Hi folks! We've had a marvellous first half term of 2013/14, with sessions on using charcoal and chalk with Emma Owens. Emma used to be an art teacher, after obtaining a degree in Fine Arts. With great enthusiasm, and yet a gentle spirit, Emma shares her love of diverse techniques, styles and materials. She has a lovely way of dealing with people, and genuinely enjoys teaching our group. We looked at blocking our paper in charcoal, then lifting areas, shadows and light with an eraser, as well as using charcoal to sketch with in the usual way. Emma herself was our model, and did a brilliant job. A couple of pictures below show what we did. More photos to come. Stay tuned for an exciting project that we'll be working on with Emma soon: painting on glass. This will mean that for this session there will be an extra charge for materials of £5. If you can't afford that, or don't feel excited about painting on glass, then please carry on with an ongoing project or start a new one.
With Stephanie Morris, we studied the chinese art of painting mushrooms and toadstools - amazing variety! With this almost meditative style of art, we can generally produce a finished piece of work in one session! Stephanie has herself experienced aphasia, and so has a deep understanding of the needs of our group. She can really relate to the need to go slow and steady, giving much needed support for those who struggle. Her painting is inspiring and her method of teaching a subject matter which at first may seem totally daunting, gives us the tools and self-belief that we can achieve a super-good painting of our own. Check out the Gallery where there are a couple of photos, but more are to come. When we have show-and-tell at the end of each session, which is much more useful and eye-opening than scary - really! - we're all really amazed by how professional our own work is. When you're concentrating on close-up work, distance gives us a new perspective on it, usually highly favourable too.
Oliver Lovley was with us yesterday, and it's fair to say, he has a host of admirers in the group. Again, Oliver, like many of the tutors we have had, is sensitive to our needs and more than happy to spend time with a member of the group who is trying to learn a new technique. His style is very relaxed and he puts at our ease so that whatever we do, we can use it as either a learning experience, or develop it using layering techniques until we're happier with our work. In the Gallery, there are plenty of photos of the session in progress which show how our work progresses. This week, we concentrated on blocks of shade and colour in our faces. Oliver has made the cutest mirrors and little easels to support them while we study our faces, and, using pencil, water and pale shades of ochre and burnt sienna (and in my case, hot pink!) we began to build up the shades and shapes of different areas of our faces. Initially, a daunting task - who likes to paint themselves?! - the focus of attention being on describing "chunks" of your face is much easier than you'd realise, and much less scary. Oliver's approach was to not focus on "likeness" but to capture texture, light and dark, and blocks of shapes.
Catering for our needs, which to be fair, are many and varied, all of our tutors enable us to have a lot of fun while learning in an easy-going, supportive and caring atmosphere. We don't need to rush or produce finished pieces of work because we can continue it during the weeks we don't have a tutor. These weeks are so useful because we can practise what we've learnt or use our wide variety of resources to discover new ideas, or brush up on old ones. Sometimes, you might just want to come and join the group but don't have the energy to paint, that's fine too. Our group is such a great mixture of people, who, in a similar situation to yourself, have some idea of what it's like to be in pain or exhausted.
So come and join us and experience a group that's tailored to your needs :)
Ooooh! Don't forget HALF TERM is next week 23RD OCTOBER! We're back on 30th October, so it's just for a week :) Have a nice break! Although if anyone fancies getting together for a social, then do let me know - always happy to go out for a coffee, or to the flicks, depending on health of course :)
Bless you
Alli
