Painters thrive as the Manx Artful Dodgers

Tinstructing the oil painting classes for beginners, introducing basic marksmanship. And it’s a very international group, introducing each other to their own experiences from backgrounds which included Georgia/Latvian and Chinese, as well as Manx-born and from across.

“Last year we were asked to produce oil paintings for a pop-up exhibition as part of an art project,” says course leader Anna, “and the Artful Dodgers rose to the challenge. The theme was the Manx Landscape and the exhibition, held at the Engine House in Castletown in November, was curated, promoted and run by the students, many of whom hadn’t exhibited their oil paintings before.”

It was very successful, with the artists enjoying interacting with the visitors and even making a few sales, so it’s no surprise that there will be another pop-up exhibition later this year. “Watch out for more information on social media” says Anna, “and of course in Gallery!”

Many of the group’s members have used these classes to rekindle a dormant love of painting, either from studying art at school or university or working in an artistic or creative field but whose lives had taken them down a different path. Naturally as time went on, the class gained some new faces and sadly lost a few, but the core group have stayed together.

Claire Ormerod is one of the Artful Dodgers: “I studied art through A level but life took over and it wasn’t until I dropped down to part-time working that I tried oil painting with Anna,” Claire says, “and she was so encouraging that I’m actually painting in my own time again, after 27 years! Putting on an exhibition was so daunting at first,” she continues, “particularly after the challenges the pandemic had brought. I’d injured my hand during lockdown and it would have been so easy just to give up, but my doctor and physio told me to use my hand as much as possible and it was so good to have my painting to focus on. The success of the exhibition was a bonus and so encouraging.”

And now there is something else exciting for the Artful Dodgers to focus on: Manx singer/songwriter Christine Collister has asked the group to produce paintings inspired by her new songs, which are based on Manx folklore and a ‘magical sense of space’. Anna is very enthusiastic about this project and says, “I’m looking forward to seeing how the Artful Dodgers interpret Christine’s brief and I know it will stretch their skills and imaginations to the full.”

Here at Gallery we look forward to sharing the results in a future issue.

If you would like to turn your hand to oil painting whether you’re a complete beginner or a returner to art, the UCM classes run for 9 weeks in the Spring and Autumn terms and continue at the Arts Society during the rest of the year. More information about these classes is on the Anna Clucas Fine Art Facebook and Instagram pages www.facebook.com/ annaclucasartist @annaclucasfineart and to see what the Artful Dodgers are up to follow www.facebook.com/ manxartfuldodgers

Words: Suzy Holland

Images: Elly Kelly (with thanks to Margaret Claydon)

Ialways knew Elly Kelly was a talented photographer and artist, but I had no idea she was going to write a novel as compelling as The Nihilist & The Butterfly Catcher

Elly Kelly to Claire Josefine, January 2018

Elly was born in the Isle of Man in 1971, and the novel, although set in the wilds of Scotland, feels very Manx: a story about a young woman, Kate, travelling around in her dilapidated van, looking for an elusive ‘something’. Kate’s a loner, happy with her own company, creating art from pebbles, shells and seaweed on the beach and taking photographs for her blog before the art is washed away by the tides. Then along comes troubled runaway Grace, sparking an unfamiliar caring instinct which Kate finds almost frightening: unlike her art, she has no control over it, or over Grace.

The two women rub along together – Kate vacillates between wanting to hand Grace over to the authorities, and wanting to keep her close. Grace, for reasons that become clear, would rather continue running than go back to her old life, and when photographer Alec arrives in their lives, everything changes.

To go into more detail would very likely ruin the book for you but, as the blurb on the back already says that one heroine is doomed you know it’s not going to end well for someone. And compelling though it is, The Nihilist & The Butterfly Catcher is not an easy read: it covers some challenging issues – probable Asperger’s, child abuse, incest, depression, and a nihilist’s view of life as meaningless. But sadly The Nihilist and The Butterfly Catcher is both Elly’s first and last novel - she died from Covid in early 2021.

The novel’s genesis was anything but easy and was undoubtedly influenced in part by Elly’s experiences as a digital forensics expert examining seized computers to help prosecute child abusers. This had a profound effect on her - she eventually gave the job up due to the distress and stress it caused - and, as you might expect from an IT expert, the draft novel was hidden on her computer hard drive, protected by passwords and security only Elly could decode. Although she had shared hard copies of early drafts with her mother Margaret Claydon, when Elly died Margaret assumed it was lost forever. However, and without telling Margaret, Elly had also shared the drafts with author, editor and publisher Claire Josefine, at whose off-grid Airbnb in California Elly had stayed in Sept 2017. The two women had become friends and kept in touch - ‘I make a good penpal’ Elly said - and when the novel was finished in January 2018 she emailed it to Claire who then offered to copyedit it free of charge.

“It sucked me in from the start,” says Claire now. “I wrote to her to say how much I’d liked it, despite the disturbing content and that I felt it was definitely worth publishing. But life went on, and I’m ashamed to say that I dropped the ball on finishing editing the novel, although we continued our online chats and emailing,” Claire continues. “Then all went quiet so in early 2021 I sent a message asking if everything was okay, what with Covid and everything, but didn’t hear back. And then one day I got a Facebook notification that someone had commented on her page. That’s how I learned that she was gone. Damned Covid got her.”

Soon afterwards Claire contacted Margaret via Facebook and told her she had Elly’s draft of The Nihilist & The Butterfly Catcher, and although it took many months of cross-continent editing and design, eventually in late 2022 Claire published The Nihilist & The Butterfly Catcher on her own imprint Winter’s Daughter Press.

It’s always difficult to be objective about books written by friends, but I’m not the only person to think that The Nihilist & The Butterfly Catcher is an astonishing read. Fellow author Graham Hamer (The Manx Connection and The French Collection series) says he is “green with envy that someone should have the ability to create such a monumental gem at their very first attempt. It is better than good, it’s brilliant.” Breesha Maddrell says that what stands out in The Nihilist & The Butterfly Catcher for her is “Elly’s ability to quietly and intelligently name the fragility of life simply held together through quiet acceptance and awkward companionship. What is beautiful can be fleeting but these stories of hers will endure.” And Cat Jenkins thinks “Elly’s characters fairly leapt of the page…I found myself very invested in how their stories unfolded. This is a book I won’t forget any time soon.”

Margaret says that Elly always wanted to be a novelist but I don’t think she’d have been able to write this novel without also being an artist. The descriptions of Kate’s beach installations and even the plaster casts of her own face that she carries around in a cardboard box, are not just Kate’s work, they are Elly’s: a project which exists outside the novel. The cover photo of a mask emerging from the beach was chosen by Elly but Margaret posed the mask on the rear cover herself, on what is not sand, but Elly’s ashes: a haunting reminder of - and tribute to - her daughter.

The Buggane images which divide the chapters were also Margaret’s idea. “Elly’s draft just had asterisks,” says Claire, “so Margaret suggested an image of the shape-shifting magical butterflies which Elly had originally created for an exhibition of Manx folklore.”

“Bugganes are called on by fairies to punish those who offend them,” says Margaret, “and as a true Manxie, Elly was wary of fairies, always making her outdoor sculptures and artworks ‘Buggane friendly’. So although some of Elly’s images of Bugganes are supposed to scare, I chose the more delicate beautiful butterfly images to keep them happy.”

Copies of The Nihilist & The Butterfly Catcher cost £5.99 from the Bridge Bookshops in Port Erin and Ramsey. The pop-up Green Centre under the carpark on Chester Street, Douglas every Saturday has copies, along with prints of Elly’s Buggane images. Margaret is making a donation to IOM homeless charities from every sale as ‘this seems relevant and appropriate.’ I’m sure Elly would approve.

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