Session Eight at Christchurch Mansion

We have now finished this course at Christchurch Mansion.  When we began we were leaving the sessions in the dark winter afternoons, after our last session we emerged into sunshine and spring flowers were visible under the trees in Christchurch Park.

We had been working on the theme of collections.  The final pieces of work reflected this;
   
Historical portraits paintings in the Mansion became abstracted into a series of strong, bold portraits.  
 
The motionless figures that people the rooms in the Mansion were captured in delicate watercolours.
   

Watercolour by Moya Copnall

Watercolour by Moya Copnall

A study of patterns on walls and furniture inspired a riot of colour, paint, fabric and stitch onto canvas.

Careful observation of landscape paintings and plates have been documented with notes and a sketchbook has been filled with a comprehensive series of drawings reflecting a passion for the Mansion and its contents.
 
A hand painted panel in a bedroom became a journey into sourcing flower motifs in paintings which in turn became an ethereal space full of light painted onto canvas.

Work in Progress by Mary Machin

An exploration of the structure of the Mansion became an investigation into a resist process with oil pastels and various water based paints.  These experiments form the basis for an abstract painting.

Experiments with wax resist by B B

The wonderful collection of toys contains an bear, dressed in a military uniform, who has seen better days.  This bear has been modeled and re made.

A collection of kitchen utensil, mixing prints taken from plastic spoons printed onto fabric and drawn bowls from the porcelain collection, pieced together with a variety of different textures and colours.  

Printed and pieced fabric by Barbara Clarke

Printed and pieced fabric by Barbara Clarke

An exhibition of illustrated childrens books in the porcelain room sparked research and a debate on craft before and after the war.  The final piece is a thought provoking montage accompanied by a text on the subject.  

Work in progress by Molly Pugh

Session Six at Christchurch Mansion

Printmaking samples - Barbara Clarke

Last week Doug Selway came in and gave one to one tutorials to help start the individual projects.  There are some very interesting pieces of work on the go.  Painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture and textiles.  Below are some of the ideas starting to emerge.

Resist examples in sketchbook - B B

Resist examples in sketchbook - B B

Sketchbook pages - E K

Felixstowe Library Exhibition

The Exhibition at Felixstowe Library

The Shadow Puppet course at Felixstowe Library has now ended.  There is an exhibition of the work in the library which will remain for several weeks.  A wonderful assortment of puppets, theatres, framed pieces of artwork, poems and stories were produced.

"I shall miss attending the course, now that it has finished.  Very relaxing and helps relieve stress."


"The course was very organised in teaching me new skills.  I gained confidence and tried new skills."

Scenery - P Bowman

Sketchbook page - P Bowman

Sketchbook page - P Bowman

Puppets - Janet

Painting on acetate - MP

Shadow puppet - SF

Christchurch Mansion ... again

We are now into our third week at the Mansion.  The theme of this course is 'collections'.  A collection is an accumulation of objects gathered for study, comparison or exhibition. Christchurch Mansion is set out with period rooms and covers 500 years of history from the 16th century through to the 19th century.  There are many areas to inspire from kitchen utensils, paintings, ceramics, toys and costume.

We started the first session with making sketchbooks and trying to identify a collection of objects from the museum that had a personal interest.  We did some word association exercises in order to pinpoint a particular colour or form that interested us and then explored the Mansion to find objects that contained or represented them.  For instance, the colour blue could be narrowed down into midnight blue and any object that had a deep blue, a night sky etc became the part of the collection.  A circle or sphere came to represent the sun and again any object that featured the sun in any way became a collection of 'sun objects'.

Using these collections of objects as starting points we engaged in a series of exercises looking at alternative ways of documenting them such as collage, word poems, drawing sections of the object and making patterns.

The fourth week will be spent in working up one of these initial ideas into a piece of artwork.

ALL OF THE WORK BELOW ARE PAGES FROM SKETCHBOOKS SHOWING INITIAL IDEAS:

Mixed media: B.B.

Pastel drawing: B.B.

Mixed Media: Barbara

Collage: Barbara

Mixed Media: Cathy Walsh

Drawing: Moya Copnall

Drawing: Moya Copnall

Collage: Mary Machin

Collage: Molly Pugh

Session Two at Felixstowe Library

The library is a wonderful resource for stories and ideas for characters for shadow puppets.  Picture books for children contain beautiful illustrations that can be used to conjure a character into being.  We spent the first session exploring the wealth of material held within in the library and watched the first part of the stunning film 'The Adventures of Prince Achmed'.  This film was the first, feature-length, animated film in the history of cinema.  It was made by Lotte Reiniger, a pioneer in silhouette puppets, in Berlin between 1923 and 1926.  It is a truly magical film and well worth watching. We also made sketchbooks to work in and began to design characters.

The second session was spent in developing puppet ideas in sketchbooks and making then from black card.  Below are the beginnings of puppets and scenery.... and a completed puppet.

Owls .... S F

more owls ..... S F

and penguins: M P

Sketchbook Page: P. Bowman

Scenery Sketch : Colleen

Puppet Design: M N

A shadow puppet: 

Shadows and Seaside.

I am due to begin a six week course at Felixstowe Library.  The library is a wonderful light, airy spacious building with a fantastic cafe so that coffee and homemade cake is always on tap.  The sessions will be held in the Room at Top.  I am particularly looking forward to these sessions as we will be working with shadow puppets and puppetry is a real passion of mine.

Traditionally a shadow puppet is a two dimensional figure held against a translucent screen and lit from behind.  The audience, on the opposite side of the screen, watch the shadows created by the puppets. Shadow puppets have a long history throughout the world. Traditionally puppets were made from parchment or hide.  Contemporary puppets can made from card, plywood, acetate, found objects and even wire or metal.

During this course we will be making and designing puppets, exploring different materials, looking at creating stories and characters and experimenting with screens and performance.

A scene from 'The Blind Princess' by Juliet Lockhart

Session Eight at Christchurch Mansion

Our final session and some truly wonderful work has been produced by the group.  Christchurch Mansion has proved, once again, to be an inspiring venue to work in.  The staff and volunteers at the Mansion have, again, been amazing in their help and support with this project.  Below is a selection of the final pieces and some thoughts...

MICHAEL BRACE

Having worked professionally in ceramics and pottery, I found my choice of study relevant and thought of ways that I could take my source material further.  I was not afraid to use colour.






Work in Progress - acrylic on canvas

Working studies



working studies

Mixed Media




  B.B.

Lessons learnt.  Painting in progress.  Enjoyed being at the the Mansion.



Work in progress, acrylic on canvas

BRENDAN PEARSON

I enjoyed putting my limericks in a book with art work, using transparencies and staples.

There was a lady called Janet

Was made of a substance like granite

They shot her up high

To the top of the sky

Where she turned into a far away planet

There was a sea gull called hoppy

Whose loss of a leg made her stroppy

She met with whale

Who bought her an ale

The alcohol made her quite floppy.



Front and back cover

Inside the book





R. F.

I have enjoyed doing cross stitch which I have never done before.  I have enjoyed looking around the Mansion.  I like the Wingfield Room where we have been working.  I'd like to do another course like this.



Work in progress

Work in progress



P BOWMAN

Fabric and thread are materials I seldom choose to work with and hence using these to produce work outside my comfort zone.  The 8 weeks have been exciting and creatively challenging; taking inspiration from Christchurch Mansion.



Mixed Media

Page from sketchbook




Work in progress - mixed media

K. MORTON

I'm now much more confident about attempting a piece of art than before I did this course.

Acrylic on canvas

Detail - acrylic on canvas