Polly Woolstone Talk and Demonstration - "Mixed Media and Textiles"
Tuesday 10th October 2023, 2.00 - 4.00pm in the Pavilion
Tuesday 10th October 2023, 2.00 - 4.00pm in the Pavilion
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.
Meeting Report
A great demonstration and well attended. Polly was so enthusiastic! She had a camera taped to a desk lamp which gave a close up view of her work. Polly, who is a retired teacher, started using this for Zoom presentations and it worked very well.
The meeting started with a talk and slide show of sketches from Polly's travels by bicycle at home and abroad. She spoke for an hour with only the slides for reference.
After a break for refreshments, Polly gave us a crash course on multimedia picture making. She started off by pasting pieces of magazine to her board (wallpaper paste or matt medium) and adding gesso to some areas to create texture. Having by now hidden the white board, she proceeded to paste on pieces of 'teabag' paper. These had images or patterns made by various printmaking techniques. All the pieces had torn edges rather than straight cuts. The final stage was to introduce colour with acrylic paint. For a finished piece, Polly would continue until she felt it was complete. There was not sufficient time for the work to dry so Polly demonstrated on several pieces of paper using a 'Here's one I made earlier' process.
The audience were fascinated and many expressed an interest in a follow-up workshop.
Thanks to Bob Marchant for his meeting report and for taking the photographs:
A great demonstration and well attended. Polly was so enthusiastic! She had a camera taped to a desk lamp which gave a close up view of her work. Polly, who is a retired teacher, started using this for Zoom presentations and it worked very well.
The meeting started with a talk and slide show of sketches from Polly's travels by bicycle at home and abroad. She spoke for an hour with only the slides for reference.
After a break for refreshments, Polly gave us a crash course on multimedia picture making. She started off by pasting pieces of magazine to her board (wallpaper paste or matt medium) and adding gesso to some areas to create texture. Having by now hidden the white board, she proceeded to paste on pieces of 'teabag' paper. These had images or patterns made by various printmaking techniques. All the pieces had torn edges rather than straight cuts. The final stage was to introduce colour with acrylic paint. For a finished piece, Polly would continue until she felt it was complete. There was not sufficient time for the work to dry so Polly demonstrated on several pieces of paper using a 'Here's one I made earlier' process.
The audience were fascinated and many expressed an interest in a follow-up workshop.
Thanks to Bob Marchant for his meeting report and for taking the photographs:
Read more about Polly and see some of her work on Facebook