

‘I’ve had the best day for weeks today’
We are now back working with our fabulous participants on the ‘Home is where your hART project’
Creative sketchbook
we made the local paper
By Wes Holmes
Thursday, 14th April 2022, 3:45 pm
The Urban Arts Studio on St Annes Road West has recently opened its doors on an array of abstract and classical paintings all made by people who found solace in creativity.
Curator Boz Phillips, of the Last Legs Community Arts organisation, said: “I was offered the opportunity to use the walls as a space to put up community artwork to promote local artists, professional and non-professional. It’s really just trying to give artists and local creatives somewhere to exhibit their art which they wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to do.
“It’s therapeutic as well – ‘art is for health’ is our slant on it. We are a community arts organisation, so its a good space for us to use. New arts show at Urban Arts Studio in St Annes.
Pictured are artists Robert Haworth, Boz Phillips, Diane Duxbury with manager James Hunter.
“It benefits people, it helps their self esteem. To get people into a creative mindset can often be a distraction from other things that are going on in their lives. It really does help community come together. It’s something that is overlooked a lot, but it’s a really good way of helping people look at life a bit more positively.
“Then there’s the opportunity for people to sell their art, which most non-professional artists wouldn’t be able to do.”
The show, which features paintings from Robert Haworth, Leah Payne, Diane Duxbury and Andrew Greenwood, can be viewed on Thursdays and Fridays.
Diane, 63, a graffiti and abstract artist, was approached by Boz to take part in the show after rediscovering her love of painting while recovering from a back operation.
New arts show at Urban Arts Studio in St Annes. Pictured is Robert Haworth.
She said: “I’ve always loved art. I did it at school and was always interested, but I thought I was never very good at drawing people or landscapes. It was only when I had a bit of time on my hands off work that I started messing about with the paints really – the bigger the better.
“The Urban Arts Studio is trying to promote different people, which I think is brilliant. There’s not many people around here who do it.”
New arts show at Urban Arts Studio in St Annes. Pictured is Boz Phillips.
New arts show at Urban Arts Studio in St Annes. Pictured is Diane Duxbury.
https://www.facebook.com/UrbanArtsVenue
Currently offering exhibition space on walls at this amazing music, performance and art space in the heart of St Annes on the Fylde coast.
We are interested to hear from local artists professional and non professional who are interested in having a chance to show work here or run workshops and events.
The venue is a bookable community arts space and has already held several music and jam nights while hosting the art works of local artists including members of Last Legs arts organisation, since the end of covid restrictions last year.
The aim of the venue is to support local and up and coming artists, musicians and performers of all kinds by offering a platform for new and exiting work
Great news for us coming towards the end of the year as we start a new art workshop project with community members in Blackpool in need of our creative interventions.
Art works above on Canvas with POSCA pens
Thanks once again to Blackpool Coastal Housing we are able to undertake this new venture encouraging new participants to make art works for their new homes and families.
We will also be updating our Makezine with new pages early next year as part of the Home is where your heART is project.
In this blog we have also included competition entries .
After what seemed like the longest time ….. we are now back working on the amazing mosaic, at Mary Smith House with Revoe residents. We will be there for the next 3 sessions on Tuesdays between 5-7pm.
The mosaic is now finished and will be attached to a prominent wall in Revoe. We will upload photos when we can take a photo.
A big thanks to everyone who came this evening to work on the mosaic
Keep up to date with the sessions at https://www.facebook.com/Revoelution/
This month have also been working with some young children and their families
Thanks to our grant from BCH Tenants fund we continue to engage with people and families most in need of creative activities across Blackpool.
This month we have also been working with a group of young people who we hope to be creating a large scale mural with later this year. The group are keen to get involved in graffiti art work and this evening we tested their skills.
In June we had our first competition entry from Jean Scott who lives in Revoe.
A great start to the competition.
We are looking forward to working with people face to face again this month.
Using the art packs and the Makezine as inspiration for people to get creative and send entries in to our competition.
Great session this evening in Blackpool with a group of young people.
Chloe’s sitting in the yard,
Making art, it’s not so hard
Sat there making an art book
Filling each page just to see how it looks
Creating stuff just to fill the time
While I sit here writing a rhyme
It seems like the perfect situation
To create this little collaboration
‘Yes …. We have actually enjoyed ourselves’
We were so excited to receive our printed ‘Makezine’ and art pack header cards from Moulton printers Blackpool last Friday.
We have included them in our assembled art packs.
The Competition on the back invites you all to send us images of your work inspired by the ideas in the ‘Makezine’
Thank you to BCH and CAF for funding our work and the publication
Here is the link to an online version of our zine
https://www.flipsnack.com/lastlegsmakeartzine/last-legs-makezine-front-page.html
Some of the Art packs now waiting to go out to project participants
As we work on the project we update the web site with information on a regular basis.
We are currently working on the Make zine, art resource that will be available to all our project participants past present and future.
The Last legs Make Art Zine is currently available online via the link on the previous post while we are in the early stages of development.
We are producing a ‘hard’ copy of this publication that can be included in the art packs we are also currently putting together for members of the community most in need of creative support in the Blackpool and Fylde areas.
We draw our inspiration from working with others and believe that a creative community is a healthy community.
We had ‘two young ladies who really benefited from the art packs during lock down, they both live with anxiety and depression and find art lets them express themselves and lets them take their mind of things for a while, they use the art packs and other supplies on a regular basis and found them really helpful.’
We included small canvases, a box of paint and brush in the art packs
We will soon be working face to face with participants once again and are exited to get going on new activities using the art packs and ‘Makezine’ to help facilitate creative workshops
https://www.flipsnack.com/lastlegsmakeartzine/lastlegs-makezine.html
The link above will take you to the Make Art Zine we developed to include with art packs for participants and organisations that we currently work with. On request you are also welcome to download a copy to print out yourself and use as a free resource for the community. We now aim to distribute the printed and online zine to as many people and organisations that will find it useful for inspiring creativity that facilitates arts and health in the community.
We would like to thank CAF for supporting and funding us with the publication and BCH for funding workshops and materials for art packs.
We have also received donations of art materials, clothes, and other useful household items over the last 12 months to support hostels we have been working with over the last 3 years and would like to thank Tracy for her ongoing support.
The ‘pilot’ ‘Makezine’ was given to 3 hostels with art packs as a way to engage with people who were unable to get involved with creative experiences or activities during the Covid 19 lockdown.
This ‘art-zine’ includes ideas for making art using cheap, free or easily available resources – (most of which are included in the art packs) : activities to keep people inspired when stuck at home or feeling isolated.
There is also a competition (included on the back page) for people to send in their art works (inspired by the zine). The first competition will run for the whole of 2021 until December 22nd 2021. We will announce the winner in early January 2022. A photograph of the prize being offered to potential winners will be shown on this blog site over the next few weeks, to inspire people to send in their art works.
This is the front page of our Make-Art-Zine
We have been busy developing a new resource to support people who are isolated or have no access to creative activities due to the current situation.
As we work with hundreds of people each year we want to provide ongoing support to our participants, at the beginning and end of our projects with them. This resource will also offer a ‘taster’ for some of our current activities, to people we have yet to work with.
We have recently received a grant to provide Last Legs with ongoing funding to develop these ideas further.
In the meantime here is a taste of work in progress for development
Foam printing plate from pizza foam base
Tools and materials needed for foam printing plate
foam pizza base
scissors
straight edge or ruler
felt tip or permanent marker
pencil
a tube of paint
a clean sponge
any paper cardboard for example a recycled envelopes cereal box
Find a foam pizza base and cut in to smaller pieces or keep whole
draw out a simple bold design
with a pencil draw out the design pressing a little harder in to your design but don’t push through the foam
squeeze out paint on to a plastic or washable surface then dab the sponge (smooth side of clean sponge) with the paint and then dab the paint on to the foam plate until the whole surface is covered.
Place the paper on top of the plate and smooth lightly over the top with a clean piece of sponge or lightly with hand or put plate face down and apply light pressure to back of plate (whichever way gives best results for you)
You can make a few prints and then make more designs on to the plate and reprint with a different colour at a different angle (using lighter colour paint first then darker for each new layer)
or use the pieces you have cut up / off
to make smaller plates with different designs and over print or make new prints
I have cut up some of the paper to make paper beads –
Instructions for beads are in Make-zine