The cold dark nights and chilly mornings demonstrate that Spring is some way off but we’re already half-way through our Winter Workshop programme. We’ve been lucky to host a lot of wonderful artists in the last year and we’ve all been inspired by their work – and the work of their students.
Our first workshop was on a glorious October day at Attadale Gardens with artist Sarah Longley. Thanks so much to the MacPherson family who hosted the event, and thanks to everyone who came along for the workshop and enjoyed a day out in the gorgeous gardens.
Watercolour is one of the most challenging media and we are very lucky to have artist Steven Proudfoot living locally as he agreed to run two introductory workshops at the gallery, with 10 participants over two Wednesdays in November.
Steven is a very accomplished artist and a great tutor, too. Most people on the workshop had never painted watercolours before but Steven taught us all about the processes, paints and paper, etc. Steven’s workshops have also been so successful that we are delighted to have him with us for three further dates in January, February and March 2017. For more information, please check out our Facebook Page.
We also had two printmaking workshops run by our very own Aileen Grant, ably assisted by Cindie Reiter and Mairi Young.
Six ladies from the Howard Doris Centre art group joined us on a wet and windy day in early January and Aileen taught everyone how to use gelatin plates to make prints. Everyone had a great day and we were also treated to some delicious scones, thanks to the centre.
We were also impressed by how enthusiastic and creative everyone was, and some beautiful prints were produced.
We’re really pleased to have been able to run these workshops this Winter and to be able to share media and processes that people may be less familiar with – for example, gelatin printing can be done at the kitchen table with readily available paints and ingredients, but lino cutting really requires special inks and a printing press.
Luckily, we do have Aileen’s printing press set up in the Gallery, so everyone can have a proper go. None of the participants had ever done lino cutting before and it was great to see the strong work produced by the students, who hopefully will be inspired to do more in future
We’re really keen to run more workshops and Aileen, Cindie and Mairi have been working on a programme for 2017, which will include a collagraph workshop with artist Suzie MacKenzie on the 8th and 15th of Febuary, as well as more sessions with Steven.
For more information on Suzie’s workshops or the rest of our programme for 2017, please check out our Facebook page or email us at info@lochcarrongallery.co.uk.
LOCHCARRON ARTS 