Drawing Willesden

Willesden Gallery Artist Residency

Art workshops and exhibition by Emma Barnie

Brent Culture Service has invited Emma Barnie to run an artist residency at the Willesden Gallery during the period of 7 Jan - 29 Jan.

During the residency Emma plans to create a series of unique local illustrations influenced by the Brent Museum and archives. Through regular public workshops she will help facilitate the creation of a large scale collaborative illustration of the Library itself, which will then be featured in the exhibition from 22nd - 26th January 2019 at the Willesden Gallery.

Drawing Willesden workshops

The free illustration workshops will involve creating a collaborative large scale illustrative piece for the final exhibition. Emma will create the framework for the design of the Willesden Gallery, where participants can work on detailing and adding to the drawing during drop in sessions which will be tailored for different groups. The activity will be artist led and encourage people to use their imagination to create a local and unique artwork. Inspiration based on archival research will be on display to help spark ideas as well as pens and collage materials. The materials used by public will be pencils and markers, and collage will be created with double-sided tape which is mess free and is non-toxic and anyone with any artistic ability will be able to join in.

This is a playful activity for a range of ages and abilities and will be tailored to children and parent, after school and elderly groups respectively.

The artist

Emma Barnie is a visual artist working in illustration, installation and film. Her interests lie in heritage, culture and socio-politics presented with a playful twist. Born and raised by the mysterious Loch Ness she is now digging deep into the murky depths of SE and NW London. Currently she is focusing on exploring and depicting the city based on archives fused with imagination to create surreal illustrated cityscapes.

She has worked on site specific arts projects through commissions in Sutton, Greenwich and Southwark. Recent projects have provided playful twists on literary references to historic locals (Greenwich Heritage Arts) and creating and producing a permanent mural to commemorate local residents H G Wells (Sutton Council) and one of Charles Dickens (New Cross). Emma has directed and produced short documentary films which have been screened at Edinburgh International Film Festival and won awards at Open City Docs Fest. She has also created audio visual installations for the children’s areas of Boomtown and Shambala festivals.

Find Emma Barnie's work on Instagram @barnieemma