A Warm Welcome for all at Crispins This Festive Season

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One of Ealing's top wine bars has some special plans

 With the ever increasing chance that snow will start to fall it does make you feel very Christmassy. I always think that despite the natural inconvenience and hazard it can cause, there is something magically cleansing about the sight of fresh crispy white snow that also seems to stir a united spirit to help each other.

I was humbly reminded of this snow induced comradery when recently this year the Ealing Community rallied in support of local shop keepers suffering in the aftermath of the appalling riots. It’s worth sparing a thought for the two remaining businesses on Ealing Green, Green Mango and the Ealing Green local, that were so badly devastated that sadly they will not be joining in this year’s festive cheer.

However for those more fortunate businesses that saw an outraged local community unite, it will be a pretty festive atmosphere around Ealing green this year.

With this in mind I popped into Crispins wine bar this week to see what was on their agenda for Christmas and true to form Polka and Alex are really getting in the spirit. Their welcome is second to none and I really mean it when I say “no one is ever a stranger”.

They will be celebrating till late on Christmas Eve and open again at lunch time on Christmas day. If you haven’t decided where to celebrate New Years Eve yet, Crispins is holding another infamous “Plate Party”. It sounds great fun and doesn’t have to cost you the earth. There is no entrance fee and you bring your own festive pick nick, you can share your food or scoff the lot to yourself and of course wash it all down with plenty of Crispin hospitality!

There is one more little gem that Polka’s been up to as well.

She has united three women artists from Ealing who are displaying some of their work in the cozy confines of the wine bar till the end of January.

I met one of the artists and co organizers, Houria Niati who is deeply passionate about her work which has encompassed a contemporary interpretation of a classic French masterpiece by Eugene Delacroix who went to Algeria in 1832 to capture the mood of the effect of the French invasion in 1830. He returned to Paris to paint and presented his work in 1834.
In a similar vein Houria has dedicated much of her time to interpreting the effect of circumstantial change and is constantly evolving.

Listed below are the details of all three artists and after viewing their work I am equally as curious to meet the others.
Who knows whether this trio of Ealing Artists would ever have met if it weren’t for Polka’s unstoppable passion for uniting people? Alex and Polka are simply a wonderful compliment to each other and it’s this special formula that undoubtedly makes you feel like one of the family at Crispins, you won’t find a warmer welcome.

Stuart Webb

“Three Women Artists from Ealing”
At
Crispins Wine Bar
14 The Green, High Street
Ealing, London W5 5DA

Isobel Alsbury : isobelalsbury@live.co.uk

Isobel moved to France in 1992 where she continued to paint and where she was exhibited regularly. Her work in oil painting and oil pastels is often concerned with still Life and interiors treated in an individual way and showing her interest in light and colour. Now she lives in Ealing where she paints from home.

Houria Niati : www.hourianiati.com houriati.art@googlemail.com

She moved to London in 1977 and established herself as a multimedia artist, combining painting digital arts and singing performance. Her work, strongly idiosyncratic, is about displacement, exile, multi-identity. It is also about “cause and effect” connected to life changing experiences. She lives in Ealing. She collaborates with Crispins Wine Bar, on voluntary basis, to put up art shows of different local artists. She paints from home.

Ann Marie Whaley : www.amwhaley.com amwhaley240@yahoo.com

In her own words: “My work is primarily based on the landscape, both observed and imagined. Colour is a central concern in each piece. Colour conveys both mood and emotion; but looking beyond this, there is a sense of the place and a narrative. Dogs figure in some of these paintings – they cover the ground and interact with the natural world in a way that we can only imagine. The dogs observed are among Gunnersbury Park’s finest.” Ann Marie lives in Ealing. She paints in ACAVA’s art studio, Hetley road, Sheperds Bush.

For more information: Houria on 07792311919 or houriati.art@googlemail.com

16th December 2011