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Varied interests impact daily on Syrah
Arnold's arts practice and add to her love of illustrating for various
companies and charities and completing a wide range of fine-art
commissions for different collectors. Syrah Jade uses colour, form
and decoration to great effect producing bold and distinctive artwork,
which has been used for advertising and marketing, publishing, point
of sale, packaging and stationery, and more.
Examples of Commercial Companies and Charities
worked for:
London Underground.
Poster. |
Royal Horticultural Society.
Chelsea Flower Show marketing. |
Marks & Spencer.
Stationery.
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United Nations Association.
Advertising. |
BBC.
Publishing - books and magazines.
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KPMG Peat Marwick.
Pensions Brochures, marketing. |
Safeway.
Packaging. |
Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society.
Cards (voted 'best buy', Mail on Sunday). |
Pullmans restaurants.
Menu design. |
Amnesty International (UK & Belgium).
Calendar and card illustrations. |
Superdrug.
Point of Sale. |
Women’s Press.
Adult Fiction book illustrations. |
John Lewis.
Stationery and gift items. |
Belitha Press.
Children's book illustrations. |
TDP Belfast.
Corporate Identity for Lingerie Outlet. |
Pacific Computers.
Advertising, Brochures. |
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Syrah has exhibited extensively and collectors from around the world
have bought her art. Recently Syrah Arnold has exhibited in Cambridgeshire
and has been invited to exhibit in London, Italy and Berlin. In
2009 Syrah has completed commissions in pastels, oils and inks.
Exhibitions Include:
| 2005 |
Victoria Art Gallery, Bath - work selected for Bath Society
of Artists 100th annual exhibition. |
| 2004 |
Guild Hall, Bath – private exhibition for the National
Association of Decorative Fine Art Society. |
| 2003 |
‘Glow’ Hotbath Gallery, Bath (joint-curator
and exhibitor). |
| 2002 |
The Affordable Art Fair, Bristol (curator and exhibitor
for the Citadel Gallery). |
| 1997 |
The State Museum and Gallery of the History of St. Petersburg,
Russia. |
| 1998 & 1993 |
The Bristol Guild of Applied Art, Bristol. |
| 1993 & 1992 |
The International Autumn Fair, NEC, Birmingham. |
Syrah Jade facilitates various workshops for people of all
ages and levels of experience. Syrah was also recently chosen as
the featured illustrator for a National Careers Guide.
Teaching
Experience, Residences & Workshops include:
2009:
June - August, External Large-Scale Mural at Samuel Pepys
Special Needs School, St.Neots.
June, week-long illustration residency Glebelands Primary School,
Chatteris. Printmaking and Collage techniques used to illustrate
history of the Fens pop-up books.
April and May, sessions for 4 - 19 year olds at Samuel Pepys Special
Needs School, St Neots. Workshops explored the themes of staying
safe, and staying healthy, with work created by pupils then developed
into a mural design for the school. "He doesn't usually stay
focused for so long; I'm amazed!" "It's good to see
the children really thinking about what they're drawing, rather
than just drawing anything".
May, Drawing workshop for U3A, Bury St Edmunds. "Syrah is
a natural teacher, and has a reassuring way of encouraging everybody,
finding things to praise in their work, and offering growth points
to explore further. It is quite significant that the two most
vociferous people singing her praises afterwards, were the two
people who had shown least confidence in the group up to that
point."
February, Drop-in drawing workshop for Fenland Arts and University
Museum of Zoology
Cambridge. “I feel really inspired now – ’m
going to buy some art materials next week!”. "I don’t
usually draw that large – this is a real achievement for
me.”
2008:
May - December, sessions for MIND, working with adults
with mental health issues. “My expectations of what we can
achieve has raised – I never thought we could achieve this”
“I’m amazed at the standard of work everyone’s
made and how much we’ve improved”
“Thank you Syrah for all your support and for making the
sessions fun and inspiring”
Mind clients
May - July, artist in residence, Glebelands Primary School, Chatteris.
Large-scale project designed to break down prejudices and racism,
working with all pupils (4 - 11 year old's). “Working with
Syrah Jade has enabled our children, of all abilities, to work
creatively and collaboratively, to produce outstanding pieces
of artwork that are truly based on the children’s’
own designs and ideas”.
April - July, teaching art to years 3 - 6, Huntingdon Junior School,
Cambridgeshire.
January / February, Solihull Arts Complex, art sessions for family
groups. Monoprinting and collage work, working in response to
community exhibitions. “Syrah’s quiet presence encouraged
the participants to ask questions and really experiment. A lot
of the work produced was surprisingly detailed and of a higher
quality than I had predicted. This really contrasted with the
loose free approach and atmosphere. This surprise reaction to
the final pieces was evident in the participants and was for me
one of the key successes to the workshops. Seeing how proud and
surprised the participants were, as I was!”
Miss A. Green, Arts Development Worker
April 07– February 08, The Gables care home, Chatteris:
art sessions for elderly residents, many with dementia. “The
response from our residents has been overwhelming. We are all
delighted with the effort and time Syrah has spent at The Gables”
2007
June, Kingsway Primary School, Nottingham: two-day workshops exploring
Rainforests.
September / October, King Edward Community Centre, Chatteris:
arts workshops for adults.
October, Solihull Arts Complex: Big Draw family workshop.
October, Age Concern, Chatteris: collage workshop for over 50's.
"Please can we have some more?"
November, Braydon Forest Secondary School, Wiltshire: Workshops
exploring architecture to launch a large-scale arts project.
Previous years:
Julian House / The Shed, Bath. A short series of gallery visits
and oil painting workshops for homeless adults.
Wiltshire College, illustration.
Oxford College of Further Education, illustration and business
studies.
Artist in residence (twice) at Nature in Art, Gloucester.
Middlefield School, Wiltshire, working with children with learning
difficulties.
Westbury Infants school.
Redland Primary School, Wiltshire. Work from first arts week used
as a teaching aid for secondary schools and published in a teacher’s
handbook. Public exhibition of children's work was held on both
occasions.
Charter Primary School, Wiltshire. Public exhibition of children's
work was held.
Devizes Museum, Wiltshire.
Arts Development and Project Evaluation
Between 2002 – 2006 Syrah Jade Arnold worked as Visual Arts
Development Worker for the community arts charity nesa. During her
time with nesa Syrah oversaw the capital redevelopment of a rural
youth centre and established the Radstock Art Project, which was
launched in September 2003 and awarded the National Lottery Blue
Plaque for Excellence in October 2005. Her roles included: Strategic
planning, partnership development, community consultation and workshop
programming, events and exhibitions, recruiting and contracting
artists and suppliers, devising marketing strategy, oversaw promotion
and publicity, fundraising and budget control, general administration,
evaluation and report writing.
As a freelance project evaluator, Syrah is experienced in using
creative approaches to both develop and assess the outcomes of arts
and community based projects. The scope of Syrah's experience benefits
her evaluation and arts development practices. Syrah has successfully
evaluated school projects, ongoing work for nesa and two exciting
projects between April and August 2006: 'People's Choice', a project
that Syrah Arnold had initially set up in 2004 for Radstock Art
Project (working with women with experience of post natal depression
and the Victoria Art Gallery, Bath) and (with Caron Elgey) 'MEADOW',
a Bath Spa University contemporary sculpture project.
Qualifications and Training Include:
ILM Introductory Certificate in First Line Management, Creative
Practice.
Professional Diploma, Arts Venue Management.
HND Illustration, Distinction.
BTEC National Diploma, Graphics, Merit.
Training:
The Art of Living - Arts and wellbeing for the third age.
"Watch Your Language" - working with young people with
speech, language and communication impairments.
Exploring creativity.
Essential Evaluation.
Disability Discrimination Act.
Artists in Schools.
Appointed person, Emergency Aid.
Introduction to Child Protection.
Successful Project management.
Business studies and marketing.
Other Achievements & Future Aims
Establishing her arts practice in 1991 with help from the Prince's
Trust, Syrah Jade Arnold has created beautiful paintings and illustrations
to the highest standards for numerous companies and individuals.
In this time Syrah has also turned around a failing local authority
art gallery, curated mixed and solo exhibitions, and worked for
four years as a visual arts development worker.
Awards include finalist position in the 1996 International Advertising
Awards for work entitled ‘Celtic Dreams’ (with other
finalists including Coca Cola & Nike); a marketing grant to
publish her own illustration sample book; ‘Outstanding Design’
award for national Equal Rights competition.
Future aims include exhibiting with her old business advisor
and mentor, Chris Lee, and exhibiting in Greece (where Syrah eventually
hopes to set up business).
Syrah Arnold is registered on communityartists.co.uk
and Artists in Schools, and is a featured artist on the Saatchi
on-line gallery:
www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist/details.php?id=17119
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