Drawing with Light

 

I went to a very interesting workshop on Saturday at the Sidney Cooper gallery in Canterbury.

Lead by Matt Rowe we explored the idea of sketching or drawing with light using a camera with a long exposure to capture the light and movement.

We first worked with the theme of trees, using charcoal to draw tree shapes in 30seconds. Not a lot of time you realise when trying to do it.

Then it was envisioning how the drawing would work using light from torches and El wire.
I chose a magenta and green filter for the torches and a piece of blue El wire that was hung up and then moved during the long exposure.

The idea was of the trunk of the tree, drawn with the green and magenta light from the torches and with the blue as foliage on top.

It was very enjoyable and I can see possibilities for future work.

Windmill making with artist Carlos Cortes

I spent an enjoyable afternoon in Margate's Adult Ed Centre making sections of a windmill with Carlos Cortes.

The building we were in used to be an Art College and the workshop space is one of the old drawing studios.  Carlos helped by Turner Contemporary staff had us covering long poles with coloured materials, constructing the paddles for the windmills and decorating them.

Carlos Cortes, his website here  has been holding workshops with more to come building a collection of windmills that will be installed on the 24th May on the main sands are of the beach.  He was an enthusiastic workshop leader and I liked his commitment to community involvement in his artistic life.  Carlos had been carefully finding branches to reuse from the woods near him which is something I would have been doing too.



This installation, Moving with the Wind    website here   forms part of the opening day of Turner Contemporary's Summer of Colour. There will be performances of dance and music on the beach too. I like to think families will go along with tradition windmills in their hands or on top of sandcastles.
Website for all the Summer of Colour events  here

My contributions to the windmills had a touch of Mondrian and Matisse going on. I am looking forward to some of the events planned and the next exhibition Mondrian and Colour which starts on the 24th of May.

Wild man life drawing at Turner Contemporary

The Turner Contemporary gallery held a couple of Wild man drawing sessions last week.
I managed to go along on Thursday and join in with the session.

I was intrigued with the subject matter, and indeed there was actually a wildman and his partner and baby, all dressed in a range of furs and fabrics.

They posed behind a cloth leaving us with great shadows to draw and also came out for us to draw.

Most of the poses were very short but I enjoyed working with my drawing pen and seeing the adults and children working along side with me.

The Turner Gallery does put on very good workshops and sessions, a lot of which are open for adults with and without children, so its worth looking at their programme.  Website here http://www.turnercontemporary.org/