In collaboration with ‘Dramatizing Penshurst’, the aim of this project was to create a painting that illustrated Lady Mary Wroth’s (1587-1652) play Love’s Victory (c.1617), a pastoral tragicomedy. The course was officially held at Kent Adult Education Centre in Sevenoaks and the students and tutors periodically visited Penshurst Place.
The composition of the painting needed to capture a scene or embrace the ambiance of the play. The interpretation of the play was completely in the artists’ hands as they could either paint a realistic view that described a scene or in an abstract manner that suggested the complexity of the plot. This included a great deal of creative thinking, life drawing, gathering reference, painting light and tone, and proportion.
The artists completed a life drawing class with a model who took poses which illustrated different scenes of the play. The artists also read through summaries of the love plots given in the verses from ‘The Book of Fortunes’ and some of the riddles, and discussed the story with a chance to work through ideas of how to approach the artwork using sketchbooks: abstract, realism, using text, coloured papers, texture, layering, etc. The artists then commenced painting, with the group’s work culminating in an exhibition of paintings in the Garden Restaurant at Penshurst Place.
Two groups completed the project ‘Painting the Play’, where a number of Liz Chapman’s students took more holistic viewpoint and worked in abstract, while others took a section of the play and constructed an image portraying this.
Photos of artwork completed as part of the project (click to enlarge)
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- ‘Painting the Play’
About Liz Chapman M.A. Fine Art. Cert.Ed.
After studying at Reigate School of Art and Design, Liz worked in architectural design and draughtsmanship, before moving on to book illustration. Since 1992 she has worked part time as an Art Tutor and part time as an Artist, and spent the last three years in the north west coast of Scotland painting landscapes. She taught initially at West Kent College (where she also achieved a Cert.Ed), then Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells Adult education Centre and now Sevenoaks. Liz achieved a Masters Degree in Fine Art at Brighton University in 2004, and has exhibited nationally.