Alison Bunning, Conservation Architect for Kestle Barton, received an architectural award in the RIBA South West Town and Country Design Awards 2011 results ceremony at Bristol’s M-Shed on Tuesday 22 November 2011, hosted by architect and former RIBA President George Ferguson CBE.

The Rooflight Company Conservation Award was awarded for Kestle Barton by Tiverton-based RIBA architect Alison Bunning for it’s rejuvenation of a series of farm buildings to produce a gallery and accommodation for an artist in residence as well as holiday visitors.

Talking after the winners were announced, regional director of RIBA South West Jon Watkins said ‘the RIBA exists to champion better buildings, communities and the environment through architecture and our members, and this year’s projects have demonstrated a connection between peoples lives and the building they live, work or play in. Good design makes a difference to real people’s lives, and good design can be at every scale of size of project’.

Photograph by Simon Webb, Blue Skies, 2011:

Lisa Hale from The Rooflight Company (left) with Alison Bunning (right).

Artist’s Statement: “The six week residency here at Kestle Barton is a fantastic opportunity to immerse myself in a very different Cornish landscape and work without any distractions. My normal studio discipline continues but is combined with walking and drawing. The results of these explorations with my sketchbook – looking through trees and over fields and water – is all very seductive and these fragments of landscape are leaking into the work I am making on linen and paper. Also seeping in without my permission are colours such as the odd and beautiful green of Frenchman’s Creek and even the warm grey of the paintwork on the doors and windows of the beautiful buildings that make up Kestle Barton. It is an extraordinary place and it will be quite hard to leave.”

For more information about Naomi Frears please visit her website: http://naomifrears.com/

The Big Draw 2011: Kestle Barton’s Portraits of Community Project was launched on Saturday 1 October with tea, cakes and Jonathan Polkest’s drawing booth ‘Tedna Ve / Draw Me’. The booth will be up for the whole month of October in the garden at Kestle Barton. Individuals and groups are invited to participate in the national campaign to promote drawing and ‘bring communities together in fun and creative ways’. The drawing and sitting with the booth are fun and absolutely no experience is necessary. We hope to gather as many portraits as possible to make a collection that answers the question, ‘What does our community look like?

Peter Fluck’s newest kinetic sculpture ‘La Jotta’ has been installed at Kestle Barton this week as part of his outdoor exhibition this season in the gardens – Peter Fluck Mobiles: 2011 Annual Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition. This mobile is named after a Spanish-Mexican dance and boasts strong colours and elaborate movements in the wind.

Chris Chapman film Ray Exworth – Sculptor (2011)

Commissioned to make the film for the Wroxham Trust in order to make a record of the artist, Ray Exworth and his wife, Susie, at home at Heatherbell Cottage and the surrounding gardens and sheds brimming over with his life’s work. Chris Chapman gave his time and skills very generously and was supported by Hine Downing. The film has a running time of 14:48. It was published to coincide with Ray Exworth – A Shutter Came Down (17 September – 30 October 2011).

A DVD of the film is available for £6

A full colour, 36 page catalogue has been created to accompany the exhibition Ray Exworth- A Shutter Came Down (17 September – 30 October 2011).

The catalogue costs £10

The Cornwall Workshop has been initiated by the independent curator Teresa Gleadowe and developed in partnership with Tate St Ives under the auspices of the Tate Research Centre: Creative Communities.

The Cornwall Workshop is a six-day intensive residential workshop for artists, curators and critics. It will provide a space for discussion, debate and the sharing of ideas around producing, exhibiting and experiencing art in a remote, dispersed, non-urban area. The workshop builds on the legacy of The Falmouth Convention, held in May 2010, and is planned to address the interests and concerns of artists, curators and critics in Cornwall and the South West of England. It will be led by the distinguished American artist Mark Dion, the Chicago-based critic Lori Waxman, Sally Tallant, Head of Programme at the Serpentine Gallery, Martin Clark, Artistic Director of Tate St Ives and Teresa Gleadowe.

Kestle Barton is hosting the workshop, providing high quality residential accommodation for participants and workshop leaders. The workshop will accommodate ten participants selected from an open submission and a small number of invited international participants. The closing date for applications was 29 August 2011 and selection of participants is now complete and closed.  For further details see: http://www.thecornwallworkshop.com/

In Abundance: Kestle Barton’s Flower and Vegetable Show ended after the Bank Holiday Monday this week, but not before the prizes were awarded. First Prize in Best of Show was awarded to Fin McMorran for Women and Sheds, her ten 1-minute animated interviews with women about their garden sheds displayed on an interactive DVD inside a shed in the garden.

Renee Kilburn was awarded second prize with her Yellow Lilies Jug in the category of Prize Winning Bloom.

Katie Spragg visited Kestle Barton from London and was able to collect her third prize rosette for Insect Life category in person for her commemorative plates of the ‘top five garden pests’.

The outstanding wild flower mixture has bloomed again on top of the stone hedgerows surrounding the Kestle Barton gardens. Many visitors ask for details of this mixture so please find link to Pictorial Meadows website. The exact mixture planted on our stone hedgerow is ‘short-02′.

Pictorial Meadows website is http://www.pictorialmeadows.co.uk/