Another group of young creatives will join forces with Nova this weekend as Hull: Yorkshire’s Maritime City’s creative digital skills programme enters its next stage.
Along with a selection of the city’s leading creatives, Nova is delivering the programme working toward the completion of short films inspired by Hull’s life as a maritime city.
The painting group led by artist Annie Luke Turner kicks off this Saturday at Juice Studios.
Here’s what Annie had to say ahead of the first session.
Getting familiar with the materials and focusing on working in a free and expressive way
“The focus of the workshops is to develop painted backgrounds that will be used to create an animated film which tells a story of Hull’s maritime heritage.
“The first thing we will do is take a guided walk through Hull to learn about the city’s history and look at the buildings, river and sky. We will take photos of colours and textures that we see, such as the brickwork on buildings and colours of the sky and river. These will help as reference material for the paintings we develop in the studio.
“Back at Juice Studios on Humber Street we will spend some time getting familiar with the materials and focusing on working in a free and expressive way. We will use acrylics, inks, graphite powder and spray paints using brushes, rollers, sticks, sponges and hands to free up our mark making. There will be lots of putting down colours, removing them, experimenting, wiping them away and finding interesting and exciting paint effects.
“On the second and third sessions we will be developing stop motion skyscapes and seascapes - working on paintings which show changes in weather and light - photographing it as it all happens stage by stage. We will also be working on individual A1 paintings of brickwork, skies and water.”
Having the freedom to make mistakes
“I’m really looking forward to working with the group of young artists who have applied to join the project. The way we will be working is very loose and playful, and the participants can just let themselves go, enjoy the materials with the freedom that they can’t make mistakes.”
Deepening connections with the city
"I think it’s great for people to learn more about the history of the place they live, it deepens the connection with their town or city. I enjoy guiding people in workshops to develop a looser way of painting and try different ways of making marks.
“By pushing the materials and experimenting we often get magical things happen with the paint which we wouldn’t get otherwise. My own work is also concerned with the history of a place so it will be interesting for me to look in more detail at the history of Hull.
“I have only lived here for a few years so I’m excited to go on this journey with the young artists to deepen my knowledge and understanding of Hull’s history.”
