Lockdown Art #5: Weird and Whacky Recycled Waste Hats by Lynne Chapman

One of the really joyful aspects of the lockdowns was seeing people released from their normal timetables finding time to explore new avenues. 

For some this was because "needs must" as in the need to keep income streams flowing. 

For others it was more about needing to keep creating in the face of the vast endless vacuum which was a lockdown.

For yet others there was a need to create joy in their lives at a time when it much was frightening and depressing. 

Fabrications out of single use plastic waste materials by Lynne Chapman

One of the more rewarding experiences I had was watching Lynne Chapman continue with a project she'd started prior to the pandemic - about using waste materials to create art.

She started back in 2019, thinking about ways in which she could use single use plastci within her textile art.

She progressed during the pandemic to creating hats. Much of which looked weird and whacky - but ALWAYS brought a smile to my face. She certainly succeeded in creating joy for very many people during a dark time.

Lockdown Art #3 - images from the Pastel Society Exhibition

I'm looking for lockdown art at every art exhibition I'm going to at present. This has been a major event in our social history - and such events are always recorded in art.

I'm beginning to wonder if some are less obvious than others....

Here are examples I spotted at the Pastel Society exhibition - which continues at the Mall galleries until next Saturday.

Masks are an easy way of spotting #lockdownart - but they're all different - and there are two versions below - followed by a very complex graphite drawing interpreting the experience of being Covid Positive.

Face to Face by Peter Vincent PS

The first one is Face to Face by Peter Vincent PS who mostly creates landscapes in pastels. I loved this diptych of two simplified heads which focuses on the anonymity triggered by mask wearing. We only know they're a different sex because one has a bun at the back. There again chaps have bins these days too....

Face to Face by Peter Vincent

Pastel33 x 66 cm (43 x 86 cm framed) £595

Peter is a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of The Pastel Society. He retired in the early 90s when computers made his skills in measured perspective drawing redundant and took up pastel drawing. he works unusually - employing a mask for shapes in his drawings.  He doesn't appear to have a website and sells through galleries - but you can see more of his work on the Mall Galleries website

I can't breathe by Neil Rogers

The next one is titled I can't breathe by Neil Rogers. His portrait focuses on one of the common complaints of those using cloth masks (I can recommend the proper medical ones with the filters which I use!)

LOCKDOWN ART#1: Working in a Series #1

We are now in the third TOTAL LOCKDOWN in the UK - and it's winter - so I'm going to create some resources for artists wanting:

• to learn more about art and/or 
• some stimuli for making art - within the constraints of the lockdown limitations on where we can go and what we can do.

Initially I'll be looking at my past blog projects about

• working in a series 
• understanding colour
• understanding composition.

A Making A Mark Project - Working in a Series

Back in 2008, I developed a series of posts on my art blog "Making A Mark" about working in a series as an artist - and subsequently developed a site (now unpublished) about "working in series".

I'm resurrecting those posts - or links to them - on this blog in order to provide a resource for those who would like to have a go at developing a series.

These blog posts explored:

• reasons why artists work in a series
• reviewed Monet and his series paintings
• considered specific series by Monet - the stacks of wheat and the paintings of Rouen Cathdral

These are those blog posts. Bear in mind when you read a post that, while the general principles and points made are perennial, some of the details re links to individual artists may have changed since it was first published.

• A Making A Mark Project - Working in a series - This post starts my project about working in a series
• What are your reasons for working in a series? - I've come to the conclusion there are probably four main categories of reasons why artists work in a series. Within each category there are more specific reasons. 
• investigate and explore - subject 
• investigate and explore - technique 
• emotional

• Making A Mark Poll: What's the main reason why you work in a series? - The question is: What's your MAIN reason for working in a series? With the emphasis being on the word MAIN. Having recognised there's lots of reasons why we work in series I want to try and pin it down a bit more and see if you can work out which is usually the dominant reason for you.

• Why and how Monet developed his series paintings - This post looks at:
• why Monet painted series paintings
• when he painted his series paintings
• the various reasons leading to his choice of subject matter
• which paintings are regarded as part of his series paintings
• and finally, how he actually designed and painted the series paintings from a practice perspective.

Wheatstacks (end of summer) 1890-91 - Claud Monet
Oil on canvas, 60 x 100 cm (23 5/8 x 39 3/8 in);
The Art Institute of Chicago

• Monet's series paintings - stacks of wheat - About the motif, design and execution of the series of paintings of stacks of wheat
• Monet's series paintings - Rouen cathedral - An account of Monet's series paintings of Rouen Cathedral

La cathédrale dans le brouillard 

by Claude Monet

(included in the Sotheby's sale on 3rd November 2008)

12 good reasons to paint in a series

Tomorrow I'll be looking at 12 good reasons to paint in a series and thereafter will 

• explore each reason further
• with links to further information, images and resources about famous artists who produce work in a series.