Wednesday 18 July 2012

Diploma with Honours Term 2 2012 - End Block Week

Sarah Brock - Make your own pastels.

Sarah is a wonderfully enthusiastic and caring tutor. To her credit she tailored the class to a variety of abilities and needs, but it did mean that some got more of her time than others, but those of us left to our own devices were very well occupied because making your own pastels is a time consuming process.

 First to narrow it down a bit, we had to explore our 'favourite' colours, most of us decided to do 'skin tones', to finish off the week with a portrait. Grinding down existing pastel colours, adding talc and chalk, and mixing to get the colour you want and then lighten for various shades. Yellow ochre, orange, peach for the warm skin tones. Purple and mauve for shadows. It took most of the week just to get the pastels dry enough to use, a coffee grinder on Monday would have been a bonus, I felt like the old apprentices in the art houses of Europe hand grinding colour for the master!

I had a crack at Sarah's method of skin tone mixing with oils and painted a quick under painting and even though it doesn't look much like Samantha now, it will. Still getting my head round the warm lights, cool shadows way of painting?
The portrait on sandpaper with the pastels was great and I think the whole class did some really good work.



                                    



Monday 16 July 2012

Diploma with Honours - Term 2 2012


Monday – Thomas Robson  - Pathways to abstraction

What a challenge! Thomas’s art is beautiful, he seems to be able to see colour where I can’t, see beautiful form where I don’t. His suggestions to improve your work is invaluable, but I might have to repeat the class to understand or work through the ideas he’s given me. I did do a few pieces in his class but not as many as I am used to.




Wednesday –Karla Vink and Christina Earl – Foundation painting day

I really enjoyed Karla last term and wanted to experience what the foundation students got from her and Christina, a smattering of various of painting styles and exercises, it was fun, the class was large and very enthusiastic, the energy was great.





Thursday – Sam Harris – Digital art and design

Sheila recommended this class as a way to use photoshop  to quickly see if your art is on the right track. I did not use the time that way, rather I used the computer to explore my idea of ‘abstract ’for Thomas’s class. I learned alot about photoshop but missed the feel of a paintbrush in my hands.




This term was not a high production term but I have taken the  opportunity to present in three galleries my work. Farsite, Petone, Matchbox, Cuba street, Wellington and The Pinehaven  Arts and Crafts Pinehaven School Upper Hutt. (I also presented three at the end of term exhibit at The Learning Connexion.







 All of these exhibits taught me different things, namely working with a group of artist allows the work load to be shared, and a wider group of people to see your work,  (being like minded people does not guarantee they have the same work ethic however and clear guidelines about what each person should be doing is essential and a responsible way of working in a joint effort to avoid resentment ) Cost (of hiring the gallery)Time, distance and effort can play a large part on who will see your work and whether it’s worth it. Other people who hang your work do not give it the same care or have the same sense of what’s best for it, if you are concerned about treatment or where it’s best hung you should write guidelines, they may not be followed exactly but exhibit organisers are not psychic, they’ll do their best.  

Sunday 15 July 2012

Diploma with Honours - Term 2 2012 Start Block Week


Block week – Roger Key painting on something weird


A trip to two junk shops gave me ample ideas of what to paint.
My first idea I had worked out before the week started. Having something in the back of your mind before you start a block week will get you going early and you can utilise the whole week to create.

I took an old skill, weaving flowers out of flax, and applying colour to the flax, the weaving it.  I split the flax and then painted it, very time consuming but fun.

In the first junk shop bought a wooden blind and painted a dancer on it in greys and blues and it took ages! The other junk shop yielded a flax woven panel that I painted a scene of Ruapahu, a flax bush and a toitoi bush.  This has been framed and was exhibited in the Stokes Valley Library.