Books and more sketches

Last week worked on more of the sketches on paper. Used really bright colours and looked at different sculptures from both Germany and UK. The dragon is still my favourite , looked at elements and worked to add more details with the stitches.
This is the sculpture I saw in Guildford Uni... The second one I have started to add detail in the back ground.
Really need to get on with the reproducing these on fabric. I can use heavier stitching as I did not want to loose the paper by over stitching !

Using birthday token from my Mother in Law , I have order from Amazon a book.

"Textile Perspectives in Mixed-media Scultpure " by Jac Scott .

Click here to view

The reviews are good and Amazon allows you to view a few pages. So now just waiting for it to be delivered.

Sketching in Thread

From my sketches of German art, I took two strong images. The dragon being the favourite. Created in heavy water colour paper with solid dyes.

After making a couple with the right type of colours, I tried a few with bright colours. These I really loved. Using dyes rather than water colour paints gave very strong colours.

These were such fun,watch out for more to come.

As I used dyes ... it prob also time to think about creating the same thing on fabric as well.

Spiders

After removing wires from a few pieces of ribbon for a project, twisted them together to form a creature ... Do I have Maman on the brain !

Been thinking about materials which can be left outside for extended lengths of time. You have the natural ones like wood and stone which are traditionally used for sculpture. Then there is metals and concrete. Been looking at canvas, plastics and hemp. The fibrecraft do a bronze and stainless steel fabric - see here...

Research on Henry Moore has unearthed his current working methods. This is very much about found objects and working with the natural form. He generally will create a maquette (small version - he calls them 3d sketchs) of a piece he is planning rather than a whole series of drawings.
Often these are made up of found objects: flint, driftwood, shells or bones. To his found objects he will add clay or plasticine.

This is starting to feel like quite an interesting avenue to follow, both from the point of view of added found objects into my work but also for creating a series of sketches of a maquette made from a found object and clay which could become a piece of work too.

Tutorials, York and beyond

My first tutorial went well. Sculpture as a subject was agreed and we talked round the first few elements in the course booklet. So I now have an idea what I will be doing over the next couple of months. Key areas to start working on are : Artist and their working methods, a study of artist, research on textile artists who create structures and consider the materials which would survive outside...

I am not sure I will complete the work in 4-6 months due to being able to get to visit displays. Plus there is so much too =)

Good news : Kew Gardens are holding a Henry Moore exhibition which opens on 15 Sept until 30 March next year =) YEEY !!! Perfect timing. It is now on my list of places to visit. The Nash conservatory have an display which explains the artists working process and the developement of some of the pieces in the gardens.... They have a selection of 28 outdoor sculptures.

Last weekend visited York (see my main blog for details) but was disappointed at the lack of public art. Granted we did not go roaming round the parks , but my friend and I walked round most of the town .... =(

Wednesday - DH and I went to Surrey University for an opening evening for their adult education Language school. We were thinking of taking a German course.... Now signed up to Intermediate 1 =), while I was waiting for him to bring the car round sat looking at the sculpture outside the building. Made a quick sketch on the only paper I had - the campus map. As we will be going back there I will have a chance to capture a photo or two.

No idea of the artist or title ....I did a web search but no details !?!?!?

One thing I have found out about was a textile research project by the Surrey Institue of Art. Textural Space was a project involving contemporary Japanese textile artists. It featured large-scale work which explored the 3D potential of textiles within an installation format. I have contacted the department to see if they still have copies of the catalogue.

The department moved on from there to the Through the Surface project which was a series of Mentoring collaborations between 14 textile artists from Britain and Japan. 4 young artists from Britain and 3 from Japan travelled to work with 7 established artists from the opposite country.

Over this week, apart from the web searches I have been able to do while at work, I have been completeing the sketch work from Germany using my photos, added comments into the sketch book and starting to add work from UK.... I did add a page about Maman which we discovered in Montreal. Maman is a sculpture by Louise Bourgeois of a giant spider. This is just one , others are in places like New York. When Tate modern opened they had a Maman in the main turbine hall. My photo below.

The Sculpture Sketch Book

Spent a little adding photos to my sketch book from Germany along with some notes and translations. Also completed a few sketches using the photos...=)
Below are two of my favourite sculptures from the holiday and my sketches of them.




I have also borrowed a couple of books from the library to start reading up on sculpture, plus reading the 3D Embroidery book. Still not sure if public sculpture fits as a subject. My tutorial has been bounced to next week as Liz and I have to fit round the rest of our life too...

In the meantime, I had arranged to meet a friend in London to see an exhibition at the V&A in the afternoon.. but now we are meeting in the morning to follow a planned walk in Poplar of the public art. I found a great web site which covers only part of London but gives you a guided walk to public sculpture. http://exploringeastlondon.co.uk/index.htm
Even if I end up changing the subject we'll still be going on the walk.... Fingers cross for clear skys !