Life drawing, discussions and presentation by Carl Rowe
This was a three part event all held in the East Gallery, Cavendish House.
The first stage was a life drawing session presented by Siphiwe Mnguni (https://www.select-works.com/siphiwe-mnguni). Siphiwe is a practising artist based in London and the session we attended was about looking to abstract the model rather than just representing the person. This session was only for an hour, which is a shame, as it was at the point I felt comfortable enough to start moving out of my comfort zone we ran out of time. However, it did provide the opportunity to see how you could go beyond just recording the figure in front of you. The image below is when we worked with the person next to us, with one drawing the outline and then the other creating the tonal work or detail within the outline. I found this really rewarding and have looked to take this process on in other studies and looking to create a series of images based on the one below.
The other images we created have become a bank of opportunities to develop into a collection of studies. I have looked to take them in the form they were draw in and explore how they could become part of a set of images in the same style but also varying the colours used. They were only 5 or 7 minute sketches and normally these would just be looked at and tucked away in a drawer but I am looking forward to seeing how they may progress.
Below are the images taken to the basic outlines and some prepared MDF boards to put the images on. The MDF was just left over from a shelf unit I had taken down, which I cut down to approx 320 square, sanded down and primed. They are 15mm thick, so quite substantial and have a good profile. I intend to put a different base colour on each one and paint each image in different colours but tonally similar. The small image in the pics below was a test oil painting of the original sketch to see how it would translate and one thing I found worked best was to actually still use a piece of charcoal to create the outline after the paint had been applied. I also didn't under-paint this or indeed put a base colour on, something I will do with the larger versions.
The second session of the day was much more focussed on the project by Hospital Rooms (https://hospital-rooms.com/) about the recently completed project at Northside House (a medium secure unit for men in Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) and provides care to people who have a severe and enduring mental health diagnosis and have been in touch with the criminal justice system), this was led by Pheobe Eustance (https://hospital-rooms.com/) The process was explained and various outcomes were discussed. The difference it made to all who are residents of Northside House was something that really came through the talk. They took ownership of the work displayed as they had been involved in the initial stages where the various selected artists had held workshops to explore how they could create work for the project. One of the most positive outcomes was one individual who on being so inspired by the process put forward a proposal of his own, which was then acted upon and became a part of the installation. “This project has helped to free individuals from the perceived shackles of detainment, diagnosis, risk and hopelessness.” Su Pashley, People Participation Lead (NSFT).
Carl Rowe’s ‘BE’ originated in an artwork made by a service user with the words ‘be younique’.
Cara Nahaul's finished piece (https://www.caranahaul.co.uk/exhibitions/hospitalrooms)
The final part of the day was a talk by the recently retired Head of Fine Art at NUA, Carl Rowe, (https://www.carlrowe.co.uk/). Carl discussed not just this project but gave a background to his practice and how became involved in Hospital Rooms. What was really interesting was the process all the artists went through to deliver workshops at Northside House and how this informed them of how they were to all take their work on. This is the second involvement with Hospital Rooms Carl has been involved in and the previous piece was also discussed. To get this sort of insight into the thought process and intended outcome was invaluable and really helped to understand how much goes on in the background.
All three sessions were highly informative and thought provoking in many ways. From looking at how to work with Hospital Rooms to an insight in what it takes to develop a project of this size and some of the restrictions but most importantly what everyone gets out of the final outcome and continues to do so when all the artists have left. Northside House and more importantly its residents, you like to think, are a lot better within themselves for the whole experience.