Celia Hart's blog about what's going on in and around her studio.
Art, printmaking, inspirations, gardening, vegetables, hens, landscapes, wild flowers, East Anglia, adventure, travel.

Monday 11 March 2013

Light Night

In the previous post I promised to tell you about the Sudbury Light Night, an event to celebrate the artistic inspiration of the Stour Valley . . .

After two glorious Spring days earlier last week, the weather deteriorated and the forecast for Friday evening was dire . . . wind and heavy rain! Cliff and I went along prepared with waterproofs and umbrellas, luckily the heaviest rain held off for the time we were there but not surprisingly crowds were sparse, which was a shame because there were some intriguing things to see.

We met up with fellow Suffolk blogger, Su, inside St Peter's church; where there was a good selection of paintings and other artwork exhibited. After a few teething problems – and competing with the Market Hill street lighting! – the video projection on the tower got underway (well done to installation artist Jacky Hutson). It was pretty exciting to see some of my images so huge!


We then headed off towards the water meadows behind the Quay Theatre (luckily Su knew the way) further along, the route was lined with lanterns – really pretty – unlike the path which had become a quagmire of slippery mud!

We were just too late to see the painting tableau performance on the river bank opposite the Quay Theatre, so I can't tell you more about that . . . the crowd that were gathered seemed to have enjoyed it.

Onwards, through muddier mud, we walked to the water meadow along the River Stour; the trees illuminated with coloured light looked beautiful.


Lining the edge of the river bank (useful, so we knew when to stop walking!) were coloured lanterns . . . this must have taken ages to set up, but was very very effective.


Su and I couldn't resist poking around inside one of the lanterns to see how they were made – and we found they are amazingly simple to make: a white plastic bag with some holes cut in it, some soil in the bottom to weigh it down, and one of those led party table lights. Please do try this in your garden!


Our favourite thing was the flying swan lantern, attached to a small boat and with human-opperated flapping wings, it 'flew' low over the water of the River Stour . . . beautiful!


Well done to Managing a Masterpiece for conceiving a lovely event. I've put an album of photos on my Facebook Page here, and there is also a video of the projected images on the church tower and the swan.


Afterwards Su joined us for a hearty supper at The Black Lion in Long Melford, tucking our muddy shoes well under the table, we looked as clean and tidy as any of the other diners ;-)

Celia
x

11 comments:

  1. What an unusual evening - it looks wonderful. I'm glad the rain held off - and the snow too. It would have been a cold one if it had been last night! Brrrrr.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It was a lovely night, the video of the swan is brilliant. I'm just relieved we all managed to stay upright in the mud!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh! It looked lovely. Your enormous hares-woo-hoo!

    I'll be not-very-far-away in June. But not-quite-close-enough.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It all looks very exciting and colourful. What a shame about the weather though. I shall have a look at your FB page later on.

    ReplyDelete
  5. How exciting to see your images projected like that! Sounds like a wonderful evening.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Celia, even if the weather gods were not too kind, it seems to me that Light Night was a great success. I hope it might become an annual event?

    it seems that there are many creative folks in the area that worked well together to create something everyone could enjoy.

    Your hares look wonderful in the projection, as it they are dancing in the light of the Moon. I could imagine a large stained glass window with those hares.

    Thank you for taking along your camera to capture so many Light Night sights, and also for your excellent reporting of weather-related slippery footing! xo

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your hares look so beautiful! : ) You know how much I love them.

    ReplyDelete
  8. My favourite thing was to see your lovely hares lit up on the church tower. I am sure you know that the three hares in a circular motif as you have done when used in Christian churches represent a symbol of the Trinity, so your hares fit in there perfectly.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Seeing your hares lit up on the church tower must have been a real thrill. What a shame about the weather but you are nothing if not hardy and seem to have made the best of the evening. That lantern idea is brilliant. I am going to try that most definitely!

    ReplyDelete
  10. your Hares looked fantastic.... x

    ReplyDelete

I love reading all the comments (except for spam and advertising which I will delete) and I'll reply here in the comments under each blog post, it may take a few days if I'm busy.
You don't need to have a blog to leave a comment, you can select the name/URL option and fill in just your name instead of a blog link.