A Life Well Lived - Age UK Ealing and BEAT portrait initiative
Age UK Ealing has been working with BEAT – the Borough of Ealing Art Trail – to bring some of the voices of their service users to life.
'A Life Well Lived' is a celebration in portraits of the experiences, achievements and lives of older people across Ealing.
Over the past few weeks, myself and seven other local artists have been paired, through the drawing of lots, with eight Age UK Ealing volunteers and service users together to create a special exhibition.
Our finished artworks will be on public display at Ealing's newest cinema and multi-functional community space, The Ealing Project, from 2-6 September before being displayed at the London School of Film, Media and Design, as part of BEAT's annual art trail, which takes place on 10-11 and 17-18 September 2022.
The artists and their partners are:
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Alex Ebdon, Chair of BEAT and a highly experienced painter in his own right, and his partner Patrick, who arrived in England from Jamaica in the 1960s and has many stories to tell
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Gareth Hurley, an artist who specialises in using oils, and his partner Carol, a former Age UK Ealing Trustee, volunteer fundraiser, and champion Big Knit knitter
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Kerry Kent, an artist who works across mediums including film, animation and textile collage, and her partner Jaishri, a widow and proud mother and grandmother
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Sally King, a mixed-media licensed artist who works across many styles, and her partner Joy, an opera lover with a strong interest in all things spiritual
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Maggi Marmion, a portrait artist and street photographer, and her partner Liz,a former BBC employee who is Age UK Ealing's longest-serving volunteer
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Consuelo Radclyffe, a sculptor and ceramic artist who also creates textiles using the heat press technique, and her partner Christine, sister of Joy and another dedicated Age UK Ealing volunteer
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Joel Sydenham, a self-taught visual artist and poet, and his partner Maria – an Ealing resident for nearly 54 years who arrived in the UK from Poland in 1968
- Myself - Stella Tooth, a portrait and performer artist who also draws on my experience as a journalist to tell her sitter’s story in words, and my partner Marie, an orphan who had a difficult upbringing in an Irish nunnery before arriving in London as a young woman