This weekend Leeds-based mixed media artist Amy Balderston is taking over the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery for a very interesting experiment with the help of our visitors. To quote Amy's train of thought here, the starting point is the way Aubrey Beardsley deals with his backdrops and scenery: "I feel that within his complex worlds he makes the ordinary extraordinary. The landscapes often have something the viewer can connect to, rather than completely plucked out of his imagination. It is the characters and unusual additions to these backdrops that create such a captivating image." To explore this (very astute) observation further, visitors will be given simple templates of different backgrounds and sceneries, and Amy will help them fill these with their own thoughts and imagination with an expert hand.
The question 'What Would Aubrey Do?' arises, when it comes to Amy's art and the workshop's focus. Does it make sense to explore Aubrey Beardsley's fine black and white ink drawings by creating mixed media art at all? I think this is exactly what makes this workshop challenging and inspirational. Instead of recreating the style, the accomplished forms and lines in Aubrey's images, Amy's workshop is designed to look deeper and search for what lies in less conspicuous aspects of these pieces: the power of composition, perspective, characters, hidden, barely visible quirks of expression, the importance of the background, and other means to create the slightly ominous and almost tangible atmosphere, familiar to those who have come to see Aubrey Beardsley's art at our current exhibition.
The workshop is also carefully designed to accomodate various abilities and levels of artistic skill. Amy's templates will help to overcome the paralysing feeling of incompetence most of us experience when staring at a blank page, when we're told to create something there and then. While giving something for the mind to latch onto, the art templates are also designed to provide inspiration, a starting point for expression. The added bonus of working with mixed media is that while it is far from being basic and childish, it is a great way to alleviate the pain and frustration of the half of humanity that I belong to: I want to draw, but I just don't think I'm good enough. This normally makes me steer clear of arty workshops and run to the hills (Plus I always get to sit next to people who complain how they can't draw a straight line to save their lives and then proceed to draw the Guernica with Etch-a-Sketch, which really doesn't help). Not this Saturday though! You'll find me at the Gallery doing what I like best: cutting up pretty magazines and play with yarn.
I'm not sure Aubrey would be okay with that with his hangups about aesthetics and all, but I know that I'll come out knowing more about the artwork that I see at the Gallery almost every day. Now that is something he, the king of arcane weirdness and subtly hidden grotesque, would certainly approve of.
Join Amy and of course the illustrious company of dead book illustrators, Aubrey Beardsley, Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen and the rest of the gang at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, 2pm on Staurday, 4 December 2010.
Visit the website for more info on this and other events at the gallery.