Reflecting

I thought I would be blogging like crazy every evening while on holiday, but the reality is that I can barely keep my eyes open. What with spending all day in the fresh air and sunshine, sampling the odd glass or three of local fruits of the vine of an evening, and then listening to a mixture of the gentle sounds of my son's snoring and the sea lapping the sandy shoreline.... It all gets a touch soporiphic I can tell you.

So much for bringing sketchbook and pencils too. I have only managed the one page of sketches I posted on Sunday. Photography however is much easier. I've been looking for the interesting and unusual as well as the  obligatory 'son with ice-cream chops' and 'golden sand/blue sea and sky' shots.

Shortly after I return I am once more taking Amelia Critchlow's Experimental Art E-Course. It was just over a year ago that I became one of her first students on this class and found it one of my favourites. It's rather like joining a gym when you haven't exerised for years. Firstly, she warms you up gently with some easy stretching, then up goes your heart rate and blood begins to pump creativity through your veins. Before you know it you've built up some stamina and muscle and are ready for a Decathalon, or as many different art forms as you can cram into your experiments! There are still places on the next course and I can highly recommend it. OK, so you might not lose those inches round your waistline, but you'll sure see a lightening in that art material stash you've been sitting on for all these years.

Despite having the lessons from last time, this is definitely one of those courses where I know I'll benefit from taking again - especially as I've added another 12 months creative experience to my art stash. As with many of these online lessons, half the pleasure and learning comes from the student community - the sharing and marvelling how differently we can all interpret instruction and guidance. I remember last time in the pre-course introductions all the chat around how timid we were with our art.... a few weeks later and we could have filled a gallery!

The photograph up top is the result of one of Amelia's lessons (have you guessed what it is yet?). You'll have to sign up and become an experimenter to learn more...

The magic of London

It doesn't take much to coax me down to London so when the invitation came to spend some time with one of my online Art teachers - Amelia Critchlow - and some fellow students who was I to say no! We spent the afternoon talking art, blogging and families. We had great fun with a creative photography exercise - taking 36 magic-themed photographs in 36 minutes... Then we chatted some more, reviewed each other's masterpieces, drank more coffee and ate cake.

Now at home I'm drinking wine and playing in PhotoShop. All in all a rather good day and just the tonic I needed to 'fill my well'.

I'll shut up now and let me photos do the talking!! After the first one there's not many that actually say 'London' to you - not a red bus in sight! They were all taken around The South Bank, then mixed up with a few textures and filters.

There's more on flickr - I've gone a bit mad!

In reply

Readers I am delighted to report that following a deep and restful sleep I am once more myself. Admittedly, come 6.30pm as it is now and a day involving my son having a play date and learning to ride his bike without stabilisers, I am perhaps a little jaded round the edges, but the mood remains buoyant even if the energy doesn't!

I read a delightful blog post this morning that hit my creative soul like a dose of espresso. Amelia from 101 Bird Tales (aka my art teacher from Experimental Art) is writing on the joys of finding your creative outlet. Art is not necessarily about paint she reminds us. I had this self same conversation with my sister at the weekend as we looked back not too fondly at our 'art lessons' at school. Art at school was about paint. It was either watercolour or oil. It was still life, portrait or landscape. It was about passing exams. Creativity and imagination, let alone providing food for the soul apparently had no place. We were only shown how to pass exams, not explore what sparked our creativity, what made us laugh out loud with pleasure at the sheer fun of it or to experiment with what art meant for us. I really hope things are different now...

Now I know that while sometimes, you have to think about your audience - if you were hoping to licence your work for a stationery range perhaps or working on a commission. However, most of the time I personally just let go. This week I had fun with the Three Muses 'Odd Bird' challenge. My imagination was given free reign to rummage around in my subconscious (and my magazine stash) for the very treasures that an odd bird like myself might wish to use with such a prompt.

So, I created this crazy piece for me - a most literal interpretation! I collaged a background, painted over it and rubbed it with a soggy tea bag before leaving it out to dry in the summer sun. I poured over Vogue and snipped and formed the features of my feathered friend. She's quite the fashionista this bird - look at all that bling too. She totters around the savannah in her 4 inch heels and flaps those feathers regally. If she had a nose, she would look down it at her lesser plumed cousins.

Oh yes, and before I forget, Amelia will be running the Experimental Art eCourse again in the Autumn - I can't recommend it enough.

An interview with my art teacher

If you're a regular reader here it won't have escaped your attention that I'm a bit of a magnet for online art courses and collaborations. Earlier in the year I came across artist Amelia Critchlow's blog and was drawn in by her storytelling. When she wrote that she was running her own experimental art course... well.... I just couldn't resist!

Am I having fun?

Am I getting messy, sticky and leaving a trail of destruction in my wake?

Am I learning, experimenting and developing as an artist?

Well, I have no hesitation in answering yes to the above. Amelia was kind enough to agree to an interview, so please join me in giving her a round of applause to artist extraordinaire - Amelia Critchlow - cue theme music...

Amelia Critchlow

I'm kind of imagining myself as a female Jonathan Ross here (complete with messy hair and loud suit). For those living away from these shores, Wossy (as he is affectionately known), is a chat show host.

Let's kick off...

Have you run online courses before?
Courses I’ve run previously have all been in museum, gallery, university, or community based settings, so this is the first time I have taken my art teaching on-line. It’s all very exciting because I can put forth exactly what I choose and love without having to tick any boxes!

by Slevek, student on Experimental art e-course

What was the inspiration behind this course?
My main inspiration stems from teaching family groups where parents want bring their kids and I noticed it’s often the parents that want to do art, but the most legitimate way is through their children as people often lack confidence or time to pursue their own interests. Also, the idea of it being on-line means that it can be accessed any time and there is no need to turn up at a set time and place each week, which suits people working and those that may need childcare to go to a college class – no childcare needed, just wait until the kids are in bed!

by Amelia Critchlow

This course also allows people to look at art in new ways, (experimental ways) as lots of people will not do art if they think they have to get it ‘correct’ – look at kids, they don’t worry about this, they just get down and get messy and play – I think adults should do this too. Who isn’t happiest when absorbed in something creative that one loves doing?

This course is a bit like a mini foundation too whereby you have a chance to try lots of different things and decide what you might like to pursue further. I am looking to run a second course when I know what people would like the most having done the first course . . . . .

by WrightStuff, student on Experimental Art e-course

What’s your personal art history?
I was fortunate enough to be brought up in a really ‘arty’ family. My father is a trained artist and now lectures, writes and teaches art, and my mother was a trained dressmaker and now patchwork and quilter. I saw nothing but creativity when growing up and was always encouraged to make, make, make. As a result I took art at GCSE and A level and although my first degree was meant to be in English and Art, it ended up being mainly academic. So when my eldest went to school I returned to Morley College in London to do a Foundation degree in Art and went on to Wimbledon School of Art to do a pure Fine Art Degree – it was both the hardest and the best thing I did! Throughout my life I have always attended evening and other art classes too. I adore learning with a passion and have had some amazing teachers. I am sharing a lot of what I have learnt on the experimental art e-course.

By Amelia Critchlow

What exhibitions or works by other artists have blown you away recently?
I particularly enjoy the work of Wangechi Mutu whose painterly collages are powerful, evocative and revealing depictions of womanhood and in particular the experiences of women of colour. I also happened to go and see Annette Messagers recent exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London and her obsessive collection of things, the stuffed animals, the hand-stitching on fabric was amazing. There was one room filled with nothing but huge sheets of red satin that spilled out of a small gap in the wall and then covered the entire floor, there was a machine billowing out air that made it ripple and move and light up and shift over hidden objects. It was so evocative and surreal, and one day I long to do a huge installation art piece too. I enjoy contemporary art for the way it pushes boundaries and makes us question ourselves and the world around us.
I also went to the Whitechapel Art Gallery not so long ago to see Sophie Calle, another female artist who pushes herself out as far as possible and involves others in her artistic interactions. I won’t say too much here, but do go and look these artists up. As you can tell I like female artists that draw on both their own personal experiences, but also question the world around them too.

What were you hoping participants would take away from this course?
My biggest hope for this course is that it would entice those who love being creative or who are really keen to be artistic in some way but lack confidence or don’t know where to begin. It gives me so much pleasure to see adults find something unique and special for them in amongst the stresses and strains of contending with life! I know what doing art has meant to me it’s been a life saver, particular over the last few years when I have had to deal with a horrible split from my ex partner and finding out my youngest has asperger syndrome, and dealing with all this entails. Art is therapy and pleasure and a means of expression.

I also hoped that people may get from the course that art is not just about painting or drawing something technically correct. The world is full of potential art materials and ways of being artistically expressive and it’s a fun journey to embark on. It’s also designed for those that are practicing artists who may want to try something new and get some fresh inspiration.

This course is all about giving ourselves permission to PLAY!

by KayaKutie, student on Experimental art e-course

How has it met or exceeded your expectations?
I am loving every moment of it, seeing what wonderful creations people are coming up with. What will appear next on the course group pool. Hearing people’s positive feedback and how they are getting so much from it. This means so much to me. I am still learning as I run it so I will have to give full feedback at the end of this first course!

How have your students inspired you?
My students have inspired me because they have risen to the challenge of being experimental and have come up with some of their own great ideas of materials to use in response to the assignments I have put out there, and people have made some of the most inspiring and interesting creations, and often I find myself wanting to go off and do the same thing too!

What are your plans for future courses?
My plans for a future course would be to go in to one of the weeks in more depth. At the end of this course I am keen to hear what people particularly enjoyed on the course, and ask them if they could do a second course what would it be in, ie. what would the like to re-visit in more depth. It’s much better that I give people what there is a need or asking for! I’m inclined to think it may be something along the lines of a mixed media and collage course. I am really interested in interesting methods of application and image transferral. I enjoy playing with surfaces and getting surprise effects and there are some very interesting ways of getting marks, surface effects and also applying one surface to another . . . .ooooh, I can feel the excitement just thinking about it!

Art makes the world go round!

The next course begins on 14th June. You can sign up here.


By Barbara Rae, Student on Experimental art e-course