Welcome!
I am a Teacher of Art currently living in Hong Kong. I have spent the last 5 years living and teaching in Bangkok, Thailand. This blog is to document my own work, what my students get up to and the art I see around Hong Kong, Thailand… and beyond!
COLLAGE
YEAR 8 - With Year 8 students moving onto ‘Adornment & Textiles’ they have begun to study textile collage Artist Elaine O’Neil. I thought it would be a good idea to start with a study of her work, so to get them used to the idea of collaging, we began with paper first - and what a better way to do it than creating our own colour papers to use! Students worked collaboratively as a table to create a selection of papers in tones selected from Elaine O’Neil’s artworks. These were added to a sharing table so students could select the colour papers they needed for their own pastiche. Using a variety of mark making tools and acrylic paints on different papers the students had great fun experimenting with colour mixing and creating their own art materials. Click on the images to see some of the results, the textured papers produced some great effects!
ACETATE PRINTOUT PRINTING
The other day, a colleague showed me a great printing technique and I had to try it out for myself! Using a laser printer to print out images on to clear acetate sheets (some adjustments are needed to get the desired ink flow) you can then use the printout much like you would a Lino print. Once the image is printed and carefully laid onto paper, I used the back of a spoon to help transfer the image. The effect produced is quite ethereal, I played about with the ink flow of the printer which produced a variety values from faint through to quite sticky and splodgy. Using images from my travels, I tested the technique out on a few different papers to see how they reacted with the ink. I love this technique and I found that even just placing the acetate print on to paper, and not transferring it, looks super interesting - I'll definitely explore this more in the future.
NATURE PAINTING
Nature painting with the little ones!
Using leaves from the garden to paint on paper leaves big and small (messy hands also got involved too, of course!).
EXPLORING KHLONG SAN & BKK ART BIENNALE
Today saw me exploring a new part of Bangkok for the first time - Khlong San, on the West of the Chao Phraya river. This area is seeped in Chinese history, which you can see all around you when wandering around. At the moment, there is a city wide Art Biennale, titled ‘Escape Routes’ featuring Artists from the world over. To see some of the work, I made my way to Lhong 1919, an area of reclaimed Chinese warehouses. These are some of my photos from the day, I was particularly taken by the preserved paintings on the walls, such as this great little bird photographed here. In the Biennale, I was intrigued by the work of Bangladeshi Artist - Farhana Islam Tani - whose work focuses on gender equality. Her video installation was projected through textured film and shards of mirror, making for a fragmented and fragile piece of art.
HELLO
This year sees me commencing my Art teaching qualification through the UK based Straight to Teaching program. I thought to myself that it would be a great time to start documenting my work, what the students get up to and the art I see around Thailand! So here it goes…
I begin with this somewhat surreal image of a mid Coronavirus Christmas on Ko Phayam in the South East of Thailand. Underneath, is an amazing sculpture (bar!) crafted from nothing but washed up driftwood & nails.
