Exhibiting work in a Pandemic

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For artists, photographers and students, the pandemic has made exhibiting work very difficult. Galleries closed and shop windows in Spring showcasing last Christmas’s dusty decorations; creatives have had to resort to the digital world for support. Many artists use Instagram to promote their work. The use of the story and showreels can be a great tool for hooking your audience in with your creative journeys. Followers love to see how you create your work, so set a camera up and create content illustrating your work unfold through a timelapse. Instagram is also a great way to sell your work. To gain more followers on Instagram you can do give aways and competitions, but also following lots of people from your target audience and tagging appropriate hashtags.

Another way artists have exhibited their work is through the creation of a website or being part of a virtual gallery space. These days you can view most of the well known galleries and museums through a 360 virtual tour and there are tools for you to create your very own! Artspace is a great website that allows you to select templates or start from scratch to create your very own 360 exhibition.

Here is an example of a virtual gallery I made for my Year 13 Art and Photography Students.

Creative Career Paths

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It’s called a career path for a reason: You don’t just land in the perfect job with the flick of a magic wand, there is often a journey to get there and that journey starts now, when you choose your GCSE’s. This blog post explores the journey of four creative individuals, who all started with a GCSE in The Arts. Hopefully this booklet will provide young people with information on what it takes to make it as a creative. The UK Creative Economy is worth 27 billion, with Arts and Culture providing 10.6 billion to the UK economy each year. Therefore, it’s no small industry to be a part of! 

24 hours in Lisbon

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The best way to see Lisbon is not by a tour guide or tuck-tuck, but by simply walking and getting lost amongst the cobbled back streets and squares, avoiding old fashioned trams meandering through the city. You will be towered by tall buildings leaning on each other, tangled up in knots amongst the abandoned shells of old townhouses, now home to trees and birds. You will see an exhibition of unpolished graffiti painted on almost every wall, combined with a beautiful array of tiled facades. If you look up you will see an array of wrought-iron balconies used as stations to hang washing lines on in all directions. Old ladies with scrunched up leather faces sit and stare at passersby from their tiny hobbit-like doorways adorned with pots of flowers. Waiters wearing shirts and bow ties wave their menus, inviting you to dine on the street where people drink local beer and wine and delve into bowls of cockles and clams. On Sunday’s the locals host a flea market in the Alfama District, known to be the oldest part of Lisbon. You can haggle for fresh fruit and vegetables, jewellery and clothes or wonder through the Medieval maze of squares, churches and alleyways.

Lisbon is also a great place to be at night, with a huge selection of seafood restaurants and bars. If you find yourself in an area known as Intendente you must visit Casa Independente. From the outside it appears to be someone’s house but as you climb the grand staircase you will be greeted with live music mixed on vinyl, rooms filled with old furniture and a walled garden covered with grape vines where you can sit and enjoy dinner before dancing the night away.

On the other side of the city is a street named Rua de Sao Paulo: once known as the red light district filled with dens of debauchery, is now the most fashionable and artistic place for gatherings in the city. One club that is worth a mention is Pensao Amor. It can be hard to find amongst the hustle and bustle but once inside you will see the interior reflects its past life as a brothel with flamboyant furnishings and pictures of women dressed in skimpy dresses and feather bowers. You can slump into a velvet armchair or dance to live music.

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If you are looking to stay in Lisbon there is an abundance of choice, from quirky back-alley hostels to shabby chic boutique hotels. Most hostels offer roof top terraces and walled gardens to meet with new acquaintances. Or if you fancy having a place to yourself there are plenty of apartments you can rent out privately. A step up from that, there are some incredible hotels with views over the city or seafront. An example of this is Palacio Ramalhete on the outskirts of Lisbon, which oozes authenticity; boasting unique details such as stucco ceilings, oak walls, and copper roofed fireplaces… It even has an outdoor heated pool and cocktail terrace.

So indulge in the food and wine, history and architecture and the early morning walks back to the hotel as you soak up the culture in the city of colour (or as I like to call it; the city of tiles).

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/CasaIndependente

https://www.facebook.com/pensaoamor

http://www.palacio-ramalhete.com/en/

 

 

 

 

 

Biarritz to San Sebastian; an unmissable European road trip

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The route from Biarritz to San Sebastian is a ‘must do’ if you are travelling along the West Coast of France. It winds through beautiful towns caked in surf culture and home to quirky caravan cafes; perfect to stop off on long journeys. There are plenty of beaches along the route for surfing or simply just sunbathing. Whether you are on a family holiday or on a once in a lifetime trip with a friend there is plenty for all to see and do.

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Approaching the border of France we came across a bustling Medieval food festival in a town named Irun. We walked around the markets looking at the homemade jewellery stalls and chatting to friendly stall men as they sold us oysters and champagne. We came across a big circular food stall with huge cauldrons; boiling octopus and legs of ham and on the other side ribs and sausages were sizzling over a coal fire. There were stacks of Padron peppers, calamari and other traditional Spanish tapas being passed around with bottles of wine and beer to a cheery family crowd. We sat down and joined in the feast. It took a while to adjust to the new language, accidentally thanking people in French but they didn’t seem to mind. After our lunch we set off again towards San Sebastian along the winding roads; dappled light seeping through the trees that engulfed the sky.

We arrived in San Sebastian late in the evening so we drove through the city in search for somewhere to camp for the night. You don’t have to go far to be surrounded by mountains and quaint Spanish farmland in the beautiful Basque countryside. High above the cliffs is a little single track road that several other roads branch off down to private houses.

In search for somewhere to pull off and camp we took a wrong turn and pulled up into a tiny courtyard where at least twenty little dogs surrounded the car. We thought the owners would be angry hearing me burn out my clutch trying to turn around amongst the yapping dogs and steep banks but to our surprise she came out smiling and helped us reverse.

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Eventually we pulled up next to a park in the middle of nowhere where large groups of families and friends congregated around tables stacked with food. We found a bench amongst the crowd and made dinner whilst watching wild horses frolic in the nearby fields. As the sun set over the cliffs the landscape turned from a patchwork of greens to a palette of pinks and oranges. As morning came we woke to the sound of trotting hooves. I pulled open the door to see a family of horses all lined up at the fence waiting to be fed. We gave them our left over carrots and had breakfast overlooking the valley where a river meandered it’s way through the trees.

Afterwards, we cycled down the hill into San Sebastian where we sun bathed on the beach, watched people dancing on the promenade to jazz music and ate lunch in a bustling side street restaurant.

If you are searching for a great place to eat in San Sebastian then you have to venture over to the Old Town on the East of the Promenade. You can join in on Pintxos; A traditional activity in the Basque Country which consists of barhopping and eating a selection of small plates displayed on bar counters. You can eat at the bars or take the food out to the street where crowds of people laugh and share stories with a txikito (a small glass of wine) before heading home for a proper meal. In my opinion, the best of these bars is La Mejillonera, which is just off the harbour on the street Calle del Puerto.

The bar has similarities to a take away in the fact you shout out your order and the chefs dish out plates upon plates of calamari, patatas bravas and moules on the counter. Everybody stands around the tiny room perching on stools eating their mussels and throwing the shells on the floor. The dishes are very cheap so you can keep ordering more until you are full. At the end of a busy service the chefs run around with brooms sweeping up the shells ready for dinner service.

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With a full stomach and salty wet clothes we got on our bikes and headed back towards the van. The climb back was steep and long and the heat from the sun made it nearly unbearable.As soon as we got back we stripped into our bikinis and poured bottles of water over ourselves to cool down.

The road trip from Biarritz to San Sebastian can be done as a day trip or add it to a surf trip around Europe. Either way bouncing between both cities you are able to experience French and Spanish culture at its best.

Wild Camping in Labenne

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Driving south from Hossegor towards Biarritz is a town called Labenne. Its initial facade of water parks, big campsites, gift shops and a ramble of tourists can put a lot of travellers off. However, if you wind your way through the hustle and bustle towards the sea and take a right down a long bumpy road you’ll find yourself amongst the dunes in perfect seclusion. You are shaded by low hanging trees, tucked away from the town. If you park up and follow any of the paths that weave through the trees, they will lead you to the sea.

Standing isolated in the dunes is an old chapel, known as Chapelle Sainte-Thérèse. The windows and doors are all boarded up except one around the back too high to peer in. However, we were intrigued to see inside so we grabbed onto some rope hanging from the broken breeze block that filled in the window and hoisted ourselves up. As we scrambled into the chapel we could see the Sanctuary and the Nave painted in emerald green. Looking around, the interior reflected that of the 1970s; remnants of bright yellow curtains hung from the staged area and cheap plywood covered the old stone walls. However, underneath the ripped and torn decor portrayed its initial life during the Second World War where it is known that German soldiers took sanctuary there before fleeing with the Church Bell.

Behind the Chapel, you’ll hear the waves crashing against the shore. Driftwood! Piles and piles of it scatter the long white beach. Some have been made into little shelters and dens others strewn far up the sandy banks. This area of the beach is always really quiet so if you fancy sunbathing in the nude or surfing with waves all to yourself then it’s definitely worth finding.

We found a deflated football, filled it with sand and tied it up with old rope from the beach and played a game of rugby; with driftwood for posts. Later on, we made a fire and drank wine whilst watching the sunset. Being on the West Coast you get a spectacular view of the sunset every night, it is something you will never get tired of seeing; as each night the colours differ slightly or the sun appears larger when it fizzles out behind the clouds.

If you are thinking of staying the night, just bare-in-mind that the signs do say no camping so in the height of summer the Police may tell you to move on in the morning. This being said I have stayed here twice and have never had a problem.

What to do when there is no surf in Hossegor…

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Hossegor is renowned for its surf scene; people of all ages skating or cycling along the streets as though it was rush hour in London, only instead of suits and briefcases; board shorts and surfboards. The miles long stretch of beach makes it a great place to stay for plenty of famous surf spots.

However, in the rare instance there is no surf for a few days people don’t seem to know what to do with themselves. Whilst we were parked up next to the Dunes we were approached by a dutch gentlemen dressed in Hawaiian board shorts, Oakley sunglasses and an unbuttoned shirt. He asked us “What is there to do here when there is no surf?” As we were suffering with the same predicament we decided to explore the other options the beautiful seaside resort had to offer. There is a large lake, where you can hire sailing dinghies or relax on the beach. The great expanse of the Landes forest lies behind the town and is popular for horse riding, hiking or cycling. There is also a popular skate park, tennis courts and Golf resort.

We explored the resort on our bikes. We brought our own, but you can hire them out for the day if not. Hossegor is connected to the towns Seignosse and Cabreton making them almost one continuous resort. So, to cycle or skate along the coast road is very accessible especially as the cycle lanes are just as wide as the road. This means in the height of summer you won’t be battling with the lost tourists in there big motorhomes engulfing the little lanes. You are also able to ignore the ridiculously confusing one way systems around the town.

The houses in Hossegor consist mainly of extravagant mansions set back amongst the trees. Every street can start to look quite similar; shaded by tree canopies and bordered with high stoned walls. This being said the eclectic mix of modern and traditional architecture built in the local Basque / Landes style is interesting to look at and envisage yourself sat on the balconies drinking Pimms and listening to Jack Johnson after a long days surf.

If you head into the centre there are lots of shops, bars and cafes to keep you entertained. We had a funny encounter when we went for a beer at the ‘Le Paris Cafe’ on the corner of the square. As we went to order a drink a lady behind the bar shouted ‘No card, go get cash’. Beguiled with her abruptness we headed over to the cash point. On return to the cafe we were distracted by a beautiful jewellery shop. As we were wandering around the shop we were startled by a lady tapping on my friends shoulder. It was the same lady from the bar looking angrily at us both. She said we had to return to the bar immediately and pay for the beer. Extremely confused we followed her back like naughty school children. She thought we had already had drinks and had run off without paying. However, she eventually realised the mistake she had made and looked very embarrassed. This being said the beer was great as we sat on the street and listened to a group of guys playing their guitar.

A couple of friends we met on a ski season were staying in Hossegor for the season, so we went to visit them. They said they had a slack line with them so we all decided to give it a go. Tying it to the trees I soon realised how difficult this was going to be. We drank beers and laughed at each others poor attempts at it; waving our arms and legs all over the place in desperate hope to cross it.

As evening approached we decided to head up to ‘Le Surfing’ bar for their famous nachos. There were four of us and only two bikes so with a little improvisation; me and my friend sat on the seats and the boys peddled. As we swayed and jolted along the coast road towards the bar people would point and laugh from their cars.

After nachos we raced down to the beach to watch the sunset. A few others joined us; one with his guitar and two others who later attempted all sorts of acrobatics on the beach. Sitting on the steps listening to the melodic soundtrack of the guitar, glugging wine from the bottle and throwing sticks for a stray dog that decided to join in was topped off by the backdrop of waves crashing into the shore and the sun sinking into the inky black sea.

So, when there are days without surf you won’t be stuck with things to do in the bustling seaside resort of Hossegor. All you need to do is get out of the car and explore!

Wild camping in La Rochelle

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Myself and a friend planned a trip through Europe. We will be driving down the West coast of France, through North and West Spain, the coast of Portugal, through the South of Spain and back through the Pyrenees. Missing out Northern France due to our desire for hotter climates, our first day driving was going to be a long one…

After a gruelling fourteen hour drive through Northern France we finally arrived at our first destination, La Rochelle. The roads were long and straight, surrounded by fields and flat plains. Approaching the coastline we pulled off down a little dusty track that led to the sea. As we pulled up the sun was setting in the horizon. We ran out of the van down to the sea hoping to strip off and jump into the cool water, only to find the tide was out…miles out. We took off our shoes and sunk our toes into the clay-like sand. As we hopscotched along the bay big piles of clay disguised themselves as rocks so we would squeal and laugh as we sunk.

Along the beach several fishermen’s huts stood precariously at the end of rickety wooden piers. Nets hung from the end like hammocks so we thought there must be mussels or oysters we could forage. As we delved our hands into the sand in search for some hidden under rocks we watched tiny crabs play helter-skelter across our feet.

Eventually we found a cluster of oysters amongst the debris. We chiselled them off with a stone and took them back to our van where we cooked them with fresh potato gnocchi. As we ate our delicious finds we sat on the pier and admired the peaceful surroundings. The rock pools turned to rich oranges and pinks; like a shattered mirror reflecting the crimson sky. We watched the remainder of the colours dance in the sky before the stars came out in abundance.

DIY Turn your van into a Camper for free!

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livvyvanIf you’ve been thinking about planning a trip away but have put it off because you would have to spend money and time converting your van then here’s how to do it for free.

I have a standard long wheel based VW transporter but this could be done in any van, bigger or smaller. I wanted to make sure once I had come back from the trip I could convert the van back to it’s original state so I had to plan a way around this and not drill any holes or fit anything permanently to the structure.

Firstly I took out all the chairs in the back so that it was an empty shell. I then found some old carpet from our house and cut it into the shape it needed to fit into the van. The carpet meant the seat attachments were covered and also gave it that soft furnished feel.

Then I needed curtains for the front, back and both sides. You can just buy window covers but to keep costs down I found some old second hand curtains, took out the thread from the top and cut them to the size of the side door windows. To attach the curtains I used some curtain wire (only £2 from any DIY store) and fixed them with hooks to the door panel. For the front I didn’t want to have to put up and take down a curtain from each window so across the width of the van behind the front seats I cut to size a curtain rail/metal pole and thread the pole through the seam of the curtain. If your curtain doesn’t already have a seam then you can fold the top of the curtain over the pole and either sew or staple it. For the back window I used velcro to stick the remaining curtain in but you could do the same as the others and have a curtain wire.

How we would make the bed proved most challenging. Usually you would make or buy a slatted structure or a rock n roll bed. However, rock n roll beds can cost around £150-£300 and a slatting bed structure would need drilling in to the van.

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Eventually, we came up with the idea to use pallets. The only disadvantage to this is you can’t fold it away but you will still have storage underneath. We went out in search for the perfect pallets, starting in hardware store carparks to people’s back garden’s to finally finding what we wanted in a local garden centre. We found a long crate (2 m long) but if you can’t find one like this you can drill two smaller ones together. Our pallet wasn’t quite wide enough so we added two pieces of wood from an old fence in my garden to make up the extra. We then added legs (also from an old fence) and slotted the bed into the van. By having the legs you can store everything underneath and manage to fit the bed above the wheel arches.

Finally, we fitted in a cheap shelving unit to one side and using bungie cords we were able to store boxes with all your essentials.

The house with the sign ‘No Trespassing’

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On a hot summer’s day in Majorca, the usual scene would be busy beaches and Irish bars playing football on repeat whilst men drink cheap, fizzy beer and the women-bright blue cocktails with cherry sticks. However, I prefer those quiet spots on the cliffs where the sea is to yourself and the site of TV screens are far, far away. So, I wandered away from the town and along rows upon on rows of houses in search for somewhere to climb down to the sea. As I wondered past affluent rows of vibrant villas and modern architectural forts, a rusty old gate with a sign ‘no trespassing’ bewildered the perfect scenery. Behind the gate was a beautifully paved drive leading to what I can only describe as a house you would see in a James Bond movie. The door was within a large archway, the windows stretched high above the trees and the crumbling statues of greek mythology surrounded the borders.

I wanted to explore further as there would almost certainly be steps down to the sea. So I climbed over the wall, ignoring the sign and made my way over to the building. The door was open slightly so I crept in. The floors were like a glassy sea of black marble, and the white grains were like sea foam dancing in a gentle breeze. To my left was a grand white staircase meandering to the first floor, greeted by yawning crevasses. The banisters were no longer there, just the empty holes that once would have held them. As I walked further into the house I was mesmerised by what I saw next. I was faced with a blue wave horizon as the house opened up to the sea, light engulfing the empty rooms and the feeling of opulence and grandeur for-filled the senses.

I walked onto the veranda, the bare wood patinated with grain and age, contrasted beautifully with the deep ink blue of the sea. I thought to myself, this is where they would have sat and sipped their morning tea listening to a crackly old record whilst watching the waves lap against the cliffs. As I walked down the steps I could hear the tapping of my feet echo in an empty pool. Instead of being filled with inviting cool water, it was now just broken turquoise tiles and graffiti.

Walking around the rugged, unloved remains of the house, I was reminded of the scene in the film Titanic when the memories of people dancing, eating and playing appears through the now sunken hallways. I could see the parties that were held in the grand dining hall, the quiet nights watching the myriad stars, the clattering of pots and pans in the kitchen. However, as I brushed past the wall that fell to rubble, so did the images of what once may have been.

I followed a path away from the house that disappeared down the side of the cliffs, twisting and winding down to a bathing area by the sea. Cautiously, I made my way down, stretched out my towel and lay there for a while in complete peace and tranquility. On my return, I scrambled back over the wall in my flip-flops and salty beach towel and wondered past the rows of villas and forts and thought to myself, how wonderful it was to find a hidden gem, lost in the past.

Words and Photography by Flynn Hunter