Today we started our ‘larger’ artworks. Some of the works in the photos are works-in-progress, and may be changed when you next see them! So far, we have three works that are on the large A1 paper that I brought in. One person used willow charcoal to draw a beautifully observed scene of another student at her table with curtains, bunting, and arched window behind her: large, light and flowing strokes were used; there is a lot of life in this drawing. Another student used dynamic and expressive black willow and various compressed charcoals along with red pastel / conté to draw a fittingly large oriental poppy onto her A1 paper. These two images were photographed outside (after being ‘fixed’) to give a sense of their scale.
On another sheet of A1, in pencil and using an artist’s work as a starting point, we have the beginnings of a series of human and animal faces and bodies flowing into and out of each other - very evocative. Then we have a continuation of the very worthy cat experiments, in chalk pastel, working with the pastels to create both flat and three dimensional forms of various parts of the cats, as well as studies in mixing pastel colours to create depth (as opposed to a single colour, such as instead of using the black pastel, using a variety of dark colours to create rich ‘blacks’). It is always good to spend some time on studies, we learn a lot.
A sketchbook flower study using line drawn with ink pen has been turned into a larger, more abstract and vibrantly coloured piece (not yet finished). Then, taking inspiration from Joni Mitchel’s artwork is the starting point for a very moving double self-portrait in graphite pencil. After that is a calligraphic study using a beautiful pen, and a blackbird in coloured pencil shows the workings out of an idea for a bigger piece - a beautiful example showing the power of text and image.
Finally, impressively woven papers and magazines make the background for two paintings: one, a seaside scene with houses, tiles, boats and netting; and the other, a woman holding a child, created by painting over - and sometimes incorporating the original images from - magazine papers. Truly inspirational.
AMAZING work, everyone, I am so impressed, what a fantastic session!
