'Creative Sketchbooks' - A four day summer school
with Laura at the Minerva Arts Centre, Llanidloes, Mid Wales, 2004.
The Mid Wales Branch of the Embroiderer's Guild
organised this summer school to coincide with the annual summer exhibition
of quilts at the Minerva Centre. We enjoyed four days working together
at the centre on creative sketchbooks. Each student began with an
individual
theme as their starting point. From this they worked pages using range of
techniques. The students produced a wonderful amount of exciting work. Below
are a selection of images from each of the students taken mid way through
the workshop. There are a lot of photos so they may take a moment to appear
on screen!
Above:
Joan Robson was inspired by shells she had collected on the beach. Working
in subtle neutrals made by mixing complementary colours to create painted
papers and prints.
Above:
Pam Whitehead was inspired by arches and also the work of M C Escher. Pages
were cut away suggesting theatrical stage settings.
Right:
The work continued with the arches. This page shows how the distortion influenced
by Escher was beginning to be introduced.
Above:
Janine Jones worked from a painted ceiling in Gwydir Chapel and other sources
of angels. Printing, collage and painting all featured.
Above:
The geometric patterns and subtle colours from carved Indian sandstone was
the starting point for Ellie Beharrell's book. Cut apertures, printing,
collage and lacing were used amongst other techniques.
Left
and right: Ann Edwards was inspired by Welsh love spoons to create her set
of work.
The
intricate pierced carving of the love spoons suggested collage and cut page
edges.
Above
and right: Maureen Powell worked from arches in a ruined monastery. Sensitive
use of pastels and cut apertures were incorporated into the book.
Left and
Right: Alena Lewis took fairies as her stating point. These delicate paintings
capture the fragility of the fairy wings.
Above,
left and below: Ann Forbes-Cockell was inspired by a fountain at the Getty
museum. She translated the shape into a variety of techniques including
collage and pastel work.
Left:
Valeria Burgess was initially inspired by a piece if American embroidery,
but kept and open mind, and when figure shapes began to appear in her painted
colour swatches, she switched! Collage and pastel stencilling was used amongst
other techniques on a range of papers.
Above:
A Japanese painting of fish was the source for Shirley Grundy's work. Collage
using the dramatic shapes of the fins, acetate overlays onto painted papers
and stencilling with soft pastels were combined.
Above:
Barbara Wynn Jones worked with some existing drawings and samples, combining
them in her book with new work. Collage, rubbings and layering of transparent
pages were all featured.
Above and left: Phyllis
is working with trees as her source of inspiration. The structure and
the bark of the trees was considered. Painted pages carefully observed
the colour and surface pattern of the bark.
Above,
left and right: Pat Gibson's book was inspired by architectural features,
notably wrought iron. Photographs were carefully incorporated into pages.
Colour was
added
with painting and pastel work.
Right: The delicacy of a wrought iron gate was captured by photocopying
the image onto acetate.
Above:
Jean Holloway worked from foxgloves for her creative sketchbook. Here are
some of her early pages showing lovely painted washes with some photo montage.
Left and right: Sheila Dunlevey was inspired
by dry stone walls. She experimented with collage, using photographs,
stencilling and printing.
Above and Right: Judy McFarlane began her
set of work with a lovely photo of peeling paint on a wooden surface.
Copies of the image were worked into together with other work including
collage, monoprinting and drawing.
Above
and left: Christine Cooper worked with collage and drawing to create compositions
based on her recent work inspired by the lost buildings of Wales. These
timber framed houses suggested structure, surface and pattern.
I
hope you have enjoyed this exhibition of the students' work. If this work
has inspired you, you may be interested to see what our Online Creative
Students are producing, if so, just click HERE
for the gallery pages.
