Local artist calls on fellow creatives’ kindness

Monday 17 May 2021

A local painter is looking for other artists willing to donate their work to raise funds for 23 local charities.

Brian Clarke is planning an ‘Affordable Art Show’ for this year’s Kindness Festival, which will take place on Saturday 4 September at St. Brelade’s Parish Hall.

Organised by Brian, who is a life coach and the founder of ‘Kindness Connects’, an organisation that promotes and creates opportunities for kindness, the Kindness Festival takes place every two years to enable local charities to share their stories and raise their profile and engage the public in activities ranging from quizzes to yoga.

“What struck me is that they are a lot of charities in Jersey that no one hears about and the problem for them is they need funding but if no one hears about them, they cannot get funding,” Brian said.

“People can decide to help them, join them or tell their friend about them. There are some small charities started by people following something tragic to help people who might suffer the same experience, that might not be you or that might not be me but if you find out about them you can tell a friend, ‘There’s a charity specially for this.'

“It’s about spreading the knowledge, it’s a 'show and tell' for the charities.”

After the challenges of the pandemic and with many charities having been unable to raise funds, Brian wants this year’s Kindness Festival to be “a real celebration”.

“It will be a fun day, with lots of family activities and music and we hope lots of people will put the date in their diary,” he said.

Pictured: Brian paints flowers, trees and Jersey scenes.

As an artist, he therefore decided to bring some creativity to the event and came up with the idea of the Affordable Art Show.

Brian himself will be showing and selling some of his work – he says he has 80 or 90 pieces stacked up in a pile in his studio – and he’s hoping to get other creatives involved.

“The idea is that artists who have got work lying around the studio might like to bring it to the Parish Hall, sell it and give all the proceeds to a pool that will be split between the charities,” he explained.

“It’s a chance to clear space in the studio and to put it to good use for charity.” 

“We know lots of people have been busy creating art during the lockdowns and the pandemic restrictions, so it will be very exciting to see what’s out there and It’ll be a great opportunity for artists to show some of their work after a very quiet 18 months and to help some local charities at the same time,” he added. 

The artwork will be sold for between £40 and £240, which Brian hopes will give art lovers the opportunity to buy quality pictures and paintings and help local good causes.

“It will be a chance to meet the artists, talk about their work and buy some extraordinary and inexpensive work,” he said. “We have slashed our prices as we do not have to give a gallery commission to anyone. It will be really, really, affordable with prices from £40, £80 to more according to the size and detail.”

Those interested in taking part in the Affordable Art Show can email Brian at brian@clarkebiz.com.