ART JAMMING
DATE: 10 Feb 2011
Reviews by Claire McTaggart & Isabella Meyer
BY Claire McTaggart
I saw the invite for BWA Art jamming networking meeting and thought well this will be worth a try. Something fun and different and indeed it was.
After an extremely hot day in Cape Town, we made our way to the Cape Quarter Lifestyle centre, which has really cool fans that blow misted water on you and found in one of the corners a funky little shop with wine, refreshing fruit juice and yummy snacks to greet us as well as an easel, apron, and paint palette all set up. It all looked very interesting from the outset. Leora and her art jamming team had put on quite a spread.
After satisfying our appetites and doing a bit of networking with the 30 ladies all keen to discover new talents, we were asked to take our positions at our easels, including adorning ourselves with sexy aprons and getting our handbags out of the way of any stray paint splatterings.
Sharl (l’artiste ) gave us a demo on some paint techniques, "just dip the brush in like this, and paint it like that and tada" . . . you have a beautiful vase with flowers on it with a table showing lace decor and all the tones and textures necessary to make it a good painting – all in the space of 10 minutes. Whilst the techniques were quite useful and interesting, I must admit at this point feeling slightly daunted (my perfectionist side coming out). That didn’t last too long as we then got to fill up out paint palettes with the large choice of multicoloured paints (including luminous and glitterpaints) and the entertainment began.
I felt a bit like a kid in a candy store – totally exuberant at the colour choices and I didn’t even know what I was going to paint yet. Some ladies got into it straight away, coming up with some marvellous pictures, I decided to go the more abstract route and just see what came out from putting a couple of colours on the canvass. Of course canvass fright stepped in for a few minutes, but that got easily solved by just starting and then the experimentation began. What was so awesome was the team from Art Jamming, who were so helpful in giving advice and suggesting colours and other techniques. At one point I thought I had ‘messed up’ my picture but then discovered the splattering wall, where one literally ‘flicks’ or ‘splatters’ the painting with a multitude of paint colours and gets these incredible effects. Interesting one can fix anything if one just knows how. There is nothing better than bringing out that child inside, along with all the laughter and excitement, than getting ones hands all covered in paint and creating an amateur masterpiece.
Two hours flew by really fast and everyone produced such awesome pictures. It was amazing to see all the creativity emerging and everyone inspired and proud of their magnificent creations.
Thank you Leora and her team for a superb evening filled with fun, laughter and creativity. What better way to connect and meet new people and build on existing relationships then in a relaxed, enthusiastic and cheerful environment! I’m certainly itching and inspired to do this again soon!
By Isabella Meyer
As nervous giggles filled the air and many of the members of the BWA came out in their house clothes, which they wouldn’t be seen dead in, anywhere close to the office, one knew immediately this buzz had to be for a very good reason. Standing in front of the "Artjamming" shop anyone going past would know that this was going to a big evening. 30 BWASA members gathered together for a networking event and to make the world we live in a little bit more colourful. The day had been sweltering with heat and the jugs of water that awaited us was the most popular item provided with scrumptious eats and refreshing drinks to get us out of work mode. A few of us headed for a glass of vino, inspiration for this daunting task had to come from somewhere…
Cheryl also announced the start of the "I LOVE THIS" campaign, which will be launched on 14 February 2011. The aim of the program is to raise heart awareness amongst women and exciting events and competitions lie ahead.
And then the moment arrived. We were each asked to search for our easel and paint "equipment" which was really awesome as it meant everyone ended up next to someone that they didn’t know and could get to know a bit better. Charl(the instructor’s ) introduced himself and his team and explained that there was no such word as "Can’t". Instead the thought should rather be "I have not learnt to do yet". I suppose that gave us a little bit of courage, but there were still some frowns and bewilderment on quite a few faces.
He then explained a few basic brushes and brush strokes to get different effects and then left us gobsmacked as he dipped the paintbrush into three or four different paints at the same time. Who would have ever known that is what the professionals do. Very quickly he whisked up a stunning vase with ………, blue …… and baby’s breath, with shadows and depth which astounded most of us. He just made it look so easy. A lot of ooohs and aaaahs and wows could be heard.
And then the moment of truth: We each got our own little canvas and was told to let our imaginations loose and lose ourselves away from office politics and family budgets. Firstly we had to fill up our painters’ palates from the paint on tap, with the colours we would need. There were even some glitter paint and every women had to have a bit of sparkly of course! Sneakily the green and the red was kept under surveillance at the front. If you needed to use those two colours, your penalty was that you had to first introduce yourself to the group and announce your intention with said colours. (I saw a few people sneaking a bit of red from their neighbours, mmm Cheryl … and me ? avoiding the public speaking moment). With our plastic aprons we approached the large containers that kept the paint and squeezed with great care – some of them did remind of a McDonalds tomato sauce squirter on steroids, so some ended up with paint blotches on aprons before ever lifting a brush. Finding the right brushes and having to play nicely together as there wasn’t enough of every brush, taught us about planning and negotiation and asking very politely ?
At last the masterpieces came to being. We definitely had a few Monets and Picassos in the class, whose talent and training made one wish that you could paint like that. The heart seemed to be quite a popular theme throughout, which I suppose was very appropriate with us taking photographs of "I LOVE this" with our paintings and valentine’s around the corner. There were beautiful abstracts with lots of paint splatted on to create interesting forms, stunning landscapes with trees or tree trunks, a twirl of a rio-style dress, reminding me of feathers, a township jive pic and some ominous seascapes. Cheryl’s Barbie that became Barbie the Bunny, was also a winner.
In the end Cheryl had to give a wolf whistle to get everyone back to reality and to thank the Artjamming people for the wonderful event. As we left each staring at our little artpiece (which is most probably adorning some wall by now), one couldn’t but wonder whether a few new artists were born. The whole experience was definitely a total de-stress experience and well worth doing again.