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‘Studio Tango Revisited’
One week before it was set in place I posted a movie on youtube of the Fulbridge Entrance painting in its finished but unvarnished state. Although staff and children at the school were aware of the design, and informed of the progress of the painting through photographs presented as a visual diary on my daily blog, the movie was a ‘sneak peek’ of its actual scale prior to appearing on site. The painting was much larger than my studio space and my only means of assessing the whole composition and whether the sections of the painting worked when assembled was by recording myself putting the jigsaw together.
The original ‘Studio Tango’ was published online on March 7th last year. ‘Studio Tango Revisited’ therefore is an impression of the whole story.
Why ‘Studio Tango’? Continually moving the boards around the studio with outstretched arms during the 8 week painting period felt very much like they had become large and very heavy dancing partners!
‘Alice in Wonderland’ at Titchmarsh School
3.4.14
To accompany the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ themed day I painted a large Rabbit Hole in the school playground, which greeted the children when they arrived at school that morning. Measuring approximately 36′ x 19′ it stretches from the school gate to the playground door as an anamorphic distortion, and my plan was that it would still work even if viewed from the opposite direction. Well, it almost does!
Chapter I – ‘Down the Rabbit-Hole‘
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”
So she was considering in her own mind, (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid,) whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a white rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the rabbit say to itself, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!” (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well……………………….
‘A Mad Tea-Party’ at Titchmarsh School
– The Mural
4.4.14
One month after the World Book Day Drawing Workshops and I returned to Titchmarsh School for an ‘Alice in Wonderland‘ day to complete the Mad Tea Party project.
On my last visit Eeyore met me at Reception, this time it was the Queen of Hearts. It was also a ‘Sharing Day’, with children from Warmington School visiting, and I worked with five age groups, six children at a time, to paint a mural in the school hall. With the wall measuring 10′ high and a width of 16′, naturally the lower half of the painting received the most attention during the course of the day. I therefore returned for another couple of sessions to paint the upper half by myself and to make some tidying adjustments to the start made by the children.
The end result is a composite project. I created the design using a variety of the images produced during the drawing workshops as the individual elements and almost all of the children made a contribution to the painting process, which I then brought to a conclusion. A truly collaborative and co-operative effort, with a successful end result too!
Colin Slater - artist 