It’s been a hot and hazy June. The fields are a patchwork of light browns and yellows – freshly mowed with the hay stored away or dotting the hills in freshly wrapped bales. The skies are blue late into the evening and I’ve been out for walks sometimes only getting in at 10pm. Midsummer is a wonderful time of year and I’ve really appreciated it this year as many of my classes and clubs have focussed on creating landscape paintings inspired by local scenes.
My Keystage 1 art club at Bradfield Dungworth created some lovely countryside scenes learning about foreground, mid-ground and background. I also ran a Saturday workshop where participants learn to paint watercolour landscapes by building up layers of colour, darker tones and adding more distinct details towards the foreground. The results were really impressive and I ran a very similar class for June’s Art Club at Dungworth Village Hall.
At the school where I teach, we ran a creative week focussing on art and music from East Africa inspired by the book ‘The Awongalema Tree’. This included African drumming, Adrinka inspired block printing and Tinga-Tinga inspired art. I was particularly pleased with the collaborative large-scale elephants that we made in Year 3. These were made from cardboard and slotted together and then painted with African-inspired patterns. As a small herd they looked very impressive!
My own work has also focussed on landscape painting and drawing this month and I’ve been getting out when I can to draw ‘en plein air’. I’m also taking part in a Sketchbook Swap project run by local artist, Sarah Lewis (@anonymouse.creatives). I think there are 16 taking part and we each start out own sketchbook based around a theme we choose. Each month we send our sketchbook on to the next person and collect a sketchbook responding to the theme. I stuck to a nature journalling theme for the sketchbook I set up and I’m really looking forward to getting it back in over a year with 16 other creative responses! Even more though I’m looking forward to receiving my first sketchbook from another artist. I think responding to a new theme and style will be a great way to develop creatively and try new things each month.
Coming up in July…
Adult Art Club at Dungworth Village Hall
Thursday 17th July , monthly, 7-9pm
This month the focus will be on household objects which I admit does sound a bit dull! I promise it won’t be though as we’ll be looking at the shape and form of unusually shaped objects and the negative spaces between objects when they are grouped together. After having a bit of drawing practice, we’ll look at creating some still life compositions from a range of random objects I bring along and then have a go at painting these by blocking out negative shapes before looking at details.
This group is very friendly and open to everyone with or without prior experience. The sessions focus mainly on drawing and watercolour painting techniques but I like to throw in other processes such as printing occasionally! Each week is a stand alone session so don’t worry if you can’t commit to each one but if you do attend regularly, you’ll really start to notice your skills improve over time.
I provide stimulus and gentle instruction so you don’t have to worry about knowing what to draw. I also provide paper, drinks and usually homemade cake! I can provide a sketchbook, graded pencils and watercolour paints or you are welcome to bring your own. Sessions are £9 each or £32 for 4 sessions booked in advance.
Other workshops booking now:
I’m really excited to be offering these workshops in the autumn at the Botanical Gardens. They have a lovely purpose-built classroom space called the Dorothy Fox Centre and in both cases we’ll be using the gardens themselves as inspiration. The printing workshop is a four-week course and the nature journalling is a one-off morning. If this is something that interests you but you can’t do Mondays, Please let me know as I have plans to run weekends in the future.
Other great things to do in July!
- Wander through fields of grasses! – For the hayfever sufferers among you, it might be worth taking some antihistamine first but I promise you its worth it to slow down and really take some time enjoying the wonderful variety of tall grasses at this time of year. See how many different types you can find, notice how they move and whisper in the wind and how they change in different lights. You could try getting down among them and seeing the life that thrives in their mini-worlds. Bliss!
- Visit ‘Colour’ exhibition at the Millennium Galleries, Sheffield – Another great exhibition has just opened at the Sheffield Galleries – this one is all about colour which is one of my favourite topics! Can’t wait to visit.
- Enjoy a festival – We’re off to Tramlines this year. I’ve never been before and I’m taking my eldest so we’re really hoping for good weather. For me, it’s all about seeing Pulp!
- Play with paints – I have been trying to break away from more formal drawing and painting and to free myself up by painting splodges and blobs of colour and seeing how it mixes and moves and how the colours relate to one another. It’s also lots of fun! Why not take 20 minutes just playing with paints!
Thank you so much for reading this and supporting me! If you’ve enjoyed this newsletter and want to stay in touch with upcoming workshops, ideas and tutorials, please add your email below to subscribe and why not share this with friends who you think might also fancy something creative in their lives?!
Leave a comment