Breakout: Ian Whitmore

BREAKOUT!

In some ways it has been a fabulous spring/ early summer. At least weather wise, showing off the beauty of the Island and its coastline. Once the family and I could progress from circumnavigating our local boundaries (every which way around our estate) and travel further afield, we went up the Downs, down to the sea and into the woods.

Ryde’s Millennium Wood with its small but lovely natural pond, in May full of newts and tadpoles edged by yellow and purple iris, was a shady oasis. Steephill Cove’s super-fine shingle and spacious sky was refreshing and early morning rummages along East Cowes beach collecting sea glass and pretty stones kept the family engaged and balanced.

Steephill Cove by Ian Whitmore

The shore of East Cowes also provided inspiration and free materials to work with key worker children at Queensgate Foundation Primary on an Isle of Wight Natural History and Archaeological Society project. Via the magic of live video, the students and I discussed local wildlife, examined natural specimens and worked together (whilst apart) with clay to create a tiny flock of Turnstones, hardworking shore birds found close to the school. After a school car park pick up, the birds were taken home and painted with help from my youngest, then combined with students’ shell drawings and displayed in a glass box rescued from the old Floating Bridge No4. A further four display boxes are planned for the ‘Natural Wonders of the Isle Wight’ project. Remote interaction can be more than a means to an end then. As a member of Quay Arts, the team and I looked to our archives for inspiration for ways to engage residents in these unusual times.

Turns out we set a Guinness World record in 2000 for the most self-portraits in a gallery amassing a colossal 13,000 portraits (exclusively by children) for the ‘My Millennium’ exhibition.

Today, twenty years on, we are asking Islanders to create self-portraits for a group exhibition titled Breakout! Portraits can be in any medium (except selfies) but no more than 10cm Square.

To be part of the show you’ll need to upload a digital image of your portrait via quayarts.org (Take part / Breakout! Exhibition) so that we can add you to the online gallery, and then post or drop in the original to us to include in the physical exhibition. What we have so far are fascinating and demonstrate a great sense of humour. The Island’s resident creatives have delivered some excellent, entertaining and inspiring content recently, with the likes of the Isolation Row folk festival and Hullabaloo at Home, for which I ran a live participatory art activity, to name but a few.

One for all and all for one then.

Hullabaloo IOW Biosphere collage © Ian Whitmore

QUAY ARTS By Ian Whitmore