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Meet the Rochford Art Trail Coordinator, Kerry Baker-Davis …. and the Art Trail

It is less than a month to the start of the Art Trail - official launch Thursday 17th September - and artists and shopkeepers are counting days before this successful annual event in Rochford kicks off.

Kerry Baker-Davis is one of the participating artists. Depending on which dictionary you look in, ‘artist’ is a fairly elastic word. On the ‘Participants Directory’ page you will find Kerry described as a ‘ceramicist’ and if you want to know what that means look at last year’s trail reports and you’ll see Kerry’s work there. She is also the proprietor of that wonderful little shop tucked away between North Street and East Street called ‘March Hares & Monkey’s Uncles’. With a name like that she’s got to be an artist!  But she’s also the Art Trail Coordinator.

Now since the Council have been going through changes, the term ‘coordinator’ now appears in my ‘Dictionary of Alternative Meanings’ as ‘the person who does most of the work’ rather than ‘the person who coordinates other people who do the work’. To be fair Kerry tells me that my old friend Max Dolding has been a willing worker in recent days. You will find Max at venue 23. Now Max is a very creative artist so watch with eager anticipation what will appear on the large window of Whittingham’s Garage in a month’s time (no pressure Max!)

But back to Kerry. So she is an artist, a shopkeeper and the Trail’s coordinator, but even more than this, Kerry is an enthusiast. Kerry is enthusiastic about previous Art Trails, about ‘her’ artists this year (she doesn’t put it like that but she is clearly proud of them all), about the Trail in general and even about hopes for future years. The end result of all of this enthusiasm and of a number of months of work (lately helped by Max)?  More artists and more venues!  Wow! Bigger and better than ever before. From what Kerry tells me of her artists, you would be really missing out if you fail to do all you can to turn up in a month’s time and search out every exhibit. Whoever appointed Kerry did a good job to follow on from the capable hands of Roxie Curry.

So let me give you a few things I’ve learnt along the way, things that might help those of you who may be beginners at this sort of thing:

1. There are what I call ‘Walkabouts’. You’ll see the events calendar speaks of them as Art Trail Walks. They run each day except Sunday, start at 11.00am in the Square and last roughly an hour. They will probably only manage to cover about a third of the venues but it is fun doing it with other people and the leader will be an enthusiast. And men, if you feel a bit nervous about going in to a ladies hairdressers (Ellis’s) on your own to view the art work (on the walls!!!) then doing it with a group makes it safe.

2. Then there are what I call ‘Group Actions’, so for instance on Monday to Thursday of the second week there is a Group Exhibition in the pavilion of the Rochford Hotel, which is an excellent venue and you can see 8 exhibitors under one roof (good for rainy days especially). Then there is the Haven Art Group who are showing in the Library. Again a number of artists under the one roof. If you can trek round to the hospital in Union Lane, you will be rewarded with the work of the Open Art Group. If last year is anything to go by you’ll find some stunning work there making the effort of walking round to them, every bit worthwhile. If you’re happy to wait until the last day of the Trail you’ll also find the Roche Art Group have got their own showing in the WI Hall. Again, lots more excellent artists on show and all under one roof! AND I am told they will be having a special guest professional artist, Bill Newton giving demonstrations and advice.   

3. Another thing is realising the size of the Trail. 24 is a lot of venues and so you need either a strategy or a commitment to hit it all in one go, allowing probably a whole morning or a whole afternoon. A strategy may include doing part of it on one of the daily walkabouts, having lunch in town, and then hitting some more in the afternoon.  There will be a lot to see but it is worth it. I note that Liam O’Herlihy is showing his work again at the Golf Club. Again you may think that is a bit of a trek from the Square but it is only five minutes on from say Whittingham’s at the bottom of West Street (where Max will be doing his spectacular thing) and it’s a beautiful walk anyway, and Liam’s often spectacular work is worth the walk.

The thing about the Art Trail is that it is local good art (for free) that covers paintings (of many styles), drawings, ceramics, and a range of other things that fall firmly or loosely under the heading of ‘art’ – and it is all here for ten days on our doorstep. Educational? Definitely!  Enjoyable? Definitely! What more can you ask for!

Before I finish this introductory article on this year’s Trail, a word or two about the artists themselves. We have agreed with Kerry that we will do interviews with each of the new artists, if they are willing for it – a half a page of free publicity about you. We’ll be in contact. Having been a fairly close observer for the last couple of years I note different emotions in artists who participate on a Trail like this. There are the ‘old stagers’ for whom public exhibitions are run of the mill and who appear utterly relaxed about it all, but then there are the new-comers, novices may we call you, who are scared silly about what they are about to do. If that is you, a word of encouragement. I ran across Ann Bacon (venue 14) the other day, before I got hold of a leaflet, and asked whether she was doing the Trail again after her first time out last year. ‘Enthusiastic response’ does not do justice to Ann’s answer to me!  I’ve promised I’ll do a follow up interview with her on how it feels to have crashed the fear barrier (she was seriously nervous last year!) and to do it again, so watch out for that, hopefully in the next week or so. If this is your first time, may I as a member of the watching public tell you that I at least will appreciate whatever you are going to display for us, so thank you in advance!

With that I will shut up.  The Trail is coming folks. Watch for the WI craft market on the 12th and, if you are around at the right time, a wander round to the Grey Goose to watch Sally Chinea creating a mural on the garden wall of the Grey Goose, starting at midday on that same day. Live art in action!  A closing word: I’ve just noticed on the leaflet the words, “For other events and special Art Trail offers on food and drink, etc. see Facebook page.”  Excuse me I’ve just got to look it up….. Facebook

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See Kerry’s works now at Venue 1 and Venue 19