Drawing Workshop - George Charman
London-based artist George Charman led a two-day workshop in the West Dean College Orangery based on the theme of 'Drawing from Site'. Over the different sessions, a series of ostensibly simple tasks were prepared, by both tutor and students, that involved experimental strategies for extending and disrupting drawing practice in direct response to sites in and around the West Dean Estate. Tasks ranged from responding to details of architecture, observed landscape or specific journeys or events. The Orangery soon filled with innumerable drawings of all types, textured surfaces and three-dimensional objects, with some experiments exploring duration and timings, multiple angles and working in series. Individuals constructed 'drawing machines' by harnessing natural forces to create marks, whilst others drew blind or from memory. The shifts and inconsistencies between written instructions and any drawing action was a consistent theme throughout. Working both individually and in collaboration, a number of diverse materials and techniques were used: graphite, chalk, charcoal, ink, pigment; paper scrolls and sheets, acetate projections, frottage, folding, etc. A splendid time was had by all.
