Exhibitions, hard work and Alice in Sunderland

Art Studio Sunderland

News update: 

We have an exhibition of pinhole photography in Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens Open Gallery Space from November 7th 2015 until January 24th 2016. For more information click on our page headed 'Pinhole Photography'.

Exhibition poster (Click to enlarge)

We will be showing work with Alice150 in their exhibition in Sunderland University Design centre from November 16th 2015 until November 23rd 2015. With one of our members due to collect a prize in the competition. 

Tanya Howat, Harlequin Elephant Teapot, Alice150 Competition

Alice150 Competition Photography group entry

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.

What's been going on?

Photography

In the last few weeks we have been taking our chances when they occur and have headed out into the local vicinity to get some interesting photographs. Here are some of the examples from the members:

"Web" by William Heathway 2014

"Boat" by Conor Hanley 2014

The guys have been working on their composition within the frame. We have been looking at the rule of thirds and then trying to use it to create an aesthetically pleasing image. These photography walks have so far been around the area that the Art Studio is in Hendon and down towards the river.

"The Heaven" by Steven Gallagher 2014

Ceramics

In ceramics the guys have been working tirelessly to create their final piece for exhibition at The Oriental Museum in January 2015. They have also been learning how to coil build with our new member of staff, Lois.

Ceramic Hands by Jo Howell

Printmaking

In the printmaking workshops we have been creating some really lovely responses to Indian art, also for The Oriental Museum exhibition.
Our printmaker Karen has been unwell lately, so a lot of hard work has been put in by the members to ensure that the work is top quality.

Hand print by one of the members
Photo by Jo Howell

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....

Painting Workshops in May...

Painting workshops in May 2014
Photo by Jo Howell

Painting workshops in May 2014
Photo by Jo Howell

Hi Everyone,

We have started running an evening course in painting for our members on a Thursday evening after our normal studio day.

A local artist is teaching our workshops, and its a great excuse to use The Art Studio building much more. At the moment these course are only for the members but we will be holding some workshops for the wider public in the near future, so watch this space!

Starting with basic colour mixing, today the members have been trying their hands at creating their own colours from the 3 primary colours.

(NB: For those who were not in the session the primary colours are RED, YELLOW and BLUE.)

Using a colour wheel to guide them the members used the primary colours to create the secondary colours- GREEN, ORANGE, PURPLE. Then after making the secondary colours they completed the colour wheel by creating two more secondary colours that were in-between the two.

This proved to be an interesting as well as challenging exercise for some and for others the evening served as an excellent refresher for basic colour.

Everyone came away having learned a lot about mixing colours. The course will run throughout May, and we are looking forward to learning new skills.

If you couldn't attend the evening course but don't want to miss out, you can have a go at home. Create your colour chart by drawing around a decent sized dinner plate, and then segment your circle into 12 sections. Start with YELLOW, RED and BLUE then try to build the rest of your colours in the wheel using only those 3. Good luck!

Painting workshops in May 2014
Photo by Jo Howell

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Eggsellent work and drawing classes....

The Art Studio Drawing workshop
Photo by Karen Dodsworth

The Art Studio Drawing workshop
Photo by Karen Dodsworth

Well, time has flown over and Easter is upon us. Our fantastic drawing classes have finished. Everyone had a great time and they learned so many new things with our local artist Michael.

They tried drawing with various materials and tried new ways of seeing or mark making.

Hopefully, we will get Michael back in to do more workshops in the future.

We have also had a fun little competition creating painted easter eggs. Some of them are very interesting but I will only post the winner here:

The winning egg!

Well done Andy!


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