Next month I’m making an appearance in the season of’ ‘storytelling’ events arranged by Peter Stevenson at the Gas Gallery, Aberystwyth. Peter is an illustrator, animator and storyteller, and he’s asked me to talk about my maquettes and the ways in which I use them as compositional aids in easel work, and as puppets in the stop-motion animation projects I’ve worked on throughout 2013. It’ll be quite an informal and hands-on occasion, with many maquettes for everyone to examine, and the talk illustrated with some of the sequences of animation I’ve produced for Mid Wales Chamber Orchestra in collaboration with film-maker Pete Telfer of Culture Colony.
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Nosweithiau Straeon yn Oriel Nwy/ Storytelling Nights at the Gas Gallery, Park Ave, Aberystwyth.
Illusions of Life: Clive Hicks-Jenkins and animation
Wednesday December 4th at 8 pm.
Gallery donation of £5 on the door.
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Close on a decade ago, the painter Clive Hicks-Jenkins began making flat, articulated card figures… maquettes… to help him ‘break free of the tyranny of anatomy’. Always principally intended as compositional aids, his ‘paper actors’ quickly became increasingly elaborate, breaking out of the studio to be exhibited alongside the drawings and paintings they were preparatory to.
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Clive Hicks-Jenkins' Artlog: 
oh, how exciting, all those luckies living in wales….
Ooh wish I could be there! I remember when I saw you last year and you did the talk at Sketty – when your maquettes emerged from a large envelope onto the table they brought a tingle of magic into the room with them, they’re wonderful things.
Far more for show-and-tell at the next gig, Phil, because of the many maquettes made since Sketty for The Soldier’s Tale and The Mare’s Tale projects. More complex, too, because of the replacement heads required to create changes of expression for TST characters, including a transformation head for the Peddlar Woman from crone to a fearsome Devil. I’ll be taking props and scenery as well: skeleton horses, a carriage, birds, playing cards, the Princess’s garden and Joseph’s village. Should make a good display.
I was so happy that you came to Sketty. That was a big bonus on the day, and a pleasure thereafter to have you as a friend ‘in person’ as well as online. Internet friendships are great, but nothing quite beats face-to-face. Now we just have to meet Jan!
Thank you Clive, likewise what a pleasure it is to have you as a friend in person as well as online, I think the internet must be a very good thing indeed to bring such wonderful people into my life 🙂 yes, I hope next year I can introduce you to the big fella too!
1) Glad you found it
2) Did you ever consider that ‘the chaos’ of running in circles provides some of your creative oomph?!
3) Twas ever thus…or similar
4) Yes, you did thank me and I was happy I thought of it
5) And you will be ‘brill.’
Love as ever
B xxx
1) I’m just glad I hadn’t permanently lost it.
2) You’re right, though it’s also painful. But thank you for reminding me.
3) As above.
4) Good. I thought I was hallucinating. And yes, I’m VERY glad you thought of it.
5) I’ll tell them you said so!
C xxx
What fun, wish I could be there to ‘hear the tales told,’ never mind, I’ll just ‘imagine.’ Sure you’ll be ‘brill.’
Hugs as ever
B xxx
Well, don’t know about ‘brill’, but I’ll do my best.
Going mad here right now. I’ve mislaid my diary/telephone book, and am running around in circles trying to figure out where I’ve put the damned thing. Lost without it.
Did I write to thank you for the Jack Cardiff documentary? I thought I had, but then couldn’t find an e-mail to you about it in my outbox. Grrrrr! I know I wrote it in my head!
I’m running too fast for comfort. I’ll have something in my hand when the phone rings or somebody arrives here, and then I’ll put it down in a stupid place in order to pick up phone or answer door, and later can’t for the life of me find it again. I’m going to have to start tying things to myself, like those gloves-on-tapes passed through our coat-sleeves we used to have as kids!
Now, breathe deeply and go look again.
xxx
UPDATE
Haaaaaaaa! Found it on the shoe-rack in the boot room. Don’t ask. (I don’t know!)