The Big Banners can be seen in an exhibition @ The Lighthouse (3rd floor) until the 5th November 2017. It is an art project part of The Mackintosh Festival.
Young people are very open to creativity and they have no fear of the brush ! I mean offer any “non arty” adult to have a go at stencilling and they shy away … But offer a brush to a young girl and immediately you get marvelled by the power of creativity !
One of The Big Banner sessions took place in The House for an Art Lover with the class of young girls from Craigholms school for girls in Glasgow. 20 pupils came to discover Mackintosh, they left with a banner after having been taught to stencil in the traditional way and taken it one step further… the step of creativity.
Stencilling is just a decoration technic after all isn’t it ? It is the action of transferring a design using a stubby brush and some acrylic paint through the holes of a template. Wether the stencils are of Mackintosh designs or not… there is nothing to prevent you from using rainbows of colours to imprint the design. I am always surprised on my stencilling courses to see how 10 participants starting with the same stencils and paint end up with very different designs. So no wonder that a group of very creative young girls could come up with such wonderful and colourful designs…
Practise makes perfect ! The idea is to show the original technique then let people practise as much they want and gradually they get the turn of the brush and let go… that is when the most creative come up with wild schemes…. and a bunch of girls surely will feed of one another to borrow any colour under the rainbow and create joy.
It is a fact that we want to teach children theory and techniques but if only we could take the time to learn from them 🙂 letting go and copy their creativity, their fearless attitude…. many adults would gain in much improved design by letting go !
Their banner is displayed at The Lighthouse until the 5th November … You should go see it !
Best wishes.
Betty xx
THE LANSDOWNE HOUSE 