Caroline will be running six FREE weekly drawing workshops– materials provided- at The Walker Gallery in Liverpool, starting Thursday 4th June 11am to 1pm. Caroline says “We’ll be taking inspiration from the work in the collections to enrich our drawing experience.” http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/…/eve…/displayevent.aspx…
And you can book here: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/discuss-discover-draw-tickets-1…
Don’t forget that my Tuesday evening sketchbook workshops start at lovely Alston Hall in the Ribble Valley on the 14th April! Join me over a convivial glass and discover the creative possibilities around you through sketching on location.
For all levels of ability, this course of six lively workshops will encourage your self-expression and help you to record your visual memories in a highly personal, vivid way.
Keeping a sketchbook can change your view of the world, bringing a new appreciation of your surroundings, whether they be grand and impressive or humble and everyday.
A sketchbook can be the antidote to boredom, an improver of your artistic abilities, and a dear friend who accompanies you everywhere! Contact Alston Hall on 01772 784661
Caroline is probably best known for her graphic journeys through the streets and
buildings of contemporary Manchester and Salford. This exhibition continues that
voyage home, re-exploring her North West roots, after two decades spent in Brittany,
France.
It’s also an opportunity to view new and previously unseen work. A large panorama in
the Stockport exhibition is the result of two days sketching the BBC Philharmonic in
rehearsal at Media City, and shows off her reportage drawing. ( Caroline is part of a
growing worldwide movement of ‘Urban Sketchers’ who make drawings in towns and cities. )
She’s often seen, sketchbook in hand, drawing in the dark at rock concerts. Allowed to
draw the ‘Big Room’ used by Elbow, at Blueprint Studios in Salford, Caroline captured their
workplace as they prepared songs for their most recent album.
Other pictures in the show display a sensitive approach to atmospheric interiors. Caroline
takes a delight in finding beauty in the ordinary and everyday. She alternates between
pen and ink with collage, painting, watercolour, charcoal and other drawing mediums;
whatever she feels will suit the subject.
Caroline Johnson was born in Preston and studied at the Harris School of Art, Preston,
Falmouth, and London’s Central St. Martins.
Her work has been included in two internationally available books on Urban Sketching,
‘the Art of Urban Sketching’ and ‘Sketch Your World’. It’s also used for illustration,
including a book jacket for the Spanish translation of Iris Murdoch’s ‘Henry and Cato’.
Her varied commissions have included spending a week as a documentary artist in a Care
Home.
Caroline has had successful solo exhibitions at the See Gallery, Rossendale in 2011, and
Salford Museum and Art Gallery in 2013. Her work is also popular in postcard form, selling
through places like the Cornerhouse in Manchester.
In April 2014 she was chosen to receive the first ‘Guardian Witness’ Human Interest
Award for a drawing made of her mother in hospital.
Caroline wrote : ‘Mum is in her late eighties and has dementia and I help care for her. I’d
called round and found her sitting on the settee, hardly able to speak or move and looking
very pale. I rang for the ambulance – we found out later she’d had a heart attack. I didn’t have
my sketchbook with me and hesitated all day to draw her, then finally asked for a couple of
sheets of paper from the nurses.
After several weeks, Mum was able to return home.’
http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/guardianwitness-blog/2014/mar/28/readers-who-made-thenews-
winners-celebrate-at-guardianwitness-awards
‘Caroline Johnson’s paintings and drawings show a fantastic eye for composition, colour,
light and the subtle details of her subjects. Whether it is of monumental architecture, or the
frailties of the human figure, she brings her characteristic empathy, perception and
draughtsmanship to the finished work.’
James Hobbs – Artist, author of ‘Sketch your World’, and freelance journalist.
Mill Chimney with Distant Fells, Rossendale.
For some time now I’ve been involved with The Whitaker Museum and Art Gallery in Rawtenstall, to the North of Manchester.
And in case you didn’t already know, this post-industrial area is known as The Rossendale Valley, characterised by the steep sided valley of the River Irwell and its tributaries which cut through the high moorland of the Rossendale Hills. In the valley bottom, urban settlements grew up at river crossing points between Rawtenstall and Bacup.
Millworkers clogs, Whitaker Museum
Textile mills and chimneys and gritstone terraced houses are the dominant buildings and roads are concentrated in the narrow valley. There’s a striking contrast between the forbidding mill towns and the sunlit heights which form their backdrop.
We have such a wealth of subject matter for the sketching workshops I’m giving at the museum (Thursday evenings, with wine, other beverages available!) ( nb we’re currently discussing another batch of sketching workshops, this post was originally published in June- if you’d like to be involved get in touch with the Whitaker ) and for The Big Draw, which took place late last year..
The museum’s in a Victorian mansion with lovely views over the surrounding park and town, towards the fells. Inside, there’s an eclectic collection of objects, including stuffed animals- some quite frightening- and birds, and an excellent café.
Various objects, Whitaker Museum
Everything you could ever need for a few hours spent happily sketching or not, and with refreshments to hand!
Cakes at the Whitaker
Caroline is collaborating with Manchester Printers Big Exposure Print to make available a canvas print of her popular Hacienda picture. Canvas size 67 x 100 cm, ‘The Hacienda, Whitworth St, Manchester’ is reproduced using lightfast inks from the original artwork.
Buy it here : Hacienda Print
Caroline has been shortlisted in the Guardian Witness Awards 2014 Human Interest category for a sketch and description she made of her mum waiting on a hospital trolley. Follow the link below to see the original post.
Mum in hospital.
With the announcement of new material from Elbow, I thought it’d be a good time to revisit the drawings I made during a week long residency at Blueprint Studios, Salford. This is where the band rehearse and indeed were starting to record material destined for the new album. I was made very welcome (the band apologised for disturbing me!) and their management have kindly allowed me to make available a limited number of prints of four of the drawings I did in ‘The Big Room’, for sale.
If you’d like to buy signed prints, or the original drawings, contact me via the contact form.
What is it about? It’s about putting a sketchbook in your pocket, going places, whether it is the journey of a lifetime or to the dentist, and then getting the sketchbook out and drawing in it. (Or maybe not a sketchbook, but a smartphone or tablet, because the book includes a section on this, too.) Drawings by around 60 of my favourite international artists shed light on how they go about things, whether the drawings are small, large, in colour, of architecture, parks, people, in cafes, trains or waiting rooms, in war zones and political demonstrations, or in the middle of the night. It has around 300 images in it. That’s what it’s about.
https://www.facebook.com/sketchyourworld
Caroline Johnson is one of the artists featured in ‘TOWN’ a new exhibition curated by Pop Up Gallery Manchester, showing at Stockport Art Gallery from Friday 11th October until 10 November 2013.