Fun Drawing – Curriculum and Methodology

September 19, 2021September 26, 2021 / Gary Clough / Leave a comment

Fun Drawing session in Shenzhen

Starting in 2017, Fun Drawing is an ongoing China/UK early-years learning development initiative and collaboration.

I am looking forward to engaging with the next phase of this project in the coming months.

The Royal College of Art’s Art & Design Graduate Diploma Programme provides students with an engaging online studio learning experience

July 29, 2021August 15, 2021 / Gary Clough / Leave a comment

E-learn magazine profiles the RCA Graduate Diploma students and staff’s engagement with online and blended learning.

Mail art exchange exhibition – I Didn’t Lick It

July 26, 2021January 4, 2022 / Gary Clough / Leave a comment

I Didn’t Lick It’ @brutoncorrespondenceschool‘s first group exhibition.

I am pleased to be part of the exhibition *I Didn’t Lick It*, a group exhibition of over 350 artists who have collaborated using mail art with the Bruton Correspondence School over the last twelve months.

The Bruton Correspondence School is a (slow) mail art exchange project established by Chris Roberts and Rebecca McClelland, partly in response to the impact of the worldwide lockdown and their attempt to connect with a broader audience on the most basic and meditative level.

The collection showcases the innate ability of collage to construct a fresh and new visual exchange beyond the two-dimensional into the structural world and craft of visual making. While experimental, each collage is also didactic, layered with hidden messages, reoccurring motifs and shared concerns that speak as an abstract indicator of the surreal times we live in.

This was an excellent opportunity to broaden my own current research and investigations into the collaborative possibilities of drawing and image-making through a shared response to secondary materials and correspondence and annotation. Participating in the project was also a chance to indulge my recent obsession with moiré patterns printed inside envelopes.

The exhibition will be across three sites in Bruton – The Bruton Museum @brutonmuseum / The Old Pharmacy @oldpharmacybruton and the Dovecote Gallery @dovecotegallerybruton

The show will run from 24th July – 25th September 2021, open weekdays 11am-1pm and Saturdays 11am-3pm.

In Session: Publishing Self

July 25, 2021January 4, 2022 / Gary Clough / Leave a comment

Publishing Self was a 40 minute discussion around the nature and positioning of the portfolio as a tool and platform.

Creating a progression portfolio can be a mystifying experience. How do you create a compelling narrative about you? This talk brings together Gary Clough, Richard Nash and renowned graphic designer and publisher Tony Brook to discuss their individual practices and parallels between the progression portfolio and art & design publishing. This is an opportunity to join Gary, Richard and Tony in a conversation that draws on aspects of publishing, art direction, editorial design, curation and critical writing. Hear some of their ‘trade secrets’ and then interact with them to ask your own questions.

The Sketchbook Project at The Brooklyn Art Library

June 27, 2021January 4, 2022 / Gary Clough / Leave a comment

The Brooklyn Art Library is home to the world’s largest collection of artists sketchbooks. I completed one of the project sketchbooks earlier this year and have just sent it off to join the archive of over 30,000. It was a project I’d followed over the years and I am pleased to have now added my own sketchbook contribution.

Painters + Collection 2021 Exhibition

June 13, 2021 / Gary Clough / Leave a comment

I am very excited to have been invited to exhibit my work at Painters + Collection 2021, at Nakata Museum, Japan. 21 artists from Japan, Korea, Mexico and the UK are showing work alongside the museum’s collection of 19th and 20th-century paintings, curated by Yuko Kunichika.

Sampler Series

May 3, 2021January 16, 2022 / Gary Clough / Leave a comment

Rather like the singular activity of drawing in sketchbooks, cross-stitch as activity and pastime has made even more sense during lockdown. The last few months have allowed me to review the Sampler series – a body of stitched works using variegated threads, initially shown in 2018. Lockdown has enabled me the opportunity to experiment with different colour palettes and investigate the potential for further work using cross-stitch and space-dyed thread as a tool for translating ideas around memory and and recoding.

Above: Sampler, work in progress.

Trace Engines – revisited

April 11, 2021April 11, 2021 / Gary Clough / Leave a comment

As we start to see a potential return to international exchange, I have revisited key projects that hinge on international collaboration and dialogue. A model I hope to revisit is Trace Engines, a 5 year-long project bringing together both pedagogic and practice-based research working with universities and galleries in the UK and China. Initiated through a 10-week residency in Guangzhou, China, in partnership with Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art and Arts International Projects. This culminated in a body of work that fuelled a series of exhibitions, workshops, and lectures between 2015 and 2020. I think it is exciting that future projects like this will adapt and transform, incorporating blended approaches with more embedded online and digital forms alongside traditional residency formats.

Lockdown Sketchbook 2020

March 8, 2021 / Gary Clough / Leave a comment

I’ve continued drawing daily throughout all lockdowns, as I’m sure many other people have too. I’ve also made some changes to this site, with the menu system and content better reflecting my dual roles as artist and educator. It has been a particularly busy and productive time, even during the lockdowns and I will be adding more info on the exhibitions, lectures and workshops I’ve participated in over the last couple of years.

See more sketchbook pages here