Friday, August 14, 2009

afternoons spent drawing and talking...

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Working with adults and children in my studio brings all kinds of experiences my way. For many years the studio teaching I did was mostly with adults. For the past few months however I have had a very interesting diversion away from that when approached to work with children. Above I have included 10 images from recent afternoon sessions I have conducted with some wonderful 11/12 yr old girls once a week. The one exception is No: 5 from  6 yr old Elliot who interpreted the task of drawing a plate of marbles in a wonderfully unique way. There are 3 in his age group..all enthusiastic and capable of surprising me and engaging in the most curious and fascinating discussions. Image 1 and 2 are of Phoebe and Isabella working on botanical subjects. Image 3 Kirsty (pictured), Jamilla, Lizzie and Phoebe are drawing Cumquats  and in 4 we see Lizzie's finished work. 5 is Elliot's  marble drawing. 6 to 10 are the drawings the girls did of marbles using textas and paint for the background.
It must be mentioned some inspiration for working with textas came in part from the one and only Arlene Texta Queen pictured here below. The girls had met Arlene Texta Queen at the newish State-run GOMA : The Gallery of Modern Art here in Brisbane over summer when she was part of a large show called Optimism featuring works from contemporary Australian artists. 

Arlene Texta Queen working on 'They took it veryseriously (Brides of Frank)', 23 June 2008, at MountCoot-tha. Photo: Ray Fulton
below: Vahri- from Arlene Texta Queen's portraits on her website.


6 comments:

Lauralee said...

I really like the last one. That's really different and creative.

Sophie Munns said...

Thanks for your comment Lee Beth!
S

Chrissy Foreman C said...

HEAVEN. THIS POST IS HEAVEN.

Sophie Munns said...

Thanks for your open-heartedness Chrissy!
S x

em said...

i'll send this to my dau straight away! she'll love it! she loves patterns!

Sophie Munns said...

Its been a lot of fun working with these children Em. Having so often taught adults and teens I am quite blown away at times by the sheer spirit, uncontained fun and sense of enthusiasm from the younger ones.
I'm really enjoying listening to all the kids, seeing their take on things and working with this energy.

A week after showing the 2 six/seven yr old boys some images from Arlene Texta Queen's website
they were finishing up their class and putting textas away and when I looked at them they had joined the textas into a huge bangle around their arms and put textas behind their ears...they looked up and me and asked "who do we look like?" Well...it was fantastic...just look at the fabulous outfit the Arlene Texta Queen wears...they had really taken it on board...so quick off the mark! They had absorbed this artist's gift for fantasy the previous week...clearly it had spoken to them!
Hello to your artistic daughter!
Sophie x