David Cass

David Cass is a local artist who lives in Lauder. Unfortunately, I missed the start of his talk when he came to visit us at college today, 07/10/15.  Doing some research online I found out he went to the Edinburgh College of Art. He graduated with a First Class Honors and received a Royal Scottish Academy scholarship to Florence. He has displayed and exhibited some of his work at the Scottish Gallery. Here are some examples of some of his work.

Tonight Rain, Tomorrows Mud -  paper based art works that use only pencil and pen and little paint. Inspired by the floods of the past and he wanted to create his new-found desire of drawing architectural features and water. Reasearch came from Tuscany, Lucca and Florence.

Espejismos (2014 - 2015) Example of water and how arid zones have suffered from drought and climate change. David spent time in the Almeria Desert viewing the landscape at a research centre. He made videos and took photographs to record his finding as well as drawing and painting.  He also used examples of the drought by incorporating mirrors into the ground to give the illusion of water, polyester, netting and gels were also used. Making a somewhat theatrical take on the project.

Postcard Project - People can requested a postcard and David will sketch/paint over a postcard of the place he is at the time. Prices are around £60 and help to fund his works.

Overall, I like how organised and well planned David seemed. The way he works I think has been learned over the years at college.  While some of his finding and works seemed eccentric.(like the bringing sea water in little bottles home from every place he has visited and using it in his paintings). I do like his project with the postcards, also the way he used the antique paper for the Florence flood project incorporating past and old together. 

I was left thinking I would never have a portfolio as good has his, from the structured beginning to what hes learnt, his travels and the confidence he displays.  HELP !!   :)  Room for improvement and learning.

Linda Lovatt

                                                    

Beastie Assemblage

WOW!!

What a colourful person!

Linda Lovatt came into the classroom wearing a green dress, green tights, pink cardigan and yellow shoes. With her small petite frame she very much reassembles the look of a magical fairy, something I later found also reassembles her working life and art.

Linda is the owner and creator of a little studio in the town of Jedburgh, Scottish Borders. She specialists in making whimsical jewellery assemblages from copper, brass and other fragments she finds interesting from the past. Such as china, dug up from her own garden. A lot of her inspiration does come for the garden and nature.

After studying a BTEC for 2 years, then going onto doing a degree in visual communications, she went freelance. Working for a company mainly illustrating characters such as Winnie the Pooh and Beatrix Potter. However, she felt they was very little self-expression in her work. After 20 years working for others she decided to open her own shop/studio. Beastie Assemblage was opened and she also attended craft fairs, which then led her to be approached by galleries looking to display some of her work. 

The ornaments she makes are very small and delicate. Using a solar iron method to mould most of her pieces together. This is a very cheap but affective way of working, and keeps cost and space minimum. Her workload doubled and she ended up having to expand her business and take on more staff. She did stress though that it was important to keep her output small as she doesn’t want to go globe or her pieces to become to available.

Overall, I think Linda has gained knowledge over the years and if I took something away from her talk it was that, to be open to what you are good at! Being one-minded isn’t always the correct or only route to take but also that mistakes or learning can bring up different ideas and understanding!  Its an ever changing world and research and being up to date is essential, as well as a good trustworthy team behind you.