This is Us - Exhibition December 2013

Sarah Brock is so supportive of her students!

After a conversation with her two terms ago wishing to put a pop up gallery into the empty shops I saw in Upper Hutt, she spoke to Carrie Burke who had a contact at the Lower Hutt City Council who made my wish come true! Eight students of Sarah’s put together an exhibit of our work at 129 High Street Lower Hutt and it all went so well. 

We each had talents outside our obvious artistic ones that helped put together the month long show. 

I spent the block week, with others, painting a bright orange wall white to exhibit on, made a fabric banner and helped curate the space. 

‘This is Us!’ opened the 5^th December with an evening bash. We manned it and worked in the gallery, created a space for children to express themselves with pastels and promoted a community art piece for the City Council. 

We changed it round after two weeks and had very positive feedback from many who walked in the door, some regretting that there was not a permanent community gallery, aside from The Dowse, helping local artists. 

We each sold a piece during the month, which was a marvellous incentive for all of us to keep on painting and I am indebted to Cindy from the Lower Hutt City Council for her wonderfully generous help, the Learning Connexion for their good relationship with the council and supplying us with equipment and Sarah who gave her experience and time so freely. I would also like to thank the landlord for the use of his shop.

Diploma with honours - Term 7 2013 Mains

Monday Thomas Robson

With all plans of mice and men against the elements, they fall. In the hopes of some plain air Mondays I gathered together the paraphernalia of a watercolourist. Ha, next term says Thomas, so what to do? I utilised the photos taken from the field trips of block week and  I continued with my primary colour studies, going back to oils.

Wednesday Roger Key

 Still trying to get me to use more paint and not paint what I see, I endeavoured to paint white and movement, Still using the watered down paint (with turps) from last term for backgrounds, but thickening up with the foreground white, I went back to portraiture focusing on white communion dresses and wedding frocks. What he did like was when I went thick messy and less figurative – Question - how much of a figure do you need to paint before someone recognises it  as someone? Answer - Surprisingly not much

Friday Sarah Brock

Sarah always has a plan to her term, but is sensitive to her students personal artistic journey, adapting the lessons she wants to impart. I try to fit my personal goals around what she’s teaching so I don’t miss out on her wisdom, I do however have an idea on what I could do in class before we start so I can ‘hit the ground running’ so to speak and not waste days formulating a plan. Sometimes that works and sometimes I change direction on the run.

I started the three dancers in her class and I tried to keep the whole thing painterly, free and unfinished – things suggested not explained, of course Roger suggested I did not go far enough hence the pirouette 1 and 2.

Diploma with honours - Term 7 2013 Block Week

To see is to Understand - Marc Hill

Know your subject, a couple of trips to the south coast Wellington to walk and take in the beach, the surf and the sky.  

Know your subject matter so that you can tell a story, capturing a moment in time out of your understanding of a million ‘like’ moments.

Diploma with honours - Term 6 End block week

Colour immersion week-find yourself-Sarah Brock

I made a big mistake, I thought that I could do this week and still be a volunteer reader/writer for NZCEA mocks the following week unfortunately the weeks clashed so I had 2 days to do 5 days work in. Spoke to Sarah about what was expected for the week and did some prep work in the weekend. Had fun using crayons and acrylic, my only issue was I had a crack at putting gesso on 110gm paper front and back to apply acrylic paint to. Sketched on my design and it was a disaster! The gesso was like plastic, it deadened the paint, no spread ability!, no blend ability! I chucked it and admitted to myself that I need to buy canvas paper! I finally settled on gesso covered calico to try and not the gesso I used before!

Every term there is an end of term exhibition. It is student run. You can have three pieces displayed as long as they are suitably prepared for the wall. I have put something in every exhibition since I started, mainly because it’s great to see your art up amongst other pieces and you do get feedback from fellow students and members of the public with favourite choice award (not that I’ve won that myself) which has been positive. What I don’t like is because the whole exhibit is run on volunteers and students who have not done one before your work is sometimes not displayed as well as it could be. 

Of course if you want to ensure that it is you help out, although that has at times not been a guarantee either.  I should have rethought my triptych of this term, although I was very proud of it, because of the different size and weights of the canvases I should have hung them myself and compensated for those differences as they were not presented at their best.

Diploma with Honours - Term 6 Mains

Wednesday Sustainable art practices Marc Hill 

I have written about Marc before and there is little I can add. He is a kind and gentle person, incredibly valuable when visiting exhibitions to Te Papa. I used my time there painting a series combining my Friday class. Starting the term with a lack of direction but finished it with another avenue to explore.

Thursday Print Marci Tackett

What a challenge! The term was supposed to cover drypoint which is a lot like sketching and is a way to use my visual diary drawings as a finished work exploring the inks and paper associated with print. Woodcut that opened a whole new world and screenprinting that I have tried before with Marci. 

I decided to have a crack at one particular type of woodcut for the term – Reductive woodcut where you use the one plate to get different coloured layers to a print by progressively destroying the woodcut as you go. So, never to go backwards, starting with a white layer of your paper and build up your image by carving away the plate (in my case MDF board) I choose a painting of mine a ‘Wet Wellington Day’ I made 11 initial prints hoping to get at least one I liked. I liked the fact I learnt a lot and the outcomes of some of the prints but did not get one that satisfied me overall. 

Registration, the squashing of the plate, the application of the ink, the impressing of the press – all should be able to be controlled but I’m messy, impatient and too much a perfectionist to fully enjoy the process and it took me eight days (not counting the nights carving) to get a less than satisfactory result. 

Marci and the others in the class were very encouraging and helpful even after they saw my bad mood side. I also had a bit of fun repurposing a book that was to be thrown out, I cut, painted, screwed and ‘waxed my book, highlighting words that mean something to me, telling a story.

Friday Painting Sarah Brock

Sarah is a very generous tutor and the group we had this term was small enough for all of us to be in the one room. (I did feel isolated last term being in another space) I decided to explore a new way of applying paint and I had to do this at home because of the unpleasant fumes I generated. I threatened the life of our dogs and cockatiel, not to mention giving myself a headache or two but was pleased with the outcome. I now have to find a less smelly way of doing more next term.