Art on Trees, Drawing Dancers and Open Studio..Julie Caves Tells Us About Her Involvement This Year

Julie Caves, Beach 2, Oil Painting

Could you tell us about the work you will be showing during this year's E17 Art Trail?

I am organising or contributing to a number of exhibitions and events for this year's Trail including Between Ingurgitate and Inhale (an exhibition  of 12 artists I am organising with Katja Rosenberg), Art Grows on Trees (We are making work to give away on trees in the Town Square), The Allure of Leaves (A three-person show on the theme of trees and leaves) and Dancing and Drawing Through Time. This is a drawing event I am organising with Lissa Chapman. Please come along to watch the dancers and draw the figure in motion. On the last day of the Trail this will be a great way to finish up!

How have you been preparing for this year's trail? 

I have made a lot of new work for exhibitions (paintings and sculpture), I am still finishing painting the Little Free Library (see earlier post), I have been organising the Pictorem exhibition with Katja and working with Lissa sourcing dancers for the drawing event at Orford House. The biggest challenge will be making room in my studio for visitors to get in during the Blackhorse Lane Open Studios event!

Little Free Library

Could you tell us about an an artwork that particularly inspires you? 

Frank Brangwyn's Swans at William Morris Gallery is one of my all-time favourite paintings.  I love to go and look at it.

How does inhabiting a community like Walthamstow help your practice?  

It is great to have so many artists in Waltham Forest with the Trail, Blackhorse Lane Studios, Inky Cuttlefish Studios and more. The Waltham Forest Arts Club is an awesome group of people and I have found it very important to be involved in an artist-led group.

Do you have a personal highlight from the past 9 years of the E17 Art Trail? 

Julie Caves, Leaves, Oil Painting

Wow, there have been so many great things that have happened during the five trails I have been involved in. I remember each Blackhorse Lane Open Studios, they have each been special.  The 'Draw the Garden' event at Vestry House in 2011 was wonderful.  H Locke playing ukulele in my studio on the preview evening in 2012 was marvellous. I really enjoyed illustrating poems for the Poetry Trails.  I still remember the smell of Julian Beere's honeybee installation upstairs at The Hornbeam in, I think, 2011.  The parties around the fire pit at The Maker's Yard have always been lovely.  So many more...