C-Art at Prism Arts 2016

Main Studio, C-Art at Prism Arts 2016

Rather unusually I had a relatively quiet summer, I took some time out to focus on my work and really enjoyed being in my studio and getting into my own work. I took part in Carlisle Art Fair which was a great experience for me. I met lots of interesting people, sold some work and enjoyed the whole process. Although I was tired after the show I also felt quite inspired and keen to carry on developing my practice, making it more of a priority.

Nature Climb, 2016
Katie Lock and Maddie Mould

Nature Climb, 2016
Katie Lock and Maddie Mould

Nature Climb, 2016
Katie Lock and Maddie Mould

It therefore came as a bit of a shock to the system when I came to start putting together our Prism Arts exhibition at our Paternoster Row spaces for C-Art 2016! It was one of those times when the phrase 'anything that can go wrong will go wrong' kept popping into my head. However, after a stressful week, a small amount of cursing and a lot of hard work we got the exhibition up and ready for the preview.

Drawings, John Lake, Emerging Artist (Prism Arts Studio Theatre West and Studio Arts)

Triptych, Prism Arts Creative Conversations Group

Triptych (detail,)  Prism Arts Creative Conversations Group

Prism Arts rents our studios and office space from the University of Cumbria in their Business Interaction Centre and because we're in the university's spaces we've been working with them and some of their students to provide exhibition opportunities, including a bursary which went to Katie Lock and Maddie Mould for their beautiful piece 'Nature Climb' which is hung in the stairwell of the building and we also gave our small studio to student Emeli Hartness who has created an intriguing installation based around nursery rhymes and their dark origins.

Prism Arts Studio Arts group 

Prism Arts Studio Arts group 

Prism Arts Studio Arts group 

Prism Arts Studio Arts group 

Several of the groups I work with for Prism Arts have work on show for the exhibition, including my Studio Arts group and the Wednesday Art Group at Carleton Day Centre. I find it both exciting and nerve racking installing work for exhibition, especially other people's work. I know in my head how I want to display things and how I think things should look but of course as in most aspects of real life this rarely happens and I spend a lot of time assessing alternatives.

Carleton Day Centre, Wednesday Art Group

Carleton Day Centre, Wednesday Art Group

Carleton Day Centre, Wednesday Art Group

Carleton Day Centre, Wednesday Art Group

How work is displayed is so important because it has a big impact on how viewers respond to it. I believe the work produced by our participants at Prism Arts is of a very high quality and I want to be able to show how talented these people are and that they can achieve so much more than some people expect. Giving people the opportunity to develop their creative skills allows them to find their own voice and tell their own story, rather than always having others speak for them.

Prism Arts/Tullie House: Picturing Places response work

Prism arts/St. Bede's/ Carlisle Library: Seven Stories project

Last year for C-Art several of Prism Arts artists, including myself, showed work and we had the opportunity to again this year. Earlier in the year we'd chosen the theme 'Flow' as it was nice and vague but would hopefully give a cohesiveness to the show. Not many of us exhibited this year but similarly to last year I was surprised by how well our pieces, all produced independently and without consultation with each other, fitted together beautifully. I love everything about Jan Hick's piece which embodies the theme perfectly.  I chose to show my small textile banner 'Flow: Connect' which is made from hand dyed indigo, beads and feathers and took forever to stitch!

Prism Arts artist: L-R Amanda Mudge, Amanda Mudge, Jan Hicks, Helen Walsh

Jan Hicks: Flow, Helen Walsh Flow: Connect

Flow: Connect

C-Art is on across Cumbria until 25th September with an impressive array of artists exhibiting so if you can I recommend you get out there and follow the yellow signs!

Cumbria Decorative and Fine Arts Society: Romans and Printing

Printing using polystyrene tiles

One of the things that I really enjoy about my work is the variety of people I work with and the different groups and organisations I work with. Recently I did a workshop at Tullie House for a group of children with additional learning needs from Whitehaven school. The workshop was organised and paid for by Cumbria's Decorative and Fine Arts Society with the aim of giving the students an opportunity to explore the museum and work with an artist, a chance they may not otherwise have had.

In the Roman gallery

Sketches made in the gallery

Developing sketches into designs

We began the day with a visit to Tullie's Roman Frontier gallery. The gallery assistant had a selection of objects for us to handle and was very knowledgeable and helpful. I gave each of the students paper and a clipboard and asked them to make sketches or notes about any object that particularly caught their attention so that we could use these as starting points for our prints in the afternoon.

Transferring designs onto the polystyrene

Transferring designs onto the polystyrene

Transferring designs onto the polystyrene

As we were looking round the gallery I found lots of objects that I was interested in too and I made a few sketches. As time goes on I find more and more that everything is connected and I try now to use any opportunity I can to match up my personal art practice with my participatory practice. I particularly liked some of the sections of armour in the gallery, they were like scales or feathers and I was drawn to the rusted and decayed surfaces.

Printing

Printing

Printing

After looking around the gallery we started working on designs for our prints. Because I had no idea of the level of ability I would be working with until I met the students on the day I had planned an activity that could be adapted to suit a range of needs. I had planned to use polystyrene tiles as print blocks, they can be marked with pencils to create an effect similar to lino prints but without the carving tools! This is a good activity for a range of abilities because simple mark making can create interesting prints but students with more experience and skill can make more planned designs.

Printing

Printing

Printing

Designing their prints was the part of the process the students struggled with most, with the biggest barrier being a lack of confidence. Once they got going and with a bit of encouragement they made some really lovely designs. I tried to encourage them not to worry about drawing the objects exactly but to pick out the details that interested them. In this way some of the students were able to produce some really effective and inventive designs.

Printing

Printing

Printing

Once they'd made their designs we transferred them onto the polystyrene tiles. As before I encouraged them to experiment and try different ways of marking the tiles to produce different effects when we printed with them. We then moved onto the printing which is my favourite part of the process. I like printing because you can produce multiples but each one is unique, little quirks in the way the ink is transferred producing a slightly different effect each time. I also like the anticipation of making the first print, seeing if it's worked and the satisfaction of a successful print or figuring out why a print didn't work.

Finished prints

Finished prints

Finished prints

This was also the time the students started to come out of themselves a bit more, with some of them getting really enthusiastic and fired up and experimenting with mixing the inks and even printing in stripes! Each student produced a successful print and I was really impressed with some of the finished prints. I really enjoyed the day and working with the students and I hope they got something out of it too.

Finished prints

Finished prints

Finished prints

Finished prints

Finished prints

Finished prints

Making Sketchbooks: AENW Workshop

Making folded square sketchbooks from recycled papers

Recently I was asked to run a short workshop at Tullie House for Art Educators North West, a group of teachers and others involved in art education who meet regularly to share ideas, experiences and skills. The workshop was to tie in with the Anselm Kiefer exhibition currently on show at Tullie and the programme of workshops being offered to schools.

Some of my sample sketchbooks

Folded Square Sketchbooks

Folded Square Sketchbooks-Opened out

The workshop I've designed for the schools in connection with the exhibition is a mixed media book making workshop so for this session I adapted that idea. I wanted to run a workshop that would be both enjoyable and useful so I was aiming for something that the educators would be able to take back and use with their students but that would also be fun to do.

Me showing one of my books

Folded square sketchbooks made from prints taken from painted fabric

One of my envelope sketchbooks

I always feel very nervous before I run a session for teachers, it's very scary teaching a teacher! However, everyone was really friendly and the atmosphere was relaxed and positive. I also got lots of positive comments so that's always a good confidence boost. I really hope the session was useful.

Envelope sketchbook seen from above

Envelope sketchbook

Envelope sketchbook

The workshop focused on three different ways of making sketchbooks; a folded square book, an envelope book and a variation on book maker Hedi Kyle's blizzard book. The other focus of the session was what paper to use, I wanted to look at using a range of recycled and discarded papers (rejected prints, junk mail, old maps, unneeded photocopies and so on.)

Preparing squares

Putting the squares together

Preparing squares

I had a range of books that I'd made to show the group and once we'd looked at those we got stuck in to the making. What I like about all three of these books is that they're basically very simple but there is a lot of potential to do quite exciting things with them. My favourite is probably the folded square book, it is just made of squares of paper but the way it is folded means that as well as being a flat sketchbook it can also be manipulated into more of a 3D form. It is a very tactile form and interesting to play about with.

Selecting and preparing papers

Preparing pages

A finished sketchbook

I also really like the envelope sketchbook, using an existing envelope as a template a range of envelopes are made from different papers and then joined together to form a book. The envelopes can be used to store things as well as being drawn on or written on as sketchbook pages. Like the folded square books they can also be made into more 3D forms. I think it would be great to work with a group making these and then use everyone's finished books to make an installation.