M4tr blog

Topiary for Beginners

Address: Broomhill Art Hotel, Barnstaple, Devon, EX31 4EX

Website: www.broomhillart.co.uk

Email: info@broomhillart.co.uk

Telephone: 01271 850262

Access: Good

Category: Visual Arts & Literature Starts: Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Ends: Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Download a print £0.11

Painting for Broomhill exhibition, 55″ x 55″ oil on canvas

‘Walk Away or Jump’

Inspired by a cliff walk with one of Robert Rauschenberg’s assistants in 1979. During 1979 I was in a band called ‘The Urge’, who were discovered by an A&R man from Beggars Banquet Records, who saw us play at my degree show at Exeter College of Art. We ended up supporting ‘Bauhaus’, ‘Adam and the Ants’, ‘The Pack’ and many other Post Punk heroes. We were offered a record contract and the A&R man became our manager and Rauschenberg’s former assistant also became an important member of our team.

I lived near Exmouth and often walked across the beach and along the cliffs - this time I was accompanied by Rauschenberg’s assistant who had been staying with me. At the highest point he confessed his love for me, which was a bit of a shock and I replied ‘I’m sorry but I prefer women”. The implications of this encounter still roll around in my brain. ‘Walk Away or Jump’. This was possibly one of the major turning points in my life – what did I turn down? Fame, fortune?

Robert Rauschenberg was a massive influence on my painting, printing and music. Images (and sounds) that are arbitrarily spliced together in an apparent random manner will, when juxtaposed against each other, create a narrative. This meshing together of unrelated imagery may appear to be arbitrary but the intellectual decision making that goes with the process is absolutely phenomenal. It is therefore unrealistic to expect the uneducated masses to view these images as ‘real art’. The birth of Photoshop has enabled everybody to create ‘non-intellectual’ versions of Rauchenberg (and Warhol) – only the educated truly understand.

Views from a train window – Landscape painting

Oil paint on canvas

…the experience of the landscape viewed in shorthand, the trick is to imply with the minimum of effort…

This video inspired one of the stories in The Beach Hut - The music is by This Window and is available on iTunes etc.

WRITER IN RESIDENCE AT HOTEL DU VIN!

My publishers, The Orion Publishing Group, and Hotel du Vin/Malmaison hotel are delighted to announce their collaboration on a “Writers in Residence” project that will run from July through to November 2010.

I am absolutely thrilled to be kicking off the initiative, and will be writer in residence as follows:

• 19/20 July Hotel du Vin Poole (UK)
  

• 21/22 July Hotel du Vin, Brighton (UK)
  

I’ll be Twittering about my experience, and writing a short story inspired by my visit – if I can manage to drag myself out of the wonderful Egyptian cotton sheets or the infamous HdV baths!

I remember going to the first Hotel du Vin when it opened in Winchester: I was enchanted, and have remained a huge fan ever since. We both strive for a similar style – quintessentially English escapism with a touch of wit – so I think it will be a very productive collaboration, and the perfect environment to find inspiration.

My fellow Orion authors Katie Agnew and RJ Ellory will be following suit (or should that be suite) later in the year, and are both very entertaining as well as being wonderful writers. For more information, read press release

The Beach Hut

Jane Milton doesn’t want to sell her beloved beach hut, which has been the heart of so many family holidays and holds so many happy memories. But when her husband dies, leaving her with an overwhelming string of debts, she has no choice but to sell.

The Beach Hut follows the stories of the people who own the beach huts, families who come to Everdene each year, people who fall in - or out of - love, remembering their pasts, or trying to forget them… Veronica Henry has brilliantly drawn together the comings and goings of life at the beach huts over one long, hot, lazy summer…

• ISBN-13 Number: 9781409115618
  
  
• Publication Date: July 2010

Veronica Henry - Script Writer - Author
Veronica Henry’s USA Official Book Store
Veronica Henry - Contact
Veronica Henry - Downloads
Veronica Henry - Biography
Veronica Henry’s UK Official Book Store
Veronica Henry - Latest Books
Veronica Henry - Script Writer - Author

Veronica Henry writes articles for The Daily Mail – here’s a link to an article she wrote about becoming invisible at 40.

Check out free download “Where Is My Jesus?“ by This Window

“But as well as the bands, I produced and wrote for This Window, an avant-garde ‘cassette culture’ outfit.”
Now studying for a degree in music at Bristol University, Jake is still involved with The Window and gets regular airplay in Eastern Europe as well as appearing in a couple of Russian music magazines. Read more…

Jake Bright, who plays bass with Dastards, started his music career long before taking up the double bass at West Buckland School. Read more…

A pragmatic Jake said: “Composition is the avenue I want to go down, but if the band kicks off then that will definitely be the main focus of my career for the foreseeable future.” Read more…

West Buckland Festival 2010

Hosted and managed by www.outsiderinternet.com

Details of the format of the ‘Your Art’ 2010 will be posted here during May 2010

West Buckland Festival is a festival of music, entertainment and leisure, held in a small village on the edge of Exmoor. This year’s festival featured more than a dozen events between 9th and 12th September 2010.

This year they will be supporting Shelter Box who respond instantly to natural and manmade disasters by delivering boxes of aid to those who are most in need. Each box supplies an extended family of up to 10 people with a tent and essential equipment to use while they are displaced or homeless.

Below is a brief statement about the ‘Your Art’ Exhibition 2009 (10^th September – 13^th September)

During the festival the ‘Your Art’ exhibition was held in St Peter’s Church, West Buckland, with entries from all over North Devon. The exhibition also offered the opportunity to buy works by local artists and craftspeople. Several artists sold their work during the festival.

The aim of the ‘Your Art’ exhibition was to enable and promote amateur and professional artist living within the dispersed communities of North Devon. Past exhibitions have received critical acclaim and have been remarkably successful for artists and visitors. Diversity is the success of these exhibitions with entries ranging from textiles, painting, carving, printmaking and ceramics etc.

We are proud to say that M4tr.co.uk has gone green and our designers Outsider Internet based in North Devon can offer a web design package that can start from as little as £250.00

They  can also build you a website on your existing server. There are several options available, contact them for a competitive quote. Having an environmentally-friendly site is a great accomplishment … and a great selling point. Let your site visitors know your site has gone green by letting us build you a low carbon web site.

• Outsider Internet - Green Websites - Original blog post
  
  

  Most of our websites are powered by 100% wind energy; we are proud that the machines hosting our Web site and e-mail are fully eco-friendly! As energy awareness continues to grow, people are not just looking to make lifestyle adjustments, they want to make environmentally responsible decisions, this site is powered by renewable energy.

  We are making the effort and helping our clients to be eco-conscious. This initiative isn’t a marketing ploy; we encourage responsible environmental practices inside the office and practice them outside the office and we know that many of our clients feel just as strongly.

  Outsider Internet can provide web hosting. There are lots of companies on the web who can provide cheap options - the majority are trustworthy. We can arrange hosting either in the UK or in the USA; we have clients who host on both sides of the Atlantic.

  There are several options available. If you want us to sort it out for you we can give you a competitive quote. We can also build you a site - this is what we are here to do:

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In my last newsletter I asked (after an awful start to 2010) ‘What will happen next?’ Well I’m pleased to say positive thinking worked out! (I will expand below).

We still have loads of your interview forms to process - please accept our apologies for the delay. Here a few more ‘Three questions’ replies

• Double6project - Three questions
• The Bonanza Lunchbox - Three questions
• The Mschifgals - Three questions
• Grotesque Sexuality - Review
• Ravenslament - Three questions
• Sierra Revival Project - Three questions
• International Silver String Submarine Band - Three…
•  

If you want to have your links on  SystemCulture fill out the form here. Please try it out and if there are any problems let me know.

This Window are now available from 7digital - preview the latest tracks on the player above

‘Marriage and Other Games’ has been listed in the final top 20 for a literary award. A starting list of 158 novels, from twenty-four publishers, were submitted for the first round of judging and on the 14th of December 2010 the Romantic Novelists’ Association published the ‘longlist’ of authors who are nominated for the ‘Romantic Novel of the Year Award’ for 2010. 2010 is also the Association’s Golden Anniversary year. Below is a section of their announcement.

‘The long list of twenty novels, announced today, includes an impressive selection of best sellers, among them Erica James, Veronica Henry, Santa Montefiore, Katie Flynn and Sarah Duncan. They share the list with some exciting new names in romantic fiction, and the only male to make the long list, Nicholas Sparks…’ The full list can be seen here.

Marriage And Other Games Dowload ‘Fallen Angel’ by Veronica Henry

When girl-about-town Charlotte discovers her husband has been arrested for fraud, she flees to the wilds of Exmoor to nurse her broken heart. Yet despite the slower pace of life, she finds she’s not the only person whose life is in turmoil. There’s Sebastian, bad boy of the British art scene, determined to drink the local pub dry while his wife lives it up in London. Then Fitch, who married the high-spirited Hayley thinking he would find wedded bliss, but is struggling to keep up with her outrageous demands. And finally Penny, recently divorced and quietly determined to have more fun second time around - but who with? As Charlotte adapts to a life without LK Bennett and Starbucks on the doorstep, she turns to her newfound friends for advice. Can she find it in her heart to forgive her husband for what he did? And if she does, will it be too late? ‘With bags of style, they are young members of the middle class have-it-all clan.’ Christine Williams (Daily Express) read more…

Veronica Henry

Two tracks recorded by Veronica Henry in the 1980’s have been released by M4tr Productions is available for download from all major Internet stores. “Fallen Angel” and “Memories” were recorded on domestic analogue recording equipment and give a unique glimpse into a very creative mind.