WORKSHOP NOW FULL, THANK YOU.
The good folks at Shellharbour City Arts Society invited me to conduct a workshop this month and I was delighted to accept.
One of mine from last year: Landscape with mapping elements VII, acrylic & collage on canvas, 75 x 45cm
I’ll be working with the idea of deliberate simplicity. I reckon (and it’s far from an original thought) that art-making can get too complicated…we can get caught up in ideas about what it ‘should’ be…all the rules and regulations about art, or – perhaps more to the point- what others may think of our art. Will it be too weird? Will people laugh (presumably behind my back, if they can hold on that long) and what about my skill level? These worries may prevent us from expressing ourselves authentically. It’s certainly something I fight with.
Getting past worrying about what others may think is no easy task of course, and unlikely to be achieved in a 4-hour session with strangers. What I’m aiming for is a supportive environment, and I’ll introduce some brief exercises where the skill level of the individual is irrelevant. These exercises will focus on the formal elements of art – tone, composition, colour, line, texture, pattern etc. Yes, they’re the kind of things that engaged us when we were in Kindergarten. They remain the building blocks of artistic expression though. They are what make us want to look and keep looking.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (US, 1834-1903) Nocturne in black and gold: the falling rocket, c.1872-77, oil on canvas, 60.3 x 46.6cm. The composition and tonal contrasts in this work make us want to look at it all day.
That’s not to say that the conventions and techniques of Western art should be disregarded. I’m all for formal education. It’s just that as our cultures have changed, so art-making has changed. It’s not the purely artisanal skill it was in the Renaissance. What we want, or need, from our art has changed too. During the 20th century, the importance of the concepts behind art became recognised, as did the the idea of art as a form of personal expression. My view is that anything that prevents someone from trying art today needs to be challenged.
However I don’t intend to run a ‘let’s make mud pies, children’ sort of session.
I’m hoping that by deliberately restricting our options within the exercises, we can forget ourselves for a moment and feel we have license to express ourselves more freely.
I did a workshop based on this idea back in June 2014. People seemed to receive that one well, so, encouraged by that, when I was approached by the Society I thought I’d develop the idea a little.
Still some spaces available – max class size will be 8 people.
Thurs Feb 19, 12midday – 4pm
Shellharbour Village Exhibition Space, Wentworth St Shellharbour Village – next to Tourist Office.
Cost $60, all materials supplied
Light refreshments provided.
Bookings and payment/further enquiries: contact Moira on 0400 374 362 or moira.kirkwood@gmail.com
Kindly note full payment will secure your place, and must be received by Feb 17.
