Nine to Five went out of the window!

Wednesday (Day 4).

It quickly became evident as we hit the middle of the week that normal ‘nine to five’ working was going to go out of the window. It’s a amazing how an deadline looming over the horizon can focus the mind and push you to do more. And so, the days became longer and longer - many of the artists were in bright and early and then, after a break for an evening meal, they were back in the studio working well into the evening. Productivity increased significantly and we were seeing more and more works put into our early evening crits. It was also noticeable how many one-to-one chats were happening throughout the day as the artists sought feedback on what they were doing from others in the room.

You’d think with seventeen artists in the room at any one time, there would be a constant hum of chatter throughout the day, but that wasn’t always the case. There were times when the room fell silent with everyone working away in their own creative bubbles - it was great to see.

Our daily crits/chats were lively affairs where everyone had the chance to present where they were with the pieces they were working on and receive some positive constructive feedback.

As we hit the middle of the week, some amazing works started to appear, with each artist being very productive. Here are a few…

We watched this piece by Julia Nelson-Gal develop over a few days—from the creation of the London map background, the building of the blue/grey layer and then the addition of the birds. Stunning!

Teri Dryden’s works are always so raw and vibrant. Everyone liked this one.

Brian Biggs created a few wonderful collages based on drawings of the barges on the river running through Hackney Wick. How cool is this?

In a similar vein - Michele BonDurant created this mini-masterpiece from a photograph she took from the riverside. We were all in awe of Michel’s patience and meticulous attention to detail.