Friday 28 January 2011

More paper dogs and cats from Stonehill School students at the art club.




More paper dogs and cats - surface pattern at Stonehill School art club





Stonehill School Art Club - surface pattern dawgs and pussums...


At the art club I have been running at Stonehill School I showed the children how to use rubber stamps and coloured pens and pencils to make surface pattern. I encouraged them to work into the patterns, adding colour and texture over the stamp patterns to bring out the shapes much more. The children made a sheet each of a repeat patten. We then used a template that I had designed and prepared for the club, the pattern of a dog and cat which they cut from their surface patter sheets. With just an hour to juggle I need to make these sessions rather component based so as to guarantee a concrete outcome. I was so chuffed with what they made. Little charming creatures that each have a personality of their own. Magical.



An example of the surface pattern created
One of the little dogs made...

Fearnhill School - photos from paper cut workshop with Arts Award students

The following posts are photos from the start of a Bronze Arts Award course that I am running at Fearnhill School. The paper cutting is a great workshop to get the students working creatively and quickly and to get the creative juices going. I was impressed with the outcomes of  these little paper cuts, the faces have a lots of expression! Some of the students arent used to using craft knives at all, so I think they have done really well.
The finished white cuts - completely fab... look at those expressions!!!
Some pupils cut into the paper after first drawing with pencil
Some students just worked straight into the paper, freely, with no pencil guides.

Fearnhill School - photos from a papercut workshop with Arts Award students

Fearnhill School - photos of a papercut workshop for Arts Award students

Sunday 23 January 2011

New drawings - a tender line on a sketchbook page.

Here are few of some drawings that I have started just recently. This is often the way a paper cut starts to emerge from the ether, in a simple sketched idea that I then develope. With these drawings though I might just keep them as that, simply drawings. I love the tender line of them and they seem whole in themselves. Complete. See more of them on my Facebook Fan page.







From the top: "Leda and the Swan", "Woman and the White Rabbit", "Curled up" and "Holding up"
© Vanessa Stone

A few words about ideas, brains and Michael Mosley

In my head I often have several themes running. They race together at times, squabble and argue at times too, or run alongside each other blissfully aware of each others presence. And of course one wins the argument sometimes and becomes the dominant horse, running for its life with the finishing post firmly set in its sights. The brain is a wonderfully magical mysterious thing! There has been a great programme on at the moment with Michael Mosley called "The Brain - a Secret History" that’s been so fascinating. I like him immensely as his enthusiasm comes pouring from the screen, but also he explains things that even I understand. You have to know at school I was complete pants at science. I loved the dissection in Biology, the experiments in Chemistry, especially if they involved any kind of bang, and sadly Physics left me floundering except in my ability to make lovely diagrams. The frustrating thing about these subjects is that if you just don’t get it, you just don’t get it and that added up to a great many hours of frustration. Anything arty or the pursuit of words then I was in my element. Anything else and my switch off button was firmly on!

And so to the programme on the brain. There was shot this week of what looked like a very fresh one. Soft and squishy and like a slightly hardened blancmange, it was a thing of indescribable beauty. It made me think of the limitless complexity of making just our limbs move, and then to of all the thoughts, the memories, the ability to change and grow and encapsulate everything that we are. The brain is an unbelievable organ.

Sunday 16 January 2011

Where the heck did two months go? part two... and a few piccies.

So - here are the photos of the commission... starting from some details to the two choices I offered and then then a detail of the final piece to a photo of the finished cut. I am very pleased with it. Commissions are always good to do.
























Where the heck did two months go?? part one...

So, the last post I did on here was 18th November!!! 18th November!! and its almost the 18th January. Where the heck has the time gone???? The run up to Christmas is always busy a I often have commissions to complete for Christmas presents. This year too my fathers health has been declining more with the beast of Parkinson's taking more and more of him. I would like to say it gets easier, bu tit just doesn't. In most things in life you can have a positive slant, but on this you can't, its a lose/lose situation. so the answer?? to appreciate the now as much as I can.

A commission I completed this Christmas though I was particularly pleased with. It was for a lady called Julie Ann Baker, a present for her fiance. She particularly wanted a couple walking along a beach, birds in the air and the partial words of the piece " Where I belong" I have cut in the past in an aqua ribbed textured paper. Since the show at Letchworth Art Centre recently, where I was focusing on cut poetry and using text and image together, my head has been still tussling with those two lions in a piece. They fight so much, each wanting dominance, each wanting to steal the limelight, each wanting to roar - I was beginning to feel I could only tame them separately. This commission for Julie Ann though worked! HURRAH!! All the elements seemed to fit and the balance works well. All I need now is to know what she thinks when she sees it for real. It was posted off on Thursday afternoon, so I will get to know soon.