Color Connects!

 

Backnang was all a buzz recently with the names of Chelmsford community artists on everyone’s lips thanks to a wildly successful vernissage held under the motto: COLOR CONNECTS.

            The brainchild of Jennifer Flint of Artists at the Meadows and the team of the Partnerschaftsverein Backnang-Chelmsford, this art exhibit illustrated in no uncertain tones, that town twinning is not an antiquated armchair notion, but rather, a catalyst for creativity and collaboration.

            Working under the theme of tea, thirteen Chelmsford artists all submitted canvases especially commissioned for this event, and although the parameters were similar, the works could not have been more different. Ranging from an abstract image painted with tea itself to varied representations of a “storm in a tea cup” the paintings drew observers into unique and separate sensory experiences.

            Why the tea theme? The Vernissage was held in Backnang’s very own Tea Time, a shop nestled in the high street and run by American Cara Thompson Barthels, a sommelier with credentials from the UK Tea Academy. Cara’s shop is well on its way to establishing itself as cultural institution in Backnang. Alongside the salon, she and her collaborator, Kristina Britvec, use the room as a gallery as well as a space for aspiring musicians such as Clemens Ziesik who generously provided twinkling piano music to go with the scones, tea and art.

            The combination proved to be a winning one as several works sold within an hour of opening, a boon not only for the Chelmsford artists but also for those Backnanger who went home with paintings proudly tucked under their arms. The pictures going up in living rooms across town bear colorful testimony to the personal connections that come into focus when art and twinning combine.