The Only Way is Pemberley
In February 2013, I once again roped my cousins into a project of mine. It was for my final unit for A-level art. I had decided to do something related to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (don't ask me how I managed to twist it to fit our brief as I don't remember!) We rented costumes from the Theatre Royal in Manchester and set off to Lyme Park in Disley, Stockport - the filming location for Pemberley in the BBC adaptation.
It was February. There was snow on the ground. And we rocked up in thin cotton dresses to take photos!
Despite my cousin nearly catching pneumonia, it was totally worth it because I got some fantastic reference images to work from over the next few months. One of the great things about doing art at school was the resources to be able to try out different media. We were so lucky to have a printing press and I did my first ever dry-point etchings for this unit.
If you've never come across dry-point etching before, I basically scratched my images into a piece of perspex. The deeper you scratch, the more ink it collects and therefore the darker it comes out. You then put ink on your etching plate, work it into the grooves and wipe of the excess. It then goes on your paper and through the press. The pressure of the press gradually compresses your etching plate, meaning you can only get a certain number of prints out of it before it's no good, making dry-point etchings very limited edition! As you can no doubt tell from the detail in these two pieces, they involved countless hours of work.
Another material we had at school was "six sheet card". I don't know if this is the actual name for it as I've since tried to find it online and come up blank, so if anyone knows what it is called, please let me know! It's a thick card where the top layer of black can be peeled away to reveal the textured white underneath. These pieces are essentially created with negative space. They're totally flat, but give the illusion of depth.
This mixed media collage was inspired by the work of John Piper.
Chalk pastel self portrait on brown paper.
A self portrait done in pencil.
I contacted Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery (which, if you didn't read my previous blog post, was where I ended up getting married) and was very fortunate to be invited in with a friend of mine to draw some of their extant regency garments. This was truly amazing. The dresses were so delicate and intricate. I was allowed to take photos and draw from life, but I could not touch the dresses and they were laid out on a table for me. One dress had real silver thread, another had silver flowers for embellishment.
The silver flowers had aged and had the most beautiful colourful patina, that I aimed to capture with coloured pencils.
The final cherry on the top of this incredible final project was that it happened the same year that Pride and Prejudice turned 200 and I was invited back to Lyme House to display my artwork as part of the bicentennial exhibition. I apologise that the only pictures I have look like they were taken on a potato, but it was 2013 people.
I met Mr Darcy! And I got to display my work next to the actual costumes used in the BBC adaptation!
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