Steve Chivalry – Gasp Graduate Award 2011

The Art Space Portsmouth New Fine Art Graduate Award supports a promising student from the University of Portsmouth to exhibit at GASP – Gallery Art Space Portsmouth. This year’s award winner is Steve Chivalry and details for his exhibition are below along with some samples of his work. Some of you might remember Steve’s work in Garbo’s Salon on Albert Road last year. Well done Steve.

Exhibition: 18th- 29th October 2011 Private View: Friday 21st of October, 6.00pm-8.00pm. Also open: Saturday 22nd October, 12-4pm.

All other times by appointment only. Contact Steve on 07815579808, email stevechiv@hotmail.co.uk, or visit www.stevechivalry.tk

“Look but don’t touch… touch but don’t taste…taste but don’t swallow ” -Devils Advocate

Steve’s work walks hand in hand with raw human emotion, nurturing human emotions and guiding people to think about their own life situations. A lot of steve’s paintings are confrontational and designed to be so. His sculptures are designed to make you think of your current position in the reality of the present moment. The quote above taken from the film / novel Devils Advocate, highlights the inquisitive naivety of the human nature, a theme that runs visibly throughout Steve’s work.
The work within the exhibition is a collective of Steve’s most popular pieces from 2010-2011.

All About Tea – Gold Award

Local Portsmouth tea merchants All About Tea have won another award. This time it is the Gold at the Cannes Lion’s Awards for their branding by Moving Brands. Well done to Andrew and all the team at All About Tea and Ben and the team at Moving Brands.

“Since implementing the new identity we have not been able to keep up with the increased interest from new customers. It seems to have caught the imagination of a market tired of the same old design cliches in the tea sector. The rebrand was a total redefinition of what the company is and what we do. The branding feels so solid and correct. I am passionate about telling this story. It has been an incredible experience and it’s an extraordinary story of business transformation as well as of design and creativity.” Andrew Gadsden, CEO of All About Tea.

Expect to see more of All About Tea around the city in the next few weeks. The Strong Island Tea blend went down rather well at The Strong Island Exhibition at The Round Tower back in April. More details due soon about their new ventures.

Award for Ian Parmiter

Well done to local hero Ian Parmiter on getting his community award this morning from Portsmouth City Council at the Guildhall. Ian’s wonderful, generous community spirit and charity work has been recognised at long last and Strong Island think this has been a long time coming. Mr Love Albert Road / Lord Sonic – hats off to you.
The award was one of five given out to local people who have made an outstanding contribution to the local community. Read more out it on the Portsmouth News website.

Love Albert Road Day – Quiet Corners / Tiger Noah

Photographer Paul Thurlow – Well done

Well done to local photographer Paul Thurlow who has recently won the Professional Photographer of the Year award in the Travel category for Professional Photographer Magazine. The photograph was taken at dawn in Kerala, India of an Elephant and its Mahout. He was also commended in the Wedding category.
His winning photo is below and also his commended entry. See more of his work on his website – http://www.paulthurlow.com/.

The Last Resort – Student Film Wins Award

A documentary film about the decline of Portsmouth as a traditional seaside resort has won first prize for three student film-makers who graduate this week.

The University of Portsmouth students won the award for ‘best documentary’ at the Inspire Film Festival for their graduate film ‘The Last Resort’ which received critical acclaim from the judging panel including legendary film critic, Barry Norman. The film explores the decline of the Southsea as a traditional seaside resort told from the perspective of an elderly sea-swimmers group, a sea-front cafe manager and the owner of a model village.
The 16 minute film made by Russell Oastler, David Kinnaird and Lucas Way has since been picked up by the Sunday Times Short Film Community, an online showcase for the work of new film-makers which goes live in August.

The film explores the declining fortunes of The Big Wheel Cafe at Clarence Pier and Southsea’s model village, run by Mike Armet, who owns the attraction on Southsea Esplanade.
The film also introduces a group of Southsea die-hard swimmers who take a dip in the Solent’s chilly water 365 days a year. Some have been swimming there for over 30 years and even swim on Christmas Day. Sadly one of their group, 86 year old Dorothy Browning, passed away during the making of the documentary and the film has been dedicated to her memory.
Russell, who has just returned from work-experience on a professional short film, said it was never his plan to be a documentary film-maker but enjoys the unplanned nature of the medium.
“I like the idea that you don’t really know what might happen in a documentary – it could be something totally unexpected,” he said.

PRIMARY – A Phoneography Exhibition by Strong Island – Call for entries

This coming new year we will be proud to announce our latest exhibition PRIMARY, a Phoneography exhibition by Strong Island and we are even happier to announce that it’s open to you, the readers.

With the continuing increase in impressive camera technology in mobile phones and the ability to alter, tweak, post process and upload the photos to social media networks and websites like Instagram, the popularity of Phoneography has never been greater.

The ‘of the moment’ ability to take a photo at almost any time and any place by most people has really driven the fact that the camera does not make the photographer. By which I mean, you don’t need an expensive camera to take outstanding photos.

Agreed, the quality of the physical image may not stand up to the big guns, but new learnings in composition, style and aesthetic by a new generation of camera users via online media has really driven this popularity, and encourage people to go beyond a ‘quick shot’.

PRIMARY invites you to get out and about around Portsea with your mobile phone camera and take photos of anything and everything based around the three primary colours red, yellow and blue. What you photograph is entirely up to you, but submissions will only be accepted if they stick to the theme.

The call for entires has now begun and the deadline is the 31st of January 2012 with the exhibition being held in March of 2012. Photos can be taken on any mobile phone model and we ask that a maximum of 3 photos per applicant are sent in to primary@strong-island.co.uk.

Please submit along with your photographs your name, photo title, phone model, location of photo on the island and any post process apps you used, if any, to achieve the final shot.

We look forward to seeing all the entries, and the final installation will be something special using every photo submitted in a slightly different fashion from your average photographic exhibition. CLICK HERE TO PRINT YOUR OWN POSTER

Poster by Tristan Savage & Photo by Paul Gonella

It’s going to be a Strong Movember – Closed at £725

Righto chaps, it’s time to clean shave your boat race and get that mighty moustache on the grow in support of Movember for The Prostate Cancer Charity and the Institute of Cancer Research. For 30 days of November you can help support and raise awareness through selflessly parading your top lip for charity.

You can sign up yourself, as I’m sure many of you already have, or you can join the Strong Island team and seek out sponsorship as a team. Through the Strong Island Movember page you can ask people to join the group, make donations, upload photos and post updates via the MoSpace page, Facebook and Twitter.

Head over to www.mobro.co/StrongIsland if you would like to get involved and grow a Strong Moustache to help raise awareness, or simply head over to www.uk.movember.com and sign up to personally raise money.

The funds raised in the UK support the number one and two male specific cancers – prostate and testicular cancer. The funds raised are directed to programmes run directly by Movember and our men’s health partners, The Prostate Cancer Charity and the Institute of Cancer Research. Together, these channels work together to ensure that Movember funds are supporting a broad range of innovative, world-class programmes in line with our strategic goals in the areas of awareness and education, survivorship and research.

Poster: Tristan Savage