"There is no theme to this exhibition, because the subject matter of Expressive TEXTure is a theme in itself. I’m thrilled and delighted with the results students have achieved during this course. Evidence of the individual’s hand can be seen through works that range from lively and dynamic, ethereal and mysterious, calm and peaceful, spare and reductive, graphic and bold. This course was never about learning calligraphy or legibility. Text is simply a series of marks. Marks that, when strung together, communicate visually. We don’t need to read the words – we read the gesture and delight in the form. Our handwriting is created on a lifetime of habit – and many don’t care for their handwriting.
That notwithstanding, these habits can be broken and a doorway opened for the discovery of potential and the creation of expressive text. Students worked hard to adapt and change what their hands and the various tools could do – and their hand muscles complained until strength was re-built! To begin, they needed to engage in a chapter I call the Foundation, as it underpins the entire course. Black India/China ink is the next port of call, as working exclusively in black focuses us on the gesture, the form, and the quality of the mark. Some fall so in love with the dense, luscious quality of black ink, it’s hard to move on to colour!
Students were encouraged to use found objects or home-made pens; wooden shims, sticks, forks, pipettes, cotton buds, thread or scrim tied to sticks, pens made from tongue depressors and cut-up aluminium cans – anything that looked as if it had some potential as a writing tool. And of course, many were tempted to invest in traditional calligraphy pens and enjoyed the variety of styles and effects these can enable. Going fast, going slow, changing height, stretching out, squashing down, slanting left or right or both at once, over-writing, misting, adding colour – the possibilities are truly endless as most tools can be used in a myriad of different ways.
Later, students moved on to explore other compositional ways forward – seeking ways of visually interpreting their phrase or using text to interpret sources of inspiration of any kind. And it doesn’t end there. Expressive text can be taken to every discipline; used on cloth, ceramics, wood, metal, and concrete. Used with painting, collage, stitch, or printmaking. The only limit is our imagination.
None of this would have been possible without the encouragement of my friend and mentor, Denise Lach. A ‘Maestra’ calligrapher with 40-plus years of practice under her belt, Denise gave me permission to use her approaches and techniques to build this course. Having retired from teaching, she wanted to continue to share her passion for what hand-written text could achieve as an art form, enabling those who have no formal training in calligraphy to release the potential of their own writing.
Ultimately, it’s about gesture and the expressive use of the ink, the tool, and the hand.
- Claire Benn, 2026
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