Swimming through the kelp forest

20 December 2018

Continuing our mysterious doodly journey into the environment of sea and shore, we began with some imaginative doodles of the moon above the sea, inspired by some old poems.

Thinking about the sea creatures and kelp and coral, we also wrote a few words about it.

After developing our own individual pieces with Posca paint pens and Prockey water based markers, we cleared some space on the tables for two large rolls of paper to be spread out and worked on.

These were fun relaxing pieces, and we had a kind of musical chairs so we could shift around and everybody could work on different parts of the drawings and look for ways to collaborate with other folk’s markmaking.

Our aquatic shapes and creatures grew in the piece, moving and swaying with the sea current as we drew on. A shoal of fish passed near rocks on the sea bed, then swam through the translucent green kelp, and an octopus rested near a starfish.

It was great having the shell collection there to touch, smell and look at, and listen to as well, feeling the varied textures and listening to the strong sound of the sea. So refreshing!

Kindly supported by Glasgow Connected Arts Network

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

Exploring shells and corals

16 December 2018

We started a two week mini project based on a shell – sea theme, using fantastic collections of shells, sea stars, urchins, corals, pebbles and foraged ceramic pieces from the shore, all brought in by the folk in the group.

Thanks for bringing these, they were really stunning, delightful and curious objects opening up a new underwater world. Though the star fish really did smell of old socks!!

After some easy going drawing our hands shapes to get us started, we then talked and listened a little about the sea theme, and drew some patterns from the shells and corals, bringing in some words and poetic drawn letters to the pieces.

We had freedom to develop larger drawings on A3 and A2 cartridge paper with pens or pastels, looking directly at the objects or being more imaginative to explore the sea and natural environment of the shore.

Kindly supported by Glasgow Connected Arts Network

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

Connecting to forest floor textures into imaginative landscapes

15 December 2018

Part of the last Maryhill Art Group had been looking at leaves from nearby the HUB community centre, and this time we too that in a slightly different step by investigating things from the forest floor and ground gathered around the nearby river and pathways.

After some time to chat, doodle some free flowing continuous shapes, and some meditative settling and poetry related to the theme, we explored our ideas and inspiration in various ways.

It was really fascinating to see what we would come up with, and how different participants explored their ideas in varied ways. We looked at the small foresty objects and found ways to expand the textures and shapes into larger landscapes.

As we went on we experimented with different materials, combining inks with oil pastels and noticing the contrasting feel of these materials, the oily waxy vibrant opaque colours of the pastels which blend so well and the fluid transparent softly brushed inks..

Kindly supported by Glasgow Connected Arts Network

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

Mushin and Unsui calligraphy at Heart Brush

8 December 2018

The old tensho character for mu – nothing – is actually a pictogram, either of a person dancing, or holding ceremonial pieces of wood, so it is really interesting to work on.

The more complicated tensho has a strong balance and the kaisho style of mu we worked with has a lighter feel to work with the shin – heart-mind.

無心 mushin has zen meaning which we chatted about (could be translated a carefree and unfixed heart-mind), as does unsui 雲水 – clouds and water, which can also mean zen practitioners such as monks and nuns.

Sui being one of the five elements, and un (or kumo) being cloud, with it’s rain shapes like tears or dots of water falling from the sky..

It was nice to experiment with the different styles and have some freedom on the full page of the hanshi paper.

Category: Art Groups Tags: Shodo calligraphy

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