Wednesday 22 December 2010

Stonehill School art club - Paper Angels - a piece of paper, a bit of glue and some drawing!

Here are the paper angels the art club childen made this week during the wednesday after school one hour session. I provided a template for the children to draw around and cut out and then it was over to them to decorate the angels in the way they wanted. These little winges angels were intended as some light hearted Christmas arty fun and the kids loved it. I think the expressions on their angels faces are simply gorgeous. The kind of thing only children can make. It was such a happy end to the term and a great start to the art club that will be rolled out across the the next term as a further six week project  for other children in the school to experience.














Thursday 25 November 2010

Stonehill School Wednesday Art Club - looking at perspective and crazy worlds

The Wednesday Art club that I have started at Stonehill School in Letchworth Garden City is a group of 12 students aged from Year 3 - Year 6. Its an art club that's running for an initial six weeks. I hope to be able to deliver it as a rolling programme there and at other schools locally too. It is partly funded by the children and Extended Schools Programme. The first week was spent cutting paper, making little bowls that then transformed to creatures: turtles and puppies and even to a boxing glove and a chef's hat!! The emphasis of the club is to have a theme that runs through it, but with pupil lead creativity so that they get the chance to let their ideas grow and develop.The loosest part of the theme is that its all paper that we are using, the main theme being imaginary worlds, creatures and places. So far its just been the best fun. I have worked at Stonehill before and was keeping my fingers crossed to have the chance again. I really like the school, the staff and the children.
                                         






Stonehill School Wednesday Art Club - room set drawings and imaginary places

The children were given a template that I had cut out and prepared. We looked at the drawings at that we had worked on last week and wediscussd  all the rooms or views they could do. Some were drawn to interiors, bedrooms and places whilst others jumped straight into bridges and landscapes. It was entirely their choice. I helped them with scale and  a few pointers for other objects to draw. It worked so well. I was completely chuffed to see what they achieved in just an HOUR!!!amazing. The children at Stonehill are so lovely and this session was exactly why I like working with children and giving them the chance to push their own innate creativity forward with help from me. Its a joy to see their work.




Stonehill School Wednesday Art Club - imaginary world sets

Here are some more of the pupils fantastic little imaginary world sets.








Thursday 18 November 2010

Some picures of the new work at Byard Art, Cambridge

Top: "Autumn Jesus green trees"
" Blue door and the Bicycle"
"Cambridge window and the roses" - detail
"Cambridge Window and the Roses"
All images are copyright of Vanessa Stone 2010












Thursday 11 November 2010

New Cambridge cuts for Byard Art

I was reading today on a vid on Youtube, that of the 200,000,000 blogs about the world, many are posted on daily. Hmmmnnnn... I dont seem to be keeping up with the Jones'!! Somehow I dont sems to grab enough time to get some posts done - I am too busy juggling different heads I reckon, so that the days roll on by. Mind you just lately I have been working like a mad thing - getting new St. Alban's cuts done and the paper poems for Letchworth Art Centre and now I have got a few new pieces for Byard Art for the "Christmas Cracker" exhibition thats due to start on November 27th. One of these - the Cambridge window has grown from being a pure black and white to including the coloured papers underneath the cut. It never felt finished before, looked too stark and too much like just a pattern, a collection of lines. It just seemed attractive and that was that. Adding the colour makes a difference though. I want to know about the window... want to know what goes on in that house... who peeks from beind those curtains? Whats the life that going on beyond the pane of glass.......

Tuesday 26 October 2010

"Of my head and of my heart" - images from the exhibition

"I will go down to the sea mother" - based on the poem "The Triumph of Time" by Swinburne.



"Does she know" - one of my original poems



"About a father, about a life" - another of my original poems


Monday 25 October 2010

"of my head and of my heart" and facing up to demons....

Where on earth does time go? I have absolutely no idea. The last few weeks have merged into one, seemingly with one deadline after another. The Letchworth Art Centre show "Of my head and of my heart" is up and about to finish on the 29th October. And the St. Alban's Cathedral one too that's about to end. I have been chasing my tail and visiting old, lost friends in my beloved Salisbury. New opportunities have opened up, unexpected ones and I have faced up to some demons too just lately. Sometimes you have to face them full square on and shrink them to a manageable size to fight.

The "of my head and of my heart show" has been a big deal for me. Not commercially, as many of the pieces are not for sale but being much more vulnerable and showing just who the real Vanessa is. They are very personal pieces. With the architecture, I delight in the beauty around me, but its hard to take risks, hard to step off that metaphorical cliff. With the Letchworth pieces, there is plenty of stepping out.

Photos of the work to follow tomorrow.....

Wednesday 22 September 2010

St.Alban's Cathedral West Front




I am due to deliver fifteen brand new pieces for an exhibition at St. Alban's Cathedral tomorrow in an exhibition from 24th September until 26th October at the Cafe Gallery. Alongside my work will be the work of Hertfordshire based artist Stephanie Littlechild.

I am really excited to be showing this work - its the first time I have attempted a cathedral and I feel like the biggest kid keeping everything crossed that people will like them! They are complex pieces and very difficult to make. I have had to keep my concentration levels very high to get them finished. They are immensely satisfying though to see emerge from the paper.

I have other work too alongside - small text pieces of "Swing Low,Sweet chariot" as well as paper cuts of St. Alban's buildings like the Clock Tower and the Town Hall.



Here is one example of the "chariot" cuts...




Please do come along and have a look at this very newest work. The cathedral is a gorgeous building and its just marvellous to have my work there. One day I would love to see my work hanging free in the body of the cathedral...one day...


The Cafe Gallery is open from:

Mon - Friday 8.0am- 4.30pm
Sat 10 - 4.30pm
Sun 1pm - 4.00pm

For more information about the Cathedral and how to get there click on the link here.

St. Alban's town centre map:

Wednesday 8 September 2010

New work - strange little places of my imagination...

I have been doing some new work, of which this is only a miniscule little taster. I will be posting more at the beginning of October, in time for my exhibition at Letchworth Art Centre. I am not sure why these are coming out of my head at the moment. The subconscious is a wonderful place of unfathomability! They have been very unhurried and undirected... we shall see where they take me.



Tuesday 31 August 2010

Bishop's Hatfield Girls School - Gifted and Talented Summer School

More examples of the collages made by the pupils of  Bishop's Hatfield Girls School, Hatfield, Herts from last July. The work was essentially about exploring pattern and rhythm of architectural forms through paper cutting and collage techniques. Pupils started with a simple line drawing based on their photos that they had taken around Buckingham Palace the previous day. That line drawing formed the basis of their design. the pupils hadn't worked like this before. It seems simple but to be able to cut directly into paper and to arrange those elements together to get a design to balance requires lots of skills. There is an immediacy to cutting paper that is liberating and scary too for young people. Some were able to be freer and draw with their scissors, whilst other used their drawings more as a template to work from. All students were amazed at the quality of the work produced that day and were able to think about and experience pattern making in different and challenging way. I loved the day. The staff were simply wonderful to work with and the girls were fantastic also.It was a great experience for me too.





Bishop's Hatfield Girls School - Summer school for G&T



These photos are the work produced at a summer school I ran in July 2009 at Bishop's Hatfield Girls School in Hatfield, Herts. The workshop day was part of a week long Gifted and Talented programme of events in which pupils explored the idea of "London- a city of contrasts".  The previous day to the workshop, the girls has visited Buckingham Palace. They gathered many photos of architectural details from which to base their paper cuts and collages that they would be developing with me. The girls involved ranged from Yr10's up to Year 12's.