Session Four at Christchurch Mansion

Some more examples of word poems.  These came into being as a list of words connected to a ceramic bowl depicting a fish, being tossed into the air and allowed to fall at random onto a page.

smooth scaled

fishy tailed

plump fishy

finned

plump light-blue

stream-lined

fishy smooth

cobalt tailed

tasty curving

eye-balling

finned scaled

white splattered

Brendan Pearson

This is our last week exploring and experimenting with ideas.  After the half term break we will begin to work on our individual pieces.  Below are some more sketchbook examples.

P Bowman

Brendan Pearson

R. F.



Session Three at Christchurch Mansion

In this session we looked at collage.  Once again we isolated sections of photographs and then used these selections to create collages in our sketchbooks.

sketchbook pages    P Bowman

sketchbook pages   K Morton

sketchbook pages   R F

In the second half of the session we concentrated on making shape templates from paper based on images from our sketchbooks. These templates were used to design repeating patterns.

image by B B

sketchbook pages by Brendan Pearson

Session Two at Christchurch Mansion

In this session we looked at alternative ways of exploring objects. 

We spent time observing the various works, ranging from costumes to paintings and pottery.  We made lists of words that described the objects and their settings.  From these lists we created word poems.  The following two poems came from two ballet costumes exhibited as part of The Royal Ballet presenting  the story of Sir Frederick Ashton, a gifted dancer and founder choreographer of The Royal Ballet.  Various costumes were located around the Mansion,  the two costumes were part of the 'Cinderella' ballet and were set in the Rococo Room.

three legs

pale green

waiting

stool

delicate

ivory

still life

P. Bowman

strong

arrangement

fine

anticipation

ruffled

sharp

sea

P. Bowman

In the second half of the session we worked with photographs of the objects.  We selected areas within the photograph and reproduced the imagery in various ways. 

                                                 From Thomas Gainsborough ....

pastel image by B B

Session One at Christchurch Mansion

The session began with a practical workshop making sketchbooks.  There is a huge advantage to making your own sketchbook.  It can be any size or shape, it can contain any number of pages and can be constructed out of any type of paper.  Card, tracing paper, coloured papers, brown paper, textured or smooth, papers for watercolour, pastel or acrylics, patterned paper, wallpaper - the list is endless.  The pages can be extended by taping on further sheets of paper, envelopes can be included, pages can be stitched, ripped, splattered, drawn on , doodled on or written on.

Christchurch Mansion is filled with inspiration.  Our first task was to explore the building and record something that we were drawn to.  These are three inspirations.