A big thanks to all the team at Minehead, for their hospitality and their time – sharing their experiences and showing us around the facility, whilst also letting us jump on the assembly line for some hands on experience.  Brands (Mainstream Brands Team) attended w/c 3rd September along with Crystal (UK Ecom Manager)  and found it invaluable to have the face to face conversations and work through some new opportunities.  A big thank you and I highly recommend it to other teams.

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So delighted to announce the launch of the ‘Hands On m2 Gallery’ in Kakuma Refugee camp, Kenya.  As a fundraiser, I am selling a series of limited edition small etchings and paintings for £55 each, all inspired by the landscape in Kakuma, one of which you can see here, shown with some pictures taken of the opening and the gallery which I was able to join via whatsapp.

On show is the inaugural exhibition, Group Portrait 2024! The gallery is a non-commercial non- profit art educational initiative aiming to showcase the wonderful artwork created by learners & participants in the Hands On Art workshops programme in 10 school art clubs & a community learning centre in Kakuma Refugee camp and Kalobeyei Settlement.

The design of the gallery is based on the beautiful m2 gallery in South London – with huge thanks to Julia Mannheim, Director and the architect , the late Ken Taylor. With thanks also, to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency and Windle international Kenya for their incredible support on all fronts in constructing the gallery in Kakuma and for allowing me to share these images internally. On the weekends I run Hands On art workshops with fellow artist and the Director Lisa Milroy, offering a range of art educational initiatives, including a programme of art workshops for learners delivered through video conference, mobile phone messaging with tremendous support from UNHCR. The art materials are so generously donated by Colart and we need to give a huge thanks to Ajita Chamberlain, Liza Kindon, Sara Brennan and Charlotte Caton for making it happen.

The exhibition shows hand-painted self-portraits on paper and cardboard cutouts from all of the 190 clubs participants in Kakuma and the Kalobeyei settlement. The exhibition was spearheaded by artists Joseph Yona Deng, the Hands On Art Coach and Charles Nhial Mayil, Assistant coach and you can also see their T- shirt project worn by the participants involved. Photos taken by Lisa Milroy and Stephen Okun. It makes me very proud to have been part of this and it has attracted support for the Ethiopian library from bookaid international which delivered 500 books last week. The gallery is solar powered and has an irrigation system and water storage which meant that we were also able to plant trees to provide shade. This has been a year in the making, from a drawing to the beautiful gallery that stands now.

For those of you interested in finding out more, I recommend following Lisa Milroy on Instagram or reading the UCL blog and Slade school of art website or you can contact me to learn more. We fund raise to pay for the building of the gallery and its maintenance, for the delivery of the materials, we pay salaries to the Hands On Art coaches and provide bursaries and scholarships for schools. If you would like to make a donation you can do this through http://www.justgiving.com Hands On Art workshops Lisa Milroy.  Or contact me to see the other works for sale as part of my fund raiser. All of the proceeds go to Hands On Art. Thank you

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Hey everyone! If you haven\’t used your community day yet, I highly recommend getting involved with FoodCycle. I signed up to volunteer recently, and it was super simple! It\’s a great way to give back by helping cook healthy meals for the community. They have sites all over London. Here\’s the link to their website: FoodCycle | Leading Food Charity | Nourishing Communities in the UK

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a few extra photos to give the vibe and prove that I was there too 😉

tips for our fellow brand and product managers- 99% of people asked us if we had Winsor&Newton sketchbooks with watercolour paper and sketchbooks with marker paper,- 99% of people also asked us if they could buy Winsor&Newton pencils and  color pencil by the piece, these have a very good reception, the quality to price ratio is very good, there is only one problem, not all the colours wear out equally quickly, buying another set doesn’t always make sense, colours available individually would deal with the problem, if not possible and ones have to buy something else – competitive brand,- the vast majority of those defending themselves as serious amateurs were much more interested in the professional watercolours than the Cotman group – despite the significant price difference, the new colours were particularly keen to test,- “why don’t you have a white marker, or a white gel pen?” was another question that came up for basically the whole 4 days.

think about it, greetings from Poland

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The end of last week and the whole weekend were very busy. We had the pleasure of representing our wonderful brand Winsor&Newton at the Urban Sketchers Team Poland meeting.

Over 300 registered participants.

Everyone received a sample of Winsor&Newton Cotman watercolours and the new Winsor&Newton PWC Revival colours.

35 people attending a masterclass workshop with Spanish artist Maru Godas, where exquisite Winsor&Newton Designers Gouache were presented.

Our stand with a variety of Winsor&Newton products and selected Lefranc&Bourgeois products, where all those interested could stock up on everything the artistic soul could desire at attractive prices. Many interesting talks, exchanges of information and advice, many samples given out, many sketches of paintings made, etc.

Finally, recognition from the organiser and an invitation to the next edition in 2025.

A busy but very successful day.

I would especially like to thank Irek,who efficiently coordinated the whole event from our side.

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