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Underwater scenes, octopuses, jellyfish and fish are sharing the spotlight in a new exhibition of detailed charcoal drawings born out of an artist’s deep love for the ocean.
Every Friday, Express presents a selection of online and offline exhibitions, performances, workshops, events and other historic and creative content to help islanders get their weekly dose of culture.
Here's this week's offering...
The Link Gallery is currently hosting a series of charcoal drawings inspired by the sea from Leithe Gie, who moved to the island from South Africa in 2019 “without ever having visited."
While she has always loved art and took it as a subject in her final year in school, she went on to study clothing and textiles consumer science at university, before working in film and studying interior design.
Leithe finally returned to art after her daughter was born as she wanted to be present for her. “I began painting with acrylic paints again, but was then reintroduced to charcoal at a social art class,” she said.
She confessed she wasn’t initially a fan of charcoal, with which she found it “messy and difficult” to achieve the finish she wanted. But she later fell in love with the medium, and has only worked in charcoal since.
“When I was reintroduced to it, something just clicked for me,” she recalled.
“I love that all I need is a pad, charcoal pencil and eraser and I can create a drawing. I am regularly covered in black dust and have stained fingers at times, but the depth and dramatic contrast you can achieve with charcoal really excites me.
“You have to rely on shadow and light to portray depth and not having colour to make a drawing pop can be a challenge. I love the simplicity and cleanness of the black and white drawings as well as that they can work in just about any environment in a home or commercial space.”
Leithe’s favourite subjects are animals but she sometimes draws landscapes and people as well. Her exhibition features sea views and creatures, in an attempt to raise awareness of the “beauty and importance of the oceans and sea life surroundings”.
As an open water swimmer and volunteer with Jersey Marine Conservation, Leithe is familiar with the waters surrounding the island as well as local coves that are not accessible from land.
“I have always loved the ocean, but seeing the destruction we are causing through pollution, littering, overfishing and dredging is very worrying,” she said. “This is an ecosystem that is mostly hidden unless you spend time in the sea, so I feel the need to create awareness is very important.”
Leithe’s work, as well as some of the photos she used for reference images, can be seen at the Link Gallery until 27 February and prints of the drawings are also available.
Stefan Rousseau, which some know as CineStef, is returning to the Savoy Hotel at 18:14 on 23 February.
For the first ‘séance’ in a while, the cinema buff and movie night organiser has picked a “truly positive in the face of adversity great movie”, ‘The Shawshank Redemption’.
On Thursday 25 February at 18:15, he will aim to keep cinephiles happy and smiling with ‘Amelie’ (in French with English subtitles), followed by a “truly epic adventure” in the desert, ’ Lawrence of Arabia’, on Sunday 28 at 15:45.
With “delicious food” and limited places - only 10 seats are available due to current public health guidance - people are invited to book as soon as possible.
‘The Name of the Rose’, ‘The Birds’, ‘Titanic’ ‘Joker’ and ‘Spirited Away’ will be among the movies shown in March.
Pictured: Danielle Mullins, Cara Smith and Berni Martin are showing their work at the Bar Gallery.
In addition to its ‘Revolving Wall’ at Common Ground café, local art collective RampArts is now exhibiting at The Bar Gallery at The Jersey Arts Centre.
Until 12 March, you can see work from Berni Martin, Cara Smith and Danielle Mullins, whom the collective has selected for their “beautifully detailed works and specialist techniques”.
If you can’t visit the Arts Centre to see the selection of illustrations, watercolours, collages and resin art, a virtual tour will be able on its website.
Pictured: A virtual tour of Eleanor Chambers's exhibition.
A video is also available of the previous exhibition by Eleanor Chambers, the under-18 winner of the 2020 Fox Open Art Competition.
In her exhibition ‘ESC. 2020’, Eleanor explored some personal themes, such as what it means to be a teenager growing up in today’s world, in digital print, pencil and acrylic paintings. She also presented some of her marine life illustration.
Talking about the exhibition, which has been described as “a crucial showcase of some inspiring young local talent”, the young artist said:
“ESC. 2020 is a series of work showing the personal battles I as an artist have fought and the global battles covid has forced us to face. The exhibition touches on mental health, the pandemic, and more light-hearted pieces of Jersey marine life. I hope that everyone will be able to find a picture they can enjoy or relate to.”
Jersey Post has released a new set of stamps, depicting a selection of historic maps, ranging from a very early map of Jersey produced by John Norden in 1595, to a tourist road map produced by Harry Clark in 1930.
Pictured: A selection of historic maps including one from 1595 features on the new set.
The map imagery has been sourced from the Société Jersiaise in Jersey, the Priaulx Library in Guernsey and The British Library in London and was researched and selected with the assistance of Martin Morgan, author of ‘A Cartographic History of the Channel Islands’ and founder of award-winning publishing house, Extraordinary Editions.
“These maps are not just beautiful artworks, they were crucial in the development of the island’s trading economy,” Mr Morgan explained.
“They have also had a massive influence on how we see our islands, not least Captain White’s epic survey on the £1.05 stamp, which marks Jersey as we know her today and, for me, is the most important map in this set.”
Jersey Post has also released a new set of stamps designed by digital illustrator, Mark Boardman, featuring Archirondel Tower, Marine Peilstand 3, Seymour Tower, La Tour de Vinde, Victoria Tower and La Rocco Tower.
Pictured: The new series feature Jersey's Coastal Towers.
The series is made of ‘Post & Go stamps’ - self-adhesive stamp labels with the postage printed on demand. The stamps can be bought on their own or in strips of six.
They are available from the JE02 kiosk at Jersey Post’s main Broad Street premises and from the JE03 kiosk at Postal Headquarters, as well as from Jersey Post’s back office B002 kiosk through the Philatelic Bureau.
For both sets, philatelic stamp products such as First Day Covers and Presentation Packs will be available from both Broad Street and Rue Des Pres, and can be ordered online at Jersey Stamps or by telephoning the Jersey Philatelic Bureau.
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