Beauty of a Tree on its Own Evening Programme

Winterbourne House & Garden Wednesday 9th April 2014

“The Beauty of a Tree on its Own” Gallery Evening

Supporting the work of Autism West Midlands

Background I am Richard Coulter and I run Spice Adventure Group in the West Midlands. My 12 year old son has autism.

When we walk in the country, he sees the world slightly differently. One image that particularly appeals to him is the stark beauty of the tree on its own - like that on the logo for BBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are”.

We’ve had fun photographing a few examples together.

Perhaps this image somehow relates to the life of people with autism.

The tree being in its own separate world away from the “forests” of other trees. Being different from the crowd can also hold a special beauty. This is why we came up with the idea of a photo competition to raise money for Autism West Midlands. The challenge simply to enter photographs fitting the theme “The Beauty of a Tree on its Own”.

The Result This competition ran through Jan, Feb & Mar this year. We had 115 entries. Quite a “patchwork quilt” of everything from the most beautiful photographic images, to the more zany interpretations of the theme such as a decorated mug tree and a discarded Christmas Tree leaning against a wheelie bin in January! All were welcome.

Two sets of judges were assigned the task of finding winners.

(1) The pupils at Jane Lane School (for Moderate Learning Difficulties) have chosen their 10 favourites as “The Childrens Choice Awards”.

(2) A group of photography students at Birmingham City University have come up with the “Photographers Awards” Tonight’s Special Evening “But we don’t just want to see the pictures online” you said!

So, the lovely team at Winterbourne House & Gardens have allowed us free use of their historic property to display mounted prints of all the entries this evening. Tonight we also discover the winners.

Hannah from our charity Autism West Midlands will also be attending.

May I also thank Robannas Studios for the loan of many speaker stands!

As well as raising awareness, we hope the competition entry fees plus donations tonight will raise at least £500 for the charity.

Index of the Entrants – By Photograph 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39

Alison Turner Amanda Heath Andrew Coulter Andrew Coulter Andrew Coulter Andrew Coulter Angela Padgett Anne Greenwood Anne Greenwood Anne Herold Anne Herold Bernard Robinson Bernard Robinson Bernard Robinson Bernard Robinson Bernard Robinson Billie Niblock Billie Niblock Binal Sawjani Charlotte Reeve Christine Rowley Dave Smith Della Shelley Della Shelley Diane Addy Donna Rees Donna Rees Fran Watkins Fran Watkins Fran Watkins Gaelle Finley Gill Image Gill Image Gill Image Gill Image Gill Image Greg Fattorini Heather Morton Heather Morton

40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78

Jane Duddy Jane Duddy Jane Duddy Jane Duddy Jane Duddy Jane Neary Jem Gotch Jem Gotch Jenny Thomson Jenny Thomson Jenny Thomson Jenny Thomson Jenny Thomson Jenny Thomson Jenny Thomson Julie Crosby Lee Hession Lee Hession Lesley Wilde Lesley Wilde Lesley Wilde Lesley Wilde Lesley Wilde Maggie Jephcott Maggie Jephcott Marcus Naylor Marcus Naylor Marcus Naylor Marcus Naylor Marie-Anne Byrne Marie-Anne Byrne Marie-Anne Byrne Marie-Anne Byrne Marie-Anne Byrne Marie-Anne Byrne Marie-Anne Byrne Marie-Anne Byrne Marie-Anne Byrne Marie-Anne Byrne

79 Marion Jephcott 80 Mary Woods 81 Mary Woods 82 Mary Dolelan 83 Mary Dolelan 84 Pamela Short 85 Pamela Short 86 Pamela Short 87 Pamela Short 88 Pamela Short 89 Pamela Short 90 Pamela Short 91 Paramjit Hans 92 Paramjit Hans 93 Paulette Hockley 94 Peter Spalton 95 Peter Spalton 96 Peter Spalton 97 Peter Spalton 98 Peter Spalton 99 Richard Coulter 100 Richard Coulter 101 Richard Coulter 102 Roger Cunningham 103 Sally Reynolds 104 Sally Reynolds 105 Sally Reynolds 106 Sally Reynolds 107 Sally Wyse 108 Sarah Harris 109 Sarah Harris 110 Sheila Wrotchford 111 Skye Louden 112 Skye Loudon 113 Steve Millington 114 Steve Millington 115 Veronica Shilton

Can we see the Wood for the Trees?

“Occasionally a Spice idea comes from way “left of field”. And the only way to find out if the members can see what we see - and give life to the idea – is to pop it in the Spice Programme and wait and see.

This project was just such an odd idea.

You can imagine our delight when an empty gallery became gradually populated with photos of trees.

Some were exactly the types of shots that we envisioned – but some people had other ideas and that was fine also.

Spice is inclusive not exclusive and so having a shaky shot from a camera phone being given equal prominence to a polished piece of creative work is exactly what Spice is about.

However, my son was a little less charitable than me with some of the entries. I remember his shouts of “that’s not even a tree!” or “which of those trees is meant to be on its own?”. We laughed a lot.

Such matters were for the judges to decide – not us - I assured him.

I hope you might find some poignancy and connection with the images on display. But most of all I hope that you have all enjoyed the competition – be it as an observer or photographer.

We can argue endlessly about who should (or should not) have won.

But it really doesn’t matter. Everyone who took part is a winner.

Thanks to everyone who made this competition possible. Jane Lane School, Chris at Printerface, Rob at Robannas, Flora at City University, Philip at Winterbourne House & Gardens and everyone I’ve forgotten.

But above all - to all of you who took an idea and made it beautiful!