CREATIVITY CONTINUED

In my blog post about Geelong, I confessed that creativity was not my strong suit. But I still keep trying. When I was a student at the University of WA in the 1970s, each year I would enrol in a craft course at what used to Claremont Teachers College. I tried my hand at copper enamelling, weaving, screen printing. I wasn’t very good at any of it but I did make some cuff links for Alan (which he felt morally obliged to wear every so often), wove a bathmat, and made some screen printed curtains and tableware.

Every so often I’ll take myself off to another course to try and discover the one thing I might be good at. And this year, I’ve tried twice. After the creative embroidery in Geelong, this month’s challenge was to paint waves in one day. We had an amazingly good teacher, Louise Collier, who managed to help us all to (almost) complete a piece. We painted and agonised and gained inspiration in an open sided shed at the Settlers Art Studios in Churchlands. There were two advantages to the process as well as a good teacher – photos to paint from and acrylic paints which dry quickly so you can paint over your mistakes.

The result isn’t going to hang anywhere in pride of place but positioned far enough away, one call almost imagine it’s a wave.


My next creative excursion is a gelli print course at the Fremantle Arts Centre. What will it actually involve? Who knows - but there will be a report about the experience even if the result isn't worth sharing.

 

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