Tram Drawings

In my current work this term I have been creating drawings of the tramworks at the West End of Edinburgh. I went to Haymarket area one day a couple of months ago and was shocked at the scale of the disruption and mess of the tram works there. It was a kind of awe inspiring chaotic-looking mess and this is the feeling I have been trying to capture in my drawings. I started with two ink & pastel drawings based on some on-site sketches which looked quite traditional. So then I decided I wanted to try something more contemporary. Using an overhead projector, and inspired by the work of the artist Julie Mehretu, I produced these two pieces: 

 

First Public Success!

Hello again Blogger readers. I haven't blogged for a while - life keeps intervening, you know how it is - but I wanted to update my post with some good news. I submitted a small oil painting of mine to the RSA Open Exhibition this month and lo and behold I actually got selected! .Yahoo, it's very exciting having your first work accepted for a public exhibition.

The exhibition opened at the RSA building (lower rooms), on Princes Street, Edinburgh (slap bang in middle of the city, next to the Christmas Market and Winter Wonderland, for those who are not local) and I went to the Opening Night (invitation only!) on Friday. It was so great to see my work up there on the wall, along with paintings from many contemporary artists I admire. Here's a small shot of the wall at the exhibition - mine is on the top row, third one from the left. It's a small oil painting in expressionist style, called "Island Landscape" . Even better, someone has bought it already. I hope they will really enjoy it.

Guerrila Art Eggs

Have You Found an Egg?

As my own "guerrilla art" experiment I have today permanently sited some of my Alien Eggs in and around some trees located in the Blackford Hill environment. I would be delighted to know if anyone has spotted them and what you thought when you first saw them.

There are four eggs out there in all (see above). I have varnished them to help them withstand some weathering but I anticipate that they will gradually disintigrate in situ over time (unless someone chooses to remove them of course). I plan to visit now and again to record their changing appearance/disappearance.  

Happy Hunting!


CLUE...

Finished the Metal Ball!

Hello Everyone,
Last week I finally finished making the metal ball scultpure. Yesterday afternoon I took it up to Blackford Hill (near Midmar Drive) and got some great photos in the glorious sunshine. Also took a few in my garden in the early morning light. Here is a selection of images. It would be great to hear what you think of it.

                                                     Early morning light in garden.


At Blackford Hill:

Big Metal Ball!

I haven't been posting for a while as I've been working a lot in college, making a larger "egg" in the form of a metal sphere. It's about the size of a very large beachball. I'm using the metal workshop facility at ECA to do the cutting and welding.  I started by making a ball-shaped inner frame (from steel rod bent and welded into position) and then I cut eight organically shaped plates out of sheet steel (using a plama cutter - loved using this!)

Here are some of the pieces, once I had bent them roughly into the shapes I wanted.

My general idea is to hammer, shape and texture the plates so as to achieve an organic look and feel to the final ball, loosely based on an ink drawing of fallen chestnuts which I did last autumn.

The above small maquette illustrates my original idea, although the finished ball will look a bit different (less overlap between the plates, and a hollow interioir which I may or may not fit something into).

So how far have I got? Well I have textured/distressed some of the plates by bashing with hammers and nails, and I rusted two of the plates to a lovely orange colour in my back garden using sandpaper and a vinegar/salt mix (amazing how quickily the rust appeared, almost instant). Yesterday I also coloured two of the plates using the oxyacetalene torch to make oil-like patterns and dots on them. I have also now welded five of the plates on to the ball. (I did do six but then decided one didn't look right so I had to saw it off, aargh. Sod's law that was the one I'd actually managed to do a decent welding job on...)

More pictures of the developing ball to follow soon...

Mini Exhibit

This week I did a mini exhibit of my sculpture work in a special project space at the College. I installed my alien eggs on the floor on a bed of moss, and also showed another moss/branch set-up, a tree painting I completed at the end of last term, and two "eggs in the landscape" photographs which I had enlarged.

The ongoing theme in all these pieces is growth and new life.

It's the first time i've ever exhibited a collection of work in a white space like this and it was fun.  My fellow students seemed interested in the work which is also nice. 

Alien eggs go Out & About

On Monday I took the alien eggs up to Blackford Hill and photographed them in various different positions and locations. It was really fun, though I did get a few strange looks from the many dog walkers who were passing by. Here are some of the best shots.

(I found a brown puffball mushroom by chance and sneaked it in with the clutch in the one before last). 

Alien Eggs

Here are the rsults of my experiments in casting spherical-like objects out of plaster. I used coconut shells, orange peel, Christmas baubles, plastic balls and tinfoil as various moulds. In some of the objects I placed natural materials such as dried leaves, gorse spikes, and burrs in the moulds before pouring the plaster in.

The interior of the coconut shell embedded an interesting fibrous pattern onto the cast plaster object.

I tried positioning the objects in various set-ups in the studio to see what might work best. Next I'm planning to photograph the objects in outdoor settings  (at Blackford Hill).

Snow Tree Ball

I have been reading sculpture books I got out the ECA library. Inspired by David Nash, Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy, since last Friday I have been working on my own stick scuplture in my garden. I have been trying to construc a ball or sphere from sticks which came from a tree in my garden which split in two under the weight of the heavy snow last winter. It proved to be trickier than I thought as the sticks are quite dry and so snapped easily, making it difficult to achieve much bending.

Anyway, today I took some photos of my "sphere" as it was today, in situ in the garden and with Blackford Hill viewed behind it. The large twisty stick is from an old gorse bush which was being chopped down to clear a new path on Blackford Hill by the rangers last winter.

Today I went out sketching on Blackford Hill. Glorious sunny morning and the light was beautiful but it was REALLY really cold! I did four sketches and took a lot of photos, mostly of trees and branches. I am into tangles of branches at the moment.

I did a sketch of the Agassiz Rock (a rock famous for having inspired a Swiss geologist to conclude from its grooved markings that Scotland was shaped by glaciers).

I found this cool fungus though and tried to sketch that too.

It was all exhilerating and makes me want to get back out there again soon.

Starting Blogging

Hello World,
This is my first ever blog about my journey in art.

My name is Sheila Chapman and I am two years in to a part-time art degree course at Edinburgh College of Art. I usually do a lot of drawing and 2D mixed media work, but this term I am starting a sculpture class for the first time ever. I think it will be fun to document my progress in this new (slightly scary!) 3D world.

Last term I was working on several pieces based on drawings of chestnuts and I made some small spherical objects using thin wire and tissue paper/PVA mix. My plan with the sculpture class is to explore further ways of making spheres, and different ways of displaying them.

In next weeks' class we will be working with plaster, so today I am thinking about ways to try and mould sphere-like bodies out of wet plaster.

If anyone out there has any helpful tips or advice I would love to hear from you!