Lego is fun

Someone made the mistake of bringing a box of Lego to the house. I was instantly absorbed for a whole bunch of hours and made a MAD MAX inspired vehicle.

Sure, some might suggest that this sort of thing isn't worth blogging, but hell, Lego is fun.

Student Ambassador: Making a Mess and Heat Press

We began the session by encouraging the students to throw a variety of materials around on a large piece of paper. This, we thought would encourage them to be more adventurous with their work. With 20 minutes before the students arrived I created an example piece:

Ideally, the artwork would be based on the experiences at the sculpture park, of course there are some exceptions where a student may decide to deviate any draw a lizard or something.

I used some amount of reference for both of the large pieces I made, the former being a Henry Moore form, while the latter being a study of stone henge.

While this task had originally been conceived as a warm-up, we granted the students more time to finish their work, as they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

I have not made use of heat-press printing before so I made the most of the opportunity. In between photocopying and enlarging student work, I managed to produce a couple of prints onto cotton.

The prints are somewhat difficult to make out on screen, and are better seen in person. The pattern was based on a study of rock texture, and then reflected using the witchcraft of photocopiers.

Student Ambassador: Yorkshire Sculpture Park

To launch the three-day summer progression school we visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
We had a brief tour of the 'Family of Man' sculptures by Barbara Hepworth. The students were asked to interpret the gender of each of the figures, which was amusing.

We had ample opportunity to make some observational drawings of artworks, broken by a short lunch.
In addition to abundance of sculpture, there was also a Rob Ryan exhibition, which was described by the tour guide as the exact opposite from Moore's sculptures.
While Moore's quest was for form, and perhaps the greater advancement of art, Rob Ryan is a businessman, who pursues craft.

There was, inevitably rain, because this is the north.

Time limited my picture taking, as well as the peculiar restriction of photography in the interior gallery. There was a moment when we were quite happily discussing tools and process in one room, when an elderly couple 'shushed' all 30-odd of the us. I was amused by this reminder of the often reverential characteristic of galleries.

Pratt & Whitney Wasp Engine

Otley Bicycle Race 2015

It was pretty darn hot today, broken only by a welcome rainstorm. The atmosphere of the race was typically English, with the obligatory red-faced shirtless blokes on hand to scream encouraging obscenities at cyclists.

The turn out was a little quieter than last year, the heat had probably discouraged many. Indeed, I have seen a bunch of people hiding in their cars in order to exploit the aircon systems.

I really liked this cloud. It was too perfect, as if the painter Bierstadt had put it there.