Drawing Steam

Drawing Steam, 1

We took ourselves off to the World Heritage Site at the Derwent Valley Mills today for a Big Draw event as one of the Mills' "Discovery Days"

The Gothic Room where we worked

The theme for the Big Draw this year is “steam” and we thought that would fit in nicely with Victorian industry, mill machinery, the canal and the river and the old railway, but of course once you let visitors loose on a long piece of paper there is no telling where ideas will go….

“These people work in the mill. They have sad faces because they don’t like working in the factory…a boy and girl are smiling because they do like the factory…”

“Get out of my tree!” shouted the monkey who guarded the orange and banana tree

Moorhen, grassy field, feather and tree

By the river near the church

And so we cut them down,

Because we can –

We cut the sycamore,

And oak,

And beech,

Because we can,

We’re man,
And have dominion over all we see

But these the trees have weathered storms

The cold pinched winds of winter Derbyshire

-       And yet we cut them down –

Because we can.

 

autumn river

On this bright but chilly autumn day, 60 people joined us in the Gothic Room at Cromford Mill and scribbled and sketched, drew, rubbed and muttered and gave us a richness of pictures

trees: an exercise with oil pastelles

This is Drawing Steam, 1, DS2 will follow when we've unravelled the 6 metre long drawing from the back of my car! 

an optimistic red squirrel

With many thanks to all our artists, drawers, 

sketchers and scribblers!

Our next event: Wednesday 26th October: 

Pop-up museum and Bone Detectives at Ilam 

with the National Trust

Collections in the Landscape

This event is one of a series organised as part of Buxton Museum and Art Gallery’s Collections in the Landscape (CITL) project. With a grant from the Heritage Lottery, the Museum is changing the way people can access the Collections. As well as physical changes to the Museum itself, collections are going on-line and a series of apps will encourage people to connect places with Museum treasures even when they are out walking in the Peaks. Within the wider project, Creeping Toad is coordinating public events both in the Museum and out in the Peaks, offering people to explore aspects of the Collection in creative, engaging and often rather messy ways. Creeping Toad events are advertised in both the Museum events guide and on this blog

Find out more:  https://collectionsinthelandscape.wordpress.com/about/

crow in charcoal and pencil

From Winnatts to Chatsworth, by camera

From Winnatts Pass to Chatsworth House:

Reimaging the Peaks

Buxton Opera House: Val Dalling

On the 8^th October a group of bold photographers set out with Chris Gilbert of Raven’s Eye to explore a connection between 18^th and 19^th Century prints of the Peaks and those same views seen through a 21^st century eye and 21^st century technology….

our team at Cressbrook Mill, Sarah Parkin

Clapper Bridge, Sarah Parkin

In their own words:

Sarah P:  

I like the idea of trying to recreate previous artists’ views or reinterpreting a view.  A historical ‘Proloco’ type thing…something I may revisit. Exhibitions inc historical imagery alongside current, appeals…

Chris:  

One of the things that the workshop has really made me think about is focal length and the role it plays in composition. It's something that I talk about a lot in my workshops anyway but working with the old prints really emphasised it for me.

 

a 19th Century view of Winnatts Pass

Valerie:

I thought this would be an excellent learning curve for me, and it certainly proved to be the case. as I continue to discover what the Peak District has to offer. This day was without exception one of the best I've attended, it was not only intellectually and historically informative, but it was also a most relaxing day where I felt completely at ease and with a great picnic into the bargain...perfect.

Winnats Pass, now: Nigel Slater

Spencer: 
 Chris' advice about simplifying techniques to allow more opportunity to think about composition was really useful. I tend to work on manual, so using aperture priority and exposure compensation was really refreshing and allowed me to think more about what I was trying to capture.  

Spencer: The historical context provided by looking at the prints was also really interesting.  As someone who works in a museum I am aware of historic images of Derbyshire as photographs, on paper and on porcelain but it was nice to link them with my own photography…

Monsall Head viaduct in the early 20th Century

and almost the same view 100 years later, Nick Hillman

Nigel: 

It's certainly reignited my desire to get out into the Peak District and do more photography.

 

view from Monsall Head, Nigel Slater

Another participant has posted on his own blog about the day - thank you, Nick. 

This was one of our Collections in the Landscape Knowledge Seeker 
Workshops. Others include a Poetry Workshop while on the horizon is an opportunity to work with Flint Knapper James Dilley, to walk the ancient landscape of Arbor Low with archaeologist Bill Bevan, 21^st December, a whole day of maps, walks and the exploring the layered history of Castleton and Hope: date to be confirmed, in the spring of 2017

After that there will be another 2 similar workshops within the Collections project

another take on Winnatts Pass, Spencer Bailey

Collections in the Landscape

This workshop is one of a series being organised as part of Buxton Museum and Art Gallery’s Collections in the Landscape (CITL) project. With a grant from the Heritage Lottery, the Museum is changing the way people can access the Collections. As well as physical changes to the Museum itself, collections are going on-line and a series of apps will encourage people to connect places with Museum treasures even when they are out walking in the Peaks. Within the wider project, Creeping Toad is coordinating public events both in the Museum and out in the Peaks, offering people to explore aspects of the Collection in creative, engaging and often rather messy ways. Creeping Toad events are advertised in both the Museum events guide and on this blog

Find out more:  https://collectionsinthelandscape.wordpress.com/about/

Apples, woods and troll-tales

In a clearing in a wood....

Light up the Night and Apple Day

some pictures after a busy weekend...

In Plas Power Woods near Wrexham,

there is a pool on the river in the woods where....

 Stories waited

ready for stories

and as the evening closed around us...

....the lantern fish began to shine

and tiny lanterns glowed among the fallen leaves

That was Saturday, on Sunday, the morning rain cleared and...

there was an orchard to story...

and instant orchards to make

This is a quick update...more details and new stories will follow....

Wild words workshop

Wild words and leafy pages

a training course

there are stories everywhere

Tuesday 8^th November 2016

at Dartington

a workshop for teachers, artists, storytellers, playleaders, Forest School leaders...

Organised by Wildwise 

Cost: £115/90/70

Booking details from Wildwise

simple activities can capture a whole story

This workshop will include activities that can be used to help groups of all ages use language to explore, enjoy and celebrate their environment.   We will play with words: creating stories, poems, instant adventures and terrible tales. We will explore exciting ways of holding onto written words with bog books, folded libraries, mapsticks, pop-up storyscapes and tiny, runaway characters.   

A day to enjoy words, this workshop encourages participants to find “adventures everywhere”... anywhere. It will offer activities designed to draw inspiration from simple observation, fostering confidence in participants own skills and encouraging innovation within supportive activity structures. The activities used will also allow ideas to merge as a number of short activities flow together to give longer more intricate adventures

The activities used here have been tried and tested with family groups, on adult events and with school children - often in situations where Literacy is an issue and activities are needed that remove worry and fear and encourage simple enjoyment of words

 

mapping a class' adventure

Programme will include

            first words: setting out on an adventure

            adventures everywhere: short activities with minimal equipment for use outside

            holding onto adventures: ways of recording our words

            bigger stories: working in groups to make quick, longer pieces

            Activity options:

                        developing story characters,

                        deriving adventures from found objects or artefacts

                        making your own books

                        the value of treasure

                        story bundles

 

characters are always waiting for their story...

                       

Apple Day, bones and stories

Autumn adventures

public events in October:

Apples, wheels, steam and scarings

Creeping Toad is out and about and all over the place in the next few weeks. Come and join me somewhere and celebrate the natural 

and unnatural richnesses 

of this autumn

October

Light up the woods

in Plas Power a year or two agao

Saturday 15^th

Plas Power Woods, Wrexham

Mixing lanterns, with woodland storytelling, campfire warmth and the thrill of wandering through a wood at night. You will find me deep in the woods, on a log by a stream telling stories of enchanted owls, tree-magic and occasional bears. This event is becoming a hugely popular annual event. Tickets are limited and advance booking is needed!

Follow the link for more information:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/get-involved/events/15-october-2016-lanterns-plas-power/

Apple Day

Sunday 17th

Dove Valley Centre

Another regular feature and another annual delight. Join us for an afternoon of delicious apples, orchards, stories, art, and baking apples and potatoes in the fire. Bring your own apples and you can scrunch them into the juice - bring your own chutneys and swap them or their recipes. I am here to tell stories and lead some Museum moments: we’re collecting apple thoughts and orchard stories.

12 – 4pm

Free.

Just come and enjoy an afternoon deep in the dale

Dove Valley Centre, Under Whitle, SK17 0PR (between Longnor and Sheen)

A Collections in the Landscape event for Buxton Museum and Art Gallery

Drawing Steam

Monday 24  11am-3pm

The Gothic Warehouse, Cromford Wharf, DE4 3RP

Get inspired by the landscape of Cromford Mills and High Peak Junction and sketch, scribble or draw your favourite bits onto our big drawing. Using a variety of materials, we’ll work together to create an amazing picture, 20 metres or more long, that tells the story of this special place: the birthplace of the factory system in the valley that changed the world. Part of Derwent Valley Mills Discovery Days. 

A Collections in the Landscape event for Buxton Museum and Art Gallery

An event for the Big Draw

Calacas: make your own tiny Day of the Dead characters

Tuesday 25^th

Green Man Gallery, Buxton

In the final days before Hallowe’en, join me for an afternoon with tiny skeletal people. Inspired by Mexican Day of the Dead ideas, we’ll make little skeletal people doing everyday things…there may be skeleton footballers, musicians, ladies in ball gowns, gentlemen in tophats and tails – or ladies in tophats and gentlemen in ballgowns…who knows what way the bones will inspire us!

Green Man Gallery, Buxton (Hardwick Square south, , SK17 6PY

Booking needed.

Cost £6.00 (accompanying adult free – but adults could always book a place and make their own Calacas!)

Drop in in person, or call: 01298 937375 (card payment).

And if you survive that, you might like to call in for

Boggarts and Freetings: spooky stories for Hallowe’en week

Still on Tuesday 25th and still at the Green Man Gallery, between 5 and 6pm (more or less), £3 a ticket and stories for laughter, shock, delight and dismay and a nice shiver or two for the arrival of winter!

Booking details as above

Bone Detectives

Wednesday 26^th October

Ilam, National Trust

Explore the secrets of the skulls, learn to read the clues hidden in eyesockets, teeth and the bony curves of zygomatic arches and sagittal crests. Meet some skulls, draw some bones, take your own bone-folder home. (Bring your own mystery bones with you, if you like to baffle us – only nothing too drippy and messy, thank you!)

Buxton Museum’s Pop-up Museum will be there too, so come and see some of the Treasures of the Peak and talk to museum experts…

I’ll be there at the bony end of things!

National Trust, Ilam

11am – 3pm. a family event, these sessions are free but car parking charges may apply

No booking needed – just turn up and join in

A Collections in the Landscape event for Buxton Museum and Art Gallery

Pavilion Pictures

Thursday 27 October, 11am-3pm

Pavilion Gardens, Buxton SK17 6BE

Draw, colour, collage, etch and sketch 
your way around Pavilion Gardens as we
 celebrate the Big Draw in Buxton. Collect some materials from us by the Pavilion, then get exploring around the gardens and see what inspires your artwork. If it’s raining, there’s plenty to do and draw inside - from the wonderful winter garden to the bustle of the cafe and gallery. 

A Collections in the Landscape event for Buxton Museum and Art Gallery