Art Extravaganza

We had such a wonderful day on Sunday at our Art Extravaganza. As part of The Big Draw and Flock Project over 100 people visited Art in the Park to support the national campaign for drawing and explore the theme of migration. Visitors were invited to produce their own unique works of art on two of Bill Hudson’s fantastic paint machines and learn to throw a pot on the wheel in our pottery workshop.

Taking inspiration from the birds found in Burgess Park – pigeons, crows, herons, swans, woodpeckers and more! – visitors drew and cut out a silhouette of a bird of their choice. They then had the chance to paint it using one of the paint machines – either squirting paint at it from a distance, or operating a paintbrush held on the end of a 6 foot arm using pulleys and levers! Great fun!

The lovely Leyla, Art in the Park’s resident ceramicist, was also running a free workshop where people could learn to throw a pot on the wheel, and then decorate it with marks and stamps.

It was a great day and so many beautiful pots and colourful birds were made. The birds have been fixed to postcards and sent on a flight to the Ullapool, before they continue their migration to the Outer Hebrides!

More photos of the event to follow….!

Postcards for The Big Draw!

What a lovely start to the morning at Art in the Park today! Some beautiful handmade postcards sent from all over the world arrived on our doorstep this morning.

You may remember that Art in the Park was participating in The Big Draw from our previous blog post – well, today we received our first flock of postcards! The Flock Project is a part of the The Big Draw 2011, a national campaign to encourage people to draw. People from all over the world were invited to draw a bird and write their thoughts about travel, migration or distance on a postcard. These postcards are then posted off on a journey visiting different destinations around the world until they finally land on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. Art in the Park is acting as the Camberwell stop-over, where the postcards will be displayed for a short time before they continue their migration northwards.

Some of these postcards have come all the way from Bhutan and Spain! And a couple were even made here in Camberwell, at the Art in the Park word carving workshop. I can’t wait to see what else lands on our doormat!

And don’t forget, this Sunday October 9th Art in the Park will be holding an Art Extravaganza as a part of The Big Draw and Flock Project. Do come along to have a go on our fantastic paint machines and take part in our pottery workshops. More details here.

Check out some more of the postcards we have received on Art in the Park’s flickr account.

Get involved and learn more about The Big Draw and the Flock Project

UPDATE! – As I was writing this up, even more postcards arrived, this time from Morocco!

The Big Draw Flock Project

You might have heard about the Big Draw, a national campaign with the sole aim of getting people to draw. This year a new project has emerged under this campaign called ‘Flock’ which seeks to connect people across thousands of miles using, you guessed it, drawing!

Using birds, stamps and people’s own messages and pictures, each person will draw a bird on a card and write a message with their thoughts about migration, travel or distance which will then be sent around. It will begin at the Equator in Uganda, flying north via Camberwell (London), Ullapool (Scottish highlands) and eventually arriving en masse in Stornoway (Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides).

Art in the Park is just one of the organisations involved with this. Acting as the London (Camberwell) stop-over, we will be running an open workshop on Sunday 9^th  October themed around ‘BIRDS OF BURGESS PARK.’ Participants from our 4 Corners and Heart Garden project will also be contributing to the ‘flock’ of postcards.

Open to all ages, the open workshop will allow participants to contribute to this unique Big Draw project by creating stencilled postcards using paint machines which were designed and crafted by Art in the Park’s artist Bill Hudson. In addition to this, there will be pottery, still themed around birds for those wanting a piece of craft of their own.

Camberwell Flock Workshop

We will provide reference material on the birds seen around the park and the lake (Art in the Park have previously worked with Cobourg school to produce a stunning, circular bronze of birds on the lake).

Stencilled Postcards

Participants will:

1. Create stencil of a bird using paper
2. Place on top of the postcard
3. Put it on the painting machine and paint it thus creating a printed bird

They can make 1-2 to keep and 1 to post onwards through the project.

Bird themed Pottery

Participants will:

1. Make a pot using the potter’s wheel
2. Decorate it with a string stamp that they have created, still continuing with the bird motif

You can follow progress of the Big Draw’s Flock project on their blog.