Diploma with Honours - Term 8 2104 Block Week

Drawing with Paint – Sarah Brock.

Sarah wanted to cover three painting techniques this week. The rub out, the dry brush and the impasto methods. 

I had done the rub out method before but not with still life and I hit on an idea using fruit and veg. How far do you have to go before someone recognises a chillie if you don’ paint it red? So a blue chillie, a purple tomato? A red lemon and a green cherry, no sketching on the canvas just apply the paint and liquin mix to the whole canvas (this is your mid tone) and then rub away for highlights add straight colour for your darks to produce a tonal portrait, when you mix the paint with liquin you have a limited time to get a likeness before the paint dries. 

Choose a transparent, take off the paint with liquin and us a fan brush to blend. What can you mix with the paint to make it smell like the fruit your painting? (I like the idea of a smelly painting but the closest I’ve come to lemon scent car freshener behind the lemon painting)

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.