Trading Places/CR.E.A.T.E. Programme

The Residencies

Periodic updates from the journals of the artists involved in this project. Back to residencies

St Catherine's PS, Falls Road, Belfast, PART TWO; Anushiya Sundaralingam

Blind Drawing

Written by artist Anu on 25 April 2004

In the afternoon we did blind drawings of a bundle of flax. These drawings were drawn on acetate sheets and were projected on to a large piece of card. Again they looked so different on a larger scale. We could see all the texture and the colour coming through. We decided to combine two acetate drawings together to see what would happen. It gave the appearance of a large painting of a field. Then we decided to use some flax from the bundle to project with our drawings. It was interesting to see the shadows of combined flax and drawings.
Two of the children went with Orla Kenny to scan some of our drawings as well as some flax. They had fun with scanning those images.

Shadow of circles

Written by artist Anu on 25 April 2004

We continued to experiment with projection. Firstly we used the punched out circles from the punch cards to create shadows which we then traced onto textured wallpapers. This was then mounted onto a card to create a block. The block was then used to print on top of the existing shadow. We used different coloured printing inks to create the block printing. This gave us lots of texture and colours.

Orla Kenny of Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership visited our class today as we were experimenting with printmaking and projecting those images onto a large piece of paper. She suggested that we try printing on acetate. So we printed onto acetate and projected them to see what effects it made on the paper. We were surprised of the texture but unfortunately the colour did not come through. We continued to experiment by using water. We could see the movement of water on our paper and we saw some colours. It was fun and interesting to see our prints on a larger scale. I felt this was important as water is used in the process of linen manufacturing. We then projected water in a plastic cup. We then disturbed the still water to see what effect this will create.

Circles full of colour

Written by artist Anu on 24 April 2004

A rich variety of media came into play today. We experimented with punch cards which were given to us by Lisburn Museum. In linen manufacturing the punch cards were used to create intricate patterns on linen tablecloths that we have all seen and admired. To create our own patterns the punch cards were projected onto a large piece of paper. Light appeared through the holes and we coloured these with wax crayons. It was very colourful and looked like windows of buildings.

Different cards were projected to create different patterns and the holes were then outlined in black.

After some discussion we decided to cut out some of the circles and placed different coloured tissue papers behind them to see how this would look.
This time it definitely looked like windows of tall buildings. We were very pleased with the results.

The children were introduced to the concept of layers by putting all our sheets of drawings together to create a piece of work. By shining the light behind this work we were abele to see the pattern created by the circles and various colours that we had used.

Lots of colours

Written by artist Anu on 24 April 2004

Today we went to the computer room and did free hand line drawings of the wedding dress. We used the colour magic software to produce our drawings. The cursor went everywhere! Between the line drawings we put lots of different colours. The positioning of blocks of different colours created a stain glass effect. This was different from drawing on a paper or fabric and the result was very effective. We took printouts and discussed what we could do with these drawings.
We discussed the idea of projecting our digital drawings onto our white wedding dress to see what happens.

Something New

Written by artist Anu on 22 April 2004

We started the day by discussing what we had done so far. Eugene McConville from McConville’s Linen Mill sent us a bundle of dried flax which we used as a focus for our drawings. We did not know that we could draw without looking at the paper. It is amazing what you can do! This led us to think more about how our senses can help our artistic expression.
This time we concentrated on sound. We closed our eyes and listened to the rattle of the flax seeds inside their pods. (Bet you didn’t know that flax rattles). With our eyes closed it almost felt like we were out in the fields on a windy day with the flax being blown about.

Hat Day-P4

Written by artist Anu on 18 April 2004

Today we made hats because there was going to be an Easter parade at school. We discussed where and when we would wear hats at special occasions for example a wedding. We also talked about different types of hats.
Some of the hats looked like trees, while others were likes flowers, baskets with eggs and chicks.
It was fun making the hats.
We used tissue papers, feathers, cards, coloured papers, pipe cleaners and other materials. Every one wore their hats with pride.

Written by artist Anu on 18 April 2004

P5
We finished our weaving and then did lots of drawing of things that we saw at the Conway mill and Lisburn Museum. We used cotton materials for the drawings; this was very different from drawing on paper. We discovered that we could take rubbings from our weaving. This resulted in wonderful texture.

Fun, Fun, More Fun..

Written by artist Anu on 18 April 2004

29th March –Primary 4 Class
Fun, Fun, More Fun

We had a lovely white wedding dress like the one we had seen in the Lisburn museum. The children were very excited when they saw the wedding dress. Every one wanted to dress up as a bride. We all helped Charlotte to wear the dress up and we made paper flowers to create bouquet. It was good fun!
The children talked about the wedding dress. We had an idea! We did observational drawings with oil pastels on cotton materials and paper. It was all right! Nothing special! All of us talked more about the dress and not about the drawings. We observed the shape, size, length, width of the dress and then did drawings without looking at the paper. This is called blind drawing. (When the children finished their drawing I asked them to look at the drawing) We all laughed, it was funny. We would love to do more blind drawing.

Weddings

Written by artist Anu on 17 April 2004

Friday 26th March – Primary 4 Class
The children found the wedding dress the most interesting part of their visit to the Lisburn Museum. They suggested that their next piece of work was based on this theme. We looked at old family photographs of wedding clothes and tore paper to create wedding dresses. I discussed and compared a Sri Lankan wedding with an Irish wedding, both past and present.
“It was fun to design your own wedding dress. It was fantastic putting the dresses on the projector and then drawing them on a big sheet of paper with lots of colour”. (Maeve Stewart P4)

Warp and Weft

Written by artist Anu on 17 April 2004

Friday 26th March – Primary 5 Class
We spent a lot of time discussing the children’s experiences of their visits to Lisburn Museum and Conway Mill. The children talked about the mill workers and the punch cards they used to clock in and out of work. We created our own cards and these will be used each week to make markings of what they experience through the artist. The children used strips of industrial materials to weave. They used two colours and began to understand warp and weft. This led on to exploring the idea of weaving. We used the projector to examine strings and we projected patterns on to the floor. We left the string image and as a team we made and coloured the rest.
“We would like to do some more weaving. We would also like to do more drawings with the projector with the whole class”

Weaving

Written by artist Anu on 17 April 2004

Weaving
We used different coloured paper to weave. Pupils created a two-colour pattern and three-colour pattern by weaving. It was difficult to begin with but once the children got the hang of it they were very impressed with the results. We will try this with a large piece with lots of colours.

Printmaking/Drawing

Written by artist Anu on 17 April 2004

Monday 22nd March – Primary 4 Class
Printmaking
The children discussed their visits to the Lisburn Museum and Conway Mill. They shared their experiences and discussed the highlights of these trips. These ideas were put into making monoprints and drawings. The children enjoyed making monoprints.

“We loved making the monoprints because we did drawings and then they turned into colourful pictures. They looked really cool!” (Colleen Maxwell P4)

Drawing
The children sat on the floor and did drawings. They used crayons and large wax paper. They examined pictures of a spinning wheel, like the one they had seen in the Lisburn Museum. We repeated the drawings and created patterns. The children really enjoyed stretching out on the floor and working collaboratively on the drawings.

Clock In!!

Written by artist Anu on 17 April 2004

Friday 19th March
I began the project by introducing myself to the whole school. This enabled all pupils to understand why I was working in the school. I began by telling the children where I come from and what I do. I discussed my work with the children and what influences me. They looked at the photographs, paintings and original prints of my work. We discussed the process of printmaking and how I created each piece. Lots of interesting questions were asked about my work and me.