Art Project course gallery No. 7

Art Project: Hair

The starting point for this week’s project was hair. In light of the current lockdown, hair has become a preoccupation / concern for  a number of people who have shared stories, pictures and comments regarding their increasing hair length or ‘lockdown locks’. Others have resorted to drastic home-made haircuts or DIY disasters. Recently, the BBC ran a story about people who confessed to breaking lockdown rules and included a story from a man who discovered “an underground network of hairdressers”, got his haircut and subsequently upset his family for flaunting the social distancing rules.

Hair can play a large part in establishing our identity and a key factor in a number of popular stories, legends, religious and social customs throughout history and across the world. From Samson and Delilah to Rapunzel through to Hasidic Jews’ and Sikhs’ emphasis on concealing and revealing hair as well as the social, political and spiritual statements surrounding dreaded, matted and shaved heads.

Here’s a selection of artwork and prepatory studies made by some of the Art Project course artists taking part in the project.

Look out for another gallery of work coming soon…

Jane Goddard – A Lifetime of Hair Acrylic on paper

Jill – Seven Ages of My Hair Photo collage

Jill – Save My Wig! (Apologies to Munch) Ink on paper

Chris – Four Heads with Hair Mixed media

Hilary – You Like? Acrylic on paper

Lorna Howell – ‘Here’s to big grey hair, girls!’ (Zoom book club, May 2020) Mixed media

Lorna Howell – Nepalese Ladies Pastel on acrylic paper

Lynn Laws – Now That’s A Wig! Pastel and graphite on paper

Lynn Laws – The Punk Hair I Always Wanted Acrylic on paper

Lynn Laws – Shaved Head
Acrylic and graphite on paper

Paula – Flowers In Her Hair (My niece at her outdoor wedding on
the hottest weekend of 2019)
Gouache on paper

JC – Still Life on the Beach
Mixed media

JC – Punk hair after Basquiat Mixed media

JC – Belle’s New Hair Colour Ink and pastel on paper

Christie Archer – Daughter Inspired by Lichtenstein Mixed media: collage, ink and digital formatting

Christie Archer – Woman (Inspired by Dante Rossetti) Mixed media: watercolour pencil on digital background

Tony Townshend – Untitled
Media unstated

Dieter – Proserpina (Green) (after Dante Gabriel Rosetti) Acrylic on cardboard

Harriet – Locks on Lockdown Mixed media including handmade paper boxes and hair

Harriet  – A Museum  of Haircuts Handmade paper boxes, ink and gouache

Maurice – The Creation of Venus, E=mc2 Mixed media

Jo Melhuish – Strange Waterfall Acrylic on canvas

Vanda – Hair, The Musical Acrylic on paper