Experiment and create an unknown artwork inspired by your local area.
Pause, stop, draw, and reflect with this engaging craft activity for adults. Step out into your neighbourhood and draw what you see. This
activity encourages engagement with your local area, drawing on the themes of time, memory, and personal experience present in Cyrus
Tang’s current exhibition Time Fell Asleep in the Evening Rain.
First, stop and think about the land you’re on.
Take a moment and acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land, paying respect to their Elders past, present and emerging.
Breath in, quiet your thoughts and prepare to begin.
Now, walk from your starting point until you reach the corner of your street and stop.
Take 8 minutes and conduct a quick drawing of what you see.
Turn and walk 50 steps.
Rest and pause for a minute and take in the space.
Using a new sheet of tracing paper, take 1 minute and perform a blind contour drawing.
Close your eyes and draw from your memory.
Walk a further 25 steps.
Again, stop and on a new piece of paper draw what you see.
This time conduct a continuous line drawing of what is in front of you. Make sure not to take your pencil off the paper.
Take 3 minutes.
From this point, take 10 steps and stop.
Observe, think and feel.
Look around at your surroundings and see if you can find anything that has an interesting texture.
On a different piece of tracing paper, use the coloured pencil to take a rubbing of the texture.
To finish off the drawing, look around your surroundings and see if you can find any plants you could use to add colour to your drawings.
Experiment with these colours on your final piece of tracing paper.
I found some grass and flowers which I used to add colour.
Now walk back to your starting location.
Slow down and take your time.
Do you notice a change in your surroundings?
It is now time to create our final piece.
Combine all of your pieces together, placing the sticky tape around all four edges and folding the excess under.
You can place the drawings in any order you like.
Notice how the layering is taking effect.
Have the drawings become unrecognisable?
This is the final product!
Now you have created your very own artwork inspired by Cyrus Tang's exhibition Time Fell Asleep in the Evening Rain.
Cyrus employs this technique of layering in her work and we encourage you to come into the gallery and view her current exhibition.
We would love to see your creations!
Upload a photo of your artwork below and we will share your creations on this page.
IMAGES > Activity and images by Clare Niere
