Creative Residency Exhibition

Way back in June 2011 I took part in a Creative Residency tutoring a group of wonderful students in screen-printing and textiles. Last night the organisers of this amazing opportunity held an exhibition of the completed sketchbooks, fabric. and prints and to say I was a little proud would be a hugh understatement. It was great to see how they had changed and progressed, hear what their plans are for the future and know that a week of being creative can send you on a journey you might not expect (for me and them). Check out the great work below, I wish I had been this good when I was in my mid teens...Enjoy!

Above: Sketchbook work, this student had an amazing eye for combining different found and bought materials and adding in his own sketches too.

Above: Another great sketchbook, getting the students to record information quickly, add notes and not be afraid if something goes wrong to carry on were some of the key points they learnt in just 5 days!

Above: Printed works inspired by Oban, the students weren't afraid of a bit of colour...great!

Above: And not everyone just printed, it was great to get them to manipulate and have a play with textiles too, this was looking at recreating ropes found at the harbour but using lots of fun colours.

Above: Work inspired by Oban, different students created these pieces but they compliment each other perfectly...loving the anchor.

Above: And some wonderful hand painted onto screen seahorses, which were printed onto paper and fabric. Don't they look impressive framed too...very professional.

Creative Residency 2011

I've been away all week teaching screen-printing to a wonderful group of fifth year students in Oban. The picture above is just to give you an idea of how beautiful and sedate the area is that I was lucky enough to find myself working in. (it has to be said that all things sedate pretty much ended there...but what great fun was to be had)!

The group of students I had produced some amazing work throughout the week, pictures of which you can see above and below. My first year of leading a course during the Creative Residency was last year, where I had a fantastic week and thought it couldn't be beaten. However when I was asked to run the course again this year, I couldn't have said YES fast enough and I had just as much fun, if not alittle more sprikled on top.

The first couple of days the weather was rather pitiful and meant we were cooped up inside trying our best not to spill dyes onto the beautiful clean floors or burst any screens by accidently standing on them. By the third day the sun came out...whoop...and we moved outside sharpish where we could make as much mess and chaos as we wanted. Check out the screen-printing taking place above. (and the t-shirt being worn by my assistant, designed by me for the event. If you have a look in the blog archives you can see the one I did for last year too).

Here is one of the students painting onto a screen to be printed later. If you check out the washing line picture above you can see some of the finished t-shirts and fabrics that the students printed. A selection of the work is presented at a wonderful exhibition which will be taking place in early 2012, which I'm really looking forward to seeing and also the opportunity to catch up with my wonderful group.

Here's a sketchbook being created, on day one/two we headed down to the harbour where the students had an opportunity to do some first hand drawing. It was important to get the students out of their comfort zone, they didn't have months to make finished pieces of work, they had days (which happens all the time in Industry and at University). The 'days' aspect was the first hurdle to get over, we started them off doing some pretty unusual ways of drawing making sure we collated as much interesting and unusual information as possible and hopefully instilling in them possibilities and ways of working for the future.

Here is a finished sketchbook page, it was great to watch the students 'get it' as the week went on and produce some superb work. I hope to lay my fingers on some images of the finished pieces of work and hopefully let you all have a look sometime soon. I'm now back home and have spent much of the weekend recovering from a full on week, I had such a wonderful time and look forward to maybe going back next year!

New Year, New Work

It's a new year full of potential and opportunities, and a month that started slowly and unwillingly in a creative sense has certainly kicked off now. Having spent the first couple of weeks of the year trying to get myself back on track and deciding what the new year had planned for me, the second couple of weeks have held visits and presentations in Schools across North Lanarkshire in preparation for this years Creative Residency (check out previous posting here), my work has been picked up by a gallery in Wales called the Milkwood Gallery and should soon be gracing its shelves (no pun intended). I am looking into a series of fairs this year including more local venues (Edinburgh) and maybe even one down in London in the lead up to Easter. Be sure to check back for more information on those nearer the time. Life is starting to pick abit of speed again...which is always a relief!

Also I'm going to point you in the direction of a blog I enjoy following and a bit of a campaign...Johanna Basford is a very talented illustrator and has launched her very own 'Christmas Cup Campaign' to get her designs on a Starbucks cup this Christmas 2011. Check out her lovely work just here.