Circomedia & Drawing Circus Performers

Trying to capture movement.

This time last week I was in Bristol, staying with my daughter, and it was the eve before an amazing drawing workshop lead by Sara Easby from the Bristol Drawing School. The drawing day was held at Circomedia - the centre for contemporary circus and physical theatre - in St. Paul's Church, Portland Square. The church was saved from dilapidation and converted in 2004 and now houses the UK's largest indoor trapeze rig and aerial facilities. Visit www.circomedia.com for more information.

Circomedia, St. Paul's Church, Portland Square, Bristol.

The day dawned bright but chilly and we arrived at the venue in good time. We had come with sketchbooks (size not specified so I kitted us out with A3 as capturing moving figures suggested to me bigger gestural strokes), pencils, charcoal, Neocolour crayons and water brush pens in case we had time to brush pigment out into a wash.

Sara started by introducing simple ways to tackle figures in constant movement - from a single sweeping line of action to 'pin men' and suggested that we keep in mind where the weight was distributed. Basically we would be trying to capture first impressions, no detail, and just explore how to best describe the evolving configurations of the circus performers (our models) as they practised their skills!

To give you an idea of what we were up against I offer this brief video clip taken on my phone:

A small selection of my A3 sketchbook pages...

Acrobatics, in pencil, A3 sketchbook.

Acrobatics, pencil, A3 sketchbook.

 

Acrobatics, pencil to capture first movements
and superimposed with charcoal
as sequence of positions changed.

Things got a bit more scribbly and manic as I tried to get the essence of our 'models'  doing some juggling with first the diablo then balls/skittles. Can you make head or tail of these?

Juggling, pencil, A3 sketchbook.

Juggling, pencil, A3 sketchbook.

Juggling, pencil/charcoal pencil, A3 sketchbook.

All of this was before lunch! Three quarters of an hour later, back into the fray, with a variety of circus skills on offer. Our next models warmed up...

Circus performer warming up on the floor...

Warming up...

... before they both took to the air on the trapeze!

Two performers on the trapeze.

Two performers on the trapeze, Neocolour crayon.

Two performers on the trapeze.

After the trapeze came Poppy creating beautiful shapes with the Hoop...

Performing with the aerial Hoop
(apologies for the blue tinge - the paper is white).

... and Johnno working with the long drape of red fabric...

Aerial performer with suspended fabric.

Amazing shapes of aerial performer with suspended fabric,
Neocolour crayon, A3 sketchbook.
(Apologies for blue tinge).

By this time everyone was beginning to flag from the intensity of the looking and rapid mark making trying to get the gist of 'poses'. I have done a fair bit of 'blind contour drawing' in the past whereby the drawing is created whilst the eyes are focused solely on the subject matter and not on the page at all - a strategy that proved very useful at times. Then just when we thought we had seen it all the final performer took to the sky - well, the curved swing suspended high up near the ceiling. What a finale!

By this time many people on the workshop had called it a day with the drawing, either from tiredness or shear awe at the difficult task of capturing anything of this last performance. But I was determined to give it a try...

Holly on the curved swing, Neocolour crayon, A3 sketchbook.

The whole day was fantastic. I had treated not only myself, but my daughter (who also likes to draw when she gets the time) as a birthday gift to her, to spend such an extended period of time grappling with this near impossible task of capturing something meaningful of these incredibly hard-working, skilled specialists of the floor and air. Thank you Sara, and the talented circus performers of Circomedia for such an incredible experience.

If you are interested in finding out more about the courses run by Bristol Drawing School visit www.drawingschool.org.uk.

I will leave you with another short clip of Holly on the curved swing.

Catch Up of News

I really must get into the habit of posting shorter snippets - more often!  This past week or so I have covered quite a bit of ground so will try and catch up on the news without being too long winded.

I had a lovely visit to family in Hertfordshire and one highlight was accompanying my sister to Shardeloes Equestrian Centre, where she works as a freelance riding instructress.  Due to clients still away over the Easter period she only had a few lessons to take and I welcomed the opportunity to take my sketchbook along for a session drawing horses and ponies from life!



A retired Shetland pony...

 

 

  

 

 

 

            

 

 

   

Dozing in a stable...

  

 

 

 

The selection of sketches shown illustrates how gestural sometimes these drawings need to be.  Animals do not stay still!  Sometimes a position will be taken up again and the study can continue, other times the pose will have to be abandoned and another sketch commenced.  It is best to accept the nature of this type of work and adopt the spirit of enquiry.  The drawings certainly have faults but overall contain an essence, a feeling of life.  I love looking at artists' sketchbooks and I hope you enjoy this peek into mine.  I would just to say a 'thank you' to the staff at Shardeloes for welcoming me.

 

The weekend before last I was part of an Open Day at Henderson Art and Framing.  The idea was to invite people to come and see the studio, view some artwork, meet the tutors and hopefully get inspired to sign up to a class.  We didn't really know what the response might be but Sue did a great job advertising the event and several current class members came along to support us and brought interested people with them.  

 

Display of work for classes at Open Studio Event

 

The day was a great success with plenty of visitors and some new people signed up for classes.  Myself and the other two tutors commented on the buzzing atmosphere and felt the event was definitely worthwhile. 

 

View 1 of workshop in progress

View 2 of workshop in progress

 

Finally, the Water Mixable Oils Workshop took place last Wednesday (see images above).  I was pleased with how the day went and the participants were delightful and very industrious!  It was a full day, and working step-by-step can sometimes be challenging as we all work at a slightly different pace - some need to work quicker than they would like and others have to slow down a bit.  I hope that everyone went home with their 16 x 16" box canvas and felt that during the process of painting 'Agapanthus' they had learned some useful techniques and gleaned plenty of information about these products.  As I provided polystyrene plates to use as palettes I made sure they all had some freshly squeezed pain,t in the limited palette of colours we had been using, so that there would be an opportunity to 'tweak' the work should they wish over the following day or so at home... 

 

Whew, a whistle stop catch up of news - definitely need to post more often.  Right, off to the studio this afternoon as time is running short to work on a drawing for the upcoming WNAA exhibition at the end of the month titled 'Drawing Attention' - the closing date for entries is rapidly approaching!    

 

              



Art Review 2012

I have been reviewing my 2012 art year, and tomorrow will add a post about plans for 2013.

2012 has been a more focused, productive year for me, which was what I had hoped for.  My classes at Henderson Art & Framing continued for the usual three terms (of eight weeks duration each) - see www.hendersonartandframing.co.uk for details about upcoming classes.  I started this blog in May, hit a long slump but have rallied, with new resolve, to end the year.

 

Outside of my regular classes the year kicked off when I organized a Sketchbook Evening for the West Norfolk Artists Artists (www.westnorfolkartists.org).  Members were invited to bring along some sketchbooks for an informal evening to give people a chance to look through and chat about sketchbooks - their uses, different ways of using them etc.  It was (thankfully) a rip roaring success, very inspiring.  I had already made a resolution to do more sketchbook work in 2012, and although I did make much more use of them, in all honesty, I could have done even more.

 

Water Mixable Oil Painting

  

In March I held a Water Mixable Oil Painting Workshop at Henderson Art & Framing.  These workshops are always enjoyable and cater for 10 - 12 participants.  They are marvellous value too as all materials are provided and in this case each student went away with tubes of paint, brushes, plastic palette and finished work on two small canvas boards!  Sue provides a delicious lunch and refreshments mid morning and afternoon.  If you live nearby and haven't tried a workshop before 2013 could be your chance.

May was a very busy month with 2 exhibitions and I participated in Norfolk Open Studios as part of the West Norfolk Artists at South Acre Church.  I was absolutely thrilled when I sold a painting in each venue! 

'Beauty of Charcoal' Workshop

July is the annual West Norfolk Summer Exhibition.  This year I was one of the three selectors / curators and opted not to show any work.  This is the second time I have taken on this role and find the whole process fascinating.  From the initial daunting task of being faced with a sea of artwork, to gradually whittling it down a selection of work that showcases the Association and its members to its best advantage takes several hours - and the following morning there are often additions as the exhibition takes on a life of its own.  During the exhibition the Association puts on free 2-hour workshops and I ran a 'Beauty of Charcoal' Workshop.  Participants worked from simple a still life each based on peppers and mushrooms and were led through a variety of techniques to get to grips with the possibilities of this marvellous expressive medium.

'All About Artbars' Workshop

Before my classes resumed in September I ran another workshop 'All About Artbars' at Hendersons.  These new triangular water soluble wax bars burst onto the art scene in the Spring and I had plenty of time to experiment and get to grips with them.  The workshop tackled using them as a drawing medium, diluting the colour with water to make luminous washes and then working back into them.  In the afternoon they were used thick and enabled scratching through juicy layers to get interesting textures.



 

 

Reductive drawing, willow charcoal, cartridge paper

 

Compressed charcoal on watercolour paper

 

Also in September there were two more exhibitions, both at the King's Lynn Art Centre.  Again I was delighted to sell work.  Finally in November I did my first art demonstration - at Park House, Sandringham.  I was given free rein so chose charcoal again as it is quick and expressive.  I had a two hour slot and decided to do a reductive drawing of a foal (lifting the lights and adding darks) before the teabreak.  I used compressed charcoal to do a quick head study of my old pony, Danny, after the break and used water to dilute and create inky washes and drips before drawing back into it to add definition.  Two very different techniques and fortunately got it all done in the time...

So, on reflection 2012 has been a busy and fruitful year for me.  But the real highlight of the year?  My two daughters both graduated from their respective universities!!!

Happy New Year.