A raging success!

Invite image for the Private View
by Jo Howell

Our Oriental Museum exhibition opened last night to a great response. There were over 130 people in attendance which is one of the best turn-outs that the Museum has seen for one of their private views.

Over the course of the last year, the members in The Art Studio have created an abundance of artworks inspired by Oriental culture- in particular India and the Himalayas. The work has been wonderfully varied incorporating ceramics, painting, printed works and video.

The members from the studio who worked tirelessly all week should be very proud of the final look of the show. Several members travelled to back and forth to the Museum to oversee the set-up. This included mounting the large silhouettes, labelling, hanging the work and organising the cabinet displays.

The exhibition will run at The Oriental Museum in Durham until 18th April, so if you couldn't go to the private view you still have plenty of time to go across yourself.

You can access our write-up in the Durham Times here.

Working hard....

Oriental Museum inspiration
By Jo Howell Photography

THE ORIENTAL MUSEUM PROJECT

We have started the Oriental Museum collaborative project in earnest now. Cath, our Artist Coordinator and Ceramicist, has begun creating the moulds of each of the members hands to eventually bring together to create our final piece.

There is a lot of work involved in the creation of the ceramic hands.

Creating a hand mould
By Jo Howell Photography

 First we have to make a frame that we can use to pour the moulds of everyone's hands in. We made a 2 part mould for each hand out of plaster of paris.

The hands will be brought together to create a lotus flower, which was inspired by some of the objects that we got to see and handle at the museum as part of the new Indian exhibit.

The first person to the mould room was Mac. He was very patient as he waited for the plaster to finally set.

Mould making
By Jo Howell Photography

Whilst Cath is working on the creation of the hands, myself (Jo), Mick, and Barney (Studio Manager) will be doing our best to capture every second of the project so that we can make a wonderful film that we will broadcast online once the project is complete.

THE BEACH

The weather lately has been absolutely lush! (To use a great Sunderland colloquialism...) And, as the weather was so lush we thought that this was an opportune time to get the studio cameras out to take some photos.

Several members took the chance to jump in a taxi together and head down to the cat-and-dog steps at Seaburn beach. The studio provided us all a nice cup of tea or a soft drink, and the guys had great fun taking photographs.

We are going to edit the shots and share them via Facebook at a later date.

Seaburn Beach
By Jo Howell Photography

Remember for more info on projects and what the members are up to then you can check out our website or follow us on Facebook.

Kelp and seaweed
By Jo Howell Photograp

Painting the town red.....

Our painting workshop has been a great success! The members enjoyed learning all about colour mixing, and they produced some great work through the exercises that our lead artist set them.

The final workshop was definitely a bit of good fun- painting cupcakes which the members were then able to eat. All of the painting workshops were centred around the use of acrylic paints, so we are hoping that in the future we could branch out into oils and water colours with another round of workshops.

Cupcakes painted by two of The Art Studio Members
Photo by Jo Howell Photography

Alongside the painting workshops, the guys have been continuing with their own works. Mick has been working very hard across a number of mediums- print, ceramics and photography. This man has so much energy!

Mick creating his wishing well with Cath
Photo by Jo Howell Photography

And, finally we are just starting our very ambitious project in response to our visit to the Oriental Museum in Durham. The members are very excited about the project which is inspired by the new Indian Exhibition space at the museum. The members can create their own responses but we have also devised a project that will involve everybody in the studio.

You'll have to watch this space for more information on that though!
Follow us on Facebook or check out our website....