OCA North Meeting: 12 January 2020

OCA North Meeting, Halifax 12 January 2020

Venue: Fletcher’s Mill, Dean Clough, Halifax

The plan for the day was:

• a presentation on her work by Miranda Richmond
• general discussion
• presentation by participants of their OCA work

I have previously read a little about Miranda Richmond’s background and work, and have described this in my log.

Presentation by Miranda Richmond
Miranda described several aspects of her work. These included her work produced during a recent residency on Iona. She also described her influence by her late husband the artist, Miles Richmond; and in turn his influences including Bomberg. She described this as “English Constructivism”.

She referred to a principle advocated by Miles to “find a subject that is too big for you”. My understanding was that by doing this it forced you to look at the entirely of the subject. Thereby it may be possible to get a sense of the “essence” (my term) of the subject rather than focus on small details.

Miranda also brought along her sketch books and it was helpful to see how work produced in the field was translated into a sketch. I have tried using sketch books in the past and found difficulty in that I try to produce a “finished” image. I saw that this is not the purpose but rather to capture key points to develop further later.

General Discussion
There was a general discussion about future meetings, the direction of the group and the possibility of an exhibition.

Presentation of OCA Students’ work
Several students presented their work from the textiles courses.
My Aims and What I Learned
I had similar aims from attending to those for previous meetings.
Practice my assessment and appraisal skills
Gain a better understanding of other art disciplines and influence on photographic work

Seeing the work of Miranda Richmond and hearing her describe her approach and the background to it, enabled me to understand a little better what an artist is trying to show by more abstract images.

New Objectives

To find out more about the work of Miles Richmond and Bomberg, as well as the school of “English Consructivism”.

To try and use sketch books again to help my visual skills