BEV HOGG WORKSHOP

From all accounts everyone had a great time at the recent Bev Hogg workshop. Ingrid Tristram kindly wrote up a report and an extract follows. Ingrid's full report will be up on our Blog Page on the CCPS website.

Bev Hogg threw us in the deep end with forming animal sculptures before we could think to say what? how? now?  With her encouragement we bravely embarked on a new road and it was amazing how the group progressed in such a short time. Her enthusiasm, kindness and guidance to every individual were really appreciated.

At her Friday evening presentation Bev spoke about her work noting that although she depicts animals and birds they must also say something more than just being a representation. For example, she showed her work of two wall plaques where one shows birds that have adapted to living with humans and another plaque of a flight of birds departing who cannot easily survive and some of whom are under threat of extinction. She plays with size, for example, the delicate finch may be enlarged to aggressive proportions. Often it is humour that can underline serious issues. She emphasised how important it is to give yourself time to reflect and develop your ideas

 The following two days of the workshop were filled with sound advice, working on our own sculptures and playing with surface textures on tiles.
 She emphasised the four P's: play, process, practice, persistence. Take risks and be prepared for failure too. She quoted Picasso who said. "Inspiration exists but it has to find you working." Bev, herself, will often work on three different sculptures at the same time. Also she encouraged us to consider making another sculpture the same because we would have ironed out problems from the first effort.

We were given tips on sculpture making and we preactised texture techniques making and decorating tiles.
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Thanks Bev for a most imformative workshop.

Some of the wonderful creations by members. Image by Kylie Rose McLean

Bev working on her piece, which is well underway. Image by Kylie Rose McLean