Light hearted sketching from the fab Kelvingrove collection

6 December 2018

Back at Kelvingrove for the second time this year, this time inside! So much to draw, look at and investigate, so many fantastic and mysterious objects in the East Court.

Within a few metres of where we sat we had an array of things such as masks from Australasia, Native American clothing and designs, very old Chinese vases, statues of Queen Victoria and other notable persons.

We used coloured pencils, as well as lead pencils and pens at this drawing group event.

Loose doodles and continuous line drawing helped us start, as well as looking at the materials, symmetry and detailing in the interior of the space, such as the ornate lights, stone arches, and decoration..

The floating heads sculpture drew our gaze too with the repeated comical expressions and changing colours on the faces.

The odd mix of objects created a fun environment for us to play with some drawings and connect to the objects in a slower, deeper way than we may normally do while passing through the collection, so we all found that really worthwhile and a pleasant thing to do.

Category: Art Groups Tags: Drawing Groups

Pattern and pathways – connecting with the environment

29 November 2018

We had an energetic and creative night at Maryhill Art Group to restart our fun relaxed sessions in the Maryhill Hub!

We used different methods to interact with the environment, beginning with some doodly expression with pens then drawing our journey to the building and considering the shapes, roads, bends and natural- urban aspects on the way. Some of the roads were a bit of a maze!

Listening to poetry connected with autumn and using mindful calm relaxation we settled down, and listened to some more words about the environment and the season.

Then we started writing some words related to what we had heard and thought, from which we drew to develop this, and some folk preferred to draw and other to write. We also drew the words in a visual way.

Feeling the textures of local leaves from the park and riverside, such as maple, sycamore, and horse chestnut, and looking at these, smelling, connecting with our senses.. making them a lot easier and more natural to draw! The pastels and pens were nice and colourful to use for these pieces.

Kindly supported by Glasgow Connected Arts Network

Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, Maryhill Art Group

Being with the season changing – Autumn into Winter

29 November 2018

It was a peaceful journey to Lenzie along the quiet paths and roads. When we arrived we found inspiring examples by Margaret of ink markmaking using a branch or twig from each of the varied types of trees in the grounds. Birch, Plum, Alder, Rowan, Larch, Fir, Hawthorn… and many other beautiful trees with their different character and textures.

After settling in, we began with a chat about the day with the theme of being with the transition of autumn into winter, the feeling of form and also space, and looked at examples of ancient markmaking such as Pictish symbols and runes from Scotland alongside the Chinese and Japanese characters. These were Kouyou 紅葉 – Autumn colours, literally crimson leaves – and Toukou 冬光 – Winter light. The tree runes shape from Maeshowe in Orkney was very similar to the oldest leaf shapes from ancient China.

We meditated sitting outside by the energetic fire, guided by Margaret, and were aware of the earthy form of the autumn leaves on the ground, the seasonal colours, the heat from the fire, the blue grey smoke and the way we could see through the flames in a flickering changing image. It started to drizzle and we headed back to the cozy workshop with some leaves, twigs and pine cones we had gathered.

Our markmaking with the Japanese fude brushes helped us loosen up, working with vertical and horizontals and noticing the different feeling in our body and core as we did this. Then we used the beautiful autumnal natural objects to make some marks, being amazed by the variety of textures possible, before trying out some of the styles of calligraphy, from the oldest methods carved into bone or later stone, Blair guiding some demos from different versions of the leaf and red characters.

We found it helpful to notice the very different ways of working using the brushes and natural objects, and how they related to the more modern styles such as kaisho or the more ancient styles such as tensho, which we found had more in common with other ancient marks.

After a tasty, heart warming lunch we had a short rest, then headed back outside into the west woods this time to meditate being aware of the winter light – standing by the trees. We noticed the light framed by the fragmented lines of branches while looking up through the trees, or through our hands, and the colour of the sky and the temperature of the space and air. It was noticeably cooling down as we were out! With the soft sounds of the bell we walked back together, picking up one or two more things to experiment with, some were just ideal for using!

Tealights were lit and these helped us be aware of the darkening cooler light outside and emerging warmth and intimacy inside the space. There was a final moment of radiant golden sunset light coming through the examples on the windows into the workshop.

Taking the two characters winter and light as our guide we continued calligraphy, and also had some fun playing with the materials and ink, the leaves and pine cones were just perfect for some direct printmaking! One of the participants had a winter squirrel named Syril who kindly supervised the last part of the day!

Category: Art Groups Tags: Environment, Margaret Kerr, Meditation, Shodo calligraphy

Funding for Maryhill Art Group awarded by Glasgow CAN

22 October 2018

We are delighted to let you know we have received funding from Glasgow Connected Arts Network (Glasgow CAN) for our community group in The Maryhill HUB to take us to the end of March 2019.

The next Maryhill Art Group will be inspired by nature, it is a very easygoing evening session and open to anyone to come along, and no art experience is needed. There is more info on our website.

Maryhill Art Group Event Page

Past Maryhill Art Group activities

Category: News Tags: Community Groups, Maryhill Art Group

Maryhill Art Cave!

14 October 2018

Over two Thursday evenings we had a lot of fun together on a pattern/ pictogram project. First we looked at examples of old ways of visual communication and language from around the world, from Egyptian hieroglyphics to Chinese Kanji to Pictish symbols from Scotland and Native American symbols, which inspired us to experiment ourselves with new ways to convey natural things using visuals or pictures rather than written words.

The first week we spent the time finding our own drawing patterns for various objects and experiences, such as grass, bark, person, dancing, leaves, clouds, using pens and different papers.

In the second week we continued this to begin the night, making a page for rain, or raindrops, insects, flowers, trees..

Then we laid out a wide roll of cartridge paper, set out some ink colours and brushes, sponges and began pattern – pictogram making. We moved around the piece as it developed, which was very quickly!

Some of the symbols and characters were quite mysterious, and we brought in other styles of shapes to create or deepen something about the meaning. One or two of the group didn’t want to reveal the meanings of their characters which made the process more fascinating to be part of!

As we worked we had a wee look at all our collected single A4 sheets to help guide us, and chatted about how we could bring the piece together, how much white space to keep, and ideas to let the visual symbols interact.

It surprised us just how natural it felt to work and communicate this way, it wasn’t forced or laboured. In a way making the piece transported us into a more ancient type of markmaking seen in cave or rock symbols, freeing and flowing 🙂

Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, Maryhill Art Group

Watch a leaf fall

6 October 2018

We said goodbye to the brightness of summer and welcomed the autumn breeze and smells and darker nights, with some leafy artworks.

The children really engage with the textures and colours of the autumnal leaves, the variety of shapes and types of leaves and different hues.

The leaves could be used as stencils or stuck down to complement the drawing and words.

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Workshop for North United Communities

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Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, NUC, Young people's art

A chicken dragon and other lively sketches at Ruchill

5 October 2018

In this group at Ruchill Community Centre different tasks were tried out by the young people.

Influenced by anime and manga, dragons were popular, such as the Story of the Small Girl and the Dragon, and imagery from Princess Mononoke, a classic film from the Japanese animation Studio Ghibli.

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Workshop for North United Communities

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Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, NUC, Young people's art

Drawing in the jungle at the Botanic Gardens

22 September 2018

We set up to draw inside the humid warmth of Kibble Palace, surrounded by the national tree fern collection (originally planted in the 1880’s impressively) partly as it was quite blowy outside. It was an enjoyable group and people found the two hours was a nice amount of time out of their usual day to focus on sketching.

We started with some warm up doodling inspired by the spikes of the cacti and curves of the ferns, then we took some to look at all the plants, their varied hues and textures, noticed their refreshing smell too, and the touch of some leaves.

We then continued with a few different types of drawings, each engaging with the shapes or textures of the ferns and plants. Afterwards Blair did another demo looking at the graceful long curving lines of the Kibble architectural space combined with the lush inter tangled plants and tree shapes.

Inside the palace there was certainly a palatial feeling of height and grandeur, with the decorative ironwork details, with a really exotic atmosphere and feeling. Folk found some really interesting angles and places to look through between the trees, twisting pillars, the curved light reflectors, and pathways.

A couple of drawing compositions looking at the glasshouse ceiling especially had an almost futuristic sci fi feel, which is really testament to the design and construction. Amazing that it was moved here from ferny environs of Loch Long in 1873, maybe it transported itself here like a spaceship?

After a wee break for a biscuit and drink we had about an hour to work on a longer piece, and some folk chose to continue some more doodly drawings. There was no feeling of pressure to come up with anything, no grand drawings expected, it was a time to relax and enjoy drawing the surroundings and play around with the materials. There were pencils and pens, as well as different types of paper such as cartridge, sugar paper and coloured paper.

To see past Drawing Group activities, please check the Drawing Group news page.

Category: Art Groups Tags: Drawing Groups

Meditation and calm at Brushing Fire

8 September 2018

We started the day at Lenzie with a chat about the shared cultural connections around the five elements, particularly through the Himalayan area, from India, Tibet to China and Japan. We looked at the variety of meanings as well as the different approaches of the Godai Buddhist five elements, Bon and the Gogyo Chinese Five Phases.

Looking at the shamanic origins of the Chinese characters and the curvy Tensho calligraphy style was helpful to connect to the elements in a deeper way.

Margaret had prepared a fire for us to all enjoy sitting with, so we sat in meditation by it. The wind funneled the flames and smoke with real speed and energy but it was still calm sitting there by the trees.

Experimenting with inks and holding the Japanese fude brushes, we made some marks to explore our feeling and experience of being with fire.

The wood burning stove also helped us stay in the mood and continue the relationship to fire from outdoors. When we moved onto the character for wind, kaze, we had some extra inspiration from the Shakuhachi flute!

Larger brushes, paper and orange sumi ink were used to play around with some large versions of fire and wind 🙂

After a quiet lunch with hearty sweet potato soup and riceballs, we had a short break then walked to a small river to peacefully engage with the water and space elements, helped by Margaret. It was really peaceful sitting by the water and contemplating the flow, sometimes fast or slow, looking at the sense of edge at the banks, and being surrounded by the greens of river reeds and plants.

It began to rain softly which enlivened the colours and helped make us more aware of the space element on the way back. We made some watery flowing marks then worked on the kanji characters (with both kaisho and tensho styles) for water – sui, space/ sky/ emptiness – ku, and earth – chi.

We then had some time to try out more of the tensho style or go for it and combine all five characters together on a single sheet of washi paper.

Category: Art Groups Tags: Environment, Margaret Kerr, Meditation, Shodo calligraphy

Summery art groups – patterns, colour and lucky laugh!

8 September 2018

There were varied NUC summer art and craft sessions in Maryhill, Ruchill and Milton with young people and adults, they were fun groups inspired by a few different themes and using ways of working that were enjoyable while learning new methods.

There was a large banner with ‘Summer Sunshine’ drawn with pens, with a funky lizard carefully added in, plus hand stencil drawing using the hand shape as a composition for decorative patterns worked into the finger and palm shapes..

The lucky laugh game we played was really light hearted, with the kids closing their eyes while moving cut outs of facial features onto their head shape they had drawn – other children guiding them to the best, or worst!, spot to be stuck down. It was a nice way for them to make some quirky portraits while working with each other 🙂

Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, NUC, Young people's art