Those of us who were fortunate enough to get a place on Brigid Collin’s Impressing and Expressing‘ workshop weren’t disappointed.
We were intrigued as to how she’d use the Polyfilla Fine Surface filler, Shellac and sandpaper but all became clear as she demonstrated her techniques.
However, along with a few others perhaps, I did lose a bit of confidence once we’d completed the first stage of the process of impressing found textures and natural forms into the Polyfilla.
Brigid reassured us that all would be well and, sure enough, as we worked our way through adding pigment, making rubbings and applying these to the dried, sanded surface, some interesting images began to emerge. As well as guiding us through this fascinating process, Brigid showed us different ways of adding writing or line to a mixed media surface, including using a masking fluid pen before applying the Polyfilla.
Having browsed through Brigid’s website, I was intrigued to learn how she personally blended poetry with art and she was kind enough to explain her involvement with writers such as Seamus Heaney and Kathleen Jamie (see granta.com/frissure to learn more). As a relative newcomer to ‘making art’ I love to try anything and everything so I was hugely pleased to be able to produce half a dozen samples created by following Brigid’s excellent teaching over the two day workshop.
Brigid’s own instructions are below along with some supplementary notes which I made.
And the following is a small selection of the creative samples made by members who attended the workshop. Please note, it wasn’t always necessary to apply rubbings to achieve interesting final images.
Please can other participants add their own comments, and any images if they’re not already here.
So pleased to find this wonderful piece reminding me of Brigid’s workshop. It was inspiring and thought provoking and has gone some way to opening my mind to new ideas.
Sounds like you had a very interesting weekend Katy, being introduced to lots of new techniques. Now its time to play and experiment to see where they might take you creatively.
Hope you don't mind but i have added the supplementary notes that were missing.