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Creative Summer Challenge | Same time, same place

by Anne WheatonLeave a Comment on Creative Summer Challenge | Same time, same place
Creative Summer Challenge | Same time, same place

 

Summer is flying by and with luck your visual journal will be filled with wonderful things whether you’ve chosen to keep your journal as a record of the summer or as a springboard for producing pieces of art or craft throughout the year.

 

Creative Summer Challenge Same Place Same Time

This is the final week of the Creative Summer Challenge and the theme is Same Time, Same Place.

You may want to use this week’s theme as way of reinforcing the habit of keeping a Visual Journal so that you carry on after the summer. Setting aside time each day for your visual journal can help to make it a part of your daily routine, whether it’s a snatched five minutes or a relaxing wind down.

Alternatively, you might use the theme of Same Time, Same Place to revisit a place, an object or activity and take in the changes since you were last there. This could turn out to be a weekly, monthly, seasonal or annual activity that will build a wonderful collection of images for you to reflect on.

 

Here are a few more ideas for exploring the theme of Same Place, Same Time:

Take a walk at the same time each day and record what you see along the way

Make something inspired by the changing colours of your garden through the year

Visit a spot at different times of the day and record the changes of light, shadow and colours or the different people around it.

View a scene made famous by an artist and interpret it in your own way

Visit a historic house and compare the life upstairs with that of the staff downstairs

Do something creative with a group of friends or family and see how each person approaches it differently

 

Would you prefer to work from a list of prompts? Here they are then.

SHADOW

ENDLESS

WINDOW

EATING

RYTHM

LANDSCAPE

WALK

 

We hope you’ve enjoyed joining in with the challenge this summer and although there’s no pressure to share your work online, we’d love to see your work. Tag @Slamseys in Instagram, leave a link to your blog in the comments below or if you’re shy and don’t want to put your work online, use our contact form to tell us what you’ve been doing as part of the Creative Challenge this summer.

 

Crafts, printmaking

Creative Summer Challenge | Act Like a Tourist

by Anne Wheaton5 Comments on Creative Summer Challenge | Act Like a Tourist
Creative Summer Challenge | Act Like a Tourist

The summer holidays are speeding by but we hope that you’re managing to find time to take part in the Creative Summer Challenge to keep a visual journal of the summer. As it’s summer (in the UK), which is a time for holidays and living life a little differently, let’s act like a tourist for the week and see if different experiences can inspire us to fill our visual journals.

tourists at the Sky Garden

If you wander around a big city, you can easily spot the tourists who are in a constant discovery mode. Tourists look around at everything and stand in awe, while everybody else passes by without looking, absorbed in their daily routine. Jump on the train and as tourists gaze bright eyed out of the window or excitedly plan their day with their friends, the commuters sit silently reading their newspaper or scrolling through their phones, oblivious to the passing countryside and towns.

 

giraffe

You may be on holiday this month, in which case you won’t need any ideas for how to act like a tourist.

Cambridge

But if you’re at home you can still be a tourist in your own town. If you have children it can be fun to play at virtual holidays by pretending to be in a different country each day, learning some phrases, eating the food, wearing the right clothes …

A TOURIST IN YOUR OWN TOWN

Grab your camera and actively seek things to photograph or sketch in your local area.  Here are a few ideas for some activities that might provide some inspiration.

Go into town using a different mode of transport to usual or take a different route

Visit the local museum, art gallery or historic house and linger for a traditional afternoon tea

Take a walk down paths or into villages that you usually just pass by

Raise your eyes above the shop fronts to see the different buildings along the street

Pack a picnic and explore a local country park or forest

Pose for a selfie in front of your favourite building or sit on a bench and watch the world go by

Design a tourist trail for your area

Make a set of postcards like these

 

PROMPTS

If you enjoy the challenge of using a prompt to fill your visual journal, here’s the list for this week.

VISTAS AND VIEWS
ABOVE MY HEAD
WISH YOU WERE HERE
EXPLORE
DOORWAY
JOURNEY
WEARING

ideas, themes and prompts for a creative summer with our Creative Summer Challenge

There’s no pressure to share your work online but you can post it onto our Facebook page,  tag @Slamseys in Instagram or leave a link to your blog in the comments below this or any of the Challenge posts.

For more information about the Slamseys Creative Challenge for Summer 2018, read Introduction to the Creative Challenge

Next: Creative Challenge Week Four | Same Time, Same Place

Farm

Summer time

by Anne Wheaton4 Comments on Summer time
Summer time

As the hot summer weather and harvest at Slamseys continues, it’s time to pop out with the camera and take some photographs for our Visual Journal.

2018 Harvest tractor waiting in yard

Tractors and trailers are bringing back the grain from the fields to tip into the grainstore.

 

2018 Harvest straw bales in Grove Field

After combining, the straw is baled up and will soon be carted away.

 

2018 hot summer horses in paddock

The horses lurk under the shade of the oak trees for most of the day.

 

raspberries for slamseys gin

The autumn raspberries have just started to ripen and will be picked for Slamseys Raspberry Gin.

 

ducks by the pond in summer

If I were a duck, I think I’d stay in the pond.

Crafts, printmaking

Creative Summer Challenge | A Different Perspective

by Anne Wheaton8 Comments on Creative Summer Challenge | A Different Perspective
Creative Summer Challenge | A Different Perspective

Continuing the Slamseys Creative Summer Challenge to keep a visual journal for four weeks in July and August.

This week, the theme for the Visual Journal is to look at things from a different perspective. You may of course, choose to look at this theme from the perspective of completely ignoring it and doing your own thing.

It’s easy to get sucked into doing things the same way all the time. Always shooting photos from the same angle, only taking still life photos or keeping the dial set on automatic. Maybe you’re a printmaker who only works from photographs instead of sketches. We often follow the same daily routine without thinking, because it’s easier but shake it up and try something different.

Wilbur Lawn Art at Slamseys with Artist Chris Naylor
Lawn Art at Slamseys Photo: Chris Naylor

 

Try taking a different perspective this summer and record it in your visual journal.

 

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

If you usually work in miniature, try working on a large scale

Travel somewhere using as many modes of transport as you can

Work in black and white instead of colour or vice versa

Lay on the ground and find images in the clouds

Listen to a different radio station

Climb to a high place like a church tower, a hill or a bridge and look down at life below

Look at life from a dog’s (or some other small being) point of view

Shut your eyes and use your other senses

 

Image of duck formed by rust on painted metal
What do you see in the rust pattern

 

That’s quite a long list of suggestions for a week, so if you’re happier just using prompts, try these.

BENEATH MY FEET
PATTERN
REFLECTION
ENORMOUS
MICROSCOPIC
LINES
HOME

 

There’s no pressure to share your work online but you can post it onto our Facebook page,  tag @Slamseys in Instagram  or leave a link to your blog in the comments below this or any of the Challenge posts.

Summer creative Challenge looking at tree from different perspective

To find out more about the Creative Challenge, read Introduction to the Slamseys Creative Summer Challenge

Next: Week Three | Act Like a Tourist