It’s been a while since I blogged. A few injuries and less exploration with my camera has lead to a very quiet few months.
However I am preparing for an exhibition with fellow photographers, opening in October. It’s part of the Love Arts Leeds 2016 festival programme. Exploring Yorkshire, selects photos from our trips out with our cameras, into the beauty that is Yorkshire. Capturing people, landscapes, weather in all seasons, details, wide open spaces, the quirks of the British. Our exploration keeps us well, being outdoors and taking notice are just two of the ways to wellbeing.

Below are a selection of my images, looking at textures and our interaction with our environments. I am fascinated by patterns, tones and hidden details. 

 

 

 

As a special LPE trip in conjunction with my birthday celebrations this weekend, myself and some of the members of the Leeds Photography Excursion group decided to take a steam train to Haworth and step back in time.
Commemorating all things 1940’s, there are attractions such as vehicles from WW2, a Spitfire, talks, 1940’s songs and dances. Many of the visitors join in with the dressing up, lots of victory curls, army fatigues, and tea dresses were on show. Below is a snapshot of the days visual spectacular.

Travelling by steam train

Classic buses took us to the top of Haworth Village

The many costumes that make up the visual spectacular that is 1940’s weekend

A really rather busy Main Street

Details and landscapes

 

The current exhibit at The Tetley is No Quiet Place. 

Using a spectrum of approaches to production, exhibiting artists share an interest in mixing visual and sonic elements within their work. Some installations embrace the cacophony of contemporary culture’s accelerated pace, whilst others lament it, wistfully dreaming of a time and place reserved for quieter contemplation.

I am really interested in using our different senses when creating art work, and finding ways to inspire the imaginations of the participants. So the idea of using sound to create visual art work really appealed to me.

The idea of Sound Weaves (catchy name for a workshop, I thought so too!), was to listen to the sounds that were broadcast in the room, rummage through the many different materials that were on offer and create their own unique weave. I visited Scrap, located in Sunnybank Mills in Farsley, before the workshop, and picked a plethora of materials, different textures, colours, fabrics; as well as foraging for sticks and bits & pieces that nature had thrown down for me (living near the grounds of Kirkstall Abbey, this was an ideal location to find what I needed).

The participants also had a choice of creating a frame for their weaving from sticks and string, or to use material I had bought from Scrap (offcuts and trade waste), which fitted perfectly for what we where doing.

Above, a young participant creating their loom using natural materials.

Above, inspired by the sound of the sea.

Above, the finished result, embellished with fish and sea creatures, and making good use of the catkins I’d picked up from underneath a willow tree, as sea plants.

Above, inspired by the sounds of Australia, birds, the sea and lightening.

Above, the sound of someone running up the steps; 70’s music; african drums represented by the red; flowers from a british meadow; leather representing cows mooing (a very literal interpretation); green fields; tartan of the flying scotsman steam train.

Above, a collaborative creation by a mother and a daughter.

Above, finished piece, which will hung proudly at home.

If you want to listen to the playlist (of odd sounds, globally inspired music and natures soundtrack) you can here:

Sound Weaves, YouTube playlist

I enjoyed the workshop, and want to do more things involving different materials, and being inspired by using different senses.

 

 

Well! The sunshine hampered us beating our record attendance at the last workshop. But, it was steady enough the whole day, and the participants really enjoyed the activity (some families stayed for a while and created a number of pieces).

The popular technique this session was embossing. And many of them were inspired by the palm trees of Roger Palmer’s exhibition.

 

 

Holy Week 2016

Today has been by far the busiest workshop I have ever delivered! It even appeared to have broken Tetley records, as we logged over 342 visitors during the four hours we were active.
The tile embossing seemed to be a hit with the children, and the sharpie pens were great for colouring over the aluminium foil (something that was discovered by one of the visitors!). Also the paper weaving was fun, the colours matching sunrises, trees and oceans, some even embellished by adding their own designs on top. We ran out of tiles as we were so busy, so we had improvise and found card worked just as well. Some of the parents I spoke with liked the ideas we were using and I explained how they can do the activities at home with their children, and how they can make their own versions.

Below is some photographs I managed to take during the workshop (my usual document taker was unavailable).