Mixed Media Approaches

This week I attended a 2 day workshop at the Minerva Gallery in Llanidloes.  It was called Mixed Media Approaches to Abstract Designs with Bobby Britnell.

It was described thus:
This will be a challenging course which will take students on a journey of discovery by starting with a series of clear, quick accessible drawing exercises directly onto prepared papers. All of this preliminary work, which will be carried out using a variety of media, surfaces and tools, will form the basis for personal interpretations into larger scale works using mixed media approaches. The course is not about producing a finished piece of work but is about the ‘journey’ and the ‘discovery’ of something new along the way. It will hopefully encourage you to think differently about your work. Artist research will help to inform students of further developments and ideas. It is also hoped that students will engage in some lively discussion.

Challenging!!!

Anyway we spent 2 days being challenged and with clear instructions from Bobby I ended up with 35 pages of an A4-ish sketchbook filled up.So as that's a lot of photos I'll do two posts.

The following are photos of each page in my sketchbook.  The notes haven't been added yet and I'm not going to go through all the information we were given.  You'll have to go on one of Bobby's courses for that!

Using a Graphite stick

Using a pen

Graphite, pen, an eraser and a pencil

On gesso

On calico with gesso

We also looked at how artists use line in their art.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bernice

Steph Redfern: Personal Pages

Following on from the one day workshop I did a separate 2 day workshop with Steph Redfern, again at the RBSA in Birmingham.  And I remembered to take photos!

The theme for the 2 days was Artists Books which is a vast subject.  If you're interested Google and you will find over 14,000 articles on the internet!

Steph brought several examples of her work for us to look at and you can see them on her website.

Photo from Steph's website used with permission

I had already decided before I went that I would use Venice as my inspiration - continuing with the work I have shown on the blog here over several posts.

I took some of the same fabrics from the previous workshop plus lots of the gelli prints that I had done.

I started on the first day with some A4 sheets of Khadi paper and learning from the Floating Patterns workshop I isolated a few elements from the pile.

I didn't plan what I wanted to do and just glued different things to different pages.  At the end of the day I had these:

But I wasn't thrilled with them and half way through had discovered the papers weren't all the same thickness or colour.  I went home for a rethink.

Next day I started on a zigzag book and this time laid it out before sticking. I also managed to make the space I was working in just as untidy as at home!  And this photo was taken after I had tidied up a bit.

I left this and returned to the original A4 sheets.  Steph found she had some of the thicker paper and I was able to buy that which really helped.

I dismantled some of what I had done the day before and removed some of the pages which may appear as another book!  I then went on to make these pages, with the first photo showing the cover.

There are several more pages to make and some additions to make to those pictured here plus some stitching but by now I was running out of steam.

I went back to the zigzag book and started some stitching and adding the odd bead!

I'm pleased with where this work is going.  I hope it all gets finished.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Steph Redfern: Floating Patterns

Last weekend I went to the RBSA in Birmingham to take a day's workshop with Steph Redfern.  The great thing for students (but maybe not the tutors) about the workshops at RBSA is that that the tutor has to provide course aims and a list of skills and knowledge to be taught as well as the course description.  This means you know exactly what you are signing up for.

That said I signed up for Steph's workshop because it was Steph!

And it was local and I could get there on the train for free!  [In the Centro area of the West Midlands the standard English bus pass works on the trains and the tram as well.]

No really, I signed up because I love Steph's work.  It isn't at all my style so I thought it would be great to try something that would stretch me.

The skills & knowledge to be taught included:
How to choose, simplify and use elements from personal visual resources to explore and
experiment with the use of pattern and space.
How to choose and develop motifs, and their eventual arrangement and role in your work.

I've done mixed media collage classes before and learned the 'rules'.  I did a great class with Seth Apter.

The great thing about Steph's work is that she has her own way of working that bears no resemblance to the 'rules'.

Photo from Steph's website used with permission

I took with me some of my photos from Florida and some of the fabrics I had dyed and printed on either at Hilary Beattie's Sanctuary workshop or when I've been at Littleheath Barn.

I forgot to take photos as I went along so I only have this photo.

The background fabric is a piece of dyed fabric which I had used thermofax screens to print with.  It needs to be stitched and then I need to decide what to put it on.  Or I could use it as a book cover.  I'll let you know what I decide.

I'm not sure whether I will embrace this method of working but I did learn how to choose, simplify and use elements from personal visual resources and that will be really useful.  It takes me away from somehow trying to use photgraphic representation in my work and enable me to narrow down the subject.

Coming up next: Two days with Steph Redfern - Artists' Pages.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice