Jane Barwood Art

Tag: art workshops

  • “HEART OF GLASS” Family Art Club – Saturday 7th November 2015

    “HEART OF GLASS” Family Art Club – Saturday 7th November 2015

    Photo 13-11-2015, 13 39 49This week I was invited to assist light and colour artist Liz West. The aim of the workshop was to use different coloured papers to create a giant spectrum of colour. I really enjoyed working and chatting with Liz. Light and colour are recurring themes in my work too and I was able to discuss my current commission with her.

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    Participants of all ages enjoyed taking part in the activity, using the coloured papers in their own unique ways to create a variety of different pieces that contributed to the finished spectrum display. Some children took pieces home with them, as well as adding to the wall display.

    The pictures below are both mine and Liz’s. As you can see, I actually managed to get in some of the photos for a change.

  • “HEART OF GLASS” Family Art Club – Saturday 3rd October 2015

    “HEART OF GLASS” Family Art Club – Saturday 3rd October 2015

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    Having worked as Assistant Artist with Family Art Club on several occasions, this was the first session that I directed as Lead Artist. The activities I designed were linked to my recent and current projects, using St Helens’s landmark buildings, silhouettes and light. I took along my rotating shadow lantern from the “Art in Libraries” installation as an example of my work.

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    There were two main activities. The first was to create a large shadow picture featuring recognisable buildings of St Helens along with silhouettes of people. I used large-scale heavy weight tracing paper fixed to wooden frames to create a translucent base for the picture. I hand drew the buildings prior to the session. I looked at several ways for the participants to make silhouettes. Initially I had hoped that they could somehow project and trace their own silhouettes that could then be reduced in size to add to the picture. However after several experiments, I realised this wouldn’t be feasible given the limited time, space and equipment available for the session. Instead I created a selection of generic people shapes that I had laser-cut from board to make templates. The participants were encouraged to draw around the templates then change the silhouettes to make them look more like themselves.

    Children love to make something that they can take home. So for the second activity we made paper bag lanterns using cut-outs and coloured acetate. As I had a materials budget I was able to give each participant an LED candle to illuminate their lantern.
    I think the session was a great success and participants enjoyed both activities. Most of them stayed for at least an hour and took great care in making their lanterns.

    Thanks to Claire Weetman, Family Art Club Co-ordinator, and Hannah Bold, Assistant Artist.

  • “HEART OF GLASS” FAMILY ART CLUB – SATURDAY 4th April 2015

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    This Family Art Club session was led by Nicola Ellis – a sculptor, originally from St Helens but now based in Manchester. Nicola creates non-representational sculptures using unusual and experimental materials. She arrived at the art space with two huge sculptural armatures constructed from wire and decorators expanding foam, and several buckets of premixed papier mache.

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    The participants were shown how to mould and apply the paper mache to the armature, mixing colours and moulding the shape as they liked. New arrivals were initially reluctant to put their hands into the cold, sticky paper mache mix but as soon as they overcame this they began to experience the tactile enjoyment of it. This activity was suitable for all ages and everyone from toddlers to adults was able to have fun with it. At several points throughout the afternoon I noticed a quiet concentration on the faces of everyone involved.

    As the workshop progressed the armatures began to disappear beneath a mixture of pastel colours. We had a couple of problems with lumps of paper mache dropping off, where they had been applied too thickly by over-enthusiastic participants, but this was easily repaired. From time to time we had to carefully lift and turn the wet sculptures so that the entire shapes could be completely covered. By the end of the session the sculptures were complete and resembled organic forms. The texture reminded me of pumice rock but in pastel colours.

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    It was an excellent activity session that perfectly filled the time allowed. It especially appealed to younger participants who sometimes find the more process-involved activities quite difficult.

    The hardest part of the day for us, as facilitators and instructors, was cleaning up afterwards!

    Please click on images below for larger view.

  • “HEART OF GLASS” FAMILY ART CLUB – SATURDAY 21st March 2015

    This session was led by Bradford-based printmaker Ruth Fettis. After researching Ruth’s practice prior to the session, I was excited to be working with her. I like the detailed style and the story-telling themes in her work. I have done some print making before but I don’t have any expertise in it so I was looking forward to learning from Ruth’s methods. I really enjoy using processes in my work that take away the careful, delicate control I use in my oil paintings. I discovered that Ruth has recently collaborated with an artist friend of mine, Michelle Wren, on this fantastic 3D installation piece, currently exhibited in Bradford.

    “The City” with artists Michelle Wren and Ruth Fettis.

    Ruth’s idea for the Family Art Club session was for the participants to decorate a brown paper bag, using mono-printing. There was also collage and drawing materials that they could use.

    The process for mono-printing is very simple, as Ruth demonstrated. Printing ink is rolled out in a thin layer, using a brayer, onto a smooth surface. We used rigid sheets of thin plastic plexiglass. Then the participants could use one of two methods-

    1) the paper bag is carefully placed on the inked surface. Then draw your design onto the paper bag, pressing quite hard, with a sharp pencil. When the bag is lifted away from the ink the design should have transferred onto the underside of the bag.

    2) the design can be drawn directly into the ink on the plexiglass using the blunt end of a pencil. Place the bag or paper onto the inked surface and carefully press the paper down with fingers, or rub it down with the back of wooden spoon, depending on the thickness of the paper. For the thick paper bags we used the spoons and for the thin tissue paper we used our fingers. When the paper is lifted away the design should have printed onto the paper.

    Method two seemed to work better. I think because the paper bags were quite thick and the children had trouble maintaining the pencil pressure required to transfer the image. They were also rather over-enthusiastic with rolling out the ink so it was laid out too thick for the print to work.

    We had a very busy day with a constant stream of excited and eager participants, many of whom stayed for a couple of hours. The children were really proud of their work and everyone took their bags home with them. My niece joined the session and was so pleased with her cat themed bags that she’s saving them to use as gift bags for birthday presents for her nan.

    Here are some of the photos I took during the day (click on image to see full size) –

     

  • “Heart of Glass” Family Art Club – Saturday 6th September 2014

    I was fortunate to be selected to work with artist Gemma Latham for this week’s Family Art Club session. The art club is now running regular fortnightly sessions in the activity space of St Mary’s Market in St Helens.

    Gemma‘s practice is not concerned with producing finished artworks but rather with encouraging public participation in making and creating using traditional crafts.

    I met Gemma earlier in the week to look around The World of Glass museum in St Helens for ideas and inspiration. She was interested in developing an activity that drew upon the town’s history of glass innovation and production. There are a few examples of beautiful stained glass in the museum’s collection and Gemma had the idea to recreate stained glass patterns on the floor of the activity space using stencils and coloured sand (sand being a key ingredient in glass production).

    When Saturday arrived Gemma had prepared a few stencils and brought along lots of different coloured sands. Gemma demonstrated the activity and myself and the other assistant Jacqui both created repeat patterns using the stencils and sand.

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    This started to create interest before we were due to open at 12pm so despite the town centre being especially quiet we had a few excited participants eager to start. We introduced them to the idea of stained glass and our intention to reflect this in the patterns on the floor. As usual, the children grasped the method and ideas very quickly and began making their own creations.

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    We had several returners who had attended and enjoyed previous Family Art Club sessions and stated they would definitely be back in the future. It was a successful and very enjoyable day for all involved. The children and their parents all had fun with the activity and were thrilled with the results. I love participating in the art club sessions. They are always good fun, rewarding and a learning experience for me. I hope I get to do more in the future.

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  • “Heart of Glass” Family Art Club – Saturday 17th May 2014

    “Heart of Glass” Family Art Club – Saturday 17th May 2014

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    This was the second Family Art Club session in this summer’s series that I was employed as Assistant Artist. I previously worked with Lead Artist Robyn Woolston. You can read the blog post for the first session here. On this occasion the Lead Artist was Claire Weetman and the other Assistant Artist was Hannah Bold.

    I was already familiar with Claire’s artistic practice, having worked with her before and having seen some of her exhibitions. Her work involves innovative ways of drawing and I was looking forward to seeing what exciting ideas she had developed for this workshop.

    As Assistant Artist I hoped to learn from greater experience of Claire’s practice and perhaps pick up some ideas and tips that I could use in my own work. In addition, I was keen to see how she had prepared for and how she ran the workshop throughout the day.

    Claire’s theme for this Art Club session was mazes, streets and houses. We sometimes speak of a “maze of streets” and it is easy to get lost in the unknown streets of an unfamiliar city. I believe that the idea for this workshop initiated from Claire’s residency in Shanghai, China. Claire often found herself lost in the streets of Shanghai where the street signs were not only in a different language but using a writing system incomprehensible to a westerner.

    For today’s session Claire brought along neoprene squares and wood blocks for people to make and design their own house stamps with which to print. We prepared a large maze on the floor of the workspace by drawing the maze onto paper using coloured tape. More mazes and labyrinths were projected onto another large sheet of paper fixed to the wall. There were also examples of mazes and stamps for the participants to look at and try out, along with lots of paper, coloured pens, stencils and inkpads for everyone to use.

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    As people arrived we showed them how to design and make a rubber stamp by drawing onto the back of the neoprene squares, then cutting out the design and sticking it to the wood block. They were encouraged to design their own mazes and use their stamps to make streets. After working at the tables on their designs they then added to the floor and wall mazes with their own stamps and mark-making ideas.

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    The children were very enthusiastic about making their own stamps and lots of the adults seem to enjoy it too. Some children went on unprompted to take the themes and ideas in new directions. One little boy decided to make the large maze into a game. He painted in a start and finish line and explained the rules to the others. Children began to make stamps of flowers, trees and animals as well as houses. One of the parents even made a Doctor Who Tardis stamp!

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    Many of the children were proud to have their drawings put up on the wall of the art space, while others wanted to take them home to show to parents and grandparents. Most of the children took their stamps away with them too.

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    It was an enjoyable day for artists and participants. It also inspired me to think about other methods of printmaking that I may use in my practice.

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  • “Heart of Glass” Family Art Club – Saturday 26th April 2014

    I was delighted to be chosen as Assistant Artist to Robyn Woolston on this project. I have been aware of Robyn’s work since 2012 when she was nominated and subsequently won the Liverpool Art Prize. I researched her work further in the week prior to the workshop.

    20140429-180256.jpg“Last” ©Robyn Woolston

    Robyn has developed artwork and projects around themes such as ecology, waste, immigration and language with imaginative and exciting use of installation, sculpture, photography and filmmaking. Although I am primarily a painter, both Robyn and I share an interest in the theme of landscape and the tension between modern urban living and the natural environment.

    As Assistant Artist I hoped to discover new ways of working that could inspire my own work in the future, I hoped to gain experience and skills to allow me to lead workshops myself and I was looking forward to talking to and learning from an established artist whose work I admire.

    Robyn’s plan for the day was that participants would explore mark-making, collage and maps to create a ‘solar system’ of their family and surroundings. She arrived with lots of fun materials and interesting objects, which were arranged on the tables to entice and inspire our potential participants.

    There were three main activities for participants to get involved with, each encouraging them to think about who they are, their home and surroundings, family, friends, pets and their favourite things and activities. The first activity was to make a paper sphere from strips of printed papers and maps, decorating the inside with stickers, drawings and words. The second activity was a paper house to be decorated to reflect the participant’s life and surroundings. The third activity was a 2D circular book made from a paper plate and illustrated with collaged, hand-drawn and sticker images.

    After helping set up, I began my day by walking around the market trying to round up some participants. The market was still quiet at 12 pm but I found a couple shopping at one of the stalls with two young children who were very keen to join us. When I returned to the art space, Robyn had already set to work with her first participant, a young boy, who ended up spending the entire afternoon with us.

    The children spent thoughtful minutes choosing their own printed papers and materials. Butterflies, birds and polka-dots in purple and pink were popular choices throughout the day.

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    We began making the paper spheres, and then suddenly more and more children started to appear. We had already filled one table so I took the new arrivals over to another table. We very quickly had two full tables of children. Things did get a little hectic for a while. At one point I was working with six participants, four of whom were very young and needed lots of help and guidance. Although some of the parents and grandparents were keen to get involved and helped out, a few children had difficulty with using scissors and needed extra assistance. However, this didn’t dampen their enthusiasm at all. Several times I was asked, “Can I take this home with me?” and was met with excited beaming smiles when I replied, “Of course you can!”

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    Next we started making the paper houses. Robyn and I cut out the templates for the children to decorate before assembling them into houses. One young girl, working quietly by herself, decided to create a garden for her house. She made a tree by sticking a lolly stick upright in a paper plate and attaching a sticker to it. I was working with her little brother and after watching his sister he decided he was going to create a forest from lolly sticks and tree stickers. He then drew a pond and found some duck stickers that he managed to attach so they were also upright, creating a mini diorama.

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    We had a steady stream of participants throughout the day. A few of the older children who arrived with younger siblings were initially too cool to join in but soon found themselves drawn into helping out and making things too. How could they resist when they saw how much fun everyone else was having?

    We didn’t get to make any 2D books. Everyone wanted to make the 3D objects. Also, because most of the children were very young and because of the short time we had, the themes of the project sometimes got lost in the practicalities of making. We also would have benefited from an additional assistant during the busiest part of the day.

    I think both the adults and children that participated appreciated and enjoyed the workshop. Not only did they make artwork that they could take home but they also took away creative ideas and knowledge that they could use again. Many of them said they had participated in previous art events in the market and would be very keen to attend workshops in the future. This demonstrates that there is an interest in arts participation in St Helens but we need regular events and good publicity to attract newcomers.

    I really enjoyed the day and learned a lot. Robyn has a warm, open manner and is a very knowledgeable and skilled artist. It was a pleasure to work with her.

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