Niki de Saint Phalle was the jumping-off point for our last Kick-About, and maybe it was her colourful, sausage-y sculptures that inspired this week’s one-word prompt – the latin name for sea anemones. Enjoy this latest showcase of new works made in a short time and if you want to peruse all previous editions of The Kick-About, you can find them here. In other news, The Kick-About has just been featured in Dr Tereza Stehlikova’s online journal Tangible Territory in an edition dedicated to the theme of creativity and play.
Tom Beg
“The visual idea for these faux-anemone images came to me quite quickly. I envisioned delicate sea anemone-like things as kitschy sun-bleached floral arrangements encased within Victorian parlour domes. Or they could perhaps be faded prints and photographs from the same era, that years later now have that unique musty scent of aged paper. “
twitter.com/earthlystranger / vimeo.com/tombeg / tombeg.com
Gary Thorne
“Off-cuts of 6mm manila rope with frayed ends nicely tied-in with sea anemone characteristics, and in a former life Abaca enjoyed life in the tropics. The fluid patterns upon the outer surface of a once free-growing UK tree then caught my eye, with happen-chance offering the matched quarter to form this half-round form. The vibrant colours of anemone inspired the flashy orange innards, which prompted the contrast of dipping rope-ends into Indian ink. Saved from the wood-burner and now bookends they begged the usual related by-product filling. The log rings read 31 years growth, but being dried prior to purchase I’ll say 33 which dates this KA to its birth in 1990. Hopefully, this winter I’ll find the two missing quarters to form a 360-degree bookend centrepiece, a bit more in compliment to Actiniaria. Thanks for a most satisfying prompt!“
Phil Gomm
“If you’re looking for some deep conceptualisation this week, you’ll need to look elsewhere! My brain went “Hmmm. What readily available domestic item reminds me of a sea anemone?” Having acquired a couple of mop heads, I coloured them with some tie-dye inks and dried them out in the greenhouse. That done, I tied them off in a few different ways to produce my two rather plump sea anemones. They have a Jim Henson-vibe that I enjoy.”
Kerfe Roig
“The sea anemones reminded me of a stitched mandala I had done a few years ago that had all kinds of loose ends. So I painted a couple and started stitching. I’ve shown a few of the steps from painting to where I am now. I’ve taken a few liberties with the colors, combining several actual combinations. I think when I add two more rings of tentacles it will be just right.”
kblog.blog / methodtwomadness.wordpress.com
James Randall
“Just a quick layered electronic thing!“
Francesca Maxwell
“Actiniaria, what a wonderful creature, and so much a part of my marine theme. I think I have always painted the sea and sea creatures until I started painting woods. Here is how I am seeing, swaying in the tide and glimmering in the reflected light.” Acrylic ink on watercolour paper 76×56 cm.
Charly Skilling
“I thought I knew about sea anemones – but, as always, the internet opened a whole new world to me. Who knew there’s an industry supplying anemones to marine aquarium keepers, with YouTube videos on care and costs? Or that, while some anemones do reproduce sexually, others simply break bits off themselves and grow clones. In fact, a colony of such anemones consists entirely of clones of the original and will aggressively fend off any anemone that is “other” than the original. (Presumably, all anemones of my anemone are my fronds and any other anemone is an enemy!). Similarly, there is only one fish not considered enemy, or food, or both – and that is the clownfish, which is immune to sea anemone venom and lives in a symbiotic relationship with sea anemones, using their tentacles as excellent cover for itself and providing tasty tidbits for the colony from its own meals – and maybe the anemones enjoy a good laugh. So having wandered down several byways (like potato printing for cloned anemones, and silly doggerel on the lines of ‘It’s clown as in drown, not clown as in thrown…”, I eventually produced the following acrylic on paper.”
Graeme Daly
“I wanted to show the movement of these alien creatures and make It seem as though they are alive. I drew some gaudy shapes on a tile resembling the squidy makeup of actiniaria using markers and spritzed them with alcohol while filming the process in a time-lapse and edited them together for a little film. I’ve seen this process here on Red’s Kingdom and had to try it.”
@graemedalyart / vimeo.com/graemedaly / linkedin.com/in/graeme-daly / twitter.com/Graeme_Daly / gentlegiant.blog
And for our next excursion together…
Red's Kingdom 
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