Two weeks ago, the final day of 3 day workshop with Mathew Harris at
Lund Studios was drawing to a close with a review of what we had achieved. As with Matthews previous
course in Puglia it was challenging, thought provoking with unexpected results and some interesting techniques and thoughts to take forward.
It was pleasure to be back at
Lund Studios for the 3rd time, with lunches from Teehee , Steve's excellent coffee and apples from the trees just outside.
I was staying again at the
George in Easingwold , food as wonderful as ever , they adapted the salmon dish for me ( without the seafood) and the apple mousse with bramble sorbet was a work of art ( and tasted delicious).
Matthew gave a fascinating talk on
his work , both inspiration and processes and he had a work-in progress pinned together so we could see how it did it. He has work on show at the
Bluecoats Gallery in November
The ' drawing and making' workshop was entitled ' Back to Front and Back Again' with the quote from John Cage " Nothing is a mistake. There is no win and no fail. There is only make "
The idea behind it was to explore the potential of scraps of image, mark and shape from an initial starting point of individual imagery .
We had been asked to bring a series of abstract images ( like the material for '
Window' workshop mine were based on my drawings from my
'Javelin Journeys' )
We drew from our images with Indian ink on a strip of thin paper which was then painted with melted wax and ironed to give it both translucency and some degree of rigidity. This was then folded to make new connections between different areas. The idea was not to produce an artwork in itself but that it would form the basis to draw from
We then repeated the process on a much thinner more fragile Japanese/ Chinese paper ( 3 sheets glued together)
We were then asked to respond to these structures, to make responses in other paper and materials
At the end of Day 1 I had created a range of fragments using torn handmade papers and cardboard with a variety of different scale marks , a lot of them with inked raw edges .
We'd been warned at the start that it might be a bit of a rollercoaster , with panic setting in when you didn't know where things were going but were advised to work through the process , to be open and experimental and not to think too much about what the original starting point was or what the end point would be. Still, Day 2 was a bit of a struggle. I started out combining 2 or 3 fragments that interested me or seemed to work together , placing them on small sheets of paper.
Mathew suggested I worked directly on the wall rather than on paper and that I started to overlap the pieces , showing me the catalogue of collages by
Francis Davison . Inspirational , especially his work with envelopes !
So I spent most of the day moving fragments around , taking photos what I'd done ( this is only a small selection showing how it morphed from fish to duck to running shoe! )
Towards the end of the day , thinking about how we would move into textiles if we wished I started painting/ inking some bits of fabric with similar marks. I managed to trip on a step while carrying coffees and banged my knee badly so I needed a bath and lots of wine that evening .
Lying awake during the night meant that I came up with a plan of what I wanted to do the following day. Firstly, that I would repeat the process of the first day in drawing on strips of paper this time using the Abaca tissue I'd brought with me , one already having map drawings on it. I waxed one of them and they're currently on my design wall waiting to be folded and manipulated
Secondly , that the fragments as a whole composition wasn't working for me , that I would take them all down and work on making smaller compositions using both paper/cardboard and cloth ( thinking in part of the work of
Peter Sacks)
I found this tiny compositions very pleasing, both individually and placing them together. Discussing with Matthew how to combine cardboard and fabric with stitch he suggested imitation of the lines of the corrugations by pleating /folding the fabric and using kantha stitch and waxing paper to give it fabric like qualities.
My journey home the following day involved a rattly bus going through torrential rain and gigantic puddles with spray up to the roof leaking through the windows contrasted with First Class train with table to myself and wine to help with the knee and train stitching .
I'd layered 5 pieces of painted cloth of different qualities from canvas to silk to gauze and stitched them with lines of quilting thread ' referencing' corrugations of cardboard
I can't remember now whether it was
Helen Parrott or Matthew that talked about stitching through layers resulting in an integration that you don't get by any other means. The photos don't do it justice but that's what happened here, with hidden marks revealing themselves and additional texture from the rippling. Very satisfying and something I'll be experimenting with further.
