Drawing faces in wire inspired by Alexander Calder
Saturday 3rd October at 10:00am – 4:00pm
Inspired by the wire portraits of the celebrated sculptor Alexander Calder, this playful new workshop with metalwork artist Philippa Johnston offers an opportunity to loosen up your drawing practice and explore the potential of wire as a drawing tool. Using one liner, blind contour and other drawing exercises, we’ll generate lots of quick line drawings and take forward our favourites into wire. We’ll then move onto creating more considered portraits, using wire to translate our drawings into 3-D.
We’ll be working with soft black iron wire in different gauges which is wonderfully easy to manipulate and offers lots of scope to go big or small. As part of the workshop, we’ll explore different forms of presentation from hanging them in the air to mounting onto blocks.
A range of photographic resources (including images by Man Ray and Cindy Shepherd) will be on hand but do please bring any you would like to work from. (One option might be to create a series of family portraits.) There will also be a number of books by Alexander Calder myself to browse through.
All materials and tools will be supplied including a range of drawing media (ink, charcoal, monoprinting inks etc.) but feel free to bring along your own favourites.
This is an exploratory workshop which artists interested in freeing up their practice might find especially useful as working with wire really encourages you to simplify and abstract what you see. Expect to be surprised!
Philippa Johnston is a metalwork artist based in Dunning in Perthshire whose work with wire has drawing at its heart. A great admirer of the work of Alexander Calder, she’s just returned from visiting his major retrospective in Paris. Philippa is currently working on ideas for a new wire installation project, Frida’s house, a playful reimagining of Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul with its flora and fauna. Catch up with what she’s doing on Instagram @philippajohnston257
Suitable for 18+.
To book, Please click on this Eventbrite link