Sounding Out Colour and Texture – imagination and a tapestry weaving workshop

Posted on 10/06/201410/06/2014 by Alastair

A few weeks ago I took a tapestry weaving workshop over the weekend for the Crickhowell Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers. They had asked me if I could do a version of my workshop “Sounding out Colour and Texture”.

The workshop focus was sound and the intention was to help everyone to develop ideas for tapestry weaving by using a medium that may not have occurred to them previously. It wasn’t going to be possible in the time allowed to produce finished tapestries but we were able to experiment with different techniques and materials as a means of interpreting different aspects of sound.

The language used in describing sound relates very well to the language used in the visual arts and crafts. I am not talking of the technical terms connected to audio and tapestry weaving, but rather the interpretive, emotional terms used. Colour and texture, rhythm and melody.

We often hear the term “the tapestry of life” – the wide range of techniques and materials it is possible to use within tapestry weaving make it possible to represent any number of aspects of our emotional and physical lives and sound can be an excellent starting point for exploring those possibilities.

In these workshops I would also ask people to close their eyes and imagine what colour a sound might be or what it would feel like in their hands if they could grab a hold of it. The sound editing program I use, Adobe Audition, can show us the wave form of the sound and it can show us the “shape” of the sound in the spectral display, but it cannot tell us its texture and the colour it shows is only that selected by the user in the program’s preferences.

This is where the imagination comes in and helps us to develop the designs we may use to present an interpretation of a subject that could be said to have an extra dimension to it.

apart from looking at how different sounds appear visually on the spectral display of an editing program like Adobe Audition,

Josef Herman Schools Award Project 2014

Posted on 06/05/201406/05/2014 by Alastair

Art education is wide ranging and there are many different approaches to it, but at its core is learning to see. The primary and most effective way to learn to see is to draw. This, surely, must be at the beginning of every artist’s career – i.e. the moment, as children, we pick up a pencil, crayon, brush and make a mark with it.

Last week I was working with the Josef Herman Art Foundation Cymru on their 2014 Schools Award project. Following a tour of Ystradgynlais with Josef (1911 – 2000) played by actor Adrian Metcalfe and the “Clerk to the District Council” played by Sonia Beck, both from Lighthouse Theatre in Swansea, we ran workshops in drawing. We viewed the Foundation’s collection of Herman’s works in “The Welfare” and referenced a set of images provided by the Tate Museum for our drawing. We used both traditional drawing materials (pencil and charcoal on paper) and iPads. Sketchbook Pro has the facility to record the drawing you do on the iPad and you can see a couple of examples from the children at the bottom of this post.

Sonia invited us all back to the year 1954 when Josef Herman lived and worked in Ystradgynlais (for 11 years). She and Adrian did an excellent job of drawing us into believing that they were the real people which confused some of the children as they knew that he had died in 2000!

Swansea Structures

Posted on 19/04/201419/04/2014 by Alastair

The Reflection and Deflection of Light

Posted on 17/04/201417/04/2014 by Alastair

Concrete, glass and pebble dash – the outer materials of the Civic Centre building in Swansea. It is in a beautiful position on the seafront in Swansea bay and those working there may sometimes find the view somewhat distracting.

These are photos I have posted on Instagram recently and although, on this occasion, the quality of the photos leaves something to be desired, the images themselves are ones I find interesting – that’s why I took them I guess!

One reason for my interest is the effect the different surfaces have on the light that hits them. Whilst the the glass reflects the light and colour in a very direct way, the (originally) white surface of the walls deflects the direct sunlight from dazzling the eye too much because it has been textured with pebble dash. In the second shot the walls have also been given a vertical line pattern which further deflects the light.

Architectural Patterns

Posted on 16/04/201416/04/2014 by Alastair

Vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines, circles, squares, rectangles – these are the elements that make up the structures of so much, if not all architecture. Add in a bit of colour and some more angles and curves and the combinations of pattern are endless.

Symmetry seems sometimes to be a prerequisite in architectural design but it is when asymmetry is used that things get really exciting and no doubt, from the architects point of view, prohibitively expensive.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with the look of these buildings in Swansea’s maritime Quarter – there are plenty of those pattern combinations to be discovered. I do, however, think that it is a shame that imagination seems to come at a price.

Natural and Man-Made Thorns

Posted on 28/02/201428/02/2014 by Alastair

Bramble thorns and barbed wire – both are effective means of protection!

Barbed wire has been both a feature and a theme in my work as an artist for many years now. The idea to try including barbs within the weave of my tapestries came from my need to represent something of the tension I felt whilst listening to the peace talks in Northern Ireland back in the late 1990s. Having grown up in Belfast during the 60s and 70s, it seemed to me to be the perfect material to represent conflict as my memory is of there being so much of it around at the time.

The first people to see the first tapestries I wove that incorporated barbed wire, did not think of it as representing conflict except in terms of texture – the soft wool of the weft and the hard sharpness of the barbs. They were living in the local rural community of SE Wales and only thought of barbed wire as a material for use in farming.

Metaphor or not, for me the barbs still represent conflict and although that theme in my work has broadened over the years, it is still a fact that the hard, sharp material of spikes, either man-made or natural, are there to protect one thing against another where there is a conflict of interests.

I have included a photo of one of my earlier tapestries from this thematic period – if you would like to see more examples of my work, please visit Design Fibre ICT at www.acmd.co.uk

Tenses 4 – photograph by David Wibberly

More examples of my tapestry weaving can be seen at www.acmd.co.uk

A Tale of Two Cities

Posted on 06/01/201406/01/2014 by Alastair

Middlesbrough on New Year’s Day is the focus for this week’s posts. Last week I was looking at Belfast on Boxing Day and the lack of human activity there. Middlesbrough, on New Year’s Day, was quiet as well. Two reasons for this could be that people were recovering from the night’s festivities but the other is likely to have been the weather!

The weather on the first day of 2014 in the north east of England (if not the whole of the UK) was miserable, wet and windy. Flood warnings have been regular for many places at the end of one year and the start of the next and I feel sorry for all those who have suffered from these and the accompanying power cuts.

However, the photo below proves that it was not bad weather everywhere all of the time. The sunset reflected in the windows of Middlesbrough Town Hall as seen from MIMA on New Year’s Eve is evidence of that. Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art is a fantastic bit of architecture and always has fascinating exhibitions – we make a point of visiting it each time we are staying in the area with family.

The current exhibition by local artist William Tillyer occupies both of MIMA’s main galleries and although there were only about half a dozen works that we personally liked, the whole exhibition was interesting with some of the works being visually quite deceptive. I am not allowed to show photos from the show but you can click the links above to find out more.

This week’s featured StillWalks video is from Middlesbrough. Although the production for “Suburban Lakeside Walk” was done in the Winter, it was clearly much better weather than is evident in the iPhone photos I took around the lake this winter.

You can use the Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Suburban Lakeside Walk” which features Hemlington Lake in Middlesbrough. Click the image below to watch the video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

Art and Architecture in Belfast

Posted on 04/01/201404/01/2014 by Alastair

You will have to watch this weeks featured video to see more of the architecture of Belfast than is shown in the image below.

And the art? Some is intentional and some coincidental. Either way, how you look at something will affect how you see it. How you see something will affect how you understand it – and its possibilities!

You can use the Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “City Walk” which features Belfast, Northern Ireland on Boxing Day. Click the image below to watch the video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

Category Archives: art