Polly Woolstone Workshop - "Make your Own Concertina Sketchbook"
Saturday 17th February 2024, 10am to 4pm in the Pavilion
Workshop Report
Saturday 17th February 2024, 10am to 4pm in the Pavilion
Workshop Report
Polly Woolstone's workshop took place at the Pavilion next to the Memorial Hall with 13 members of the Lechlade Art Society.
The brief was to create marks and impressions, and to apply materials into the many facets of your concertina paper without any intention of forming a painting. These sketchbook results are for replicating over to a different piece of artwork of your making. The concertina originals are to be retained and treasured by you as books.
We started by joining our white cartridge paper lengths together making appropriate folds to form our concertinas. Spontaneous marks, made with anything to hand, using paints, inks, wax and crayons were then made across the paper form, leaving no white areas. Sponges, sticks, plastics, and wooden objects, loosened with water or Milton bleach, gave us fascinating marks to inspire.
Having then been given two sheets of thin speciality tea-paper by Polly, we took up making a stamp cut-out in foam board. We then got to work stamping and painting into our two tea-paper sheets. Then we ripped them by hand randomly and applied the pieces to our concertina surfaces with wallpaper glue.
Allowing some drying time, our last process was to knock back our work. Using softening strokes of translucent white gesso here and there, we painted back into our sketchbooks with receding, strong white flourishes.
After a tiring and satisfying day of work, all concertina sketchbooks were completed with confidence and thought. An excellent workshop once again.
Gill Cox, Workshop Co-ordinator
The brief was to create marks and impressions, and to apply materials into the many facets of your concertina paper without any intention of forming a painting. These sketchbook results are for replicating over to a different piece of artwork of your making. The concertina originals are to be retained and treasured by you as books.
We started by joining our white cartridge paper lengths together making appropriate folds to form our concertinas. Spontaneous marks, made with anything to hand, using paints, inks, wax and crayons were then made across the paper form, leaving no white areas. Sponges, sticks, plastics, and wooden objects, loosened with water or Milton bleach, gave us fascinating marks to inspire.
Having then been given two sheets of thin speciality tea-paper by Polly, we took up making a stamp cut-out in foam board. We then got to work stamping and painting into our two tea-paper sheets. Then we ripped them by hand randomly and applied the pieces to our concertina surfaces with wallpaper glue.
Allowing some drying time, our last process was to knock back our work. Using softening strokes of translucent white gesso here and there, we painted back into our sketchbooks with receding, strong white flourishes.
After a tiring and satisfying day of work, all concertina sketchbooks were completed with confidence and thought. An excellent workshop once again.
Gill Cox, Workshop Co-ordinator
Photographs taken by Gill during the workshop:
Polly writes about herself:
My work is inspired by journeys I take. Whenever I travel I take a sketchbook, recording what I observe and feel. My travels have taken me all round the world, but I draw particular inspiration from landscapes in the UK and Ireland and my many visits to India.
I try to express both physical and emotional journeys, sometimes incorporating poems and words that resonate. Working in mixed media and textiles, my work combines my love of colour, pattern, texture and mark-making and I often incorporate photographs and drawings that I create on these trips.
Working in my studio at the bottom of my garden in Oxford, I use my recordings and photographs to create atmospheric pieces that show the passage of time. Landscapes are full of echoes of the past such as drovers’ roads, hill forts, derelict buildings, field patterns and stone walls.
I work in a range of 2D media, often mixing several together; paper, collage, mark-making, fabric, stitch and photography.
My work is inspired by journeys I take. Whenever I travel I take a sketchbook, recording what I observe and feel. My travels have taken me all round the world, but I draw particular inspiration from landscapes in the UK and Ireland and my many visits to India.
I try to express both physical and emotional journeys, sometimes incorporating poems and words that resonate. Working in mixed media and textiles, my work combines my love of colour, pattern, texture and mark-making and I often incorporate photographs and drawings that I create on these trips.
Working in my studio at the bottom of my garden in Oxford, I use my recordings and photographs to create atmospheric pieces that show the passage of time. Landscapes are full of echoes of the past such as drovers’ roads, hill forts, derelict buildings, field patterns and stone walls.
I work in a range of 2D media, often mixing several together; paper, collage, mark-making, fabric, stitch and photography.