College week 7/1 Odds and ends day 17th October

Today we had a muddled old day of bits and pieces, in theory time to catch up on this term's workshops in preparation for the next appraisal session after half term, but in practice, for me anyway, it turned out to be a bit of a wasted day.

We had the option of three short workshops: textiles (unspecified) with Teresa; oil painting with Mark; and how to stretch a canvas with Jan.  Or doing your own thing...  I hadn't really thought about how best to use the time, and was unable to join the textiles group (which was learning to use dissolvable fabric for machine embroidery) because there are only 5 sewing machines and I was slow to get down to the workshop room.

So I did Mark's oil painting workshop, which was interesting because I'd never touched oil paints before, but also unsatisfactory because I had not expected to be painting and had no images in my head.  I played around with missing paint with varying amounts of linseed oil and other flow enhancer, and covered 6 small 6x6" boards.

I quite liked the results, but the day itself felt a little aimless, and I doubt I shall use oils again - not least because of the costs and the fuss and the smells, etc,etc.   Other people, however, were very enthusiastic and some nice pieces were emerging.  Here are there rather pathetic results of today's efforts.

We were also supposed to have one-on-one tutorials with Mark but I missed the signing up process and decided my mood was not conducive to hanging around until 4.00 or later  - so I grumbled a bit to Harriet and Jo and took myself off for an early finish, promising to talk to Mark tomorrow on the trip to Oxford.