Beverley Dancers - contrast piece

22 August 2012

When I visited the Beverley Festival (in East Yorkshire, UK), what used to be the Beverley Folk Festival, I was fascinated by a group of dancers and took photos, whychwood I think they were called, I got their card but it's in Hull! They kindly allowed me to use them, and I thought it would contrast sharply to the subject matter here, as well as giving a view to people all over China who will see my work (the base sends prints out regularly to exhibitions across the country, Beijing and Xian this last week).

I started with the texture, black background and am working into the ink by wiping away areas and trying to keep the movement strong. I always felt colour would be needed and also want to have a feeling of freedom in the drawing so that the movement is what you notice first.

I then work into the image trying to get a feeling of the energy that was visible when I watched them dance… I considered using the whole dance image but felt that the part that drew me in was the change that the costume made to the face and how the ribbons of fabric moved - became a pattern, rather than show the movement when the whole image was in the frame. I also admired the hats… the contrast between the detail of the hat and the haphazard look of the strips of ‘rags’ were fascinating to me, as well as of course, the fact that the black faces and glasses drew you into the costume and away from the face.

I will continue to work into this, although I probably will now try out some solutions on the computer using these shots, to see if I can keep the movement and abstract feel to the image yet convey the figurative content. I will also be asking people here if they see these as English dancers!