Hooloovoo

Hooloovoo is a show by artist Cornelia Baltes, it opens this Saturday at Aspex Gallery 2-4pm. I really would encourage you to come down, if you cant make this Saturday then the show will be on till the 15th of April so plenty of time to catch it. I have been watching Cornelia install her work this week and I love it. Its playful, cute, colourful and humorous. The gallery is awash with tree trunks and stumps, adorable paintings and Cornelia pottering around covered in neon and pastel splatters of paint.

Los Stencilistas and My Dog Sighs

Over the summer local artists Los Stencilistas and My Dog Sighs took a trip to a derelict house in Havant and added some of their work to the interior. Both of these artists are part of Portsmouth Creative Movement (PCM) which now has over 70 members and their work can be seen around the streets and galleries/shops of the city.

Created Local: Nina Moscrip

Nina Moscrip is an amazing local painter and illustrator with an eye for capturing lines and colours in the old architecture of cities all over the world such as Edinburgh, Dublin, Prague, Paris and, of course, her home city of Portsmouth. Nina has an Etsy store where you can buy her paintings and giftcards and also order a painting of your own house or favourite place, all very reasonably priced too.

Created Local – Roo Abrook

I recently came across local artist Roo Abrook’s work via a friend of mine. Thoroughly deserves a mention on Strong Island.

“Roo produces ranges of illustrations, collages, drawings, paintings and surface designs. Collages are produced by hand, using vintage papers, old used musical score sheets, vintage books and annuals, as well as leather tooled binders and old, interesting objects such as Victorian lace fans. The collages are mixed with mono, lino and screen prints. Combined with computer skills as a graphic designer, the artwork is then produced into canvases, wall hangings and cushions. Roo has produced artwork for record releases, gallery shows and original commissions for well known musicians homes. ”

See more of her work on her website at : http://www.rooabrook.com/

Ric Robinson

Local artist Ric Robinson‘s first solo exhibition is now on at the The Lodge Art Centre in Victoria Park. The Lodge is a great little cafe/gallery and will be hosting the exhibition until the 30th of March, be sure to pop in and have a look. Check the Facebook event for more details, map, etc.

PRIMARY – Extended & Improved

We have some great news about our PRIMARY phonography exhibition (find out all the details here) that we can now announce:

- The deadline for submissions has now been extended to Sunday 4th March. We have had some incredible submissions but want to set aside more time to make the exhibition something really special.

- The competition is now open to up to 10 submissions from each individual. With the ability to capture many photos on your phone over the next two months we we want you to not feel restricted to just three. The same rules apply about the photos conforming to compositions using the primary colours though. If you have already submitted feel free to send more photos over as and when you please.

- The exhibition will be hosted by Albert Road’s own Bonzo Studio who are also partnering up with us in the creation of the exhibition space. More news on this soon!

- Finally, we will be running a competition as part of the exhibition where the best three photos submitted will win some incredible prizes. We will be announcing the prizes available very soon but got to say, these will be the best prize haul we have ever offered.

- We will be putting together a poster for the exhibition that will be on sale on the opening night. The poster will feature some of the best submissions and all profits from the sales will go to a local charity (details to follow soon). Due to this we need to say that any photos submitted to PRIMARY will involve you giving us permission to use them for commercial purposes, if you do not want your photo used in this way simply let us know via email.

Well, that is it for now! We really hope to drum up as much coverage locally for PRIMARY in the next couple of months so if you could Facebook/Tweet/+1 about the exhibition we would really appreciate it. We would love this exhibition to be a real reflection of the whole population of Portsmouth with everyone taking part and feeling involved.

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