Still Life box by Jane Wolfe   I had intended to add a few of these images to my newsletter, but this collection of work is so good, I wanted to write more about them, so I am writing an extra blog post. The three students mentioned today are on the current online Experimental Textiles course. When drawing and painting is not normally part of your practice, it can very daunting to paint and draw a still life. I don't ask students to draw for the sake of making a picture, I ask so they can actively look at line and form. The spaces in between, the composition. Above - Jane's still life. Below - the still life drawing Jane's finished box. The still life was stuck to orange cotton then cut to shape and folded.   To make drawing and painting a still life less terrifying, I tell my students they will be tearing their work up when the they have finished drawing and painting. This helps to take away the fear of what the finished drawing or painting will look like. To make it more ...

One of Denise's prints I taught the August session of Look. Draw. Stitch. this weekend. Three lovely students, we had a great time and what fabulous work they produced. I have had to really sort through all the images I took. It has been difficult to choose. I run the Look. Draw. Stitch. weekends from January to November. So far this year we have ranged from one student to four. Next year when I move into the studio I hope to have six every month. Anyone can come - whether you have worked with me before - or not. Most students just come once, others come a couple of times a year. This weekend we had Susan from Australia. Denise from New Zealand and Rosie from West Clare! Usually students are from the UK or Ireland but these 2 antipodean ladies planned my workshop into their holiday in Ireland - good forward planning.  We started the weekend with a bit of drawing, nothing too terrifying. I have plenty of interesting things to draw inside and outside the house. We are ne...

It used to be an apple for the teacher . . . . So - we have had the fourth session of Experimental Textiles already - time is flying. I save the still life until the fourth session as by then as the groups are feeling more comfortable with each other and friendships are starting to form. The girls are all starting to support each other. Drawing and painting in front of other people is always uncomfortable. Few of us are naturally talented, but the exercise of looking and recording what you see is very valuable. I find that asking the groups to draw and paint a large scale still life is a bit less scary for them than a smaller scale one. The weekend group concentrating hard on their drawings. We spent the whole of the first day of the two day sessions making various drawings and paintings, using a range of media. Several of the drawings/paintings will be torn up the next day to create a collage. Telling the students that their work may well be torn up makes them place l...