Gallery
Have a look at what we have been doing at the different events and some of the work produced by members during the day!
Friday 13th January - Using concertina sketchbooks as 'playgrounds' for exploration (led by Rachael Singleton)
For this session, we invited members to use their previous work on large paper and turn it into a concertina sketchbook. They were worked into further, thinking about one particular word, ‘differences’. We considered using variety of shape, line, values and paint application using tools. Whilst sketchbooks can be used as visual records, sketching or for storing information, on this occasion we used them as ‘playgrounds’ for exploration. Concertina sketchbooks are increasingly being used by abstract artists in this way to develop preferences or more freely explore aspects of personal enquiry.
We then shared reflections on areas of the sketchbooks we felt were successful, using language that clarified what worked or what we had learnt. Some members created work that was entirely non-representational whist others found that their work suggested images or narratives which were recognised and developed during the session. The group enjoyed this way to promote exploration and several intend to work further into their sketchbooks following the session.
We then shared reflections on areas of the sketchbooks we felt were successful, using language that clarified what worked or what we had learnt. Some members created work that was entirely non-representational whist others found that their work suggested images or narratives which were recognised and developed during the session. The group enjoyed this way to promote exploration and several intend to work further into their sketchbooks following the session.
Friday 9th December - Loosening Up!
The 'homework' for the last month was inspired by David's visit to a gallery in London recently where he saw Stanley Donwood's abstract landscapes which were particularly striking as he had used unexpected colours.
The challenge was to paint a landscape in unusual colours, and was boldly taken up by all the group with some developing their ideas even further; some still painting in a representational way, and others going semi-abstract or fully abstract. As people discussed what they did and their thoughts on their finished piece it was interesting how the introduction of more geometric forms occurred, how the exercise helped people to focus on 'shape' to a larger extent, but also, for some, how the consideration of composition and use of tone was still quite critical in developing the work.
Maybe not everyone found the exercise useful or one that they would repeat per se, but the act of doing something new and different provides it's own inspiration and learning for the artist, as well as a few surprises that some wanted to pursue further!
The challenge was to paint a landscape in unusual colours, and was boldly taken up by all the group with some developing their ideas even further; some still painting in a representational way, and others going semi-abstract or fully abstract. As people discussed what they did and their thoughts on their finished piece it was interesting how the introduction of more geometric forms occurred, how the exercise helped people to focus on 'shape' to a larger extent, but also, for some, how the consideration of composition and use of tone was still quite critical in developing the work.
Maybe not everyone found the exercise useful or one that they would repeat per se, but the act of doing something new and different provides it's own inspiration and learning for the artist, as well as a few surprises that some wanted to pursue further!
Our session today consisted of using large sheets of wall lining paper, gessoed, to basically 'play ' with colour and marking, encouraging a looser approach without being too concerned with the final result. Some members found that this can initially be quite an intimidating process to start off with, but once progressed, marks, lines and shapes can be developed with further layering. It is a process that can free up creativity and courage, allowing the artist to explore new approaches and take advantage of 'happy accidents'. It is recommended that this is repeated several times, building on each application as the artist explores what they do and don't like.
The result might not be a masterpiece painting in itself, but the group discussed how such painted papers can be used for collage, or folded and made into a sketchbook or sectioned off to use a starter for further painting. This is going to be explored more in future abstract groups.
The result might not be a masterpiece painting in itself, but the group discussed how such painted papers can be used for collage, or folded and made into a sketchbook or sectioned off to use a starter for further painting. This is going to be explored more in future abstract groups.
11th November - Disrupted Realism?
The last month's 'homework' was to use an image - either an old painting or a magazine image - to cut it up and use some or all of the pieces in a new, different way, to create a different 'reality' or image. Below are some of the different images that people produced, either a totally brand new image / story or an existing image being reworked to tell a different story. This exercise allowed us, as artists, to think about what we mean by 'realism', what changing that realism could be and what new stories developed out of the exercise. It was really interesting listening to what the artists discovered about their process when we discussed each work.
For this session we spent a little time looking at what Disrupted Realism might mean for each one of us, inspired by John Seed's book of the same title (see recommended books). We took some of these ideas, working on a painting to explore this expression for ourselves.
The paintings below show some of the completed works.
14th October - Thinking about colour and mood in Painting
David facilitated today’s discussion on colour and mood in painting and started off by showing some of Mark Rothko’s work. This prompted some interesting discussion on the use of colour to develop a mood in a painting. The group then built on this discussion exploring some aspects of associations with mood and colour. John tried 3 different colours in different tones, described as bold, warm and weak. He then tried the same in receding squares with depth. Stacey developed a colour strip evoking a night time experience with dream, progressing over time. Robert explored how colours react with each other. Kath looked at the contrast between red stripes on blue and blue stripes on red, seeing how blue recedes. Louise worked on a painting evoking ‘life’ with bue as content, red as disturbance. David used the same shaped ‘scribble’ so the shapes were detached from colour associations eg spring leaves, sea, sky, autumn trees, flowers.
The suggested 'homework' for this next month is to cut up an existing image and rearrange the pieces in collage, as it is or use to prompt a painting. This could be using a photo image or an old painting. This would be a good way of disrupting 'realism' to see what pattern emerges and working this way is also good to think about composition and tone in a final piece.
The suggested 'homework' for this next month is to cut up an existing image and rearrange the pieces in collage, as it is or use to prompt a painting. This could be using a photo image or an old painting. This would be a good way of disrupting 'realism' to see what pattern emerges and working this way is also good to think about composition and tone in a final piece.
Here are photos of people's work on the concept of 'circle' - homework from Sept session.
16th Sept - Getting to Know You and Getting Started!
In this first session of our new group we spent time getting to know a bit more about each other by sharing our current thoughts on, and experience in creating abstract art. It became very evident that we already have quite a wide interpretation of this huge genre within the group and agreed that it could develop into some interesting sessions in the future!
We discussed what we each wanted from this type of group and whilst agreeing to let it have an organic life evolving as the group members experience and confidence in abstract art grows, we also discussed a tentative format to facilitate that in the coming months
In this session today we each brought an object to use as inspiration for abstraction spending just 15 mins sketching ideas, before swapping objects and repeating with a little more time to work on an unknown object. Discussion about this experience helped the group to consider how each of us wants to start exploring abstraction and how to take that difficult step in moving away from representational work.
For each session we will have a theme for some 'homework' to help inspire us in considering aspects of abstraction before the next meeting. For example we agreed on 'Circle' for this month's homework and it will be interesting to see how each member interprets that.
We also opted for the topic ' Colour and Mood' to look at in our next session, which again could be another interesting and wide ranging topic that will hopefully fuel our interest and widen our interpretations.
In the future we may have session where a group member shares some techniques that might help artists move further along to abstraction, we might have a guest artist come to share their work and approach in abstraction, we could have a gallery visit, we can look at book swaps and recommendations for courses and so on. In summary there could be lots of exciting things we can look at in future sessions! It makes me wonder if once a month will be enough! But that is for future discussion!!
We discussed what we each wanted from this type of group and whilst agreeing to let it have an organic life evolving as the group members experience and confidence in abstract art grows, we also discussed a tentative format to facilitate that in the coming months
In this session today we each brought an object to use as inspiration for abstraction spending just 15 mins sketching ideas, before swapping objects and repeating with a little more time to work on an unknown object. Discussion about this experience helped the group to consider how each of us wants to start exploring abstraction and how to take that difficult step in moving away from representational work.
For each session we will have a theme for some 'homework' to help inspire us in considering aspects of abstraction before the next meeting. For example we agreed on 'Circle' for this month's homework and it will be interesting to see how each member interprets that.
We also opted for the topic ' Colour and Mood' to look at in our next session, which again could be another interesting and wide ranging topic that will hopefully fuel our interest and widen our interpretations.
In the future we may have session where a group member shares some techniques that might help artists move further along to abstraction, we might have a guest artist come to share their work and approach in abstraction, we could have a gallery visit, we can look at book swaps and recommendations for courses and so on. In summary there could be lots of exciting things we can look at in future sessions! It makes me wonder if once a month will be enough! But that is for future discussion!!
