past Events
Recent creative mischief I've been involved in.
PORTRAITURE INSPIRED BY GWEN JOHN
1-4 pm May 20th
Come and join Kate as she guides artists of all levels through the process of painting the form of a model at Pallant House Gallery.
Tickets available through Pallant House Gallery:
EMSWORTH ARTS TRAIL 2023
10am-5pm April 22nd, 23rd, 29th, 30th & May 1st
Kate will once again be taking part in the annual Emsworth Arts Trail.
The Emsworth Arts Trail offers a unique glimpse into the work and worlds of Emsworth’s local artists.
“Design a Stained-Glass Window” Workshop
Workshops in 2022 and 2023 were held at the Graylingwell Chapel, Chichester for adult participants to design their own stained-glass windows. Inspiration was taken from the exquisite and unusual 20 th Century stained-glass windows in the Graylingwell Chapel itself.
Do visit the Graylingwell Chapel itself if you are in the Chichester area. As well as numerous artefacts relating to Graylingwell Mental Health Hospital, the café serves delicious food and coffee!
Rhythm in landscapes
In January 2023, inspired by Pallant House Gallery’s successful ‘Sussex Landscape: Chalk, Wood and Water’ exhibition, participants joined Kate Simms to explore how to simplify a landscape into the essence of its rhythms and patterns. By erasing the detail within the landscape, the creative compositions were distilled into stronger design statements.
Art by Paul Nash, Eric Ravilious, Gwenda Morgan, Robert Tavener and Eric Slater were studied to help create the finished results.
An introduction to cyanotypes
In 2022, at Graylingwell Chapel, participants had fun creating their own cyanotype photographic prints using everyday objects, including jewellery, feathers, keys, grasses, flowers, cut metal, etc.
West Dean College of Arts and Conservation 50 th Anniversary Online Exhibition, 2022
To celebrate West Dean College’s 50 th Anniversary in 2022, Kate was invited to share her experience of learning there through a single image and short description. Although she had been on short painting courses there in the past, she chose to submit her portrait of Edward James, the founder of West Dean College. West Dean College of Arts and Conservation was founded in 1964 by Edward James
“In 2018, I was privileged to be involved in a project called ‘Exploring Collections’, a research collaboration between Outside In and the Edward James Foundation. This provided rare access to the Foundation’s archive where I was quickly drawn to finding the essence of Edward James himself. Why did his tombstone in the grounds of West Dean (his home) only have ‘POET’ carved onto it? To my delight I discovered Edward James wrote and published romantic poetry, and “…dreamed of being remembered for being as great a poet as John Keats”. In response, using the first lines of these poems, I created a portrait of Edward James.
My favourite first line? “There’s a moon in my coffee…”
Oxmarket Contemporary Open Exhibition, 2022
Kate was delighted when her creative work “Shadowlands” was shortlisted for the Oxmarket Contemporary’s first Open Exhibition. It was one of the 193 works shortlisted from nearly 600 entries. Unique in offering five categories of submission including the applied arts (craft), drawing and illustration, painting, print and photography, and sculpture.
20 years of Pallant House Gallery’s Community Programme 2022
At the start of 2022 Pallant House Gallery’s Community Programme member artists were asked how they would like to celebrate 20 years of the Community Programme. The final idea was this co-curated exhibition consisting of over seventy 20 x 20cm artworks.
Each artwork celebrated the individual creativity of each person, whilst showing the vibrancy of the community when they are all brought together. The exhibition displayed a small glimpse into the full scale of the artistic talent of the 200 plus members of the Community Programme.
Community Programme members were invited to create a work that best represented themselves as an artist. Some chose a work typical of their usual style or preferred subject matter. Others chose to paint self-portraits or items that signify their identity as an artist.
Where will the next 20 years of Pallant House Gallery lead?
To read more about this exhibit and see other’s contributions, please click here…
during covid
During covid lockdown in 2020, Kate ran numerous digital workshops taking inspiration from various artists, such as Matisse, Michael Craig-Martin, and Monet, for Chichester Community Development Trust.
Participants included artists from Australia, America, the Highlands of Scotland, and the depths of Cornwall…the overseas artists were dedicated enough to join in the middle of the night!
West Dean Arts & Crafts Fair
West Dean College
31 May - 2 June 2019
Outside In Step Up Exploring Collections Exhibition
Rather than present the normal, and often boring, 500 word biography on an artist (of which I have written many), I decided to come up with an interactive, accessible biography. Choosing Edward James and his life as my subject, I wove the numerous strands using left-over thread from West Dean’s tapestry studio; asking questions and using photographs to illustrate his life. All are anchored by a flint from West Dean’s estate and overflow from a trunk covered in flags - to represent what was found after his death and nomadic life.
EMSWORTH ARTS TRAIL
Emsworth Community Centre
27 - 28 April and 4 - 6 May 2019
Over 1,000 people visited my life drawing group’s exhibition during the Emsworth Arts Trail this year. Several students sold work which made the effort worthwhile.
Meet & Make
Pallant House Gallery
9 April 2019
Using Harold Gilman’s painting “Portrait of Mrs Victor Sly” as inspiration, and with a clothed model creative images were created using textured collage.