A week in Ullapool

Sea dips, zoetrope spins, haddock wraps, pop-up worlds...

July was another month jam packed with creative busyness for me! How was it for you?

At the end of July I had an amazing week teaching at Bridge House Art independent art school in Ullapool. I was so delighted to be asked! Founded 30 years ago by artist Eleanor White, the school offers a busy summer school, and over the winter they run an intensive portfolio course, with fantastic results.

We explored visual narrative, simple book making, zoetropes, and even pop-up worlds. The students were SO hardworking, enthusiastic and excited to play with these new forms of visual storytelling. I had a ball, and loved getting to know Ullapool better, including a swim at Ardmair Beach with Eleanor, and the best haddock wrap - bliss! I can't wait to return next year.

Here is a quick edit of the animations made, which we screened on the Friday afternoon with a glass of bubbly in true premiere style:

I made my extra big zoetrope from a metal tray bought in a charity shop and my husband helped it spin and spin by adding Shimano grease to the ball bearing mechanism... it was SOOOOPER SMOOTH.

Here is a practice printy zoetrope loop made by me:

Some other things I got up to in July:

"FREE AS THE BIRDS" - I created this short film for the global Anijam organised by @ac4pal and @joannaquinn. This international project aims to send love and support to the Palestinian community, and to highlight the incredible work of @animator_haneen who is running animation workshops from a tent in war torn Gaza. Follow her on Instagram to see the amazing weekly Sunday Cinema films she makes, predominantly with displaced children and women.

ISLE OF RISO exhibition at Inverness Creative Academy. I have work in this exhibition, featuring 6 artists (including me) plus a wonderful international open call, in the gorgeous Creative Academy space. I am showing 3 riso flipbooks created specially, a set of riso zines and riso-monoprinted portraits. Go see it if you can - on till Aug 17th!

Screenprinting at the Highland Print Studio - I spent one day making separations in this incredible space. To be continued...

Normal business will resume in August with an Animation Pie live zoom at the end of the month for paid subs (sorry I couldn't do a live in July, but I hope you enjoyed the ‘5 Ways to Animate in a Sketchbook’ post!) We'll be looking at charcoal animation, a bit like this sequence I made:

If you’d like to learn how to make simple hand-made animation at home, why not join up? You'll get access to all the archive sessions and recorded zooms too!

I hope you’ve been having a good summer, bye for now! Rachel x