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" Let's make Art" workshops, 2011





This post describes 6 weeks of an 8 week series of "Let's make Art" workshops..open to anyone who felt like taking part. We explored various arts materials and ways of working over the 6 week period.

Night number 1

Off with a bang! The first night went very well. As the " Emerging Artists" exhibition was on in Ranelagh Arts centre, we went on a tour of the artworks in the gallery spaces.



 It was a great idea , as we discussed drawings, installations , porcelain sculpture, print , photography, textiles ( knitting !),jewellery,and mixed media. The visiting public were asked to vote for their favourite works...and the that artist will be awarded a 2 month residency in one of the centres studios - plus a solo show .

Some beginners were able to let loose with charcoal drawings, and "wow",   there was a lot of energy in the room as people rose to the challenges of really getting into some drawings, and brave and exciting things were happening on the pages.
 Pencil and charcoal drawings last night.



Charcoal drawing of still life I set up on the first night.  Love the energy in this 15 minute drawing.




Night number 2

This night was all about drawing and mark making . We used one still life, but moved around the room to view it from different perspectives.
We made pencil drawings, pen drawings, ink drawings, stick drawings, charcoal and mixed media drawings.



Pen drawing



Pen drawing



Stick and ink drawing



Pencil drawing

And all from the same still life.




Night number 3 

A very differently paced night. Instead of pushing beyond a comfort zone, we  slowed right down. We worked from the inside out , instead of the outside in.
It was our clay night , -  firstly we did a short relaxation to music to let the cares of the day go while we worked "hands on " with the clay with blindfolds on.
The group found it a very satisfying process .




It was a surprise to each person to see what they had created while working , quietly like this while  blindfolded. Each piece was quite unique, and usually  different to expectations.


This whole process brought the artist into his/her feeling hands.



Afterwards, the group used their clay sculptures as personal objects to draw.



and beautiful drawing of above , below..



 Very relaxed, tired group going home.



Night number 4 

Just home with very black , messy hands fron acrylic paint ! I never could understand how Kandinsky used to paint in his suit . I saw a photo yesterday of David Hockney painting in a suit - maybe its only for their photo !

  We did colour mixing tonight, using the three primary colours.
After this , we quickly moved on to tonal work .



Then , we all painted a cow !! Amazing thing was that they were all SO different , even though we painted the same cow. No clones anyway.
Just great fun , - the only thing to worry about was not worrying about the end product.



We finished off the night by painting an acrylic seascape , with just three colours in 20 minutes !
Once again , it was fun, variety was the spice of life and everyone's was very different .




Night  5



We spent the evening working on abstract art with  mixed media. Here are some of our rainy evening pieces.










This wee owl has a flap , cos he doesn't like the light !



Night 6


We had a "collaborative" evening , for want of a better word !
  
Each to their own - a free for all -  lots of materials and surfaces...and after each person had spent some time working on their own artwork , they passed  it on to the person next to them on their left, while they took the artwork of the person on their right....and continued to work on that in any way they chose.
This was really a good exercise, as pressure to perform seemed to melt away , -  no one had complete ownership of any piece.

Here are a few pieces..
























A bit of a  mess to clean up after all that ...
To get us off to a good start for next weeks papermaking from recycled papers , we started to tear up a collection of used papers into postage sized pieces, while we had a natter.
Gotta remember to get a liquidizer before that for blending the paper to a pulp.







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