Christmas Time Fun!

Over the Christmas period I have been delivering themed workshops to the parent and community group in Elmgrove Primary School, Cedar Lodge Youth Club and the Over 50's group in Enler Community Centre.

They have made fantastic screenprinted cards, stamped gift boxes and felt tree decorations. 

Diwali Festival of Lights: Mini Stage Sets

This month, I have been working in community centres across Northern Ireland spreading the word about Diwali Festival this October in Belfast. 

Diwali (meaning ‘rows of lighted lamps’) is a Hindu tradition that celebrates the victory of good over evil, light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance and celebrates the Indian New Year. 

Colin Community Centre and Laurelhill Community Centre created mini stage sets which described the story of Diwali. 

The story describes a legendary king Lord Rama, who was exiled for 14 years in the forest by his father Dashratha. His wife Sita, accompanies him.

During this time in the forest Sita was kidnapped by a ten headed demon. 

Lord Rama fought with the demon and his armies and won the battle. 

After 14 years of exile over, Lord Rama came back to his kingdom. 

The people welcomed their king with light using clay lamps/ diyas/oil lamps and fireworks. 

This is the celebration of Good (Rama) over Evil (Ravana) and return of King Rama to Ayodhya. 

Ormeau Baths Gallery Saturday Art Club

The current exhibition in Ormeau Baths Gallery is 'A Space for Learning.'

This groundbreaking exhibition showcases the winning ten designs from a competition organized by the Irish Architecture Foundation that challenged current thinking on school design. 120 architects worked with 1500 students in 90 schools across Ireland in the developmental phase of this project as architects collaborated directly with Transition Year students on the design of educational spaces.

During the art club, the children created drawings and models in response to the exhibited work. They designed a bird house, and used lots of imagination when thinking about the bird's comfort and needs! 

They used lots of different materials; foam board, card, colourful and patterned paper, reflective, transparent, soft and rough surfaces.

Sophie has designed a double room house with a transparent walk way linking the two. 

The small room on the left has reflective surfaces on the floor and walls, a faux waterfall at the back wall and a transparent ceiling for lots of light. The Garden Room on the right has an outdoor feel with flower wall paper, grass floor and a multi coloured pipe cleaner ceiling, with gaps left for easy access for the birds!

This bird house is all about being cosy and warm. A wall of coloured felt leads the birds to their perches, which are lined with corduroy. The ceiling is made from colourful pipe cleaners, and walls reflect lots of light. The front is sealed with semi transparent acetate to keep out unwanted visitors!  

This bird house is curved (very eco pod chic!) transparent, but well sealed to keep out unwanted visitors. Entry is through the shallow box in the foreground. Inside is filled with soft colourful feathers and furnished perches. This house will be hung high up in the trees with bird seeds placed inside. 

Crescent Art Centre: Drawing and Painting for Teenagers

Over 12 weeks a group of 8 teenagers will be improving their drawing and painting skills. 

They will use a broad range of materials such as graphite pencils, putty rubbers, willow charcoal, compressed charcoal, chalk pastels, oil pastels, pen and ink, watercolour and acrylic paint. 

They will practice and improve their knowledge of proportions, space, composition, tonal values, complementary and clashing colours. 

Experimentation is encouraged when using new materials and styles of paper. 

Charcoal studies focusing on just 3 tones; light, mid and dark

Graphite pencil studies focusing on hatching and cross hatching to describe tonal values

Chalk pastel studies on sugar paper; Describing three clear tones using colour

This week the group were studying large conical sea shells. These shells are really interesting from all angles and have subtle mixes of creams, yellow ochres, umbers and pinks.

To help distinguish between dark colours and dark tones, I asked the group to make a black and white study focusing on tones. Once they identified the light and dark areas, they worked on their paintings using colour.

Painting using thin washes and layers of acrylic.

There are many ways acrylic paint can be used. So far the group have been mastering thin layers and washes of paint. This week they did the opposite: The aim was to paste the acrylic onto paper as thick as possible and play around with textures.

Studying the harbour from photographs allows the group to experience drawing and painting from still images and understand it's benefits and drawbacks. They focused on creating a finished painting. These photos have lots of interesting imagery: boat styles, distorted water reflections, water ripples and patterns and lots of colour. The group used their preferred method of applying acrylic paint : Smooth thin washes or thickly applied using textured affects.