Summer School Wanganui January 2006

The Subtitle for this post should really be 'Stretching Space and Pushing Boundaries' - because that's what it was!

Our tutor was Robert McLeod, and the aim of our course was to look at when a painting becomes a sculpture or an installation and when a mixed media drawing or collage becomes a painting.

I arrived with some clear goals - to break out of painting small canvasses in a figurative manner, to allow myself to play and to work loosely and energetically, in contrast to the way I work as an illustrator. I wanted to be a better painter in a week (yeah?) and I wanted to get rid of some common self-talk. I did most of that, and more.

Here's a collection of photos from the week, I'll try and put them up in the order that we did the exercises. A blow by blow commentary would be pretty boring to read - so if you want to know what the exercise was about or why I interpreted it that way, leave me a message and I'll reply.

Suffice to say I didn't anticipate falling for the space or that I'd enjoy the process of abstraction as much as I did. people say they can see the influence of Rob in my colour choices. I'd be interested to know what you think Rob. I think I just love vibrant singing colour!