Blog

It’s not often you get the opportunity to spend a day with a Royal Acadamy artist, getting a first-hand insight into their working practice and benefitting from their teaching. But last weekend an enthusiastic group of workshop participants got to do just that.

To support her current exhibition, Melting Ice | Rising Tides, Emma Stibbon RA ran workshops exploring the local landscape and links to the global impacts of climate change. So popular was it, the first day sold out within hours, leaving a waiting list of hopefuls. Luckily, Emma was able to offer a second date and so over two days, groups made up of both experienced artists and those who had never drawn before gathered on the seafront.

The tide was out, providing perfect conditions to observe the exposed rock formations and reef stretching out from the shore. Clutching our drawing boards and taking care not to walk too close to the chalk cliff face, where evidence of recent rock falls piled up at the base, we headed towards an imposing dark hulk of granite boulders.

These manmade coastal defenses, put in place to mitigate against rising sea levels and erosion caused by increasing storm events, form part of a wider plan to increase resilience along 15km of coastline. Beyond, the managed retreat was evident in the groynes which have been pulled apart by the power of the sea, just the vertical posts remaining, seaweed clinging on.

The morning was to be spent making sketches of the landscape in situ. Emma gave suggestions about how to approach the work, encouraging us to consider perspective and scale: the headland receding into the background compared to posts in the foreground, as well as composition, such as where to place the horizon on the page.

As we were to be drawing in monochrome, there was a selection of both black and white sheets of paper and as well as black ink and charcoal, people collected broken pieces of chalk from the cliffs to use.

Emma encouraged us to be brave, bold! ‘Lay it down’ and don't worry about sketching out too much. Not to get too caught up in the specifics of shapes but to find the light and dark, the shades. Using the different strata within the cliffs as an example, looking for underlying patterns and rhythms. Looking for the gaps between things.

She also highlighted the specific challenges of drawing outside; not just in terms of the changing light and perspective but also the potential frustration of working in the wind and rain. However, this also provides an emotional drama which is somehow captured in the work and brought back to the studio.

There was certainly a lot to digest and it took some people a while to decide on a position and subject to focus on. But settling into the surroundings, the chatter died down and a sense of calm and concentration descended, with just the sounds of the wind and water.

Back in the studio for the second half of the day, the task was to scale up from the sketches or photographs taken in the morning. Emma started by referencing Eastern philosophy and how important the mindful preparation of materials was to the drawing process. Indian ink (Sumi) originally made from soot and glue to bind it, would be ground by stone, bringing a physicality to the work. We were able to try out a similar process using a pestle and mortar to grind the pieces of chalk we had brought back into a powder form.

This movement and gesture, how the brush is held and how you approach the paper, bring something more to the work. It becomes an emotional activity, a drawing out from the body.

We were also treated to a demonstration of the tools and techniques Emma uses in her own work. Returning to themes from the morning in relation to working in monochrome we had to consider how to highlight areas and create tone behind objects.

Emma showed us, for example, how to use masking tape to blank out areas you want to keep white when creating a headland or iceberg.

Alternatively, if working on black paper or to add texture to the black ink, glue can be brushed on and then chalk sprinkled on top, manipulating with water and moving the paper around to allow the medium to run and drip.

Increasing the pressures applied with the brush creates dots of different sizes and scale.

Sea salt and water create different effects, reacting to the ink by either drawing it out of the paper or separating it. Something Emma discovered while she was working onboard the ships in Antarctica and can be seen clearly in her work on display in the gallery.

At the end of the day when everyone’s work was hung up on the wall, it was incredible to see how people had incorporated what they’d learnt and the variety of styles.

Thanks to Emma’s openness and generosity sharing her knowledge I think myself and all the participants came away with an even greater appreciation of what goes into her work.

If you're interested in more courses, talks and workshops drawing on themes from Towner's exhibitions, take a look at our What's On page.