Tim's FAD

 The Porter Gallery on the ground floor of the V&A in Kensington (by the Cromwell Road Entrance) often shows themed work and sometimes hosts other work, at the moment there's an exhibition of Photographic work that is this year's Prix Pictet . Fireworks by Japanese Photographer Rinka Kawauchi Cambodian images from Mak Remissa Carla Rippey Christian Marclay

 So although it's Christmas break still finding some reasons to carry on Arty engagements. Somerset House & Christmas Tree After more than 3 years the Courtauld Gallery has reopened and it was good to get back there and be reminded of the fine selection of (principally) paintings. The Courtauld is particularly strong on French Artists and it is good to see some of the lesser known works of Seurat, I remember that when I visited the Bridget Riley exhibition at the Hayward Gallery there was an area of Bridget's exhibition that showed some of her work from when she was studying and Seurat was one of her strong influences. One of the pictures by Seurat on show was The Angler  - it is small and understated (as many of his work are) but nonetheless charming. The Angler Edward Degas is also represented well at the Gallery in sculpture as well as two dimensional work - here is 'Dancer ready to dance Right Foot Forward ' The works are not solely French and I was drawn to th...

A visual creative plan As well as a presentation we were asked to think about short and long term futures - here's what I came up with as a shorthand.  

 On Friday we had a chance to share our reviews/reflections and journey  of the first  term of the FAD for me it was useful and interesting both in creating the presentation and delivering - the actual 'performance' certainly was more than just reading it and fresh perspectives have emerged. Here's my presentation... It was also a real revelation to hear about other course members ideas on their work and creativity. I am now in a position where I have what I feel is quite a strong idea for the exhibition at the end of the course and the options that will work with it. --------------------- After the morning of presentations I made a break for Tate Modern as I had booked a ticket to see the Lubaina Himid exhibition. The exhibition was interesting to me and I felt the connection in the work from Lubaina's set design work - the work I was most engaged by was 'A fashionable Marriage' partly I guess because of my interest in Hogarth (here it's Marriage a-l...

 On Thursday Sue showed us a process that can be used for adding photographic images to our printing armoury. My Photo image (part of dystopia) sent to Sue We had sent Sue a photo' that was then transferred to  an 'Acetate' via a PC printer (Laser or ink jet can be used). There's (like ceramics) some craft involved with the printing method we used and heat is used to transfer the image from acetate to the screen. Printing via screen requires ink to be passed through  a mesh, various ways are used to make a 'resit.  Light sensitive emulsion:                   The Emulsion from PC Masking          And then flooding ahead of drying   exposed to light in a ... Big and noisy machine Emulsion to emulsion We tried various surfaces and washes to print the screen on Here are some outputs  on cardboard     Using a sort of screen wash to print over Over an earlier print Sue suggested that ...

We were able to see how our work had changed through the firings and see how colour emerged - this feels like a nice experience and I can imagine potters finding it tremendously emotional to see what outcomes they have. Here is some of my 'work'  The work reappears  We also saw how our interventions on 'ready-mades' looked, the decals and colour on my cup to reflect Utopia Dystopia were maybe a little underwhelming. The saucer         Chick decal on cup And together          Robert spoke to us about and demonstrated extrusions - their are various dies which create a cross section and offer out lengths of clay that are suitable for use in 'Coiling'  -  Slabbing rolled flat with equal level guides Next I got to work on my idea around a prison cell with a fault line (California/Alcatraz) from last week. Robert provided me with clay that I flattened (slab)   for the base (and a lid I hadn't planned) . Robert gave me ...

  Colourful dresser On Friday we had a session with Rod where he helped us understand the requirement for our 15 minute presentation for the end of term. A nice old pump  We need to cover a lot of ground as this first term has been packed - many approaches have been looked at and our presentation should reflect this and the way we've been able to engage with our Utopian/Dystopian ideas. My 10 slides are now ready to go and I think I could talk for  over 1 hour! One of the things I find is that it's difficult sometimes to turn off- so much to observe and think about using...

 After a review of the outputs from Last weeks' session Sue set us to work on Dry Point . The first stage is to scratch 'Intaglio'  (or in other  way alter surface) of a sheet, the scratches will catch ink. Scratching the surface The black paper can help to show the image as it develops. After this ink is applied that permeates the valleys made. excess ink is removed using rolled up material. I used an image of the panopticon   and a leaf to make 2 prints. Tools and tape (to help slide card in) Scratching the panopticon   A wash of ink had been used on some light paper - which could add colour. & another wash A blue wash The plastic and paper (already lightly watered) were layered with news print and some of the coloured sheet ahead of the 'press' - here's the panopticon ... And the leaves (with some red coloured paper added) Up to around 20 prints might be made. Next week it'll be Lino' and Photographic work !

 On Wednesday Robert presented us with our work from the previous week ready for us to apply Earthenware and Stoneware Glazes. The Glazes are fired at different temperatures. Typically Stoneware will be 1200 C and Earthenware at the lower temperature of about 1000C.  Be interested to see how this Earthenware comes out  And this one that's  a Stoneware Dystopian Mug.  We also intervened with cups and saucers we'd brought in :-  Cup and cracked chick decals                 The saucer was distressed (by me) Be very interesting to see how the items all look at next week's meet! Next week we're going to produce more Dystopia (or even Utopia) my idea is an earthquake dmage prison cell - walls are coiled floor is slab ..