Bressay Lookout session
On Monday we enjoyed our third and final Lookout drawing session on Bressay!
The afternoon was all about bringing together what we’ve learnt about the lives of lighthouse keepers, their families and the islanders who welcomed them into the community. It was also about further exploring the media and techniques we’ve been using so far, including wax and watercolour, rubbings, and collage. However, this session aimed to also scale-up our work, and break out of drawing on standard sizes of paper!
We began by creating simple three-picture ‘storyboards’ in response to local memories, stories and archive film. Covering some typical activities a keeper would have carried out - including painting the tower, winding the light, checking the radio beacon was transmitting properly, and importantly checking the light was flashing the correct character (unique to each lighthouse). We thought about all the duties a keeper had on a typical watch and, by imagining a series of three images which documented something changing, we explored passing stages of time in drawing. Looking at these drawings, it’s fascinating how the participants imaginatively incorported different viewpoints too, creating pieces like series of film stills.
We then started exploring the idea of journey-landscapes, working on long thin pieces of paper in response to descriptions of journeys made by keeper’s and their families. We drew in people, animals, objects and buildings that we imagined meeting along the way, making drawings that unfold in time. These works again had creative use of changing viewpoint and also scale, giving a lovely playful feeling of adventure and movement through a landscape.
The main part of the afternoon was expanding on these ideas to make larger pieces. Each participant had a unique take on the stories and history they’ve learnt about, and their creative responses through drawing were just brilliant to see.
These workshops have all been part of ‘Gathering Strings’, an intergenerational project between local history societies and children. For the next stage I very much hope these works, and a selection of others from past sessions, will be displayed in Bressay this summer as part of an exhibition.
A lovely and very heartwarming surprise was waiting at the end of the session too - the participants had made a thank you drawing together! The thank you however should go to them for their thoughtful and amazingly creative drawing work, and for making all our sessions so much fun!
In association with Shetland Arts and Culture Collective, supported by Creative Scotland.
www.culturecollective.scot