Trees return from Dublin....

Our first course study visit, to Dublin's galleries and museums, had plenty of exhibits to spark off associations with the forest theme....from the contemporary such as Norbert Schwontkowski at the Kerlin, to an old historical guy like Corot at the Hugh Lane. Also, at the Museum of Modern Art the Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa took things into a firmly 3-dimensional way of making art......and a good example of how even flat images can be brought into a more 3-D format....try to check him out more online if you missed the Dublin trip, as the Painting classes will be using his work as a starting point.

Ready for Foundation?

Did you remember to visit the sculpture show at FE McWilliam Gallery? Because it ended at the weekend! Still worth a visit to Banbridge as there is a show of other works in the gallery gardens, and the cafe is good too. It's important to visit as it will give you ideas about where your work could be sited, if it gets into the student show. Next show in gallery space is painter TP Flannagan at end of month. 

You should get a letter from the college over next few days asking you to come in and register for course, on Thursday 26th August.

STRUCTURES AND DRAWING

Well done all who have been getting the ideas and images flowing out of the forest! The best thing to do now is to start making drawings in your sketchbook in response to all the stuff you have collated so far... don't over-think it! Just take a line for a walk, as Paul Klee once said. This will be useful as the first bits of work you'll do on the course will be mainly drawing based. Drawing is a primary tool for any artist or designer, the roughest of sketches can lead to unexpected places. A few things caught my eye over the summer...mainly 3-D and architecture. For instance, the fantastic new 'canopy' at the new entrance to the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh made me think of the relation between this and the canopy of a forest. Inside this building, another 3-D structure revealed itself to me. Also, a forest canopy type structure of concrete and wood is the basis of the Scottish Parliament building. So, after all these structure encounters I was having a coffee in the Botanic Gardens and used some coffee sticks and sugar paper to make my own little wooden structure, which revealed a figure in its shadow. Like I say, the smallest doodle can lead to unexpected places......

One last thing- remember first day of term is Tuesday 31st August for Full-time students. We have a study trip planned for Dublin galleries and museums on Friday 3rd September- please bring £10 to cover the coach when we meet you on Tuesday.

Yet again, by happy accident I stumbled across this by Escher. I love this - it is so eerie and magickal and a little bit haunting. I feel that it conveys a good sense of what a forest means to me; full of fabulous things but some are secrets within Nature and have their own powers and destructive abilities. I love the up-side-down roots of the trees in the reflection, and also the idea that perhaps they are not a reflection at all?!! I have so many ideas and images at the minute and I am so completely stuck!

seiko kinoshita

I remember standing under the branches of the tree and being aware of a barrier I wanted to cross. I realise the external environment reflected my internal one! The barrier was within myself. Between the me I know and the forgotten, hidden parts.

crossings by Ulla De Larios

I caught my reflection in a window and noticed there were a number of my faces there. The parts of me I want to connect with and befriend! Got my niece to photograph me!


Think I'm going to try to paint a face onto silk and weave it into a structure I can suspend overhead. I want to be able to stand under it and look up through it, like standing under the branches of a tree, reflecting the barrier within myself - the barrier I long to cross, to connect with and befriend the hidden parts of myself.

I'm still going with my 'crossing/connecting/befriending' theme.

I've become obsessed with faint obscure faces. Love these ones by Tim Hawkesworth.

I came across a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, and loved his reference to a forest and someone coming towards him.

'By what dim shore of the ink-black river,

By what far edge of the frowning forest,
Through what mazy depth of gloom are you treading your course to come to me, my friend?'

i have added a link to the story cause i cant be bothered to type it out lol cause this blog thing wont let you cut and paste :)

http://www.luminarium.org/mythology.ireland/werewolves.htm