In 2011 we held two family art workshops, funded by West Devon District Council and South Hams District Council, with additional funding from the Elmgrant Trust. The reports on these follow here,with earlier years' reports below.
The South Hams one took place during Delamore Art Exhibition on Saturday 28th May in the Coach House at Delamore House, by invitation of Mr and Mrs Gavin Dollard, as below:
Sarah's report of the event follows:
The Day Itself: Unfortunately, it was a very wet and windy day throughout, and visitor numbers were extremely low – far lower than I had expected or hoped. I had created a set-up that could have quite comfortably accommodated 20 participants at any one time, so it was a shame things weren’t busier. In total, approximately 10 adults too part in the workshop and 8 children, ranging from 2 to 13 years old. My first visitor was a solitary woman who had come from Plymouth. She arrived around 11.30am and stayed for at least an hour, enjoying the one on one attention. Because it was just the two of us working, I adapted the workshop to creating individual – not collaborative – pieces that explored techniques of collage and painting on a more intimate level. ‘Mary’ seemed to really enjoy this and commented on how good she felt working so freely and experimentally.
The Workshop Proper Begins: At about 12pm the first family group of four arrived – a mother and her two children and her mother. This family stayed for a good hour, thoroughly enjoying working together, all of them equally involved.
1) I asked them all to think of something in particular that they enjoyed about the garden – a butterfly, flower, statue, etc. …….. and then to start drawing this motif with pastel on the large sheet of lining paper. They were told that when I clapped my hands, they would immediately stop what they were doing, move a couple of paces in the clockwise direction, and start to draw the same motif again, but this time bigger or smaller, with a different colour. This was all done to music to get the creative juices flowing.
2) Still with music, this process would continue a number of times until the mural was covered from head to foot, one end to the other, with contrasting shapes, patterns and motifs.
3) The pastels are cleared away to be replaced by pots of inks laid out along the table with brushes of contrasting thickness.
4) The group is then asked to paint ink washes over the top of the pastel drawings, creating the next ‘layer’ but making sure to leave white spaces to enhance the contrast effect.
5) Next, the inks are put away and strips of paper towel are given to each person to dab dry the ink.
6) Black pens are then used to draw in some detail as a third layer.
7) The tissue paper layer comes next, where each person comes up with a geometric shape which they then cut or tear out of coloured paper in a variety of sizes to then glue over the top of the pastel and ink washes.
8) This final layer is then pressed flat with sections of greaseproof paper, creating a luminous and colourful sense of depth.
9) In order that everyone who has contributed to the mural can take home with them a part of it, each participant is given an approximately A4-sized piece of beige mounting board and asked to place it over their favourite part of the mural. At this point I cut out ‘their section’ and glue it with spray mount to their board so that there is a clean, neat boarder around the image. Everyone who took part was took away with them one of these ‘mementos'.
Family Art Project 2010
This year we were able to run two family artworks, funded by Tesco Charity Trust and the Elmgrant Trust. The first of these was held at Hannahs at Seale Hayne near Newton Abbot. Isabel Coulton, sculptor member of Devon Artist Network, led the workshop and writes:
Family Art Project 2008
The Awards for All funded Family Art Project workshops
were held over consecutive weekends in July and August last year. We
worked in partnership with local organisations including North Devon
Arts, the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon, Dartmoor National Park
Authority and the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World, to
set up and publicise the workshops widely .
The Barnstaple workshop run by Paul and Tanya Morel used natural and found materials such as pine cones, shells, seaweed, fleece, twigs, leaves, flowers and bits of plastic and metal to create animals and fantastical creatures. The finished objects were displayed in a perspex fronted Curiosity Box built specially to house them.
Yuli Somme and Tian Kalouli ran their workshop at the Postbridge visitor information centre on Dartmoor and taught participants how to make felt using local Dartmoor fleece in different colours.
The felt was shaped into leaves each with a unique design. The leaves were then tied to a specially built ‘tree’ created by basket maker Linda Lemieux using local birch and willow.
Exeter artists Lucy Rockcliffe, Jess Carvill and Lucy
Burch ran workshops in mosaic and ceramic tile making at CCANW. The
mosaic panels, ceramic tiles and footprints were used to decorate a
large door and door frame.
The front showed the positive aspects of Devon open countryside, recycling, wildlife and the back showed the negative aspects such as waste and pollution.
Feedback from all the workshops was extremely positive and they were hugely enjoyed by all ages. The youngest participants were infants of 3 and the oldest was a gentleman in his 80’s.
The opportunity to work alongside professional artists and learn new, enjoyable skills was much appreciated and many people commented that they would like to attend similar workshops in future.
We are planning a further series of Family Art Workshops for summer 2009. Details will be available on the website later this year.
This comes from the manure-rich street sweeping of Devonport, Plymouth in the 19th century. Barges full of this street manure journeyed up the Tamar and were unloaded at Morwellham Quay where local farmers collected it to fertilise their fields. The street sweepings contained other waste such as broken and discarded household crockery which then lay in the soil for over a hundred years. Chrissy has been finding and collecting pieces, many of which were used in this project.
The
Morwellham archaeologist paid a visit to the workshops and was able to
identify some of the mosaic pieces. These included examples of pottery
from the Ming dynasty (1600- 1680); Bristol(Blue Scratchware1780-1810),
Staffordshire (imitation porcelain 1780- 1810), Spanish Majolica (1680
-1750), Porcelain, Delft (Earthenware 1700-1750) and Wan-Li Porcelain
(1700-1750).
The finished piece, Afternoon Tea, was exhibited at the Tamar Valley Centre Trail Festival at the end of October.
In
October a number of DAN artists including Isabel Coulton, Joanna
Radford and Clare Schmidt Norris ran workshops at Devon Libraries as
part of the month-long Big Draw Project. This annual event is run by the
Campaign for Drawing and encourages everyone to have a go at drawing
through a national programme of participatory activities.
The theme of the workshops was 'wildlife arts and crafts' and the artists interpreted this in a variety of fun and imaginative ways.
DAN was delighted to have this opportunity to work with Devon Libraries in this way and we look forward to working with them again in the future.
The images below are from a workshop held at Tiverton Library by Clare Schmidt-Norris.
FREE FAMILY ART WORKSHOP
Print workshop with Tim Salter
at the Vine Church, Hatherleigh,
on Saturday 30 July
during Hatherleigh Arts Festival
The free drop in workshop at The Vine Church was as part of the Hatherleigh Festival and ran along side a printmaking exhibition featuring the work of Diane Bailey, Joanna Radford and Tim Salter.
The brief behind the workshop was: to get families ‘having a go at art’ together. We want to create an enjoyable and creative environment where adults and children can work alongside an artist, try things they may not have tried before, learn new skills and perhaps create work that they may later see displayed to promote Devon Open Studios 2011. The length of time families stay at the workshops will vary greatly, so involvement will need to be immediate and fulfilling.
We had set up the workshop at one end of the church building with the exhibition in the remaining larger space creating and giving an integrated atmosphere where visitors could wander through and enjoy the exhibited work and then gain some insight into the processes used by the artists by either participating in the workshop or acting as an observer
For the printmaking workshop I chose to use the “Monotype“ or “Mono print” process,
a fairly simple printing technique that has the advantage of immediate access and no long preparation of printing plates. Thus fairly quick results can be achieved through the basic processes, which are suitable for all ages. All the materials and tools were provided; vegetable oil based “Caligo” inks were chosen to give the participants an opportunity to use a media that professional artists use, which offer many of the qualities of oil based inks without the inherent related problems of oil based inks.
At ten o’ clock the first of our “printmakers” arrived, not in a slow trickle either, but enough to fill all our ten workstations, with the addition of parents and onlookers. It was a real pleasure to see that we had a broad age range. Children working along side adults is always good, with the two way cross fertilisation of ideas, working methods and cooperation.
The basic methods were demonstrated, with an introduction to the various resources we had provided to act as a stimulant to those who were a little apprehensive. For the next two and a half hours we were running at full pelt without a let up, (we never did get that mid-morning cup of coffee!) with the participants eager to see their efforts emerge from the press. Incidentally many had never seen a press before and found the whole process enthralling. Exclamations of delight; when they revealed their first print, as it was peeled it from the plate. But not in all cases, like all print makers we find sometimes things just don’t work as we anticipate. Far from being disillusioned it was back to the inks, rollers and resources. With the experience gained, a fresh image was developed and the resulting print, just that much more satisfying.
Around 1.30 a natural break in proceedings emerged as hunger for food took over from the thirst for art. This gave us a much needed break, to catch up on the “housework” and get the work stations ready for the afternoon session. At this point I must publicly thank my partner Mandy for all her hard work during the workshop helping to keep things running in a smooth manner. I must also thank Joanna for the kind use of her mobile press and caring support.
Back into the swing of things, the afternoon session proved to be as popular, with slightly fewer participants and thus a little less hectic. As a result I felt we were able to give each person a little more attention. One or two people had very clear aims as to what they wanted to produce, but did not know how to go about achieving their aim. I am pleased to say that we were able to realise their vision in printed form, which they took with them at the end of the session with a smile to match. At the end of the day I feel we had given all the participants, young and not so young, an insight into the world of the artist printmaker and a really fulfilling and fun experience. If I may single out one lady from the older group; she seemed to have an instinctive feeling for the process and I hope she finds the opportunity to spend more than a few hours in a printmaking workshop to expand on her experience.
Thanks to Joanna and Diane for the pleasure of exhibiting and working with them, the Committee for inviting us to the festival, in particular Diane stamp for all her co-ordinating and arranging, to the residents and visitors to Hatherleigh for making us fell so welcome and of course the funding by West Devon Borough Council and the Elmgrant Trust.
In conclusion, to use that much vaunted phrase, “a result!“ However we have no work to display, (they took it all with them) although we do have the photographs that I hope will illustrate this report.
Tim Salter August 2011
at the Vine Church, Hatherleigh,
on Saturday 30 July
during Hatherleigh Arts Festival
 _ |
_ |
| _A young participant preparing her image |
_Completed prints hanging up, w |
 |
 |
| The magic moment - successful print revealed |
And some more great work completed during the day |
The free drop in workshop at The Vine Church was as part of the Hatherleigh Festival and ran along side a printmaking exhibition featuring the work of Diane Bailey, Joanna Radford and Tim Salter.
The brief behind the workshop was: to get families ‘having a go at art’ together. We want to create an enjoyable and creative environment where adults and children can work alongside an artist, try things they may not have tried before, learn new skills and perhaps create work that they may later see displayed to promote Devon Open Studios 2011. The length of time families stay at the workshops will vary greatly, so involvement will need to be immediate and fulfilling.
We had set up the workshop at one end of the church building with the exhibition in the remaining larger space creating and giving an integrated atmosphere where visitors could wander through and enjoy the exhibited work and then gain some insight into the processes used by the artists by either participating in the workshop or acting as an observer
For the printmaking workshop I chose to use the “Monotype“ or “Mono print” process,
a fairly simple printing technique that has the advantage of immediate access and no long preparation of printing plates. Thus fairly quick results can be achieved through the basic processes, which are suitable for all ages. All the materials and tools were provided; vegetable oil based “Caligo” inks were chosen to give the participants an opportunity to use a media that professional artists use, which offer many of the qualities of oil based inks without the inherent related problems of oil based inks.
At ten o’ clock the first of our “printmakers” arrived, not in a slow trickle either, but enough to fill all our ten workstations, with the addition of parents and onlookers. It was a real pleasure to see that we had a broad age range. Children working along side adults is always good, with the two way cross fertilisation of ideas, working methods and cooperation.
The basic methods were demonstrated, with an introduction to the various resources we had provided to act as a stimulant to those who were a little apprehensive. For the next two and a half hours we were running at full pelt without a let up, (we never did get that mid-morning cup of coffee!) with the participants eager to see their efforts emerge from the press. Incidentally many had never seen a press before and found the whole process enthralling. Exclamations of delight; when they revealed their first print, as it was peeled it from the plate. But not in all cases, like all print makers we find sometimes things just don’t work as we anticipate. Far from being disillusioned it was back to the inks, rollers and resources. With the experience gained, a fresh image was developed and the resulting print, just that much more satisfying.
Around 1.30 a natural break in proceedings emerged as hunger for food took over from the thirst for art. This gave us a much needed break, to catch up on the “housework” and get the work stations ready for the afternoon session. At this point I must publicly thank my partner Mandy for all her hard work during the workshop helping to keep things running in a smooth manner. I must also thank Joanna for the kind use of her mobile press and caring support.
Back into the swing of things, the afternoon session proved to be as popular, with slightly fewer participants and thus a little less hectic. As a result I felt we were able to give each person a little more attention. One or two people had very clear aims as to what they wanted to produce, but did not know how to go about achieving their aim. I am pleased to say that we were able to realise their vision in printed form, which they took with them at the end of the session with a smile to match. At the end of the day I feel we had given all the participants, young and not so young, an insight into the world of the artist printmaker and a really fulfilling and fun experience. If I may single out one lady from the older group; she seemed to have an instinctive feeling for the process and I hope she finds the opportunity to spend more than a few hours in a printmaking workshop to expand on her experience.
Thanks to Joanna and Diane for the pleasure of exhibiting and working with them, the Committee for inviting us to the festival, in particular Diane stamp for all her co-ordinating and arranging, to the residents and visitors to Hatherleigh for making us fell so welcome and of course the funding by West Devon Borough Council and the Elmgrant Trust.
In conclusion, to use that much vaunted phrase, “a result!“ However we have no work to display, (they took it all with them) although we do have the photographs that I hope will illustrate this report.
Tim Salter August 2011
The South Hams one took place during Delamore Art Exhibition on Saturday 28th May in the Coach House at Delamore House, by invitation of Mr and Mrs Gavin Dollard, as below:
FREE FAMILY ART WORKSHOP
with Sara Downham Lotto
DELAMORE HOUSE, CORNWOOD, IVYBRIDGE
Sarah's report of the event follows:
The Day Itself: Unfortunately, it was a very wet and windy day throughout, and visitor numbers were extremely low – far lower than I had expected or hoped. I had created a set-up that could have quite comfortably accommodated 20 participants at any one time, so it was a shame things weren’t busier. In total, approximately 10 adults too part in the workshop and 8 children, ranging from 2 to 13 years old. My first visitor was a solitary woman who had come from Plymouth. She arrived around 11.30am and stayed for at least an hour, enjoying the one on one attention. Because it was just the two of us working, I adapted the workshop to creating individual – not collaborative – pieces that explored techniques of collage and painting on a more intimate level. ‘Mary’ seemed to really enjoy this and commented on how good she felt working so freely and experimentally.
The Workshop Proper Begins: At about 12pm the first family group of four arrived – a mother and her two children and her mother. This family stayed for a good hour, thoroughly enjoying working together, all of them equally involved.
1) I asked them all to think of something in particular that they enjoyed about the garden – a butterfly, flower, statue, etc. …….. and then to start drawing this motif with pastel on the large sheet of lining paper. They were told that when I clapped my hands, they would immediately stop what they were doing, move a couple of paces in the clockwise direction, and start to draw the same motif again, but this time bigger or smaller, with a different colour. This was all done to music to get the creative juices flowing.
2) Still with music, this process would continue a number of times until the mural was covered from head to foot, one end to the other, with contrasting shapes, patterns and motifs.
3) The pastels are cleared away to be replaced by pots of inks laid out along the table with brushes of contrasting thickness.
4) The group is then asked to paint ink washes over the top of the pastel drawings, creating the next ‘layer’ but making sure to leave white spaces to enhance the contrast effect.
5) Next, the inks are put away and strips of paper towel are given to each person to dab dry the ink.
6) Black pens are then used to draw in some detail as a third layer.
7) The tissue paper layer comes next, where each person comes up with a geometric shape which they then cut or tear out of coloured paper in a variety of sizes to then glue over the top of the pastel and ink washes.
8) This final layer is then pressed flat with sections of greaseproof paper, creating a luminous and colourful sense of depth.
9) In order that everyone who has contributed to the mural can take home with them a part of it, each participant is given an approximately A4-sized piece of beige mounting board and asked to place it over their favourite part of the mural. At this point I cut out ‘their section’ and glue it with spray mount to their board so that there is a clean, neat boarder around the image. Everyone who took part was took away with them one of these ‘mementos'.
Family Art Project 2010
This year we were able to run two family artworks, funded by Tesco Charity Trust and the Elmgrant Trust. The first of these was held at Hannahs at Seale Hayne near Newton Abbot. Isabel Coulton, sculptor member of Devon Artist Network, led the workshop and writes:
Aim: to provide safe family exploration in wood and allied materials to
produce a variety of bird sculptures to be grouped together on a tree structure
to form one sculpture.
Our day began setting up at Hannah’s at Seal Hayne at 9a.m. We set up a
group of tables for the charcoal/pastel drawing area designed to ease people
into thinking about birds, shapes and form by drawing with the charcoal and
moving it around with hands and rubbing out to make a more 3 dimensional
picture.
The next group of tables was set up with an area for wood off-cuts, and an
area for various decorative materials.
Against the wall we grouped the tables to form the woodworking section and
set the tables with bench stops clamps,a vice, saws, hacksaws, drills and a
hot glue gun.
I had some examples for people to look at and after the first hesitation,
once one person had started, families soon came and spent at least 45mins
creating their own designs. It was wonderful to see grandfathers and
grandmothers having a go alongside their grandchildren, even with Mum and Dad
there too. My youngest contributor was 3 years old and I held the drill while
she pushed the button and the delight on her face was great to see. A more
middle aged contributor asked if she could use the drill saying she’d never used
one before and she was soon off happily drilling holes to fit pegs to, to join
two pieces of wood together. A group of three girls also had a great time
making a piece together which turned out beautifully. One lad with his
co-worker spent a good while with us, a plan in his head which he executed very
well. His co-worker was amazed at how well he listened to instruction and said
‘it’s wonderful for him to do this as he’s never allowed to do anything with
tools. It’s right up his street’.
Other comments were:
‘ooh, look - tools!
‘I wish we’d found you sooner and we would have been here all day’
‘I thought I couldn’t do art, but this has been great!’
‘Thanks so much, I’ve really enjoyed it.’
Joe and I were kept very busy all day with a small lull at lunch time. We
started packing up at about 4.30 I think, although a few stalwarts could have
gone on longer.
Tidying up was a chore and we left at about 6pm. It was a long but happy
day.
When it came to putting the birds together on the tree, it soon became
apparent that, regardless of my pleas to people to keep them a certain size for
outdoor display, they were actually too large and some a little delicate for
outdoor exhibition. It would have been a shame to spoil them, so I took the
decision to keep them indoors. As a compensation I returned with Joe the
following Wednesday to make a large bird from the same spontaneous method, now
displayed outside Seale Hayne main building.
I think we must have had 25/30 families throughout the day, ages between 3
and 75. We have around 20 pieces displayed outside the gallery and many people
took their sculptures home (about 20) Some families made a piece each. I was
amazed at how much of the materials went…there was very little wood left.
Below: Isabel at work with participants at Seale Hayne
The second workshop was held at the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World and was led by Bridget Arnold, also a Devon Artist Network member,who writes:
"The Family Workshop at Haldon Forest was very well attended having a prime position next to the CCANW centre with the stage , toilets and café all close by, which meant we did get a lot of participants. I would say roughly 130 people took part and it was supported fantastically by 5 volunteer helpers. A lot of other people looked in to see what was going on, but didn’t make a piece of bunting as it was so busy. A bit more space could have made a difference , although it was great fun running the project in a Yurt.
The Hand sewing machine was a real boost to the event as it performed brilliantly adding another dimension to the Bunting as we could sew on letters to advertise the Devon Open Studios.
Some children were very prolific, coming back on several occasions to make more, so were able to take a piece of bunting home with them. Many parents loved the idea so much that they were going to go home and make bunting with their children.
So, despite the great British Summer rain at times, it went very well. There was a lot of interest about where the bunting will go on to be displayed so it did manage to get the families involved in visiting the Open Studios.
Outside and Inside the Yurt
at Haldon, August 2010
Below: Isabel at work with participants at Seale Hayne
The second workshop was held at the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World and was led by Bridget Arnold, also a Devon Artist Network member,who writes:
"The Family Workshop at Haldon Forest was very well attended having a prime position next to the CCANW centre with the stage , toilets and café all close by, which meant we did get a lot of participants. I would say roughly 130 people took part and it was supported fantastically by 5 volunteer helpers. A lot of other people looked in to see what was going on, but didn’t make a piece of bunting as it was so busy. A bit more space could have made a difference , although it was great fun running the project in a Yurt.
The Hand sewing machine was a real boost to the event as it performed brilliantly adding another dimension to the Bunting as we could sew on letters to advertise the Devon Open Studios.
Some children were very prolific, coming back on several occasions to make more, so were able to take a piece of bunting home with them. Many parents loved the idea so much that they were going to go home and make bunting with their children.
So, despite the great British Summer rain at times, it went very well. There was a lot of interest about where the bunting will go on to be displayed so it did manage to get the families involved in visiting the Open Studios.
at Haldon, August 2010
Family Art Project 2008
The Awards for All funded Family Art Project workshops
were held over consecutive weekends in July and August last year. We
worked in partnership with local organisations including North Devon
Arts, the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon, Dartmoor National Park
Authority and the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World, to
set up and publicise the workshops widely . The Barnstaple workshop run by Paul and Tanya Morel used natural and found materials such as pine cones, shells, seaweed, fleece, twigs, leaves, flowers and bits of plastic and metal to create animals and fantastical creatures. The finished objects were displayed in a perspex fronted Curiosity Box built specially to house them.
Yuli Somme and Tian Kalouli ran their workshop at the Postbridge visitor information centre on Dartmoor and taught participants how to make felt using local Dartmoor fleece in different colours.
The felt was shaped into leaves each with a unique design. The leaves were then tied to a specially built ‘tree’ created by basket maker Linda Lemieux using local birch and willow.
Exeter artists Lucy Rockcliffe, Jess Carvill and Lucy
Burch ran workshops in mosaic and ceramic tile making at CCANW. The
mosaic panels, ceramic tiles and footprints were used to decorate a
large door and door frame.The front showed the positive aspects of Devon open countryside, recycling, wildlife and the back showed the negative aspects such as waste and pollution.
Feedback from all the workshops was extremely positive and they were hugely enjoyed by all ages. The youngest participants were infants of 3 and the oldest was a gentleman in his 80’s.
The opportunity to work alongside professional artists and learn new, enjoyable skills was much appreciated and many people commented that they would like to attend similar workshops in future.
We are planning a further series of Family Art Workshops for summer 2009. Details will be available on the website later this year.
Family Art Project 2009
The
Family Art Project was held at Morwellham Quay near Tavistock as part
of the Devon Open Studios event in September and was led by artist and
maker Chrisy Wallis. The theme was 'Outside.' The project was to
decorate a table and pieces of crockery with a mosaic of 'dock dung
pottery.'
This comes from the manure-rich street sweeping of Devonport, Plymouth in the 19th century. Barges full of this street manure journeyed up the Tamar and were unloaded at Morwellham Quay where local farmers collected it to fertilise their fields. The street sweepings contained other waste such as broken and discarded household crockery which then lay in the soil for over a hundred years. Chrissy has been finding and collecting pieces, many of which were used in this project.
The
Morwellham archaeologist paid a visit to the workshops and was able to
identify some of the mosaic pieces. These included examples of pottery
from the Ming dynasty (1600- 1680); Bristol(Blue Scratchware1780-1810),
Staffordshire (imitation porcelain 1780- 1810), Spanish Majolica (1680
-1750), Porcelain, Delft (Earthenware 1700-1750) and Wan-Li Porcelain
(1700-1750).The finished piece, Afternoon Tea, was exhibited at the Tamar Valley Centre Trail Festival at the end of October.
The Big Draw workshops
The theme of the workshops was 'wildlife arts and crafts' and the artists interpreted this in a variety of fun and imaginative ways.
DAN was delighted to have this opportunity to work with Devon Libraries in this way and we look forward to working with them again in the future.
The images below are from a workshop held at Tiverton Library by Clare Schmidt-Norris.