The first AP and Beyond festival this weekend was a wonderful opportunity to find out about some of the creative local talent around the Alexandra Palace area … and beyond.

I started out on Saturday with a visit to Bowes Park mosaic artist Miranda Andrea who opened her lovely home to show some of her art works including amazing transformations of walls and floors in her bath room and kitchen. Throughout the day the opportunity to see art in a domestic setting – rather than in a more neutral gallery space- really made an impact on me.

Throughout the AP and Beyond event I was able to chat with artists using very different techniques – from traditional oil on canvas to more conceptual artists playing with texture and even the form of the “canvas” itself. Subject matter ranged from portraiture and figurative or representational art through abstracts to a re-assessment of landscapes. Having a one-to-one interpretation with the creator of a piece of art was a fascinating opportunity to learn more about the creative process.

The idea of landscape and domestic scale was again picked up in conversation with Clive Boutle – whose terrific garden constructed from found objects in amongst the planting is a delight (and open again on Sunday 7th August along with neighbours as part o...).

I loved the installations lof giant red dragon by Sonya Sabbagh and Jade Myrie (below) which challenged the idea of domestic scale art!

I only had a few minutes at the drumming workshops and music performances on the green opposite Alexandra Palace station – but returned in the early evening to see a really interesting range of local documentary and music films – and again to hear about the work directly from the creative talent behind each of the pieces.

The idea of a festival combining several forms of creativity – painting, mosaics, gardening music performance and filmmaking, I think worked incredibly well. Did you see any of the exhibitions or performances? Let us know what you enjoyed by including a comment below.

At the end of day one I caught up with Sonya Sabbagh who co-ordinated the weekend festival to hear about how things were progressing and to get an idea of plans for future events.

You can see the video here: