Monday 19th February
Cedar Farm Gallery
We were joined by Suzanne Riley for a one off drawing workshop. Suzanne has been a further education teacher in Art and Design for many years, and recently took the leap to focus full time on her own creative business- leading workshops in creative art and textiles. Suzanne's passion is surface design and textiles which comes through in all of her classes, with texture, mixed media and layered techniques being encouraged throughout all of her classes. Sumptuous textures, 3D refief work, stitch and colour play a strong role and we just LOVE her style! If you get the chance to take one of her classes you must!
There were many different techniques covered in the drawing class, but the day kicked off with discussing the variations of graphite pencil and simple mark making activity where participants explore pattern and marks to use within their drawing. Following this we explored drawing in pencil from the sumptuous array of organic still life material on the table which I'm sure we wont look at again in the same way! Mushrooms, pineapple, colourful shells, pine cones, and explored pencil drawing and shading.
Next was the drawing pen, creating simple and precise line drawings and playing with continuous line drawing. Once we'd created these very beautiful but flat images, suzanne then showed us a technique of spraying water over the top of the pen drawing, which seeps into the ink and causes it to blot and spread in the most beautiful way! Another display of Suzanne's for surface and texture.
After that- lunch! and time for some delicious homemade cake for everyone.
The afternoon was spent working on wax resist techniques. Adding colour through dye application or scraping back oil pastels to reveal colour and pattern below.
This was a truly creative and experimental day covering so many techniques from simple line drawing to applying colour and building layers. Thank you Suzanne for joining us in the Gallery! We'd love to have you back!
The Drawing workshop focuses on visual awareness by learning to look and see. Through using a variety of media you will explore line and tone, and experiment with a range of mark making techniques. Exploring pencil, charcoal, fine liner, water- based paint and wax resist to draw natural and organic forms.
