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“Nature always wins” as young York creatives are urged to take part in Green Together project for #Draw With Denmark

A study of nature by York photographer Patrick Heinemeyer, promoting a global green drawing compaign

ALL Saints schoolboy photographer Patrick Heinemeyer is playing a big part in kickstarting a global green drawing campaign for young creatives in York.

Using the hashtag #DrawWithDenmark, for the past two years Viborg UNESCO Creative City has invited children and young people worldwide to draw and participate in a global drawing campaign.

In 2021, York charity New Visuality took part, sending messages of Hope during the pandemic to the children of the world.

This year, the theme is Green Together. Charity director Greg McGee is keen to build a groundswell of interest from a variety of cohorts. 

Joe P, from the Blueberry Academy, enjoying a Green Together project

“Patrick’s photos are a great way to get the conversation started. The challenge is for young people to create their art focusing on how we can save the planet and how we can create a sustainable and greener world,” he says.

“This kind of groundswell is harder than you think to maintain. There’s a kind of fatigue abroad with both artists and viewers that can ultimately prove to be counterproductive.

“The initial spark is crucial. Patrick’s photography brings the natural world to our sessions and provides the perfect platform from which we can inspire continuous creativity.”

Charity co-director Ails McGee concurs: “Our gallery According To McGee worked with a variety of artists, some of whom prioritised provocative shock over aesthetics. Well, there’s nothing more provocative than nature itself.

New Visuality co-director Greg McGee, back row, right, at the Blueberry Academy’s Green Together event

“During the pandemic, we were relentlessly reminded that ‘nature heals’. We prefer to think that ‘nature galvanises.’ Patrick’s photography provides a sharp, glowing portal that hammers home an important point: nature always wins. It’s this that has inculcated some of the best creativity we have ever seen in our outreach sessions.”

Patrick, 16, is delighted his photography is connecting so well. “I enjoy the challenge of capturing in my photography both the fragility and strength of the natural world. In an increasingly urban environment, small reminders that nature continues to thrive seem to hit a nerve.”

Launched on April 15, Green Together runs until August 1. Chris Edwards, chair of REACH (York Cultural Education Partnership), would like as many York schools as possible to become involved after half-term and finish their drawings, collages, paintings, animations by the end of the summer term.

“Breathe air and chill”: Martha, from the Blueberry Academy, captures the spirit of the Green Together project

“The campaign invites children and young people around the world to create drawings that tap into the global green agenda from a hopeful perspective and based on 20 drawing challenges (see the list below).

Greg is confident the project will hit its targets. “It’s a superb initiative and shows that, after a few tough years, York continues to be ambitious and collaborative. Our York partners include Fishergate’s Blueberry Academy and, via our Art Camp sessions, schools such as Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, St George’s and Westfield Primary Community School,” he says.

“By sending drawings from York’s young people to Viborg, York’s creativity will travel out into the world. For now, we’re looking at inspiration, and Patrick Hernemeyer’s photography is the gift that keeps giving.”

You can follow Green Together’s progress on Viborg UNESCO Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram and through #DrawWithDenmark.

“In an increasingly urban environment, small reminders that nature continues to thrive seem to hit a nerve,” says photographer Patrick Heinemeyer

What are the drawing challenges for Green Together?

1. How we can make York a greener city.

2. How we can help animals and plants survive this global challenge.

3. How green technology can save the planet.

4. Destination Hope: where are we going in the future?

5. How we can work together to save the planet.

6. Your personal “climate change” challenge.

7. A superhero who saves the Earth from global warming.

8. What animals would say about the climate changing.

9. How nature always wins.

10. Your green hope for the future.

11. How you can take care of nature.

 12. How birds and animals will survive in the future.

13. What you can do to make your neighbourhood greener.

14. What you can do to make your school greener.

15. What you can do to make your home greener.

16. What a world where animals make the decisions looks like.

17. What the house of the future looks like.

18. How we create a sustainable everyday life.

19. A wish from Mother Earth. What is your wish for the earth?

20. Green Together: how do we work together to carry forward the green hope?

Snowdrop: always the first flower to herald a new year of nature’s wonders, photographed by Patrick Heinemeyer

Preparation

“WE would like as many York schools as possible to take part this year and send their drawings to Viborg to become part of the work that will be in displays across the world,” says REACH chair Chris Edwards.

“BBC Look North and BBC Radio York covered the first Hope project and hope to cover the project this year. We also hope the children’s work will be exhibited at your local Explore York library.

“Your school council, a school class or another group could take part. Feel free to let your creative spirit free in this wonderful campaign.

“We are looking at ways we could enhance and enrich the project. If you need more information or want to talk about how your school might get involved, contact chrisedwards51@hotmail.com.”

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‘Plates of pears or simple pots of flowers elevated into iconic emblematic art? We had to give Carol Douglas a ring for that…’

York artist Carol Douglas, left, with According To McGee gallery co-director Ails McGee

CAROL Douglas: Hygge and Expressionism part two launches at York gallery According To McGee on Saturday at 12 noon.

Greg and Ails McGee continue their commitment to contemporary painting with the latest collection by the York artist, who last exhibited at the Tower Street art space between lockdowns last year.

“We love Carol’s art,” says gallery co-director Ails. “We showcased her 2020 collection in the autumn and we weren’t surprised at how well they connected. The paintings focus in on the simplest, most humble items of homelife and reassemble them as iconic compositions.

“It’s her style, and you can tell who it is from across the room, which is a litmus test of success in itself.”

Carol’s Hygge and Expressionism part one brought the gallery a new type of discerning client when holding court at According To McGee, notes co-director Greg.

“When a gallery has to constantly rely on a static cohort of collectors to keep the commercial side of things going, that gallery is in trouble,” he says. “We have for 17 years made the point that if you want contemporary cityscapes, we have them. Semi-abstract seascapes? We have them too.

“Plates of pears or simple pots of flowers elevated into iconic emblematic art? We had to give Carol Douglas a ring for that! And she does it with such control, such a mischievous vision, that her work reminds me of William Carlos Williams’s poem This Is Just To Say.

“Those cold plums on the plate were more than just plums! So there’s the heft of something simple beautifully depicted that seems to connect to a whole new type of client that we’re really grateful for.” 

Digital artist Nick Walters orchestrating the Hope nocturnal digital display at According To McGee in York

Carol Douglas’s exhibition follows Hope, the three-week nocturnal digital display of artwork by children from all over the world, a project spearheaded by Denmark’s Viborg and guided to York by Chris Edwards, chair of REACH and the York Cultural Education Partnership, and Chris Bailey, clerk of the York Guild of Media Arts.

“If the intention was to remind a slowly returning cultural sector that According To McGee was alive and kicking, it certainly worked,” says Greg. “The response has been humbling. We’ve had families from participating York schools attending, and teenagers we’ve worked with through our charitable arm, New Visuality, sending me photos of the illuminated projections of their artwork.

“It’s been great and just underlines how innovative displays with digital artists Nick Walters and Pritpal Rehal can complement the more traditional thrills of coming to see a beautifully curated exhibition of beautifully composed paintings.” 

Now the focus turns to Carol Douglas’s paintings, with the McGees settling on maintaining the title Carol Douglas: Hygge and Expressionism from last year’s campaign. “Honestly, the title says it all, and the nature of the work has not shifted at all since last year,” says Ails.

“The ‘hygge’ is there to suggest the reassuringly domestic nature of the subject matter, and the ‘expressionism’ highlights just how much of the success is down to Carol’s wholly idiosyncratic insistence on depicting simple things with such iconic power. She is a joy to work with and is a real boost to York’s cultural community.”

Carol, 2018 winner of the Adult & Access Award for Art & Design Lifelong Student of the Year, says: “I hope that people who see my work find it both visually exciting and somewhat amusing. The domestic has always been my focus and speaks of my personality and history.”

Carol’s artworks can be viewed at According To McGee every Saturday, 12 noon to 4pm, or by appointment on 07973 653702 on weekdays. Alternatively, they can be discovered online at accordingtomcgee.com/collections/carol-douglas.

All are welcome at Saturday’s midday launch, Covid compliance allowing.