drawing, ducks & Human Foot Print

Another Saturday drawing with friends & colleagues.  This time I decided to take duck & try out a couple of drawings for the boat.

"Duck 6909" starred in "Human Foot Print" April 2007, a Chanel 4 science & art film which illustrated the things an average person did or consumed in a lifetime.  The ducks represented showers & baths.

I was very fortunate to be part of the production's art team.  We prepared & set up the installations before filming then removed them afterwards.  Hard work but great fun.

After a trawl around the internet I came across Billy Woods website which has a few stills from the film.  These follow below. 

Duck as Anglesey 

Stills from the film by Billy Woods.

Thousands of showers & baths

The chocolate we eat - my finger prints are all over this!

Cups of tea in Trafalgar Square

our holiday - sandcastles made on Studland Beach & the books we read

Plasticine, mugs & beyond...

The Task...

select a colour of Plasticine and make a drinking vessel 

make a colour wheel by mixing the Plasticine

make another item or draw what you have made

Brilliant results!  We used children's Plasticine and spoons as out modelling tools.  Some moulded, some sculpted, some coiled & some made slabs to construct the cups & mugs.

Colour mixing brought out mixed results but like mixing watercolour or coloured pencils add the darker colour to the lighter one.

Well done everyone!

Angie

Christine

Dorothy

Dorothy

Dorothy

Dorothy

Mabel

Mabel

Mabel

Mabel

Mike

Mike

Mike

Mike

Stuart

Stuart

Stuart

bottle + context / setting = narrative

It's lovely to be back!  

Today's Task...

using pencil & A4 paper, make an observational drawing of a bottle

using any media, place into a setting

This was trickier than it sounds but as usual everyone rose to the challenge - well done everyone - diverse drawings below!

Angie

Christine

Dorothy

Dorothy detail

Dorothy detail

Mabel

Mike 1

Mike 2

Monica midway

Monica finished, detail

Stuart

sparkly & peaceful

Andy Goldsworthy:  Snow Circles

Wishing everyone a sparkly and peaceful Christmas.

Andy Goldsworthy

Turner Prize Winner 2017...

Lubaina Himid!

Many, many congratulations to Lubaina.  

As a student, Lubaina influenced how I saw my own work in a world seemingly dominated by men more interested in their own practises.  After one conversation with her, I remember struggling with a right handed video camera, the size of a ghetto blaster, to record lines of light shining into a large cardboard box, from inside the box!  An experience which went on to inform my final piece for the Fine Art degree. 

Lubaina also spotted that I think 3 dimensionally, something that changed how I saw my practise as an artist and later as a project manager.  To me that includes being able to keep an overview without loosing sight of the detail or conversely keeping an eye on the detail without loosing the overview.  This didn't change the way I worked but endorsed that my approach, although different was valid.

Later when Lubaina became Professor of Contemporary Art, I went along to the opening of her new gallery space underneath her offices in Preston.  The exhibition, called "Plan B" if I remember correctly, was a statistical representation of the new space and a record her life journey to that point.  I was astonished to see an Ordnance Survey map of Blackpool marked near where I lived as a child.  Apparently not only had Lubaina been a neighbour but, I found out as I explored the exhibition, we were born in the same year.

Very few students in my peer group had the opportunity to discuss progress with Lubaina, we were quite low down in the order of things but I will always be grateful for her honest feedback and her astute observations. 

I'm so proud Lubaina is this year's Turner Prize Winner - huge congratulations to her!

BBC news re Turner Prize 2017

Lubaina Himid website