Week 8

We are working on a range of projects at the moment. Some are exploring John Sell Cotman further whilst others are developing their Other Cultures paintings. Four of us started on our final project of term - family portrait. This is a challenging but exciting project that has created some wonderful conversations and reminiscences today, a true storytelling experience. We will be able to see the early family portrait images next week. Meantime, here are two images from the group:

Enrol early and beat the rush!

Existing learners can enrol and pay online from this Friday 29 November.
The Pastels course will start Thursday 9 January 2014.
You will need to use your class course code which is:

Thursday Pastels Class  P13BG0984

Click on this link to start your enrolment process:  http://www.gateshead.gov.uk/Education%20and%20Learning/Adult%20Learning/courses/courses.aspx

My Goals pilot form

We are trying to find new ways to make the paperwork required by the funders of our courses and OfSTED as useful as possible. One of these is the form where we set our own learning aims or goals on our courses as learners.

A big thanks to those who have already had a go using the pilot form. For those who have not yet tried it please do have a go and let your tutor see how you got on. Also if you can give your tutor some comments, positive and negative, about the new form that would be great.

Click on the picture below to download the form so you can either type in on your computer or print off and  complete by hand. Then bring it with you to your next class or email it to Bernard.

Week 7

A mixed portfolio of work this week with folks working on either their Other Cultures project, their Cotman project, whilst some started planning their final "Family Portrait" project. Excellent paintings emerging as can be see below.

Bob

Christine

Anne

Moira

Janice

Week 7 Cotman Project continued

We continued our Cotman project this week. Anne had finished so she started her Other Cultures project. An excellent set of paintings in progress. It was great to have Bob and Moira back after being unwell. We also send our best wishes to Karen and hope we will see her again soon.

Len

Moira

Christine

Janice

Bob

Other Cultures Project: further information and resources

Practical Hot Tip: when choosing your example from Islamic Art choose a small detail that you particularly like. Enlarge this detail for your A3 sheet of paper rather than trying to replicate the whole image. This will not only make it easier it will also help you to understand better the qualities in this way of creating art.

There are new resources for our Other Cultures project in the Resource Page "Equality and Diversity" on the right of this page.

You will find:

• links to images showing examples from non-figurative medieval Islamic
• links to information on the beliefs and ethics and how these influenced the arts in Islamic countries
• links to information that show how modern the thinking and attitude was towards the arts in medieval Islamic art and culture and how interesting this is when compared to the so-called abstract revolution in 20th century art thinking
• the important role maths was playing in the visual and spiritual works of this culture

From these links:

1. Try to find out why Islamic art did not show the world in a figurative or representative way. 

2. Try to find out why geometry was considered a good metaphor for the spiritual world.
3. Find out how maths came into the thinking behind the art and its meaning.

It's all there in our resource pages and the links. The information is short and clear, it won't take more than say 30 minutes to find the answers so don't panic!

Week 6

We started our "In the style of...John Sell Cotman" project this week, photos next time. A small group this week due to illness. Here are our mixed media paintings competed plus one from the new project. Paintings are looking great:

Anne

Christine

Janice

Len

Other Cultures (follows our Cotman Project)

Other Cultures Projects 2013/2014

Our project after we complete the John Sell Cotman Project, is looking at non-figurative patterns in ancient art from other cultures especially Islam. Here is an advance preview guide to that project. In our Resources Page "Equality & Diversity" you will find a sample collection from a variety of sources such as the V&A Museum, London., The Muslim Times Online, and Wikipedia. I will add more soon and some contextual background information. Meanwhile use any of these for your patterns or have a search for similar ones online or in your local public library. You will also need some gold paint from a craft shop e.g. Details in Newcastle. This will add a bit of excitement to your paintings!!