Words and pictures

A special treat on a wet autumn day – a trip to Leith Hill Place on the North Downs to see their latest exhibition, an open call exhibition for artists on an autumnal theme. The exhibition features a range of media, including stained glass, ceramics and textiles. It also features work by members of Mole Valley Poets interspersed among the oils and watercolours.

I’m familiar with Leith Hill Place. I’ve staged a play there, sung in ad hoc choirs, and spend an interesting summer afternoon taking part in Amie Rai’s Reading Room project. And I’ve been to the standing exhibitions on Vaughan Williams and the history of the house with its associations with the Wedgwoods and Charles Darwin. This was different again.

It was a different and interesting project to produce haiku or just shorter form poems on the specific theme and then to see which poems were selected to feature. Then to see the exhibition with the words on the walls was also something a little different – a sort of collaboration with artists we had not met, and a change from the printed page or the microphone, which is how we normally share our work.

The exhibition had been carefully curated and was beautifully put together. A very special experience, and one I’d hope to repeat as we continue to develop relationships and collaborations across artistic media.