Twilight Tuesdays by Faye Phillips
We’ve had the pleasure of running a twilight sessions on Tuesdays with a pair of young people from the virtual school.
Over the course of 17 sessions these young people have tried an array of visual arts, reviewed our in house exhibition, researched an artist of their choice and shared a creative skill. Showing their commitment to their Bronze Arts Award.
For the first few weeks the pair progressed through photography, learning all the functions of our Canon DSLR’s. We completed a photographic scavenger hunt which included the word strength and as it was international women’s day we celebrated this with a photo of female strength!
We expermented with shutter speed by capturing movement and created some small still life set-ups to test aperture. And of course we had fun shooting portraits with studio lighting!
Keen to try mixed media, we decided to ‘redecorate’ Fairways House (the home of In Focus’ office and creative space). We took photos of the building, printed them off and then applied paint over acetate to give the building a fresh take, making it more colourful and to include some animals.
After discussing what other art forms the pair might like to try we came to the decision that salt dough would be our next venture. We had discussed using clay but not everyone is keen on the texture so salt dough was a good compromise as you can adjust the texture of it as you’re making it. The pair learned how to make salt dough and adding colour to it by using powder paint. We created a whole set of multi coloured beads that were made into key rings and jewellery – including a giant earth pendant!
Collage was another medium of choice that was was embraced whole heartdly! Using animals to create a horse collage, dedicating a collage to Ed Sheeran and also what became the adopted mascot of our sessions, “Bob” the pig. Bob was an influence in our weekly sessions, he was drawn around the room for other people to find and respond to. Bob was commemorated in not one, but two collages!
We even tried our hand at designing and decorating some recycled glass jars, with some beautiful results!
These sessions have been fantastic, and the young people showed their commitment by coming to every single week, getting totally involved and walking away with a Bronze Arts Award and bag of their own handmade creations!
