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The Art of Linda Wells
Church Street Magazine • Jul 20, 2019
Linda
The Art of Linda Wells
Colour Wave returns to Crypt Gallery, Church Streetm Seaford August 1st to 7th 2019. Last year SussexEveryDay met one of the Colour Wave artists Linda Wells.
"Although starting out from school as a junior in a department store, through different day release courses and 'on the job training' I was able to progress well with my career in window display, working both locally and in Oxford Street, then as Assistant Display Manager for House of Fraser in London Victoria.
It was a time when window displays were individual to each store. I was able to help design, make and implement window and interior displays. I particularly liked working at The Ideal Home Exhibitions. As a result I studied Interior Design for two years on a day release scheme and then stepped into the role as Contracts Manager. I had various clients, one of which was a house builder. I went on to design and dress over forty show homes in and around London, also supplying some property purchasers with everything - right down to knives and forks! Display and design, it’s all about enticing customers to purchase the goods on show!
Later I was able to take a year out from work and returned to study Art, Craft and Design at College, following on with an A Level in Fine Art; Textiles was suggested to me as an additional course to run alongside Fine Art. Gaining grade A’s in both, I was hooked! I joined local art groups and began exhibiting.
Having returned to window display (visual merchandising) I was fortunate to be able to cut my hours to three days a week, which enabled me to be creative again.These days window displays in department stores are now designed in head office and promote a ‘Corporate’ image.
I went on to do City & Guilds Creative Embroidery and following a trip to New Zealand, discovered ‘wet felting’ - wool fibres that are agitated together to become a fabric, which is an amazing base for embroidery. Over the past ten years I have developed my hand felted landscapes. It is like painting but uses wool fibres and threads and has become known as L'Indavidual Unique Designs Handcrafted by Linda Wells!
One of this year's designs is called ‘Sea View’. I entered it into the Society of Eastbourne Artists Exhibition at the Town Hall in May 2018 and was awarded The Mayors Prize for Best Picture and runner up in the People’s Choice. It is a hand felted landscape depicting a dark moody sky with a house overlooking the sea and shoreline. In this piece I also added other fibres, net and embroidered details.
Although I love working on my felted embroideries I also like to paint, my recent work, the first in a series is called ‘Beyond’. It is an atmospheric abstract landscape in oil which made me think: what lies beyond? I then painted The Edge of Beyond and Beyond the Edge both in acrylic. These are about colour, which is an important factor in all of my work. One description of me is ‘With ever an eye for colour.’ The fourth painting is called Across and Beyond in mixed media, which depicts a landscape in which I hope the eye is carried across the fields past an old barn and into Beyond. I’m in the process of completing Above and Beyond which has a dark moody sky with light emanating on the horizon."
Linda Wells, SussexEveryDay, September 2018
Meet Sam Chittenden, Artistic Director for Different Theatre Sam, what are you looking forward to the most about bringing Different Theatre back to Brighton Fringe? I’m just really excited about being part of the buzz that is Brighton fringe, and hopefully to the festival being back to some kind of normal this year. Brighton fringe is where we started out, so it’s always really special to be back. This year I understand your company are staging three productions this year? What are they? We are bringing Clean! The Musical back to One Church from 20-22 May. Clean won Outstanding Show last year and we are thrilled to be able to share it with audiences again.
All Day Breakfast Company at this year's Brighton Fringe
Chris, how long has Samaki been running? How did all start? Samaki was formed a year and half ago. Living in Hastings as a musician, it’s impossible to ignore how much people love music here and how eclectic the live scene is genre wise. It seemed right that there should be an afrobeat group added to the local lineup of bands. With that in mind I went around getting like minded musicians together and the rest is history. I have fond memories of playing songs from the afrobeat lexicon at school in New Zealand where I grew up. One day there, an English band called Moire Music fronted by Trevor Watts visited our school and introduced us kids to the world of afrojazz. Something I’d never forgotten and it was a huge influence on me musically. Just a few decades later I found myself living in Hastings and discovered that Trevor actually lived there. It seemed like a sign. And how did you decide on the name Samaki? Samaki is the Swahili word for fish. As we’re Hastings based we wanted there to be some sort of reference to our geographic location. Could you try to sum up your sound in just three words? Soaring Melodic Groove Some of your influences include Fela Kuti, Tony Allen and Oscar Sulley. How can their influence be heard in some of your music? The 3 names you mention are intrinsically part of the genre of music we call afrobeat. If you perform their tunes or perform like them stylistically, you’re in a way carrying on their musical legacy. It’s unavoidable. We play a Fela Kuti song in our set - Water Get No Enemy, and it’s in this song that it becomes obvious that the combination of relentless groove and highly melodic hooks make afrobeat what it is.