For their first Slow Art Day, the Bula Barua Gallery in St. Petersburg, Florida, hosted an event called “Rosé and Fine Art.”
Arriving guests were welcomed with a glass of wine or water and given a slow tour of The Bula Barua Gallery. Each artwork had a QR code, which revealed the artwork’s story and description.
Slow looking participant at the Bula Gallery, 2023
The Bula Gallery space
Bula Barua is an artist whose conscientious approach to painting fits in well as a slow making approach. In her own words:
“I take a lot of time to plan out my paintings before I pick up a brush. I first start with a sketch and then graduate to pigments and paints. It often takes hundreds of layers of color to bring my vision to life […] This entire process from start to finish can take weeks or months, depending on the size of my canvas and which materials I use.”
At Slow Art Day HQ we hope that more individual artists copy Bula Burua and host Slow Art Day events in their galleries and studios. It’s a great way to deepen their relationship with their followers, fans, and potential buyers.
We look forward to what Bula Burua comes up with for Slow Art Day 2024.
This year Galleri Pictor and Munka folkhogskola (a Swedish folk high school and adult education center) hosted Slow Art events several times during the year: once in April for Slow Art Day, and three times during the summer for art students taking summer courses at the center. The slow looking sessions all took place at Galleri Pictor and each session focused on a single artwork – Clara Lundgren’s “Det var här” (“It was here”).
Clara Lundgren (undated). “Det var här” (It was here). Acrylic on canvas. 69×82 cm. This artwork was used for the slow looking sessions at Galleri Pictor.
Arriving participants were welcomed and given a worksheet (in Swedish) containing instructions for eye palming along with slow looking prompts.
These instructions have been translated into English below:
— Materials: Artwork, Worksheets and Timer —
1) Eye Palming is a technique to relax the muscles around the eyes. Warm your hands by rubbing them together for a few seconds. Close your eyes and press your palms lightly against your cheeks, then cup your fingers over your eyes and eyebrows. Breathe slowly and deeply for three minutes.
2) Open your eyes slowly and look at the artwork with the same focus you had on your breathing. – What do you notice? – What colors, compositions, shapes and materials do you see? – Does the artwork remind you of an event in your life? – Do you think others notice the same thing as you? If your mind wanders, try to focus again on the image. Look at the artwork for 10 minutes.
3) Relax again. Take a few deep breaths and notice any further thoughts you have about the artwork.
4) Write down reflections on the worksheet. Do this for 10 minutes.
5) Finally, we reflect together on our experiences of the image and how it felt to do the activity.
During the slow looking session Charlotte Fällman Gleissner, art expert and teacher at Munka Folkhögskola, kept track of the time transitions using a timer.
For the closing group reflection, Galleri Pictor repeated their successful concept from last year of sharing tea and biscuits together while participants discussed their slow looking session. Some of the reflections from this section of the event are included on the Pictor Gallery blog (in Swedish).
We love the focus on a single art work (the original idea for Slow Art Day was to spend one hour with a single artwork).
We can’t wait to see what Galleri Pictor and Munka folkhögskola come up with for Slow Art Day 2024 – and throughout the year. We also hope that future events include tea and biscuits, especially if they save some for us!
Our favorite Basque museum, Ur Mara Museoa, held its eighth Slow Art Day in 2023 and, like they have done in the past, they arranged a full day of slow looking, cooking, eating, and dancing.
The art came from five artists inspired by the French ecological movement of the 1990s, which sought to oppose the consumerist and speculative art market, and to instead advocate for ecological aesthetic values such as recycling and craftsmanship.
The five artists represented included:
Uxue Lasa (sculpture) Anton Mendizabal (sculpture) Myrian Loidi Zulet (textile) Mari Jose Lacadena (therapeutic art) Eduardo Arreseigor (various art)
Further, a lecture by Juan Tomas Olazagirre – “La notación musical” – was held before the end-of-day special dinner (the dinner known as “community food”).
Click the above photo to watch a video excerpt.
Below is the promotional flyer they used to spread the word about their Slow Art Day.
Someday the Slow Art Day HQ team will finally make the trek to Ur Mara Museo so we can participate in their amazing daylong celebration of art, food, and community. We look forward to what they come up with for 2024.
