Saturday Art Club – Experiment with materials

In June 2012, as part of Glasgow International’s Programme of art installations and events, Karla Black transformed GOMA’s distinctive main exhibition space with new sculptures made in and for the gallery.

Karla Black loves to use recycled materials and household creams, toothpaste, face powder, talc, lipstick, blusher and anything she can find that will give her unusual and interesting textures to play and experiment with in her work. In this project, we are going to be inspired by this amazing artist to experiment with materials.

Ask your parents, carers or an adult to help you find some unusual household things you could work with. Some suggestions could be:

  • Talc
  • Flour
  • Soap
  • Salt
  • Old makeup (please ask an adult about this)
  • Yoghurt
  • Cake sprinkles
  • Crayons
  • Paint
  • Glue or pritt stick
  • Used envelopes
  • Any packaging
  • Newspapers
  • Recycled cellophane packaging
  • Bubblewrap
  • Brown paper
  • Paintbrush

In this activity we are trying to move away from traditional paint and pencil ways of creating. It is all about just being free to explore different outcomes of possibility and the kind of different textures you can produce with the things you have gathered. You are not trying to achieve a finished artwork, you are just experimenting with different ways to create.

We have used the colour pink, also loved by Karla Black, applying pink paint onto different found materials and mixing with other pink ingredients from our kitchen:

We used nail varnish, angels delight packets, cake decorating icing, blusher, eye shadow and crumbled biscuits. We sieved things, grated them with a cheese grater and stuck as much of it down with glue. We tried to be as creative as we could. We then hung them in the garden in an installation using some string.

What are you going to make? Experiment with colours and materials and have fun!

Show us your creations on social media! #SaturdayArtClub

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