Chester artist creates works of art with her Spirograph

Jan 28 2010 by Jo Henwood, Chester Chronicle

Chester artist creates works of art with her Spirograph

A CHESTER artist has been going round in circles for her latest exhibition.

Lesley Halliwell’s All The Small Things, at the Grosvenor Museum, has been created using that childhood favourite toy, the Spirograph wheel. Other tricks of Lesley’s trade are felt-tip pens, blotting paper, Tipp-Ex, biros and graph paper.

Lesley says: “This is a fantastic opportunity to have a solo exhibition here in my hometown of Chester. So often my work is in exhibitions too far away for friends and family to go and see; this time there are no excuses!’

One work, on show for the first time, is Good Vibrations, 1270 minutes. The drawing is so large it fills the north wall of the Watercolour Gallery.

Lesley’s enormous, colourful Spirograph drawings once attracted the attention of TV presenter James May, who got her to teach him how to use the toy on his programme My Sister’s Top Toys.

Lesley has had solo exhibitions at Hive Gallery, Barnsley; Chapman Gallery, Salford and Touchstones, Rochdale (in 2008) and has contributed to numerous group exhibitions including Pattern Recognition, The City Gallery, Leicester and Superabundant, Turner Contemporary, Margate (2009).; Wall to Wall, Gooden Gallery, London (2006) and Remote Control, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham (2004). She was a finalist in Pizza Express Prospects, London (2004), Bloomberg New Contemporaries (2002) and was nominated for Beck’s Futures in 2003.

She is a member of Suite studio group in Salford and is a visiting lecturer in Fine Art at the University of Chester.

All the Small Things: Recent Work by Lesley Halliwell is at Grosvenor Museum from January 30 to April 11. More information about her practice can be found at www.lesleyhalliwell.co.uk.