ArtCastle

More Worshop Happenings

More images from Monday and Tuesday, including comments from staff and students.

WORSHOP ACTIVITIES

Animal Markings

As a warm up activity, students  were asked to do a series of drawings based around mark making and pretending they we different animals.

Rebecca: The butterfly was a different pattern from the ant; it was much more flowing.

Jessica: I was trying to catch the movement of the animal (frog). The elephant is more bold. 

David Griggs and Symbols

 

Monday afternoon focused on David Griggs work owned by the gallery. The work is driven around the concept of symbols. Students are asked to think about using their own symbols within their work as well as large scale painting, stencilling and using different materials (e.g. spraycans, texts and things over the top of their work). 

 

Charmaine: I’m drawing anything from my head – I’ll put it up on my wall when I’m finished.

 

Jess: I’m trying to work out what to paint; I had a crying girl but that didn’t work out so I’m still trying to plan it out in my book.

 

Alisha (the challenges of this type of work): It’s basically a canvas and we’re putting another layour over it -  the layer is plastic. It can give the work a variety of different layers – the way you create it depends how many layers you use – foreground, the middle ground and background – but it’s quite hard to create a middle ground. Because mine is an abstract work I am sticking with the foreground and background, and I don’t need the middle ground. I really like those colours (blues and greens) together becuase when you use blues, tint them and shade them, and add a bit of green you get an ocean-type colour. It looks really good.

 

 

Charcoal

Tegan: I have a little twig… I am using the charcoal to create little circles and draw the clam type shapes emerging from it- maybe it came from a pine tree. It’s a very beautiful thing, I’m glad I got to draw it.

Kayla: I’m drawing a leaf, there’s a shadow behind it giving it a 3D effect

Regina (Learnign for Life Worker, The Smith Family): What I really like about this Kayla is it looks like it’s alive, and from what looks like a very plain brown leaf you have created a beautiful work of art. Well done, fantastic Kayla

Alicia (describing her wattle): I’m mainly focussing on important features, important lines and texture; I’m using a Progresso and I’m going to textureise by using thicker charcoal and using ink and working the ink to form creative lines to form the leaf. The water over the charcoal has given it a really nice effect.

Sarah I: I’ve been doing a drawing of a dead birds of paradise. I’ve had lots of help from Luke and Lucas on how to give it more depth, charater I suppose. A Georgia O’Keef sort of thing but not soft like hers - I went for more jaggedness as the flower is dead. I really enjoyed getting to experiment with materials and getting so much advice. Drawing is something I want to do in my HSC so I really appreciate all the advice I am getting – I am just absorbing it.

FEEDBACK FROM THE FACILITATORS

Luke and Lucas: Really impressed by the minimal need for directions; a lot of the students are producing really knockout works; the way they’re able to produce work that is really quite finished, well balanced and they’re implementing techniques from this morning’s activity, drawing form the sholder. twisting their lines – fascinating, it’s really facinating.

Luke and Lucas (on the level of teamwork during the workshops): That’s the fantastic thing about getting like minded students in a space like this working together -  there’s this energy that builds up because they’re looking around, watching what each other is doing and getting a lot of work done. It’s fantastic to have almost that synergistic effect – it’s not an opportunity they get too much.