WEEK 9
Artists in attendance 11
Abstraction quite a difficult thing to get your head around if you’re over 60 and have very rigid ideas of what ‘real’ art is. Most of the group said they didn’t see the skill in abstract, until I mentioned artists such as Miro, Kandinsky and Barbara Hepworth. I think the fact that these artists were famous gave their work value.
I have to remind my self that growing up in the 40’s and 50’s was very different than growing up in the 70’s and now. Society was very rigid and people did practical things and gender roles were very specific, people weren’t encouraged to use their imaginations or even to dream. You ask a 70 yr old what were there dreams when they were young adults and I bet you get such answers as “I didn’t have any dreams” “having a job” “owning a house” and “having a family” all things very achievable in those days. Lots of our older generation only sees watercolour or oils as art. They may not even consider sculpture, textiles, or photography as art as “there is no skill to it.
So i’m up against it, trying to open there eyes to abstraction, i’m trying to get the pint across that art should be personal, fun and for them, not for the viewer. If you have don’t have confidence in your art works the viewer can give you that but then you are just making art that other people have to like to make it good. Where’s the fun in that???
I gave each artist a small paper frame and asked them to choose an image that they liked, and then to frame a part of it and draw or paint that part. Within minutes the group had stopped looking at their original image and were off creating shapes and colours from their own imaginations. Hurrah!
I talked to individuals and pointed this out “oh well I just seemed to get carried away”, “it’s just so relaxing”, “I thought that this shape would look better here so I did it” were some of the comments I received.
The general consensus of the group was that they didn’t feel so pressured because it didn’t look like anything so no one could judge it against the real object. (Always going back to what other people think aaarrrrrrrrg!
The abstract theme will be carried on for the next couple of weeks at the end of it hopefully they will have many sketches and will have completed a final large piece on canvas.
Next week we have our first guest artist coming Ria Roberts who will be facilitating a workshop in collaboration ‘MUSICAL CHAIRS’.
