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Monthly Archives: June 2020

The Art of Expression

June 27, 2020
Art, Commedia dell'Arte, Design training, Drawing, education, Mask Making, OutMask, Performance Skills, Sculpture
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Today I have been making cartoonish drawings of Primary Emotions.

IMG_4076 A Neutral Face

 

IMG_4077 Sad and HappyIMG_4078 Angry and DisgustedIMG_4079 Surprised and Fearful

These I intend to  use next week for some online teaching, as I give a demo on mask-making to prop. making students.    I would like to get them active and not just give a     one sided lecture. I use these ideas when teaching mask performance skills so why not for makers.  I hope it will make it more personal for them as they  examine their own faces and feel what muscles they use to make these extreme expressions.

Hart of The Woods

June 20, 2020
Art, Design training, experiential archeology, Film-Making, Folklore, history, Mask Making, nature, Puppets, storytelling
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Today was to have been the finale of the Hart Of the Woods Project.                                      Instead, the project is on hold until we are all able to get out and about, and  people are able attend Outdoor events again.  Instead, we are sharing images and films from the project.                                                                                                                                                 Check out https://www.instagram.com/hart_of_the_wood                                                We are:  to Ben Wigley (Artdocs) , Nathaniel  Robin Mann, Lisa Knapp, Martin Sommerville, Sian Allen and the National Trust folks at Comer Woods, Dudmaston, Shropshire.

These are the finished Red Deer Headdresses I have made for the project.IMG_4011

Started back in March, these three have been my principal companions over the past three months during the CV19 lockdown. And fine companions they have been to sooth my soul.  They have inspired me to make archeological  and folkloric investigations, drawings and prompted dreams.

Looking forwards to the time when they will be able to leave the studio and take their place out there, in the magical world of Art and Nature on this Midsummers Day.

 

Wood Axe

June 8, 2020
Art, Design training, experiential archeology, history, nature, Sculpture, storytelling, Uncategorized, Wood Carving
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I have been in working in collaboration with Richard T.Frost to make three wooden replicas of ‘The Canterbury Jade Axe’ (British Museum). These have been made to be handling objects, to be shown together with a large charcoal drawing, which may be included in an exhibition planned for 2021. IMG_3868

Elm from Tim , White Walnut from Rosie & Black Walnut from Tim

Many hours in the making. Several days for Richard to carve then two weeks for me to sand and polish, using  boiled linseed oil, seven coats of oil based varnish, polished with rotten stone, raw linseed oil and red earth to finish.

These artefacts are yet again a manifestation of my meditations on the human impulse to make stuff, the creative urge.  Many years ago I was horrified to see  in an exhibition, some ‘Sculptures for the Blind’ by Brancusi, displayed inside a prospect box!  These three pieces are designed to be handled, to be not just something to look at but also to be something beautiful to touch.  Hand and Eye in collaboration.

Yes, they have metaphoric resonances but my continuing rumination’s are taking me  somewhere else.  As I develop the drawing , started but expected to develop over the next few months, I hope to find that ‘where’.