Creative Futures Exhibition at Bedford Borough Hall

 



Six months of hard work and the two current Creative Futures art courses have finally come to an end, culminating in a beautiful exhibition of the student's artwork at Bedford Borough Hall. I was really proud of everyone's efforts in helping to get it all set up and looking as professional as it did and we received lots of positive feedback from people who came to the preview evening. The students themselves were so pleased with themselves and it was really nice for them to have the opportunity to have their work on public display.

Great Art Quest at Stanton school

 

Onto the third school in the Great Art Quest, Stanton, and what a lovely bunch they were. The students were so welcoming and enthusiastic about the collage activity I gave them. They all produced such individual pieces of artwork and I am really excited about my next workshop with them in a couple of weeks where we are going to make a giant 'Jungle' collage!

Great Art Quest at Wavendon Gate

 



The Great Art Quest moved to Wavendon Gate primary school next and what a delightful school they were. They were given the 'Sea' theme and fully embraced the task in hand. In the morning we made small individual collages and in the afternoon we moved onto one large collaborative collage. The students worked so well in their small teams, supporting and encouraging each other to get the best results possible. I was particularly impressed with those who made the boat, who put such thought and care into their part of the collage, even making a couple of little men to go on the boat! I also received the prestigious 'Star of the Day' award at the end of the day, which made me smile a lot :-).

Great Art Quest at Jubilee Wood

 

So the Great Art Quest workshops have begun and I think the first one at Jubilee Wood primary school in MK was a resounding success. The students and the teachers were an absolute joy to work with and they produced results that far surpassed my expectations. The students individual collages were thoughtful and carefully constructed, and they particularly liked the drawing over acetate part of the process. The large group collage was somewhat of an experiment for me, as I had not done a collage on that scale before and certainly not with 25 students! However, they embraced the task and worked really well as a team to produce a Desert scene that is full of colour, texture and their own ideas. I really can't wait to see what the other three schools do in the coming weeks.

A beautiful weekend in Hastings

 

Spent this weekend in Hastings with my best friend Kirsty and was overwhelmed by the history that the town has managed to maintain. Streets filled with old fashioned shops that have been restored to their original glory, filled to the brims with vintage clothes, second-hand furniture and knickknacks. Oh the hours we spent browsing and getting lost amongst all the piles of stuff that might be junk to others but like gold dust to us. I felt so inspired by the quirkiness of the place and the people, and that combined with the sea air made for a trip which was most inspirational. 

Great Art Quest - Teacher's CPD day (the beginning!)

Today saw the start of The Great Art Quest - a project I am doing with The Prince's Foundation for Children and the Arts, and MK Gallery. It involves working collaboratively with another artist and four primary schools in Milton Keynes. We started the project today by having a CPD day with teachers from each of the schools, talking through our plans with them for our work with the children, doing a gallery tour and a mini-workshop. My role as a workshop facilitator will be to create some visual responses to the current exhibition at the Gallery, by An-My Le, with the children from each of the schools. We are focusing on the themes of landscapes, people and adventure. Using collage, photography and drawings, the teachers created these lovely samples, building imaginary scenes with bits of paper and magazines, then inserting a photograph of themselves into the scene and finally overlaying a layer of acetate which could be drawn onto. The teachers really responded well to the idea and especially loved the acetate - simple things! Really looking forward to seeing what the children produce.

Mini Makers at MK Gallery - Gravity painting

Beautiful Octopus Club

Last weekend in worked for the fantastic London based arts charity Heart 'n' Soul at the Beautiful Octopus Club, hosted at the Royal Festival Hall. It is always an exciting and unique event, full of interactive activities and installations, as well as the main disco dance floor. My favourite thing about it is that even though it is a club night for people with learning disabilities, people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds come along, because it is on the southbank of London. This makes it such an inclusive event and a rare occassion when anyone can see and experience the great work that Heart 'n' Soul do. As usual I was helping in the Art Zone, which this time was planned and set-up by a very good artist and illustrator Ben Connors. He had a range of creative activities ready for anyone who wanted to join in; bracelet making, painting, badge-making and colouring, all inspired by the African / East London heritage of one of Heart 'n' Soul's regular attendees. I will look forward to the event again next summer.

Some inspiration from London and Bedford

Wherever I am, I always have my eyes open for interesting textures, architecture and street art - anything that can inspire me to create my own artwork. I am especially drawn to peeling paint, abandoned buildings and forgotten places. The old 'General Contractors' sign reminds me of times gone by and I like to imagine what it would have been like when it was a busy working business, same with the Lord Cecil pub. Inevitably with these sorts of places, they will soon enough be knocked down or renovated into modern builds, so I always feel it's important to catch them at this intermittent stage when they are nothing, but full of potential. The garfitti I captured just outside the Royal Festival Hall in London. It was so high up I wondered how the artist had managed it. I love the fact that it had clearly been commissioned as a piece of art, next to the Hayward gallery, so it was alongside contemporary 'gallery' or 'exhibiting' artists. It shows an acceptance of different types of art.

Creative Futures art course at Youth Inspired - week 8

 

 

This week we did an introduction to textiles as an art form and whilst searching the internet for interesting contemporary textile artists, I came across a fantastic designer called Jacopo Rosati, who makes all sorts of images, characters and faces using fuzzy felt. Inspired by this, the group took profile photographs of each other and then chose four colours of felt to create them out of. I find people often don't like the idea of doing self-portraits, it's too personal, so this was a good way of capturing the outline shape of their faces, so that they were still recognisable, but without too much intrusive detail. I think as a collection, they look particularly effective.

Inspiration from Glasgow

I've wanted to go to Glasgow for years and finally got around to it this summer. Such a shame about the School of Art having a fire recently, as that was the main place I wanted to go, but I found lots of inspiration elsewhere in the city. This Art Deco apartment block was simply stunning, if a little run down, and against the bright blue northern sky, it looked even more stunning. There were also quite a lot of run-down, forgotten buildings (my favourite) which I managed to capture. Hoping to find some time over the summer holidays to do something with these and bring them back to life - on the page at least.

Creative Futures art course at Youth Inspired - week 6

This week we had a fantastic time doing mosaics and visiting Bedford's Eagle art gallery on Castle Road. We started with an introduction to mosaics, learning about the process, from design through to grouting. The group then each chose a design they would like to mosaic, which ranged from hearts, to birds, to the national rail symbol, to a character from Mario Cart. I loved how each design showed a part of that person's personality. Everyone worked in detail to create intricate and accurate designs that best utilised the space they had available and the colours of mosaic tiles we had. The results are just beautiful and I will look forward to seeing the final products when they are grouted next week.

We then went to the Eagle Gallery to see the current Encounters exhibition, which showed work by local artists who had been influenced by other more famous artists, such as Chagal, Picasso, Degas and Kandinsky. The variety of the work was great as everyone could choose at least one piece they liked. I think it was also helpful for the group to see the links between old and contemporary artists, and what inspires different people.

Creative Futures art course at Youth Inspired - weeks 1-4

 

Creative Futures in an art course I am running at Youth Inspired in Bedford for adults with learning disabilities and mental health issues. I have the most fantastic group of eight learners who are continuing to amaze me week upon week with their enthusiasm, talent and uniqueness. Each week we do something different, to give them a taste of all the different artistic mediums that are available. In the first week we did a combination of painting and collage, to produce some wonderfully colourful silhouette images, as well as doing 'blind' portraits of each other.  In the second week we worked in two teams to make sculptures out of various household items and in the third and fourth weeks we have done 'alternative' drawing and watercolour painting. It's just brilliant to see them so proud of the work they produce and experiment with techniques  they have never tried before, pushing them out of their comfort zones and learning something completely new. I can't wait to have the exhibition at the end of the course!

Musical notes - mural at Youth Inspired

 

This is a mural I have been doing with the wonderful young people I work with at Youth Inspired in Bedford. It is the second mural I have done there and I feel I have made huge progress in learning how to work most effectively with groups when designing and painting a large scale project such as this one - giving them as much ownership and influence over the outcome as possible, whilst making sure everyone's creative ideas are taken into consideration. The last mural I did was only with a select few who were interested in art, whereas this one has been with everyone and I have been so proud of how they have embraced the project. Our original idea was just to have note, but the group felt it would make far more sense if the notes were actually coming from someone singing - which of course it does! We looked at different songs, for composition of the notes and the group decided upon the theme tune for Halo  (video game for those who don't know. Each student has their own note, which they designed themselves and themes range from song lyrics, to musical instruments, to a pony playing the cello, to a silhouette image of Prince. I have been so impressed by their ability to work as a team, compromise and commitment to do their best work. Will be finishing it over the summer holidays, so will post more photos upon completion!