cross, Peterborough, Cambs PE7 3TB. 4th to 25th March 2017 l
Pieces of a Dream 2: Solo exhibition by Tony Nero at The Stamford Arts Centre. 27 St Mary’s Street, Stamford PE9 2DL. 14 to 28 April 2017 l
Next Issue: Whisper Through The Trees ESC Artists exhibition l Stay in touch with Art of Tony Nero follow me on Twitter, Facebook, You Tube Instagram, LinkedIn & Google+ You can also visit my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/au/shop/ArtofTonyNero