Not quite there yet.

 

 

 

the spirit of twenty twenty

 

I have just finished prepping for tonight's class that starts at 9pm my time. As the workshop series is run out of Ardington in the UK it is their 10am Monday morning. Ardington is a sweet little English village with a pub, an old schoolhouse and a few scattered homes with gorgeous country gardens, hanging baskets and idle lanes. Truly beautiful, I know I have been there.

Staying in a village nearby Lipscombe Regis, we, Pam and I traveled to Ardington to this wonderful old schoolhouse to teach. Was that 2017? Welcomed by scones & chocolate biscuits and some wonderful English characters we settled into exploring the art deco movement in lettering.

It's not what I am doing now though. I am on and adventure with the German script artist Hermann Kilian. Presently I am finishing off my final class for the Ardington Academy with whom I have been teaching since May pretty well non-stop. Perfect from this distance in the middle of a pandemic. Interestingly enough the workshop series classes have been quite successful and very enjoyable except for the time of day. 

These classes take a great deal of my energy and time. Preparing for zoom classes is quite different from teaching from the front of a classroom where you don't have to talk non-stop. You have time to pause, wend yourself around the classroom to give critiques of peoples work. Use you body language to approach and deliver some meaningful assistance and guidance to the student. In my zoom classes all my materials are a arms length. Papers labeled with that the exercise is and the order of the five or six exercises I am going to demonstrate in that time. I start with a coffee, I have one mid-class and am ready for another at the end. Exhausted. You try talking for two hours non-stop.

Anyway, I like my teaching but there will be a lot less of it next year so I can concentrate on some serious art, exhibit something worthwhile, research and write some articles. I don't think I know anyone who is not looking forward to twenty twenty-one!

 

 

 

 

Winding down ...

 

 

With one more class to go for 2020 I am starting to wind down a little from an amazing seven month teaching schedule that started up due to pandemic living. I could never have imagined my creative life would change so much and for the better.

Life has changed on several fronts but mostly in my teaching, creating art, creative writing and writing articles etc. Most of all I am very happy and very fortunate. I know not everyone is feeling these emotions right now. I hope to address these issues soon here in my blog because I feel if I write it all here it will give me some perspective I think, even if no-one ever reads it, I'd still like to write. 

For now though I am exhausted and tired after spending a few days answering emails as the classes start to finish one by one.  I am looking forward to a quieter December writing a new program for Acorn Arts and brushing up the existing one Foundational Hand. I will also be working on technique classes for Calligraphy Italia. This will include lots of filming and writing.

I am also thrilled that our borders have opened to the rest of the Australian states and territories and I can visit at last with those two little grown-ups up north in January.

In the meantime I'll share this little piece that I did as an exercise for my latest class introducing the works of Hermann Kilian (German script artist) more widely.

 

Curiosity leads to learning ...