Thursday, June 18, 2009

thinking about colour...







Just before Easter ...a few months ago now...I started offering classes and workshops again after a considerable break due to relocation from one city to another, and all the accompanying readjustments that come with such changes. Things kicked off with a special one-off workshop for 20 participants organised by The Colour Society of Queensland in April conducted at the Qld University of Technology right next to the Botanical gardens in the heart of the City. I could not have asked for a better launch in the new city. It was a wonderful energised 3.5 hour session with much focused discussion between small groups, a series of lively concepts for people to play with on paper, a show and tell segment where people had brought their favourite items from home that could hint at their own colour story...and one task that received great feedback...participants had to employ their least preferred colours all at once in a simple design based on geometric shapes...working with colour pencils and other mediums to hand. This was a very engaging exercise that proved to have very curious results for many. 
Since that day I have had contact with quite a few wonderful people who attended. See my bloglist for Chrissy Foreman's Blog. She came to visit at my studio and was the inspiration for me to get started blogging...Many thanks Chrissy! She has just completed a Mural project which she documented on her blog and you can read about there. Moving to a new city challenges one to find new connections that open doors and that day was a wonderful opening in different directions. Big thanks also to Karin who is a bright, fast moving star connecting people all over to new ideas, people and places. How wonderful that at a  gathering of people to look more closely at colour I should meet so many vibrant people who in some cases are still making gestures of hospitality and connection months later.
I followed this with a 4 hour workshop on textile printing and painting with a small group and then this term i have had 2 different classes start up for school age students once a week. One can learn so much facilitating learning for others. I love this way it seems to work...that in the application to finding those things to stimulate the minds and souls of one's class you discover what you need to think about more yourself. 
Below is a rather unusual find...and it is a wonderful example of how colour found in nature can be quite thrilling and almost shocking at times. When visiting an artist on her bush property north of Sydney sometime ago I noticed this extraordinary piece of electric green moss like funghi growing under a rock ledge in spectacular bushland



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