Thursday 30 April 2015

pages as medium...

with St Annes Library Art Circle.
 
We experimented with folding to make multiples then rearranged to enable the whole to become more than the sum of it's parts.

One of our number decided to make use of the protective table covering to get messy too.

Excellent start to enable us to re-think books as material.

made from origami doves (from above)

from the side




a web, a spider & people paper chains 
spider (detail)











Wednesday 29 April 2015

art as facilitator...

What a lively morning in Lytham Library with Art Circle discussing a selection of objects from c.art.ed.
  
Our discussions included:  resemblance; sensibilities; materials; processes; context; art or craft?; artist; viewer; curator; funder; art as facilitator; "new" art (Impressionism, Cubism & now) and art as messenger (Victorian & now).
  
I think everyone went home for a rest...

Excellent stuff - well done everyone & a continued thank you to the artists who allow me to show their work.

Abigail Amelia Hunt  “folding”  (folded book pages, thread, pencil)  1 x 3cm 
Obsessive work.  One of nine thousand handmade parcels - each identical
 - each unique - each existing within the larger group
John Dawson   “Bear”  (polyurethane foam)  20 x 17 x 24cms:
“You’re weak, you’re useless, you wont last 5 minutes out there in the big wide world.  
So be careful and don’t talk to strangers.”(message to  sculpture JD)

Marguerite Knight  “Fibre Painting #7” (fibre & acrylic on board) 23 x 28cm  
…evocative rather than prescriptive.  The paintings are not “abstracted from” 
nature, but are rather a product of it in the form of imagination.

Anna Roebuck  “fruit, veg & bags” recycled plastic bags & fruit nets

Liz Sparks  “Knottie”  (woolen blanket and satin) 9.5 x 9.5cm 
“…a souvenir of the complexity of family life” 

Tim Machin  “Ship”   (ink cartridge, plasticine) 4 x 0.5cm 
souvenir becoming memoir

Sid Foster  turned sycamore bowl

Julie Lang  “untitled”  (ten pound note & acrylic) 7.4 x 14cm  
manipulation and re presentation

Sunday 26 April 2015

Dreamtime / Dreamline: inspired by aboriginal art

using soft pastel and earth coloured paper 

St Annes Library, Art Circle 

Angie

Carmel




Janette

Richard

Wyne


Christine

Friday 24 April 2015

medicine wheels: ancient & modern

Originally medicine wheels were stone structures made by the tribes or nations of the indigenous people of America.  The medicine wheels often consisted of a central cairn and a number of spokes leading to an outer ring.

The first medicine wheel, which was discovered at the end of C19th is located near Bighorn River, Wyoming.  The white men who found it named it.  

Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark, Bighorn Wyoming US

Majorville Medicine Wheel, Alberta Canada was excavated in 1971.  Its central cairn is 9m in diameter and approx 28 spokes lead to an outer circle of 27m in diameter. Archaeologists date the construction to about 4,500 years ago although they found it had been added to and probably used for a variety of purposes since then.

[Medicine Wheels shouldn't be confused with the legacy of stone circles created whilst holding down the sides of teepees in place which also form a circle.]

I found lots of speculation about the use of medicine wheels from structures to mark solstices, dance rings and spiritual meeting places to commemorative sites of famous warriors.  I'm unsure of how they developed into those that are now embraced by "new age" spiritual practitioners [answers welcome].  The latter often depict the cardinal points of the compass north, south, east and west and each direction has different attributes, animals, colours etc assigned to it.

This was our starting point.
Four people, four directions, lots of soft pastel and earth coloured paper... 


Eil

Jane

Jonti

Mabs

finished piece, north & east at the top

finished piece south & west at the top
Well done everyone.  The finished piece will be on display in Lytham Library soon. 

Thursday 16 April 2015

one object, artists' quality colour pencils, soft pastels plus... imagination

Monica

the subject




Angie

Betty

Carmel

Janette

Wyn





a harbour, Mabs

rocky inlet, Jane

beach with palm trees, Jonti

the Liggard, Lytham with Southport in the background, Julian

Sue