Workshop with Danny Morrell

After an interesting workshop last week looking at paintings by Mondrian and Kandinsky and then experimenting in the session, members were looking forward to this week's workshop.

The theme was Abstract Expressionism. Danny started by introducing the subject and then moved on to looking at how Jackson Pollock progressed from his early studies and paintings using early native American symbols, to his more well known action paintings.
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​Our first task involved the use of a pipette and black ink. We experimented with mark making using squeezing the pipette to get different thickness of lines and creating bubbles that popped to give splatter effects.  Considering that we all had the same starting point, it was interesting to see the range of results. It was enjoyable to have the freedom to experiment and it was easy to see how these could be developed further.

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After the break, we looked at the work of Jasper Johns and particularly his paintings using the numbers 0-9. It was interesting to see how these could be combined and give a different painting.
We were asked to pick a word of four or five letters and design a composition built up from these letters. The distracting spaces could be filled up with shapes if we wished.  Again, it was interesting to see the range of work produced and often difficult to guess the word used as they were so well done. 

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Another superb session by Danny and it certainly made us think about creating more abstract work. There was even enough material for at least another two sessions! Hopefully, we will be able to expand on this, with him, on a future date.