Rising artists of Caithness
This mentorship and art-workshop course is running again with a wider range of workshops and a clearer theme in mind. Rising Artists from last year went on to achieve places on art courses at top universities, sold work, exhbitied work and some are running art workshops this year.
The mentees will leanr essential techniques for working in the art world such as social media use, networking, training (in diversity, equity and inclusion), looking for employment and funding. At the same time, they will be attending workshops by local exhibitng artists. The workshops will center on the theme of rocks and mienrals, and some of this work will eb shown in the exhibiton in August. Good luck and creativity to them!
October Storytelling
To launch the program, mentees were encouraged to explore stories reating to stone in Caithness. By drawing inspiration from existing stories, they can develop work of their own. Thsis could be in writing their own story, depicting a feature of a local story, like the Devil’s Stone on the boundary between Caithness and Sutherland, or the caves once frequented bu the Peedie Sands mermaid.
November: Linoprinting
The Rising Artists got to have a lino-printing session with the fabulously busy Katie Squires. Katie’s solo show ‘War Horse and Other Stories’ is running at the Thurso gallery until the 11th January 2025.
Lino-printing is the technique of carving shapes into linoleum or rubber with a V-shaped chisel. The marks can be made at various depths to affect the sharpness of the print. This method suits clean and clear shapes and this class was run with the theme of brochs and stone structures in mind. One artist made a print of the very recognisable Old windmill at Castlehill heritage centre which powered the flagstone saws in the 18th century.
Find out more about Katie’s work at katiesquiresart.com
December: felting with Eleanor Lee
In December we were hosted in the Halkirk Comm for a really cosy felting session. Felting is the use of real and synthetic wool to make solid items. If you’ve never done it before, it’s hard to imagine how it works but with Eleanor’s step by step kits you see what kind of things are possible! The kits come with a felting cushion to protect the surface you are working on, wool for the basic shape of what you’re making, organic wool to cover the shape, and materials for the details.
We used seagull kits. Each of us began with a different shape which made realistic seagulls and cartoon ones. Eleanor’s works are really characterful and with her instruction we all made a piece that showed our personalities. It was really nice to do such homely work in an environment with a fireplace. We are hooked!
See more of Eleanor’s work on facebook
Look out for her work at the exhibition this summer!
January: Figure Drawing pilot
In January we piloted a figure drawing class for the community.
Figure drawing is a foundational art skill that encourages observation, human anatomy and technical drawing. Although some artists thrive without it, the opportunity to draw people from life can be both inspiring and useful for furthering an art career.
Rising Artists and members of the public attended, and this led to a longer series of figure drawing classes being held.
February: Ceramics with Messy Nessy
After illness of the original workshop leader, we held a ceramics class at Messy Nessy. It was great of them to step in at short notice!
With the theme of stone, the Rising Artists learnt a little about clay, how you can have local clay and how it differs from clays from elsewhere.
We give the workshops a theme, but also welcome our artists to work on their own themes – this might be a portfolio for university, as is shown by one of the artists who is focusing very much on birds. Other Rising Artists kept tight to the “Caithness Rocks and Minerals” brief and made clay models of distinctive features of the landscape such as the Castlehill Mill. These clay sculptures were then fired for the artists to come back and paint at a later date.
March: Painting with Jackie Newton
April: Glassbowing with Ian Pearson
Ian is a maverick and a lot of fun to work with. Each year, he runs glassblowing (or ‘lampworking to use the technical term) workshops for the Rising Artists in pairs in his studio in Thurso.
Come snow, sun, rain or wind, this scientific glassblower-come-cheif of the Society of Caithness Artists can be found investing new ways to work with this dramatic material: glass!
May: Drystone Walling with Andrew Manson
