Tag: the learning connexion

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Art Practice

You Can’t Have it All… At the Same Time

This week, I was planning to post on how excited I was that I’m going back to doing onsite classes at The Learning Connexion… until I had to decide to forego this opportunity after coming to a single day of class. It was a wonderful class with Justine Turnbull as tutor. Above is the photo of my artwork exploring tones.

My current week includes

  • preparing Rapha for kindy MWF
  • kindy drop-offs and pick-up
  • weekly distance learning meeting
  • committee meeting at Mana Arts (approx. once a month)
  • kids ministry (one Sunday every 3 weeks)
  • swimming 3x a week
  • daily Pilates
  • art practice
  • 1 weekly art group
  • house chores

Silly me thought I could squeeze one more thing since it’s only a day’s worth a week. Little did I know that that entails preparing the night before—my stuff for school, Rapha and I’s lunch boxes, Rapha’s stuff for after-school care, thanks to my in-laws. That meant 2 days are spent just for me to get to that class alone—that’s 2 days’ worth of time, energy, and petrol! Hahaha.

I instantly experienced the aftermath of this week. Come Wednesday, I just lay flat off the sofa when I came home. Thursday, I was straight-out forgetting things and making heaps of errors, including driving. Friday was a tough one because I was snapping at everyone for the littlest things. It was a hard decision, but you just can’t have it all… at once! There is a time and season for everything. At this stage, I want to be 100% present to all my commitments, especially to my family.

Today, Saturday, we decided to do things that bring us joy. After Rapha’s swimming class, we headed to a pick-your-own blueberry farm and did a short walk at Percy Regional Park. It was a good reset from the grueling week we had.

I am so glad that, as humans, we are given the choice to let go sometimes. I am also surrounded by a loving village helping us raise our son.

I will still pursue onsite classes at some point… just not today.

Categories
Studies at the Learning Connexion

Paintings that Move by Gary Freemantle

As I’ve mentioned before, I am currently studying New Zealand Diploma in Creativity Level 5. I mainly do distance learning but I enrol in 1 onsite class per term. It allows me to be in company of other artists which can really be inspiring. For the past term, I attended Gary Freemantle’s class – Paintings that Move.

In every class, we had an exercise which we can choose to pursue throughout the day. Below are some of my outputs from the class.

I liked the idea of an underwater garden. Very proud that I did not use any reference for this piece.
This and the next 3 photos below are an exercise to portray depth and shape using brushstrokes. I had fun adding on smoke to this piece but not too happy with the shape.
Among the 4 bowl exercises, this was the one I liked most. I liked the shape and the colour palette I used for this piece.
I tried the exercise using watercolour. It was amazing that with just a few strokes, I was able to complete this.
This last one was just a black and white experiment then I decided to add colour through the flowers.
This was an interesting piece. It started with clouds, then with further strokes, I saw that it could also be waves. The addition of the boat was really fun. I liked how this painting portrayed so much movement.
  • This was our first collaborative piece when Alert Level 4 was announced in New Zealand. We were given random images which Gary gave us the freedom to do whatever with. At the end of the class, Gary puts these pieces together to reveal an image which in this case was a smiley. The one in the red square was my piece. The 3 artworks on top were some of the other options I gave Gary. The artworks in the top middle and top right were painted in gouache.
  • This one was the second collaborative piece.
  • This was the artwork I contributed. I used acrylic as watercolours, some layers were transparent for this piece.
  • This was the final collaborative piece we did.
  • I decided to try doing patterns for this one – the patterns were a very spontaneous decision on my end. Thoroughly enjoyed creating this.
This was an experiment on shapes. I decided to paint a Bahay Kubo, a type of indigenous house in the Philippines. In my future paintings, I am hoping to pursue this track and maybe fuse some unique designs from the Philippines and New Zealand.

I went out of the box with these paintings. I’d say all of them are totally not my style. I enjoy creating them but not sure if I’d ever pursue concepts I learned from these works.

The most important thing I learned from this class was being spontaneous and allowing my consciousness to paint whatever it is that it wants. I didn’t really have much control and planning creating these pieces. In doing so, I get to mix things around and just go out of the box.

Categories
Studies at the Learning Connexion

(Photograms) Power of a Series – Leigh Mitchell-Anyon

Photograms are images produced without a camera. These photograms were done by flashing a darkroom enlarger on a photographic paper with an object on it. We picked up items from campus to use a objects in the photogram. I used some plants, my earrings, and borrowed feathers from the others in my class.

Photogram of my hands
Photogram of feathers
Photogram of my earrings, a plant, and feathers