My wonderful boss told me to go on this CPD (continuing professional development) course at Kew Gardens because he thought it would stretch me creatively and be an interesting angle to bring to the school. My background being in illustration and drawing/painting going on a sculpture course seemed a bit scary. I can categorically state that it was a brilliant move by my boss and I had the BEST time. Not only did I actually make a sculpture (I know – shocker) but I quite like it and managed to sneak in some drawing too.
The day was to look at the work of David Nash who is artist in residence at Kew Gardens and talk about the how, the why and the effect of his work in situ at Kew and think about how we can translate these thoughts and ideas into our classrooms. I will need to talk to the rest of the dept about how we can include any David Nash in our schemes of work as we do very little (read: no) sculpture currently, but personally I loved it and got a lot out of the day.
Some of my favorite images from the day. I took my Canon 1100D and macro lenses (macro shots to follow in a different post) as well as a sketchbook.
Kew Gardens and David Nash Sculpture: (He uses wood in various forms and cuts, chops, breaks and burns it to create his work)
Here are some shots of the sculpture I made out of prepared willow and the resulting drawings:
I am a big fan of natural and organic shapes in sculpture and wanted to keep it simple so I could create drawings in response to the shape and the shadows it cast so that the drawings did not get over complicated.
This day was what this blog is all about – pushing myself to try new media in new ways and find new artists to inspire and invigorate my work.
As always comments and ideas welcome!
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