Meadow Finds exhibition and workshop, 20-21 August

The Meadow Finds outdoor exhibition opens this weekend at Yeovil Country Park. This is a free, two day event. Come to the Ninesprings part of the park to view artwork created by workshop participants for the meadow themed residency. I’ll be running a free, drop-in cyanotype (sun print) workshop, ‘Postcards from the park’. There will also be free printed copies of my Meadow Finds, photography walking trail map available for visitors to take away and explore the whole park.

Meadow finds

An outdoor exhibition of photographic work made in the meadows of the park.

Ninesprings, Yeovil Country Park

20-21 August 2016. 10am-4pm daily.

Somerset Art Works appointed Carolyn Lefley as Artist in Residence at Yeovil Country Park for 2016. This is the second year for the Water-Meadow-Wood residency programme and the theme this year is Meadow. Carolyn worked with community groups to co-create artworks that respond to the Meadow theme. Participants explored a range of photographic techniques, from traditional sun prints to digital photography walking tours. The Meadow residency culminates in an outdoor showcase exhibition at Ninesprings. Come along and see the artworks displayed in the trees. 

 

Postcards from the park

Ninesprings Visitor Centre, Yeovil Country Park

20 August 2016, 2-4pm

Carolyn will show you how to make a sun-exposed cyanotype postcard created with natural material from the park. This activity will be free and suitable for all ages. 

‘Postcards from the park’ workshop, Saturday 20th August, 2-4pm.

This workshop will take place with the backdrop of the outdoor show. I’m busy preparing the two big collabative pieces I’ve made with St. Gildas School and South Somerset MIND. The largest and most ambitious work is a 13 ft x 4ft fabric cyanotype peice, the ‘Meadow Tapestry’. Here are a two photographs of the work in progress:

I’m looking forward to meeting lots of visitors at the park this weekend. The meadow flowers are just starting to fade and the grasses turn to hay. As we near the end of the summer this is a fitting time to celebrate the meadow spaces of the park and the artworks made within them.

Meadow haiku

   Meadowland awaits,

      A tapestry of flowers

          Amidst swaying grass.

                    Carolyn Lefley, 2016

Foraging for art

Grace Green, a recent graduate from the Fine Art course at Falmouth University, has been working as my residency assistant. I’ve invited Grace to describe how she is finding the project so far:

Since starting at the end of June and working with Carolyn I have been struck by the way the workshops inspire and engage with different groups of people. We have been using the cyanotype process to create sun prints with found materials from the meadow and park land. The process of gathering foliage has been one I have enjoyed most and have noticed it is an inspiring way for people to really see nature and plants that make the meadow so beautiful. It’s fascinating to watch people immersed in the activity of arranging the plants in response to the contour and gaining an understanding in the way cyanotype works. (Grace Green, July 2016)

The ‘foraging bag’

Meadow finds, June 2016

Grace and I have developed a bit of a rhythm for our workshop days. After we have set up some trestle tables and all of the cyanotype materials, we go hunting for plants around the park. At first this was a great way to get to know each other and introduce Grace to the parkland. On busier days I send Grace off on her own to ‘forage’, as we refer to it, while I prepare for the workshop. Lately we’ve had time to let the participants forage too. They have also enjoyed the act of slowing down and searching through the often overlooked areas of the park to discover their ‘meadow finds’.

Under the shade on an oak tree. Cyanotype workshop with South Somerset MIND. July 2016.