THE ENGINE ROOMS ART GROUP
Welcome to the Engine Roo Arts Group!
Started in January 18 as a locally funded three month project, the first members of the group were hooked by the reative possibilities of the medias of Batik and Screen Prining and decided that they wanted to continue!
Well we got through Covid by using an FB page to keep talking, sharing and for ideas and photos to keep the creative juices going.
We returned first to the gardens, sitting at safe distances from each other, bringing our own chairs and refreshments. As son as it felt safe, we returned to the studio sitting metres apart and wearing face masks! The room being sanitized after each session. It seems a lifetime ago now and unbelievable that we all neeededto take thos precautions!
So now, in our 7th year and having said farewell to a few and gained several new members, we are a solid, small friendly group of local people, some who were looking for time and space to be carry on their creativity and others who wanted to fullfill lifetime ambitions to see if they have that creativity in them.
Each person learns the skills of batik and silkscreen printing in their own time and space. Some will look over the shoulder of someone more experienced orwill just start experimenting but both techniques can become quite addictive and the possibilities are endless.
The studio has become very well equipped over the years! We can accommodate almost anything and Shelagh may say 'well, lets try but I am no expert' and we all learn together!
We have explored lino printing, water colour. acrylic and oil painting, still life and sitch work. The world is our oyster!
We have just produced an indigo dye bath and are working in both batik and Shibori. We are looking at ways to batik on top of Sibori- orthe other way roud and have discovered that Indigo can penetrate Soya wax (used for years as a much more sustainable wax), so will dust off our parrafin wax heaters and use them with great care for this project.
