A little more playing today inspired by a chat with artist Angela James and her experimental and open approach.
I have made a very tiny test piece this evening – introducing some unusual (unstable) elements: watercolour, plus oil-based materials – safflower oil and turps, a little oil paint, sanding sealer, varnish. I have written down what I used, in the hope that I will remember what I have used…
I’m showing you some prints I’ve made today in a joy-filled online session that I participated in this morning – with the community arts group that I help to run (https://gwendraethartslab.com/).
We worked with things from our rubbish bins – things like bottle tops and cardboard tubes, taking me back to the joy of being a small child and playing with colour, pattern and mark-making. I based my prints on the curled paper strips with the small joys that I’ve been working with over the last few days and weeks.
The session was led by the marvellous Roz Moreton, a local artist who it is just a priviledge to work with (https://rozmoreton.com/).
Roz shared a video as part of our session – its a very short snippet from a talk by Ken Robinson, speaking about making mistakes and creativity. I will also share it with you here, because its so important for all of us:
works in progress on the bench – carrying on with watercolours, for my collaborative work with Suzie Ross – text transcribed from the small joys that I collected a few weeks ago from friends
a very lovely and simple one: “collecting blackberries this morning from a bridleway where I spotted a ripe patch yesterday”
the colour I used matched the blackberries, but that was by chance as I had already painted the paper before I read it
this time I’m putting the first marks down and Suzie will add to them – mindful that I need to leave enough space for a conversation!
Working with watercolours today, as part of collaborative project with local artist Suzie Ross (@suzieross007 on instagram).
Memory, landscape, connection.
Struggling with the colour palette, working on top of Suzie’s colours. Its so interesting, working with another person, they don’t do what you’d do; so responding is always stepping into the unknown.