I recently had the opportunity to contribute a post to the blog of Garry Barker, an artist and educator living and teaching in Leeds, UK - my home town.
Garry and his work has been a profound influence on me and my work since the 1970s when I first met him at Jacob Kramer College of Art (later to become Leeds Arts University). Garry uses drawing to create narratives about the world that exists around us and simultaneously through his work he creates multiple other worlds.
For Garry's drawing blog I wrote a piece about a drawing project I had been engaged in for a while. As I was about to progress to the next stage in the project it seemed an opportune moment to reflect on what I had done so far before moving on.
My post is now live and can be found here:
Patrick S. Ford: A Dialogue with the Landscape.
While you are there spend time to read through Garry's previous posts, I promise you it will be worth it.
Garry also has another blog devoted to the pedagogy of teaching art. This is also incredibly informative and can be found here:
Art and Pedagogy.
Showing posts with label Garry Barker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Garry Barker. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Sunday, May 21, 2017
Drawing Project - Working process
I edited together footage recorded during the recent drawing day on Cheung Chau and edited 2 short videos outlining the construction of two drawings.
These drawings are the latest in an ongoing project that investigates the collaboration between a human (me) and nature and as active participant. Together we create an image through dialogue. As with all conversations, sometimes one party dominates, when they have a lot to say, while the other listens, sometimes it is a balanced two-way interaction.
I will post more updates from this project in future, hopefully recording the progress of the investigation.
Here are the two drawings made on 7th May 2017.
Here are the two drawings made on 7th May 2017.
The first drawing
The second drawing
The recording can also be viewed on my youtube.com channel here: https://youtu.be/g8OmGnUXbss
This project was referred to in the blog of Garry Barker, artist and educator in Leeds, UK. Garry goes into detail about the use of frottage in art, in great detail and great eloquence here.
Sunday, May 7, 2017
Drawing Project - Work in progress
On Sunday 7th May I gathered my prepared materials and walked down to Nam Tam Wan to take a close look at which rocks could be suitable for the next stage of my drawing project.
The small tests I had conducted previously showed promise and I had intended to build upon those results, I just didn't foresee that it would take so long to move the project along. A conference paper, Dada collage, a digital print and various other things came onto the agenda and pushed the drawing project back. However, putting that delay aside I could now turn my attention to drawing the rocks down at the little bay near my home.
I began with a roll of Chinese calligraphy paper, which I have found to be particularly good at picking up the texture of surfaces when creating frottage images. Sometimes the paper may tear, especially when enthusiasm urges me to work faster and so these tears will need to be repaired later at some point.
Several stones picked up on the beach helped to keep the paper in place and prevented the wind from blowing my work away. I used sticks of willow charcoal to transfer the rocks' texture and as I worked I snapped the charcoal into shorts sticks of approximately 2 inches so that I could slide them across the surface of the paper to create soft swathes of texture on the paper.
When the first drawing seemed to be resolved I took a look at it and thought that it didn't require any further working back home, although I will look again another day to see if my opinion on that has changed.
The second attempt was with a larger piece of paper. This paper was thicker, smoother and had a waterproof covering on the reverse side. This had advantages and disadvantages. The advantages were that the paper was more durable, was easier to pin down using the rocks and was easier to push the paper further into crevasses to pick up the texture. The disadvantages were that the smooth surface texture of the paper meant that it was more difficult to create an organic surface of marks, the waterproof covering on the reverse side formed a barrier, making it more difficult to 'feel' the rocks' texture and the pure white colour of the paper was much 'colder'. I was pleased with the results of this second attempt too, although I will certainly need to work again on this one later. It was satisfying to work on a larger scale, it felt as though I was beginning to get somewhere!
Although it was quite a hot day, the wind that threatened to blow away my paper, also cooled me down and stopped me from over-heating.
This project was referred to in the blog of Garry Barker, artist and educator in Leeds, UK. Garry goes
The small tests I had conducted previously showed promise and I had intended to build upon those results, I just didn't foresee that it would take so long to move the project along. A conference paper, Dada collage, a digital print and various other things came onto the agenda and pushed the drawing project back. However, putting that delay aside I could now turn my attention to drawing the rocks down at the little bay near my home.
I began with a roll of Chinese calligraphy paper, which I have found to be particularly good at picking up the texture of surfaces when creating frottage images. Sometimes the paper may tear, especially when enthusiasm urges me to work faster and so these tears will need to be repaired later at some point.
Several stones picked up on the beach helped to keep the paper in place and prevented the wind from blowing my work away. I used sticks of willow charcoal to transfer the rocks' texture and as I worked I snapped the charcoal into shorts sticks of approximately 2 inches so that I could slide them across the surface of the paper to create soft swathes of texture on the paper.
When the first drawing seemed to be resolved I took a look at it and thought that it didn't require any further working back home, although I will look again another day to see if my opinion on that has changed.
The second attempt was with a larger piece of paper. This paper was thicker, smoother and had a waterproof covering on the reverse side. This had advantages and disadvantages. The advantages were that the paper was more durable, was easier to pin down using the rocks and was easier to push the paper further into crevasses to pick up the texture. The disadvantages were that the smooth surface texture of the paper meant that it was more difficult to create an organic surface of marks, the waterproof covering on the reverse side formed a barrier, making it more difficult to 'feel' the rocks' texture and the pure white colour of the paper was much 'colder'. I was pleased with the results of this second attempt too, although I will certainly need to work again on this one later. It was satisfying to work on a larger scale, it felt as though I was beginning to get somewhere!
Although it was quite a hot day, the wind that threatened to blow away my paper, also cooled me down and stopped me from over-heating.
The first drawing
The second drawing
into detail about the use of frottage in art, in great detail and great eloquence here.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
International Drawing Dialogue 2016
Drawing Dialogue - Exhibition and Conference
DalgaArt, Craiova, Romania 24th - 27th July 2016
18 artists contributed to this interesting project initiated and organised by Gabriela Boiangiu, creating 9 pairs of artists who responded to each others work. The participating artists included Garry Barker and Martyn Hill.
I was paired with Martyn Hill from the UK and while he worked on a series of images, I worked on my own set. We then exchanged the drawings and attempted to respond visually to what the other artists had done.
The unexpected nature of the project and the challenge presented by the project deadlines combined to make this a truly enjoyable project.
Some of the participating artists managed to make the trip to Craiova in Romania for the related conference but unfortunately I was not able to travel due to my teaching commitments. However, I did managed to join in some of the conference discussions via Skype. I really hope that the planned second stage of the project will become a reality.
The resulting images are displayed below with our names displayed according to the working order. For the first group of drawings I initiated the images and Martyn responded to what I had done:
The resulting images are displayed below with our names displayed according to the working order. For the first group of drawings I initiated the images and Martyn responded to what I had done:
For the second group of drawings, Martyn initiated a set of images and I responded to what he had done:
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