I recently attended the last of three “Alumni” days at West Dean College. There were 13 students all working on their own projects and two tutors were on hand to guide and support us in our work. My passion is for found objects but I struggle with how to move them on in an artistic way when I consider them to be beautiful in their own right.
A year or so ago, I found a strip of seaworn rubber on the beach:
Continue reading “Is it a painting of an object or a “painting””
During my Foundation Diploma at www.westdeanorg.uk I undertook a series of courses working on both paper and fabric. Reflecting on what I had done over the two year, I realised that the work which got me most excited was that involving texture. Whilst I enjoyed printing in various forms, the flat and pristine outcomes just did not resonate with what I am all about which is texture, movement, mark making, serendipity, rough edges and a certain rawness.
Earlier this year I spent time with the lovely Jilly Morris – doing a course called “Visual language – marks, textures and surface.” I knew immediately I saw her work that she and I were on the same wavelength and so it proved! In fact, in between booking the course and undertaking it, a couple of people said, “I know who you should do a course with ….” which further endorsed my feeling.
If you like what I like, I thoroughly recommend a course with Jilly – here’s a taste of what we did – it involved sandpapers, stickers, wire brushes, sticking tape, beeswax, pastels, and WD40 to name but a few!
These are really simple starting points. Each of Jilly’s pieces comprise many layers and I look forward to further experimentation. So far, I have been playing with salt and saline solution, lemon juice, PVA glue and masking tape, liquid soap, candle wax, various polishes, sand, golden texture mediums and cold wax medium. I am restricting art media to acrylic ink and charcoal powder for the time being.
Helen Frost Artist 