Tuesday 11 November 2014

Getting creative in the Yurts with Stanhope Youth Group

After warming up in the cosy big Lapwing Yurt the members of Stanhope Youth Group were ready to get creative....

Mair and Bridget had set up the yurts with various weird and wonderful contraptions, here is what it looked like before the creative chaos began....


Tentatively the budding young artists explored the drawing tools that were on hand...




And then the fun began.....the young people began to make their mark on the communal drawing wall using the drawing tools provided as well as making their own..


A particularly fine sculptural head dress / drawing tool!


It was lovely to see groups working together, discussing and thinking through ideas, problem solving, but above all having fun..


Its amazing what you can do with some string, a pulley and some paint...


And then the sun came out and we moved outside for a finale performance of a rather explosive nature!!


A huge thank you to the volunteers who accompanied the young people on this splendid day and to Killhope for being so generous in providing the beautiful Lapwing yurt for us to use as our communal studio. We would also like to say thank you to Weardale Area Action Partnership for their generous support and last but not least the young people who came along and made it such a wonderful day of discovery and colourful fun.....................





October 5th 2014: Stanhope Youth Group visit Killhope

Finally, the day arrived when young people from Stanhope and the surrounding Weardale area visited Killhope in the company of visual artists Mair Hughes and Bridget Kennedy.

It was Sunday 5th October, not a great day weather wise, but 12 plucky members of St Thomas Church Youth Group made the journey up to Killhope to see what creative delights awaited them.....

First Mair and Bridget showed them round parts of the museum, pointing out the use of tools and machines in the daily lives of the men who worked at the lead mine over 150 years ago.


In the Blacksmiths shop they explored a more creative use of the old tongs on display!


Looking at Killhope Wheel and thinking about how water powered the machines in the Jigger House.

Then getting the feel for both over shot and undershot wheel power around the site...


The Buddle House became a temporary movie theatre to help show how contemporary artists use machines in their creative work.


Thursday 4 September 2014

Wheel Power!

A little video of one of our water wheel models in action in the stream at Killhope. Hopefully these wheels will be employed to power 'drawing machines' during our workshops with Stanhope Youth Group.

Monday 4 August 2014

Beautiful weather for Sinderhope workshops


“ Life in the Landscape” ran over three days of glorious sunshine in July (24th, 25th and 28th). These workshops were not intended as master classes or technical demonstrations, Bridget and Mair wanted to explore ideas with people and encourage them to think about the surrounding landscape in a different way. The publicity they sent out posed the question “What happens when Landscape meets Still-Life?” Nineteen people in total attended the workshops, fourteen on the Thursday, fourteen on the Friday and nine on the Monday. Although Bridget and Mair designed the workshops as three consecutive sessions they invited people to come to whichever days were convenient for them. The atmosphere was relaxed and sociable, plenty of refreshments were on offer throughout. To start off the first session Mair had prepared a short slide show, so after an initial introduction to the project in general everyone settled down to look at images of still life painting and photography both classical and contemporary, followed by imagery of landscape. Through various local networks Bridget and Mair had connected with people who had previous experience of drawing and painting so the level of discussion about this imagery and how it might inspire art works during the workshops was of a sophisticated nature. Participants ranged in age from the 20-30 bracket to the 70-80 bracket and came from as far a field as Newcastle and as close by as Sparty Lea.





There are so many photos to choose from the wonderful three days we spent working with artists at the Sinderhope Community Centre during the Life in the Landscape workshops. However, I felt the one above sums up the time quite nicely.


Food and art, what more could you want??


It did get quite serious at times, honest. An important part of the sessions were the group discussions when the artists took time to look at what everyone had produced and give as well as receive constructive criticism.

After a stimulating discussion participants were invited to draw from a selection of still life set ups. These arrangements of objects incorporated mineral specimens and artefacts from Killhope Museum as well as plants and vegetables from the garden at the centre, which is cared for by Natural Ability a local organisation working with people with learning and other disabilities. Bridget and Mair led these drawing sessions providing specific drawing materials and directing particular tasks, such as time limited drawings, drawing without looking at the paper and so on. These sessions were at times quite challenging and were intended to limber up the aspiring artists. After a much needed refreshments break the group displayed and discussed the work they had produced that afternoon and talked through what they wanted to achieve in the next session.

Day two began with more drawing exercises followed by self-directed drawing sessions both in and outside of the centre. Bridget and Mair guided the participants into incorporating landscape imagery into their still life compositions. After lunch some of the artists explored the nearby Blackett Level mining remains at Holmes Linn, whilst others stayed closer to the centre drawing and painting in the beautiful sunshine. The day concluded with a group discussion and more planning for the third and final session.    



Holmes Linns, Blackett Level mining ruins provided wonderful photo opportunities.

The group provided very positive feedback. One participant wrote that the workshops gave her the opportunity: “to work on a concept I have struggled with for sometime and it gave me the opportunity to work that out.” Another commented that the workshops were a “wonderful opportunity, lovely three days!”





Tuesday 8 July 2014

Funding for Weardale project

Mair and Bridget are delighted to announce that we have secured some extra funding for the project entitled "Being Underground",  a series of workshops with members of the St Thomas Church youth group. This has been provided by Weardale Area Action Partnership and will enable us to provide free transport and a series of free workshops to the participating young people.



We (Bridget +Mair) made contact with the group nearly a year ago when we were doing some research for the arts engagement project with Killhope. Bridget has been to meet the young people a couple of times now and they made some smashing drawings during the last meeting (see previous post).

The project will start in earnest in September so watch this space for news of it's development.

Wednesday 2 July 2014

Pre project drawing session with St Thomas Church Youth Group



The group of young people split into two groups and made collaborative drawings based on 17th century prints of mineral samples. There was some interesting discussion about the end results, some how although they started from an image of a small object the drawings took on the look of a huge mountain range or a rolling landscape.

                                                          See what you think for your self.


Life in the Landscape