Ghostcards ..... and new workshop details

Ghostcards is at Walter Henry's Bookshop in Bideford, Devon, part of Bideford Bay Creatives 'Culture Show', throughout September and October 2011.

Throughout Dave Green’s art practice, presentation has been very important. Mounting has always been clean off-white, museum grade, archival, double thick board cut with a neat 45 degree aperture. Frames which used to be hand made, out of high quality hardwood, are now generally shop bought but made of solid oak. There’s an old adage that if you use the right materials to present your work they complement and do not distract from the image. This new body of work however is a big departure from the norm.

The ‘Ghostcards’, a label coined by Mercer University professor of history Dr Erik Klingelhofer on seeing this work, are multi-layered artworks where not only the image but the frame and mounting reflect a fluid state of both past and present. This work is no longer a two dimensional picture which can be reproduced at infinitum, it has three dimensions when we include the often, oak Victorian frame with guilt inset, and one could argue that they have a fourth dimension as a sense of physically looking back through time is also evident in all of the work.

This work originated two years ago through a commission from Beaford Arts to make a new piece of work from an image in the Beaford Old Archive. This piece was ‘Still on the Beach, Appledore’. A month later another image was added ‘Greenwarren House’, this time made as part of a photographic residential at Beaford Arts which is based in Greenwarren House. These two images already show elements common through Dave’s other work, stitching photographic frames together to produce a combination print, time exposure, painting with light and added a new one, the work of another photographer responsible for the inspiration for the new image and for the original ‘ghost’ image held within it.

June 2011 saw more images realised as part of the Bideford/Manteo Postcard Exchange shown at the Burton Art Gallery. Beaford Arts again generously helped with the free use of some of their Old Archive images. The current show is the first to use the antique frames Dave has been collecting over the past year. Ilfracombe Harbour epitomises the use of the Victorian frame as this particular frame held the original black and white image which inspired this piece.

Free pdf download to accompany Ghostcards: www.greengallery.co.uk/ghostcards.pdf
For larger images go to: www.bbcdevon.org It may take a while to load!

Photographic Workshops in Devon, Autumn 2011

Introduction to digital photography 10am - 5pm - £50
A practical days workshop learning to gain control over your camera, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO, flash etc, setting it up for optimum quality under any given lighting, and making better pictures through composition.

Tuesday 27^th September in Bideford
Saturday 1^st October in Barnstaple
Thursday 6^th October in Exeter
Tuesday 11^th October in Torrington
Saturday 15^th October in Tavistock
Tuesday 25^th October in Bideford
Friday 28^th October in Exeter
Thursday 17th November in South Molton
Saturday 19th November in Bideford

Photographing your own Artwork – 10am – 5pm - £50
There has been a lot of demand for this workshop on ‘Photographing your artwork' over the summer. I have a wealth of knowledge and experience of photographing 2D artwork, jewellery and ceramics and I’m willing to pass this on to artists eager to improve their own image making camera skills. Although this workshop is for a small group (max 5) I also offer it on a 1:1 basis for ½ a day for the same price.

Saturday 29^th October in Bideford
Tuesday 22nd November in Bideford ... more dates to follow!

Painting with Light - An evening workshop celebrating the dark nights of the Winter. You'll learn how to make 'long exposure' photographs using coloured lights, flames, sparklers and hand-held flash.

Thursday November 10^th Northam Burrows 6pm-9.30pm - £25 … more to follow!

Special: Intro to Digital/Painting with Light - An afternoon into evening workshop celebrating the dark nights of the Winter. A practical workshop learning to gain control over your camera, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO, flash etc, setting it up for optimum quality under any given lighting, and making better pictures through composition. This is combined with photographing under low light where you'll learn how to make 'long exposure' photographs using coloured lights, flames, sparklers and hand-held flash.

Saturday December 10^th at Westward Ho! 2pm-9pm - £50

Introduction to Photoshop - Participants will need to be computer literate i.e. use a computer on regular basis and understand the basic controls. Small group (max 4).

Thursday 3^rd November, 10am – 5pm - £50

Workshop gift vouchers are always available for that special present and with this in mind I'll be offering some workshops after Christmas for those people with new cameras so that they'll get to know them better!

More workshops will be added later, please let me know by email if there’s a photographic workshop you would like that I don’t offer at the moment and if there’s a location that I don’t offer.