Little Forest Land Art

As well as using Little Forest Land Art for our own art projects, another objective was to support other artists and makers. With this is mind we announce our artist opportunity.

As part of the site preparations a large un-safe oak tree had to be felled. This left the oak stump and a big open space.

For Art in the Garden 2018 we are looking for an artwork to be shown on what we are calling the Boarhunt 4th Plinth. This could be a new item made specifically for the site or an existing artwork that would look great in this situation.

Prize
The prize will be to have your work on show during Art in the Garden 2018. You will also receive a ‘production fund’ made up of money from the entry fees. So, the more people that enter the more the winner receives. Minimum amount of £100 up to a maximum of £500.

Who can apply?

This is an open call to any artist or maker working in any medium, living in Hampshire or the adjoining counties (Isle of Wight, Dorset, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Surrey and Sussex). Entrants must be 18 years of age or over and includes students.

Entrance Fee
The entrance fee is £10 per submission with a maximum of two submissions.
 Please go to our Eventbrite page to make your payment.

Judges
The winning work will be selected by our judging panel:
Lynne Dick, Director of Making Space, Havant;
Andy Buchanan, Studio and Programming Manager at Art Space Portsmouth;
as well as Jan Griffiths and myself.

Open Day
We know this is not the normal ‘white box’ venue so you may want to see how the Plinth fits into the wider area, how people will approach it, etc. We are holding a dedicated open day on Saturday 9th December 2017, 10am-5pm so that you can view the site to help inform your work.
You can also view the site during Jan’s Making Merry open studio Christmas sale, 2nd – 10th December, 10am – 5pm. There will be lots of lovely ceramic, glass, metal, textile and paper things to buy.
Other times may be available by appointment.

Closing Date

The deadline for entries is 12noon, 22th January 2018

Information Pack & Entry Form
For all the details on how to enter, important dates, photographs, dimensions, FAQ’s, etc. download the Information Pack and Application Form from our website
or email [email protected] and I will send them to you.

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When the Little Forest Land Art team came together for the first time in January 2017 we had one target – getting the site ready for Art in the Garden 2017. This is our host Jan Griffiths’ annual open studio event in early June. The event has been getting bigger and bigger since the first one in 2012, with more artists and makers showing each year, in rotation, in and around her meadow and in her studio.
Although it seemed like we were continually clearing brambles for five months we did manage to open up new areas for work to be shown. The time flew by and soon we had artists arriving with their glorious creations, finding places to display them to show them off for the best.

First up was Mark & Rebecca Ford from Two Circles Designs with their organic woven willow ‘pods’. Carefully positioned, as you wandered around the meadow they would drift in and out of view. Other work dotted around included intricate chicken wire animals, metal wind sculptures, ‘kokedama’ moss balls and a nettle plant that would need a very big dock leaf!

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There were also a couple of my own land art interventions that I call ‘clearings’. More on these in a future blog.

The preview was a gloriously warm, late spring evening. Wine and homemade elderflower cordial flowed, the cash till pinged and the car park got jammed!

There was one last area that we created that was popular with our visitors, a recently felled oak tree stump. This stump is the star of our big Artist Opportunity that could see you take part in Art in the Garden 2018. I will tell all very soon.

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Sometimes you don’t know where chance meetings will take you. Back in 2007, when I was just starting to emerge into the outside world after years of agoraphobia, I went to the first events at the new Aspex Gallery, after it moved to Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth. After surviving a few panic attacks and forcing myself to not run out the building at the launch event, I went to the first three talks and workshops provided by Jonathan Parsons and the ARC team. The only other person who came to all those same events was Jan Griffiths, a welcome friendly face to chat to and help me keep calm.

We bumped into each other a few other times and became friends. She talked about building her own home on a bit of land to the north of Portsmouth, in the Hampshire countryside. It was another 5 years before I could travel in cars and managed to get over to see her Open Studio event. What greeted me, after driving down the long, tree lined, gravel drive was Jan’s house, garage block and ceramics studio, overlooking a 3 acre meadow, surrounded by woodland. 24 acres of woodland. I was in love.

It was another few years, while I was getting more confident traveling, and completing my ACE supported Grow An Exhibition project (AN blog – I will retrospectively finish this, up to the exhibitions), before anything would happen.

Jan hosts a number of Open Studio events each year, one being her Art in the Garden in late Spring. As well as exhibiting a number of other artist’s and maker’s work, she has wanted to add an artistic element to the landscape. I have been fascinated by the land art of people like Andy Goldsworthy and Richard Long, and a chat with Jan eventually turned into a land art project. It went public in Summer 2016 and a few people volunteered their help. Work started in January 2017.

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