Exercise Three // William Rees

April 28 2020
Hi  Will,   to kick off exercise one,  where are you? 

I am in my house in Leeds with my two housemates. We are all musicians so we are spending lots of time making music together. We even made a small recording studio in our basement. My bedroom has become my art studio, so unfortunately I have to tidy up all my work before I go to bed each night. Our garden is nothing impressive, but we do have bluebells! 

 

How has your process changed since staying at home?

 My process is the same really - making instinctively. Initially the works became smaller in scale, and hopefully with that, more intimate, but I couldn't help myself after a while and have started on larger works, however impractical they are in the space.

 

Whats last or current song you listened to (no cheating, we all have naughty

comforts)?

 My Favourite Things - Alice Coltrane, from the album "World Galaxy."

  

and the last or current show/film/video you watched ?
 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, ultimate comforting nostalgia

 

What are you reading right now?
 Emma by Jane Austen, again it's a wonderfully frivolous escape

 

What’s the last thing you cooked? (recipes welcome!)

 Parmigiana di melanzane

 

 What's the next thing you are going to cook?

It's my housemate's birthday tomorrow, so vegan pancakes

 

If everything in your house was going to be the same colour what colour

would you choose?
 Very light grey, nice and restful for they eye, although maybe then my house would start to look like a trendy restaurant
 
Which words or phrases do you most overuse  ?
 I  sing "When You Wish Upon a Star" frequently and loudly! 
 
Do you have any superstitions?

 I've tried to train myself out of so many!

 

What makes you laugh (feel free to share any videos, memes, record a

joke, your pet)
Trying (and failing) to play scrabble; dancing around the kitchen; doing impressions of various Harry Potter characters.
 

 Which artist-living or dead would you like to share your quarantine practice with? Why?

That is a very tough question, I love Carol Rama, but her work is so strong I am not sure I could live with it all the time. I would love to learn from Marlene Dumas but again I am not sure how relaxing that would be. Maybe I would have to go with a musical artist. It would be amazing to sit and listen to Bill Frisell play guitar after work each day!  

 

Exercise 2

Write a drawing prompt you would like someone else to receive:

 Make a drawing you would be afraid to show anyone else.

 

We are probably going to get through a lot of these homework sheets - so

write a question for other people that you want to know the answer to ?
 To whom would you most like to give a gift of one of your works? 
 

We are putting together a mixtape -  what’s your go to song for dancing ?

Thinking of You - Sister Sledge

being in the studio ?
I don't tend to listen to music in the studio but if I did Land - Patti Smith

 

chilling out ?
May You Never - John Martyn


falling in love ?
it has to be  Joni Mitchell - A Case of You

 

 

For  Exercise Three, we ask our artists to  pick one of the following subjects as a starting point to make some work using an A5 piece of paper/cloth/whatever you like to the size  with no restriction on media. These will be published on our website and available for £110 each.

  1. Still life: pick 3 items from your surrounding and recreate them

  2. Draw the last text you received/Page 15 from a book you are currently reading 7th sentence down

    The last text I received: "He looks like a mini Rob I think!"

 
 
3. Draw the last exhibition you saw/in style of the last exhibition you saw

 

 Check out William's exercise three pieces (8!) here