Welcome!
I am a Teacher of Art currently living in Hong Kong since 2023. Prior to that, I spent 5 years 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!
MARK MAKING WITH BLOSSFELDT
YEAR 8 - To kick start their ‘Natural Forms’ project, Year 8 have been ‘scribble drawing’ using the fascinating photography of artist Karl Blossfeldt as their references. This task was designed to introduce students to a range of mark making techniques and to develop their understanding of value and tone. After practicing their mark making, students went on to ‘scribble’ on tracing paper over a Blossfeldt image to pick out the strong contrasts and the intricate details of his beautiful close-up photos of the natural world. The students loved this task as it was quick yet produced effective results, it is an excellent way to bring awareness to value and the different ways you can apply this when drawing.
CONTRAST & TEXTURE
YEAR 8 - A recent project with my Year 8 students was an exploration into the world of macro photography. This was quite a challenge as we are currently in a period of online learning due to Covid restrictions. Students rummaged around their homes for jewels and other decorative objects to photograph. They were asked to set up a mini studio, including a clean white background and lamp. Using a tablet or phone to take their images the students needed to make sure they had strong contrast in their photos, that they were filling the frame and to include a range of textures with ornate details. I was highly impressed with their images and they are now ready to move onto the next step - drawing!
IT’S ALL IN THE DETAILS
YEAR 8 - My current Year 8 classes are beginning their project on the topic of ‘Adornment’. To set them off they were tasked with a variety of observational studies of jewellery; a 5 minute pen drawing, a 10 minute colour pencil drawing and a final 20 minute pencil drawing. This allowed them to really study the decorative details of these precious objects and for me to see the skill levels of my new classes. Take a peek at some examples of their work below!
LOCKED UP
On my return to Thailand I was required to do a 2 week mandatory hotel quarantine due to Covid. For this I chose the aptly named ‘Idle Residence’ which had great sky views to watch the epic monsoon storms pass by. To help pass the time, I had bought a new watercolour set in the UK and got to playing around with colour, opacity and layering shapes - inspired by the fabulous female artist Hilma af Klint.
The Ten Largest, Group II, 1907 (Oil on Canvas), by Hilma af Klint
LONDON BOUND
I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to return to London and visit family and friends during the summer break from school. Visiting an art gallery whilst there was an absolute must do, I miss the galleries in London! Along with my father, I went to the Royal Academy to see the Michael Armitage and Tracy Emin / Edvard Munch exhibitions. I was particularly intrigued by the materials and techniques used by Armitage - he paints on a canvas of sewn together bark that has been stripped from the Mutuba trees in southen Uganda. This produces a wonderfully organic and imperfect canvas that sometimes seems to dictate the flow of his painting. His colour pallets are vivid and create quite a vibrant and buzzing atmosphere and the way he applies layers and outlines to his paintings create an almost mind-bending depth to his work. I took a few close up images to really capture his brush techniques, I plan to have a play around with this style myself!
LUMPHINI RAIN
This afternoon my partner and I took the opportunity to get out and about as the parks are finally open! Due to the Covid situation here in Bangkok, parks have been closed since April time. Luckily, from behind our home, we have great access to both the main parks in Bangkok - Benjakitti Park and Lumphini Park - both full of tropical greenery and if you look hard enough, lots of wildlife too. After wondering along the Green Mile Walkway we arrived at Lumphini Park. No sooner than we had arrived into the midst of the park (as happens often at this time of year) the Monsoon heavens opened and completely drowned us. For Covid reasons, there was one only way in, and one way out of the park. As we scrabbled around to try and find our way back out of the park the mixture of the rain, park lights and the elegant trees proved too beautiful to not stop and photograph - leading to even more of a drenching!
CAPTURING LIGHT
I am always fascinated by light, shadows and reflections - they are favorite things to photograph. I think it is because it is so transient and you have to work quickly to capture the fleeting moments. Half of these images are from the island of Koh Samet, I spent the best part of an hour photographing and recording the lampshades as they danced around the in sea breeze - they were pretty hypnotic! The other half are from a bathroom window in a resort in Nakhon Nayok, the way the different coloured lights outside were diffused through the misty glass of the window created such soft and interesting images.
FINGERPRINT PAINTING
YEAR 7 - In Year 7 we are currently studying the topic of ‘Portraiture’ - after our highly detailed tonal pencil portraits, we thought it would be a good idea to loosen up and start exploring other ways to create tone and apply these to portraiture. Inspired by Artist Chuck Close, students tried fingerprint painting - just like you would do as a toddler - but using black ink and a lot more control. At first, the students struggled with this, their drawing tools were suddenly so much bigger and it was harder to produce detail. But after lots of practice, I think they did a great job of showing their understanding of tone and how to build it up using layers of ink!
NAKHON PATHOM & WOODLAND
This weekend I travelled to a province just adjacent to Bangkok - Nakhon Pathom. This a peaceful and green area where the water hyacinth-filled Tha Chin river flows through and visitors can stay right on the riverbanks to enjoy the cool breeze and stunning sunrises and sunsets. Just down the road from where we stayed, we stumbled upon a HUGE museum - Woodland Museum - and inside we found an impressive collection wooden sculptures and carvings that were once the private collection of the Thewphaingarm family. The museum takes you on a tour around the religions and cultures of South East Asia through wooden sculpture and is set in a beautiful garden right on the Tha Chin river. This would be a fantastic place to kick start an art topic or project, with endless drawing and photography opportunities (especially with their dramatic lighting!).
GRAPHITE PENCIL PORTRAITS
YEAR 7 - Over the past few weeks, my students in Year 7 have been working incredibly hard on their ‘Teacher Portraits’ project - and they are now finally complete! After using the ‘gridding technique’ to apply the correct proportions to their drawings, the students worked with a variety of graphite pencils, putty rubbers & blending sticks to draw teachers from around the school. This was quite an extended project, and took a lot of detail and dedication - but the students persevered and they should be super proud of what they have achieved!
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!).
STYROFOAM PRINTING
YEAR 8 - Inspired by their photos from Wat Bhoman Khunaram, these year 8 students had their first taste of printing! After designing and carving out their designs onto styrofoam sheets, they used bright, colourful inks to transfer their chosen image onto beautiful Chinese joss papers - a perfect fit for their current project of ‘Adornment’. Look through the photos below to see more of the process and some of their prints…
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.
