D+P Studio News
Here is a wee bit of news from the D+P Studio!
Sea urchins and shells turning into skulls and robots!
28 June 2018
At the Ruchill after school primary group the children worked on their sketchbooks, drawing mainly with pencils this session.
They began looking directly at some small natural objects like shells and a fragile pale green green sea urchin shell. After sketching in peace for a while looking at the textures and lines and edges, they began to draw some of their favourite things, from skulls to an iphone, to cartoon characters.
It was brilliant to see how much their confidence has developed over the last year and a half and how they enjoy spending some time with their sketchbooks.
Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, NUC, Young people's art
Having fun with metal and diamond!
23 June 2018
Having fun with the shodo calligraphy characters we will work with on Monday! Kin metal, gold, one of the Chinese 5 elements, kongo diamond, as well as tamashii, spirit. The meanings and variety of visuals in each of these is fascinating π
Category: Art Groups Tags: Shodo calligraphy
Shodo calligraphy – in the middle of a dream
15 June 2018
We had fun with trying out both the curved older Tensho style as well as the more stylized Kaisho style at the last session. First we worked with with Ki ζ¨ – tree, experimenting with the branch like strokes, and then Yume – dream/ illusion, along with Naka – inside/ centre.
So we had some time to try out these last two Chinese kanji characters together – muchu ε€’δΈ, which can mean really into something, or in a dream world.
Category: Art Groups Tags: Shodo calligraphy
Colours of heather, hill and forest
15 June 2018
At the last Maryhill art group we used pastels to develop some landscapy pieces and textures, inspired by images of the Highlands and a wee book of poetry and art by Hamish Fulton ‘Wild Life – Walks in the Cairngorms’.
Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, Maryhill Art Group
Mountain caves and nesting mythical birds
15 June 2018
At Ruchill community centre we worked on the A4 sketchbooks with the children on some imaginative drawings and doodles.
It’s really nice to see their engagement with markmaking, and freedom to express themselves through art!
Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, NUC, Young people's art
Drawing Trees day at Lenzie
5 June 2018
It was a peaceful yet creative day led by Margaret and Blair, with a super group of folk who enjoyed getting to know the trees and forest.
We began small in the morning with some relaxed doodly pieces followed by a mindful visual exploration of the trees whilst still in the workshop, and inspiration from the tree markmaking of Hokusai which we also worked from. We then walked in the forest spending time with the trees and engaging with our senses, drawing the sounds, collecting rubbings, textures and natural objects..
In the afternoon we chose a tree to focus on and connect with, working with moss and twigs from around the tree with ink and some charcoal. After a wee break and cuppa, and nicely timed to move into the workshop and avoid the thundery build up of rain cloud, our final piece of the day was an exuberant flourish of biological tree, branch and moss markmaking, using some natural things we collected like pine cones, as well as twigs and brushes.
Some comments from participants:
‘Loved the whole day, especially enjoyed being outdoors amongst the trees. No where to go, just sitting, feeling’
‘I liked the gentle introduction then the contrast between being indoors and outdoors – it felt encouraging and interesting’
‘Tree markings – memories of activities as a child. Preciousness of trees’
‘I really enjoyed the drawing to sounds – I used colours for different sounds which was fun! Also using moss etc to paint was great. Also going out in nature I am able to notice small details’
‘Playing with the wide brush and coloured inks – surprisingly easy to make graceful marks with the whole arm’
Category: Art Groups Tags: Environment, Margaret Kerr
Laying out materials for the drawing trees day
5 June 2018
We set out packs for each person joining the group, with different textures of papers suitable for rubbings and drawing, and a small bag with graphite stick and oil pastels, and a mix of pens too.
For the larger and joint pieces we have a wide array of brushes which will be fun to play around with, colour inks and water based paints, as well as Indian and sumi ink.
Category: Art Groups Tags: Creative preparation
Life force and lightning Shodo calligraphy
5 June 2018
At Zen Brush Heart we worked from some inspiring characters related to life and the elements, such as tsuchi ε – earth /soil, mei ε½ – core, destiny, life, and jinzu η₯ι – spiritual/ soul power.
To get a fuller understanding and feel about these we looked at the older meanings and visuals from China such as the jin which is related to thunder and lightning. So a crackling set of characters to experiment with!
Category: Art Groups Tags: Shodo calligraphy
Relaxing and meditative tracing of the Heart Sutra
2 May 2018
In the Garden room at KSD a small group of us began Shakyo – copying sutras – by chatting about the history and styles and looking at some examples of the characters such as mu – dream and ku – space. Then we slowly and quietly worked on the tracing itself.
We used transparent Japanese paper laid upon the example piece (by Blair) so we could see the Chinese characters coming through, and meditatively worked on one character at a time.
The group found the Shakyo method of working on a tracing to be quite different, for instance we used small brushes and ground our own ink with the hard ink blocks, which was a nice thing to do noticing the darkness of the ink and even the sound of the grinding, and we were tracing the old characters passed on to us over many centuries in the example sutra.
Category: Art Groups Tags: Meditation, Shodo calligraphy
Freedom to have fun with ink and varied brushes – Maryhill Art Group
2 May 2018
Maryhill art group marks 1-2 www.drawingandpaintingstudio from Drawing and Painting Studio on Vimeo.
Maryhill art group marks 4-2 www.drawingandpaintingstudio from Drawing and Painting Studio on Vimeo.
Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, Maryhill Art Group