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| #1 |
What an amazing journey this has been. Best class ever! The Jane Davies "100 Drawings" workshop was offered in a ten-week on-line format. This meant that participants had a full seven days to respond to the week's assignment, and had access to their own workspaces throughout. An in-person workshop is faster-paced, and participants may not have all of their supplies at hand. With the blog format, we could benefit by seeing the completed assignments of the other students, and the direction each received from the instructor. We had time to check out the recommended Pinterest site, and to watch demos on Youtube.
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| #2 |
For our final class, we were asked to set the parameters for our own lesson. Our proposals were vetted by the teacher, who was able to offer advice about narrowing our focus, or suggesting we just tweak the requirements of a previous lesson.
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| #3 |
I chose to have another go at an area I have found troublesome. Jane Davies often approaches a new piece by putting down a very active collage, featuring colour, shapes and pattern. She then repeatedly obscures parts of it, adds more detail to other areas, obscures some more, and continues until a focal area "emerges" from the chaos. That's what I wanted to do! So I revisited Lesson 8 and Lesson 9.
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| #4 |
Maybe I just don't handle chaos well.
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| #5 |
Anyway, here are my eight "explorations". I limited myself to neutral and muted colours, plus black and white, and a dash of saturated colour for interest.
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| #6 |
As I write this, I haven't yet had the teacher's feedback on these. But I do have a few of my own ideas about how my approach might be improved.
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| #7 |
Each week's assignment required us to comment on our own work. We were encouraged to really "see" each piece: not what we intended to paint but what was actually there, on the paper. Not how we worked, but how each element in the painting interacted with the others, and how it impacted the whole.
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| #8 |
These are not to be thought of as finished works. They are all 12" x 9", using acrylic paint, collage, water-soluble crayon and charcoal.
2 comments:
I've struggled for years to relax enough to make collages. I seem, instead, to get caught up in placement of elements, trying to make them "look like something". Perhaps that too, is a sign I'm not comfortable with chaos! I do like your efforts, and especially that last one with what looks like spattered red paint on a more neutral "pieced" ground. That one really attracts me! Thanks for sharing all of your experiences with these classes!
Hi Margaret,
I think as fibre artists we share a need to pre-plan our design, rather than letting it evolve with spontaneity. This class has given me a new respect for abstract painting. Whereas with my cityscapes I make a plan and then "execute" it, with the abstract painting there is constant re-assessment and re-adjustment. A dab of red here demands something else there. Eye-opening!
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