Day 3 at the Botanical Gardens

 

We arrived ready for day 3 at the Botanical Gardens with the car packed full of materials once again. Driving over Magdalen Bridge the mist was rising over the river - such an atmospheric picture -  however as we pulled into the car park we saw the garden already buzzing with the TV crew for the filming of 'Lewis' and the machines pumping out smoke!

After a hectic hour of unloading, finding tables and turning the room into a studio once again, we began to welcome our group as they drifted in. Most of the people who'd worked with us on Tuesday came back and we quickly settled into tasks that Emma and I had planned for each participant.

Ed joined us again to help with photography and we also had the support of Nichola Nixon who is an experienced art & design lecturer and artist.

We handed out sketchbooks and prints of the photographs we took last week. Lucy immediately engaged with the idea of recording visual ideas, annotating photos and experimenting with materials and by mid-morning had a lively document of her work so far. She was very focused and worked so quickly, exploring the possibilities of working with stencils and cutting out shapes for a large-scale spray-painting.

Dennis and Nichola set off around the gardens to make rubbings of tree bark. As usual, Dennis thought carefully about technique and created some interesting two-tone rubbings. Later he worked from these, using the window as a light-box to make tracings and drawings. At the end of the day he moved into printmaking, creating a plate for collagraphy using string.

Stephen also created stencils, cutting out an image for use in screen-printing.
Once again, colour played an important part in his work.

Maureen started off working with collage and then used objects collected around the gardens to make spray paintings. She quickly generated a series of images, exploring different approaches to composition. The bark and leaves looked very interesting afterwards.

Shaun continued work on his big painting, using ink, brusho and acrylic paint.