Mini-Residency at Lord Grey School - exhibition

This was a really proud moment for me, and I hope for all of the students involved too. The work we had produced was displayed at MK Gallery as part of the Lord Grey School end of year show. All of the other work was from A level and GCSE students and I think it was really inspiring for the year 9 students to have their work displayed alongside the older student's work. I was presented with a beautiful bunch of flowers by one of the girls, which completely overwhelmed me and made the whole experience even more worthwhile than it already was. Young people are just inspiring.

Mini-residency at Lord Grey School - week 5

 

 

It's been a while since I updated my blog - but it's certainly not through lack of artistic activity! I finished the min-residency with Lord Grey school, which produced fantastic results, with the group painting their photographic collages using all sorts if implements other than paint brushes. We used cotton wool balls to paint stone effects, sponges to create gravel and concrete, and plastic cutlery to drag through wet paint to make the grooves in tree bark. The group found the absence of brushes challenging at first, because it was so against their natural instincts and what they had always been taught to do, but after a while they embraced the alternative techniques. After they had done their paintings they tore them up into collages - and demonstrated excellent teamwork skills in the process.

Mini-makers at MK gallery, painting techniques

 

This was the best mini-makers session I've done yet and I thoroughly enjoyed the full two hours, as did everyone else I think! I stripped it right back to basics, showing the group how to use primary colours to make secondary and tertiary colours and gave them useful tips about washing out brushes and keeping a clean pot of water. We then moved onto three basic painting techniques; washing, flicking and scumbling. The flicking was of course the most popular as It allowed them to get a bit messy! The parents were great at supporting their kids and helping them with any bits they found difficult. We finished with timed paintings, where I used a stopwatch to time the group while they used the new techniques to create mini masterpieces. These lasted between 30seconds and 3minutes. It was so great to see the energy that came from everyone and the excitement at creating a piece of artwork so quickly. I received great feedback from both kids and parents at the end of the session, which is always a joy and makes my job all the more enjoyable.

Beautiful blue birthday cards

 

I think making cards is one of my favourite things to do in life. They are like miniature pieces of art that take less than half an hour to create and bring joy to people when you send them. I made these by firstly doing a big blue and green painting on paper, then tore it up into squares, backed it onto some gold paper and sewed it onto the cards. I then thought about my four lovely friends and drew an image which reminded me of them. Balloons for Olivia, flowers for Asta and Saadia, and a heart for Beth. 

Studio, May 2014

It's been a while since I uploaded a picture of my lovely studio - today I had fun creating a background for a painting (not sure what it's going to be yet of course!) and thought it looked so nice sat on the easel against the backdrop of paints, brushes, canvases and general creative mess.

100 years old!

 

My incredible, inspiring and gorgeous Grandma, Florence, will be 100 years old on Saturday. I hand-made 60 invitations for the party, using a beautiful picture of her, some floral tissue paper and gold thread. Today I made her birthday card, keeping to the same colour theme as the invites, but creating the blue-green background with lots of fun paint splashing and splodging. Can't wait to give it to her at the big event!

Mini-residency at Lord Grey school - week 2

 

Combining the two elements of collage and photography from last week's session, this week the group each selected 10 photographs they had taken and then worked in their pairs to turn them into compositions, thinking especially about the layout and placement of their images. We looked at the artist Kurt Schwitters to get ideas about different compositions and even though most didn't like his work, they appreciated the thought that had gone into Schwitter's compositions. It took a little while for some of the group to get into this activity, particularly those paired with someone they didn't normally work with, but once they got going they produced some excellent results It was wonderful to see students working together, in discussion and making joint decisions.