Wendy Daws

Shadowplay II – This Time it’s Raining

Wendy — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:04:45 +0000

Shadowplay II – the adventure begins anew! Back at the Strand Leisure Park in Gillingham today to start work on stage two of the Shadowplay mural after a five-year hiatus. And like all good sequels it reunites the original cast – me, Mark Barnes, bucket-loads of paint and a large section of unpainted wall fencing the Strand’s outdoor swimming pool.

Thanks to the jolly British weather giving us all a good soaking of late we’re already three weeks behind schedule but we made good progress today, undercoating the wall and blocking in the first couple of shadows with a little help from Päivi Seppälä, captain of LV21.

The first section of the mural charted a history of the Strand from the Victorian era to the present day. Stage two, which fronts onto the river, has a more nautical theme and follows the development of river traffic from the invasion of the Saxon hordes to the year of Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee. But let’s hope the clouds don’t rain over us as long as the Queen or we’ll never be finished on time!

More soon…

Cut!

Wendy — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:48:09 +0000

Artist Angie Berkley raised money for the Kent Association for the Blind by having a sponsored pony tail cut. After 4 years in the making the team chopped it off in 5 minutes!

Photography © Rikard Osterlund 2011

On behalf of Angie and the KAB, thank you to everyone who sponsored the trim.

You can see more images from the day on Flickr by clicking HERE

Lights! Camera! Action!

Wendy — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:37:27 +0000

Back from a brilliant photo shoot with visually impaired and sighted young people from the Kent Association for the Blind (KAB). Working alongside me today were professional photographers Rikard Osterlund and Sara Norling.

Photography © Rikard Osterlund/Sara Norling 2011

The aim of the day was to re-create the Rochester Cathedral fresco as interpreted by the group, making props and dressing up to take on key roles within the fresco. The final images will be shared and worked on by the elder members of KAB Medway Art Group.

Photography © Rikard Osterlund/Sara Norling 2011

Thanks to all the people who made it happen: Lorri Thomas, Chris Berthoud, Carol Maynard of the KAB, all the other KAB staff and Barbara Ropek from NADFAS who kindly funded the day. You can see more images from the day on Flickr by clicking HERE

Look out!

Wendy — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:05:14 +0000

Join me on board Light Vessel 21 on Wed 26 October 11am-5pm to build magical Under Water and Above the Surface Worlds inside the ship, featuring glow in the dark river creatures, plants, birds and other wildlife. Get inspiration for your work by finding out what sounds and sights lurk beneath the surface of River Medway using a hydrophone and an underwater camera, and look through binoculars to spot local sea birds. Stick creatures and rod puppets for participants to make and take away after the workshop. All materials provided, it’s free!

chART the River Medway with me!

Wendy — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:01:19 +0000

Join me at Light Vessel 21 on Mon 24 October 11am-5pm and help create a giant sea-chart collage of River Medway – mapping out local landmarks, your favourite spots to visit and other places of interest along the river. Personalised signage buoys for participants to make and take away. All materials provided but participants are encouraged to bring in suitable found objects and materials to add to the collage.

The fresco in collage…

Wendy — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:09:32 +0000

More exploring and working out how what to include in the finished artwork, we’ve all got different ideas.

To see more images from the workshop click HERE

Photography © Rikard Osterlund 2011

Drawing in clay

Wendy — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:19:45 +0000

Working out ideas in clay, we used the clay as a mould to cast with plaster of paris. This gives us an idea of textures and how much detail is needed. This is the first time some of the group have worked with clay and plaster and the finished plaster plaques are impressive, they will help to make decisions about how much or how little to show. We’re all a bit nervous, the project seems vast just now.

To see more photos from the day click HERE

Feeling our way…

Wendy — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:54:54 +0000

Now we’re off! We’ve looked at the fresco, we’ve had an informative talk from Liz Simmons, Education Officer at the Cathedral and our brains ache a little. We’ll start with some fun bucket delving. Sitting back to back, in pairs, one person has clipboard and pen at the ready, the other a bag containing a mystery object retrieved from the bucket. The partner with the bag feels the object through the bag without looking and describes what they feel, instructing the other what to draw, describing shape, texture and size without saying what they think it is. The results are revealed and sometimes they do look like what’s in the bag!

Describing and drawing...

Sometimes the drawings do look like the object described!

To see more images from the workshop click HERE

At Your Fingertips

Wendy — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:07:19 +0000

I am about to embark on a collaborative voyage of discovery with Rochester Cathedral. The brief from the Cathedral is “to produce an artwork inspired by the existing fresco and appropriate to a visually impaired audience”. The Fresco, in the North Trancept, was painted by Sergei Fyodorov and depicts the baptism of Jesus by John The Baptist. I imagine something magnificent in bronze!

I got involved with this fantastic project by asking the Cathedral team if I could be involved with their research into creating tactile artworks of existing pieces in the Cathedral. What’s my interest? I wrote a dissertation in 2004 entitled “Museum approaches to the visually impaired visitor”, I wanted to explore how art can be viewed and experienced if it cannot be touched. I still want to know. After working as a Volunteer for the Kent Association for the Blind Medway Art Group I suggested we could work together to research how the Cathedral Fresco could be interpreted. Let’s see what happens …

Eyes Wide Open

Wendy — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 16:19:22 +0000

A selection of images from Eyes Wide Open, an exhibition of artwork at Rochester Cathedral by members of the Kent Association for the Blind Medway Art Group.