Mencap Saturday Club -September 10th and 24th and October 22nd 2011
So I have been working quite a lot with the Saturday club and it's nice to bring in a variety of art classes. I started by helping them create their own beautiful silhouetted countryside scene, incorporating printing and stencilling. We also tried working with clay (this was my first experience of clay with them), it was great to get in some tactile materials, it was quite tricky keeping everyone engaged in the lesson, but we all managed to create egyptian style coiled jars which looked fab. With winter around the corner I started thinking about wintery creatures and decided on birds. We made the body from two polystyrene balls pinned together, covered in tissue papier mache, adding paper beaks and tails, then decorated the bodies with pearlescent paints and pretty scraps of material. (photos to follow)
Dulwich Picture Gallery 'Artplay' - August 28th 2011
I introduced the families to shadow puppets, we made our own moveable characters from black card, split pins, sticks and coloured cellophane. At the end of the session, the children had the opportunity to display their creations behind a backlit screen. The following photos show some 'Alice in Wonderland' scenes made by a family who attended.
Mencap, summer holiday workshops - August 4th/ 24th/ 31st 2011
I lead art and craft workshops for Bromley Mencap under 30 year olds. We made kites from wire and tissue paper. Suncatchers by laminating brightly coloured tissue paper and silhouettes paintings using printing and stencils.
Dulwich Picture Gallery 'Art in the Garden' -August 3rd & 10th 2011
In the gardens of the gallery I lead a workshop creating dreamcatchers and Native American headdresses, and Medieval armour, all using paper sculpting and weaving techniques.
Mencap Saturday Club -July 16th 2011
Painting and decorating picture frames and experimenting with foam marble paintings.
Barbican CoLA-I Festival -June 28th -July 1st 2011
City of London Academy, assiting and running a 'Make it and Race it' workshop, creating balloon powered vehicles from found objects.
Dulwich Picture Gallery 'Artplay' -June 26th 2011
Creating our own Treasure Books, incorporating simple bookbinding and covering techniques adding gems and locks.
Private Commission -June 11th 2011
Chris and Marmite the sphynx cat, acrylic on box canvas.
Mencap, Saturday Club - June 4th 2011
One of the workshops involved making small wire shapes then dipping them in to a variety of 'fantasy film' colours, giving a beautiful enamelled look. We strung the shapes together to create sun catchers to hang in the window.
Mencap, Introduction to Art Course - March/April/May 2011
I have settled on a theme of 'All about Me!', as the adults attending have varying levels of abilities, the theme will simply be a starting point to explore identity, this can be in it's simplest form, for example favourite colour, or can lead to more intricate self analysis.
Week 1 -an introduction to watercolours. We experimented with the paint, wax resist, sponges, salt crystals and drops of alcohol.
Week 2 -an introduction to printing. 'What makes me smile', making our own foam cuts and card blocks we printed onto a whole variety of materials and handmade papers.
Week 3 -an introduction to Mattise and cut outs. Looking at Matisse we tried his method of drawing with charcoal attached to long sticks, then using this as a guide made our own pictures using tissue paper cut outs.
Week 4 -an introduction to wire sculpture. We drew our own portraits and shapes of our hands with a single line, then placed the wire down to follow these lines, making a 3d linear sculpture.
Week 5 -an introduction to silhouettes and shadow puppets. Deciding upon our favourite fairytale characters, we made moveable shadow puppets from sticks and black card, displaying them behind a backlit screen.
Week 6 -an introduction to Aboriginal art. We tried Australian Aborigine style painting, making patterns and dots on sand paper, we made our own paints with mixtures of clay, mud, chalk, then painted with primitive tools using different size sticks.
Week 7 -an introduction to patterns, William Morris and monoprinting. Using string and leaves we made our own design blocks, we made repeat prints to form a wallpaper design.
Week 8 -an introduction to self portraiture. Using photographs and projectors we worked on individual canvasses making our own self portraits.
Dulwich Picture Gallery 'Artplay' -24th April 2011
As it was Easter I stuck with a bunny theme, making old fashioned style running bunny puppets on sticks and bunny shaped baskets.
Mencap Easter Workshops -20th &23rd April 2011
I ran printing workshops on the theme of Easter, using bunny, chick and egg templates I had made, everyone created their own foam and card block designs. We printed on to sections of material, that we then made in to flags.
Dulwich Picture Gallery 'Artplay' -3rd April 2011
As it was Mothering Sunday I thought it would be nice for the children attending to make something for their mums, so we I made up a batch of picture frames which the children decorated with various papers, materials, beads and buttons, then I attached magentic strips to the back so they could be presented on fridges. If the children had time they could also make material brooches and badges.
Barbican Centre 'Shona Reppe's Olga Volt the Electric Fairy' -various dates Feb 2011
Again, this was a pre-theatre activity, this time the theme was relating to the circus and Olga Volt's heritage, I looked into Victorian games and decided to display how to make thaumatropes (a two sided disc with various images that when spun merge together), I went for a boys version of a strong man with lightning bolts and a girls version displaying Olga and an array of stars.
Barbican Centre 'Shona Reppe's Cinderella' -various dates Feb 2011
I ran pre-theatre workshops creating mini spoon puppets, using a variety of materials the children were able to make their own character chosen from a classic fairytale before watching Shona Reppe's production of Cinderella.
Mencap Charity, Saturday Club - 12th Feb 2011
As it was nearly Valentine's Day, we made some brightly coloured magnetic love bugs (clay shaped with a spoon), decorated some cupcakes, made some peg butterflies and planted some bulbs ready for spring.
Barbican Centre, Family Film Club 'Panda Go Panda' -29th Jan 2011
Leading panda toy making for children and their families in a pre-film workshop, simply using a sock and some felt, then accessorising.
Barbican Centre, 'Flyboy' -various dates Nov & Dec 2010
Assisting families in pre-show craft workshops. We made little festive shadow puppets to run alongside the theatre show 'Flyboy is alone again this Christmas', a romantic science-fiction shadow opera.
Barbican Centre 'Parachutes' -various dates October 2010
Assisting families and schools in pre-show craft workshops. We made tiny little parachutists to run alongside the theatre show 'Parachutes' exploring themes of falling, flying and gravity.
Dulwich Picture Gallery 'Art in the Garden -Mad Hatter's Tea Party' -25th Aug 2010
As with the totem poles, I held a drop in art session in the garden of the gallery, this time creating quirky top hats and mad march hare ears, we had lots of beautiful materials, ribbons, sequins (unfortunately it was a very rainy day, so we all had to squeeze inside with our creations).
Orleans House Gallery Twickenham, Ham Children's Centre -19&20 Aug 2010
I ran creative sessions for early years and pre-school children and their families at Ham Children's Centre. The theme of the workshops evolved around the River Thames and we created fish kites, water creature mobiles, bubble paintings, frog masks and raced handmade twig rafts.
Dulwich Picture Gallery 'Art in the Garden -Build a Totem Pole' - 28th July 2010
I ran a workshop on building totems out of recycled cardboard boxes, each family made their individual totem character (of any animal they wished to represent) and at the end of the session we joined them all together to create a number of poles that could be mixed and matched. It was a thoroughly enjoyable activity especially being able to make it in the gallery gardens and we built some wonderful creations.
Barbican Schools Enrichment Arts Festivals - various dates July 2010
Starting with Oaklands School in Tower Hamlets, the Barbican's education team have worked with 360 students and staff, delivering a week-long interantional arts festival within the school. The Oakfest model has also been introduced at the City of London Academy -Islingtin (CoLA -I), engaging 600 students in a journey across the artforms.
I assisted the 'Trashorize' workshops with designer Fabiane Lee Perrella, creating accessories from discarded everyday objects.
Dulwich Picture Gallery 'Wyeth celebration day' and 'Artplay' - June 2010
Workshop leading an animal mask making session in the marquee for the Wyeth celebrations and running a 'decorative stars' workshop for Artplay.
BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year Finalist - May 2010
My painting of a walrus was highly judged and put through to the finals of the BBC Wildlife Artist competition, in the World Mammals section -I'm thrilled that my artwork has been recognised by leading wildlife and art experts and will be trying many more competitions in the future.
Dulwich Picture Gallery 'Artplay' workshop - March 2010
My first workshop at the gallery and it was great fun, I had a full class of children and parents making lots of lovely bugs...dragonflies/butterflies and beetles.
Christmas goodies and decoration time! - Dec 2009
I have been trying to make as much as possible this year for Christmas and to start I made my gingerbread men cards, firstly I baked a handsome batch of doughy men, all individually (and uniquely) painted (below is just a small selection -I have mini men everywhere!), then I attach them to a card I designed and printed.
I can't wait to get started on the Christmas sweety treats now!!
Barbican Workshops for the London Children's Film Festival -Nov 2009
For the next couple of weeks I will running a few workshops in the Barbican alongside films being shown in the festival, these include bookbinding, toy crafting and pillowcase decorating.
Here are some examples of my felt toys
and my spell books.
A Night In The Woods' -Nov 2009
Ok, so I have finished all the illustration artwork for Dave in America, for his children's book about his dog Josie, I will wait for the publishing to commence before I post any images, but watch this space, they will be up on the site soon...
Southbank Centre 'Pestival' - Sept 2009
I volunteered my workshop skills to assist artists and scientists for the 'Pestival' festival -an exploration and celebration of all things insect and arty. As you can see I was a busy little worker bee! (That's me on the left!)
Barbican 'Do Something Different Festival' workshop leader -July 2009
I had great fun festooning the Barbican Centre with craft flowers created from my drop in class.
Red Line Publishing artwork - Jan-July 2009
I am currently in the middle of a six book commission for an American educational publisher, the artwork is based on foodchains in various environments, which enables me to paint lots of lovely wildlife. Images to follow...
South London Gallery art workshop leader - March-May 2009
I hosted my own school workshops in the gallery education department, working alongside an exhibition by artist Ellen Gallagher, entitled 'An Experiment of Unusual Opportunity'. I encouraged experimenting with layering and the use of various drawing materials, taking inspiration from Ellen's paintings. (Below are a few examples of the children's beautiful creations).
Barbican art workshop leader for 'Not Boring Drawing' -March 2009
I ran my own workshop for the Barbican Arts Centre entitled 'Not Boring Drawing', I had great fun leading a whole weekend of wire drawing for a 'Do Something Different Festival'. (Below is a section of the hanging wall of wire we created).
Snow day painting - Feb 2009
I spent a full day on my 'Alice in Wonderland' painting, I am happy I managed to complete it in one sitting, if you like, you can check it out at the bottom of the children's illustration page.
Antennae Studios Life Drawing - Jan 2009
My first life drawing session, it's been a while............
The model failed to show, so we drew 2-10min poses of each other, here are a few examples of my efforts.
SchoolfriendEtc. workshop leader -May 2008
As part of my daily extra curricular school workshops, the children and I created Japanese carp kites in celebration of National Children's Day.
