Bog Art

There has been another Art in the Forest workshop since my last blog post – but I will save that till next time. I really want to show you what I’ve been up to these last few days. Having taught myself how to use the Adobe Design Suite, a session creating a digital image can vary from exasperating to very satisfying. I can’t always remember how to do it, and sometimes the computer just says “no” and we fall out. This week all went well. I drew the wellies of a dutch man standing on 3000 years of peat and the bright sticky face of a sundew. The I just converted these into digital images using Adobe Illustrator. This means they can be blown up to enormous proportions without becoming all pixelated (by the word“just” I mean -  spent 2 days hunched over the laptop). “Why?  I hear you ask. Well, once printed, kiddies will be able to measure their height in peat age and then throw soft velcro coated fly-like objects at the sticky bits of the sundew. Why else?

The sticky sundew - aim, fire!

A 3m high roller banner 

Art in the Forest no. 2 & 3

Another two workshops have been and gone. A full house today for some lino cutting after snow, toothache and broozed ribs got in the way of fun for some the week before. We started off each workshop with a little more drawing looking for line and shapes to represent form and light and produce a pleasing pattern. We moved away from vegetables and used a selection of photos as reference material. Princess Neptune made an appearance in indian ink, as did Dennis and a few other familiar characters. During the lino session we revisited some of our earlier studies and developed them a stage further into a more graphic, monotone composition.

A little Dennis shaped demo

The lino cuts themselves were as lovely as the prints taken from them

More of our work and sources of inspiration on Pinterest (when I get 5 mins to upload them!) 

Art in the Forest no. 1

Happy New Year! Bit late, but what’s new. What is a new, is that I’ve started a series of art workshops deep in Borgie Forest. The programme has been funded by Highlife Highland providing a creative outlet on our doorstep. Having delivered a number of individual workshops on various themes, I found that there was often too much to cover in  one day’s event. The grant enables me to facilitate a programme of learning at very low cost to those attending. Nothing too serious, just a bit of fun in the forest, an opportunity to get out of the house and mix with a bunch of like-minded new friends. So, we’ve started with some drawing techniques using various forms of graphite and charcoal. More of the 8 lovely ladies, lots of cake and a cosy log fire to look forward to next week, when we dabble in a bit of ink......

Drawing each other – 64 quick 2 minutes sketches

Hands on mark making - 8 quick group compositions

Vegetable matter close up – working up an appetite

Vegetable matter enlarged – working off the cakes!