Workshops at the Bronte Parsonage

For the past couple of weeks I have been heading to Haworth and teaching drop-in art workshops at the Bronte Parsonage Museum.

The first one I did was based on silhouettes of the Bronte sisters and their books.

Wuthering Heights was a popular choice! The image was made with collaged text that was then tea-stained and included Emily Brontes silhouette.

This was from Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, vintage birds were added to fit with the text.

Last week the workshop was on mono printing with natural materials. I picked grasses and leaves when I got to Haworth…

And these were used to make prints, along with stencils I had prepared earlier. It was so lovely to see that people approach things in different ways. I got a few ideas for myself!

There is another one this Wednesday: 11-4pm, do come and say ‘Hi’ if you can! We will be printing again but this time making animals inspired by the wildlife in the Bronte area.

The workshop is run on a drop-in basis and is free with admission to the museum.

Haworth is so pretty I took a few snaps too..

I have made a friend on my visits.

Roll on Wednesday!

Art project at Ashbrow School, Kirklees

I have had a lovely week working at Ashbrow School in Kirklees. I taught from Reception up to Year 4. We created pictures using a variety of techniques and themes.

With Reception we made Rainbows..

We used a wash to create the sky. Then sponged ink against a paper edge for the ground, also scraping into this for grass textures. We used washes of paint to create the rainbow, so the colours looked like light was shining through them.

In Years 1 and 2, we made pictures of mini beasts and owls.

Both the mini beasts and owls were made by sponging inks and then using a variety of materials such as: bubble wrap, net, cardboard, bottle tops and feathers to print with. The starry skies for the owls were made by painting a watercolour wash and sprinkling salt on this to create a night time look.The salt was rubbed off when dry, leaving a speckled effect. The brighter backgrounds for the mini beasts were created using the textured material printing method.

Years 3 and 4 worked on two large pieces of work, the first based on the schools drivers: Communication, Ambition, Respect and Enterprise. The idea was to create a tree with these words growing from it. This was to reflect the direct links the school has to nature; with its own Forest School, bees, hens and vegetable growing.

We initially sketched willow branches from the grounds.Looking carefully at shapes and light and shade.

We then used these sketches to make larger branches to form a tree. The backgrounds were made by printing with textured materials and the leaves were made with stencils and also scratching in to wet ink to create words.

The second piece was inspired by one of my screen prints..

The childrens’ version was made again initially sketching branches. They also made the world together by printing with blue inks for the sea.The land was made using watercolour washes and sketches of famous monuments in pencil-such lovely drawings!

I had such a great time and I was really impressed with the effort given and wonderful results the children achieved.

Drypoint and Mono printing Workshop

Last Friday I had a great day teaching a drypoint and mono printing workshop. It was held at Shelley College, Huddersfield, and involved students aged 12-14 years from the College and local schools. We experimented with mono printing in the morning, trying different ways of drawing Christmas trees including continuous line and drawing without looking at the paper.

We then designed a dry point print by scratching into plastic sheets with drypoint needles. In the afternoon we printed our dry point trees and birds, finally gluing them on to card to make Christmas cards. Et Voila!

It was a great day with lovely pupils!