Arts and Faith Weekend, February 2014

For those of you who are regular readers of my blog, you'll have noticed that I have been combining my Christian faith and my art journaling a lot more recently.

I have been a part of the Arts & Faith Network of the Chester Diocese for a while now, since their 'Breathing Space' event a couple of years ago, and I'll be teaching at their next event in February next year [see details below]

"Building on the success of its previous workshop days, the Arts & Faith Network is extending its ‘Breathing Space’ format to a weekend for Candlemas, entitled ‘Light Work’ on 1st/2nd February 2014, at Foxhill Conference Centre, Frodsham.

The weekend offers an opportunity to work with local Christian artists and teachers [I'm one of them!!!], including Guest Speaker, sculptor Stephen Broadbent, as well as worship and prayer with an accent on creativity, and time to relax and chill out, maybe with a wintry walk in the grounds. Workshop activities offer a choice of creative writing, and singing, alongside a range of hands-on art activities [including art journaling!]"

And the best news?

There is no charge for this event.

Residential places are limited, so prompt booking is advised. Some day places are available.
For further details and booking information please contact Jane Hood: email jane.hood@chester.anglican.org, or telephone 01928 718834 ext 257.

New Wine North 3:16 Art Exhibition

Sorry for the delay in this post.  When we got back from our hols we discovered the boiler had broken, and a few days later, that it couldn't be fixed and we needed a new one.  I have done an enormous amount of clearing out in the house whilst arranging for all the radiators to be easily accessible.  All done now, although the clearing out still needs to continue!!

 So here, as promised, are some photos from the exhibition of work from New Wine North 2013.  We displayed the work in the areas we'd been teaching in.

My white paper 'tablecloth' had gained some fabulous areas of inkiness over the course of the week so I embellished them a little before displaying all the little books on black card.

 The tags added to the little book above gave such a lovely feel to the whole thing.

As I was putting the above book out on display I noticed the creator of it had made a tiny version using the same fold and added it to a page - such a fab idea!

 The above pictures were displayed within the general art area.  People could come in each afternoon and use materials to create.  There were some fabulous pieces.  The orange piece above is created with a single line.  Below I've shared photos of most of the other areas

willow lanterns

fretwork

copper foiled stained glass

watercolour

upcycling

lino and screen printing

This was my very favourite piece though, drawn by a little girl.  I'd frame this but it wasn't for sale... reminds me of Quentin Blake's illustrations!

What a privilege ...

 ... to teach so many people new to art journaling at New Wine NE 2013.  I taught almost 100 people (some people came back again, and some again again! so I'm not sure of the exact number) over the week and it was one of the most fabulous things I've ever done.  Only one or two had even heard of art journaling.

The 3:16 arts venue was in a large marquee last year but this year we had a whole cattle shed!   It was huge! People had the opportunity to take classes in so many different art activities including watercolour, lino cutting, screen printing, fret cutting, stained glass (copper foiling), sculpture, proddy rug flowers, weave a prayer, stitch a prayer, canvas art, felting, mosaic, willow lanterns, creating from driftwood and sea glass ..... and more...

... including art journaling with me!  This collection of tables, more or less in the middle of the room, was my space for the week.

My maximum of 11 people per class soon stretched to the 13 we could fit around the tables.

And that pristine white paper was soon beautifully coloured with oversprayed ink, paint and stamped images.

One of the things I LoVe about teaching workshops is seeing the colour combinations other people put together.

It was also great to see people just enjoying the freedom to play with paint and ink and rubber stamps.  One young lad said it was the first piece of art he'd done that he actually liked!  Others loved the freedom from rules, although some found this really scary at first!

At the end of the week we held an exhibition of work, which I'll share in my next post :)

a couple of journal pages

I am always absolutely exhausted at the start of the school summer holidays and it usually takes me a couple of weeks to wind down and start feeling relaxed.  This year I got stuck straight in to some journaling and journaled for a good couple of days.  It was bliss!