Charcoal is a medium which is a little out of control, it’s hard to control because its qualities are soft and volatile which escape from the borders you set out for it. Exactly for this reason this material allows for interesting possibilities in your drawings.

Within the Digbeth community garden the charcoal workshop will take its participants through a charcoal drawing lesson using compressed charcoal and vine charcoal which are made in the garden itself using the willow branches that grow there.

The workshop will last two hours, firstly making your own vine charcoal then learning some drawing charcoal techniques using our surroundings in the garden and in particular capturing the light and the energy of our subjects. Finally, each of you will go home with a little bunch of charcoal sticks to keep practicing at home with!

Sophia Moffa will be running the workshop; she is an Italian artist based in Birmingham. She holds a 1st class BA in sculpture and an MA in Fine Art Moffa’s practice is focused on the connections between the plant kingdom and society, commenting on contemporary issues of privilege and inequalities within society. A few of her latest shows include, Kesselhaus Museum, (Germany, 2021), ImageOhio, Roy G Biv Gallery (USA, 2021); Power Play, Art’s House (SG, 2020); Loveye, International Sculpture Exhibition, (China, 2020) and Shilpokala, Dhaka National Gallery (BD, 2020). Moffa has run several workshops and classes in Italy, UK, Bangladesh and Singapore.

The workshop is hosted by Digbeth Community Garden, a Birmingham Friends of the Earth initiative, and the charity Birmingham Environmental Education Project.

If you have any questions about this workshop please email digbethcommunitygarden@gmail.com.