The Planning
Originally a painting retreat (or treat!), planned and booked in 2019 (for the summer of 2020), the residency at Studio Faire in southern France was meant to be an opportunity to immerse myself in my work for an intense, short period of time, and perhaps work out a cautious route forward with my emerging art. I had only recently left my permanent teaching employment after 15 years, embarking on a solo/freelance journey as a full-time artist, something I had yearned for, for years.
Where to begin? Well, since the pandemic postponed my trip until summer 2022, life and my art have inevitably moved on, and the journey will take on a different shape now. Three really important years for me as an artist, where I’ve adapted my studio teaching practice through the pandemic, I’ve made much, much progress with my own practice, and am now emerging gradually, quietly onto the international art scene.
Identifying my own interests as an artist, after years of guiding others, was about getting clarity, being allowed to play in the studio, focussing on how and what I want to communicate. The ‘blank canvas’ has never really been an issue, and I’m never worried about what I’m going to paint. Starting a new painting; choosing colours, format, materials, building layers of paint, marks and textures through exploration is a process-led method of creating my work, and is not dependent on knowing what the outcome might look like at the end. I call it process-led, not outcome-led, the creative process driving me through many different stages of development. Just to be clear, this process is not completely random or free-flowing, but is a very considered and controlled way of working, building carefully one decision upon another.
At the heart of this process is the fundamental principle of never thinking commercially, not being led by what I think might sell, be popular, be in vogue, or ‘liked’ even. Of course, I want people to look, like, and be engaged in the work; be interested, and to essentially respect what I paint. However, the idea of my paintings being pretty clickbait doesn’t appeal at all. This may sound strange, but once I start painting for different reasons, other than my instincts, I inhibit the scope, breadth, intensity and innovation in the work. The paintings can suffer, become rather pedestrian, over-planned, pastiches of others’ work, and no longer an honest pursuit of something new and exciting (for me as well as you!).
So, the residency… I’m only there for one week, but I can achieve a lot in a small time! There’s a lot to consider, from the pre-residency planning, research, collecting of information (annotation, drawing, photographing, recording) whilst there, and then returning to my studio in Yorkshire to reflect, explore and create. The residency will essentially enrich my practice, my teaching and my research, acting as a springboard for a whole raft of new ideas and paintings for 2022/23.
In terms of pre-trip research, I’ve been looking into the history of the town I am visiting, thinking about the journey there (by train, overland), watching the landscape change, the ‘terroir’ of each region as I travel southwards. There’s an underlying politic beneath the surface in all of my paintings, often, but not restricted to, environmental concerns, and I find that recent political friction (both nationally and globally) is moving to the forefront of my mind when I start thinking about this trip and any subsequent works.
When the UK government decided to leave the EU on behalf of a small number of people who voted ‘yes’, that decision restricted trade, personal freedom of movement and, essentially, has the potential to threaten our fundamental human rights, as EU laws to protect us, are torn up and rejected. Without going into to UK party politics (I could), I aim to consider the close, but increasingly tenuous links and ties between the UK and France (and Europe), explore ideas of borders, divisions, limits, freedoms, restrictions, the ‘terroir’, the idea of land mass/island, and movement.
The following painting, Harbour, is my most recent piece of 2022, the last before the residency, and one that may set the scene for works to follow.
Harbour. Acrylic on canvas 100x100cm 2022
This piece began as an ethereal exploration, with fluidity, movement and a sense of lucidity. For a while, throughout its early development, it felt a little adrift, too dreamy and unanchored, like it didn’t have a ‘place’ to be. This was my intention, fully part of the plan, but my instincts about place, gravity, depth, distance and scale came intuitively back into my thoughts and I began to add more structure. The ‘structure’; deeper, more contrasting values, crisper edges of colour, dynamic shape and fragile line, all knit together in a kind of compositional web, and bring the painting to a conclusion, that for me, is “Harbour’.
The title, ‘Harbour’ is ambiguous, yet specific. It suggests a physical place to enter, leave, stay and depart from, a space to pass through, and be invited into, a reference perhaps to freedom of movement, migration and refuge. Another interpretation might suggest harbouring of a grudge, bad feeling or hostility of some kind, not easily shrugged off or forgotten.
The landscape, it’s textures, colours, topography, conditions, traces, ruins, form, its strength and vulnerability, is always at the heart of the narrative in my paintings. The landscape bears the ugly scars of our human interventions, juxtaposed with its own natural beauty and beastliness. I’ll be starting there…
Look out for my next blog post later this month, following my journey to France, and the experiences I have developing new ideas and artwork.