Walk. Draw. Stitch.: Cas Holmes Workshop

I wasn’t sure if I was going to write this post (it wasn’t the best day for me, unfortunately), which it why it is going up so long after the fact, but I decided I would, because I know that if I’d been in the right frame of mind, it would have been a really great day and because I did learn a lot and make something worth sharing.

This workshop was on the 13^th May, at Nower Wood, which is a private Educational Nature Reserve run by the Surrey Wildlife Trust. It was a one day workshop, focused on making work that reflected and responded to the surroundings.

The first task was to go outside and sketch. The idea was to not be precious about what we were drawing, so we were told to draw something, then fold the paper and draw over the previous drawing, then rip the paper and draw over the ripped edge. It was a very freeing way of working and actually made drawing fun, rather than something you do because you ‘should’ do it.

Back inside, we did more mark making on the drawings we’d just done. This included taking rubbing of leaves, bark and other things we’d picked up outside.

Unfortunately, this was the point where I started having some difficulty and really struggled with what we were doing. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do and I didn’t particularly like what I’d done. I decided to go back outside and do some more sketching to refocus my mind, but after lunch I ended up having to skip the rest of the afternoon. I did manage to come back for the wrap up/evaluation session at the end, which meant I go to see what other people had done and hear what other people had thought about the workshop.

We were supposed to be making a folded book as a response to Nower Woods and our first time there, but my final piece ended up being a collaged picture of the simple line drawings I done on the day, a bit of fabric I’d bought with me, and a piece of paper I’d made marks on for a previous project. Although it wasn’t like everyone else’s, I like it.

I tried assembling the pieces that I didn’t use on the day into a folded book when I got home, but I seem to have a real mental block when it comes to this, because I don’t like the result. It might be a case of ripping it up and rearranging, or maybe just accepting that it is not meant to be and giving up.

Although the day wasn’t as successful for me as it could have been, I really like this method of recording an area. I almost wish I’d done this before going to the Lake District, because I think it would have been a really great way of documenting the holiday. I will be going to Iceland in a couple of weeks, so maybe I’ll try and do a project like this there. Or at least try and incorporate some of these ideas into a more tradition sketchbook.

I found this video Cas Holmes put together of pictures of the work the group created, if you’d like to see what everyone else produced on the day.