My artist residencies at Bannatyne Hotel & Spa, Hastings and the Curlew, Bodiam

17 Jul

I have been meaning to tell you about my residency in Hastings and it seems so long ago now. I’ve been so lucky in that I have been offered, not one, but two solo exhibitions down South this year. Both organised by the fabulous Pure Arts group.

The first was at the Bannatyne Hotel and Spa, which included a 4-day residency. This was such a luxury! 4 whole days to myself to focus solely on my practice and inspiration – plus – SPA time!! Yes please!

The exhibition included an audience with me and the lovely Lesley (Pure Arts), a workshop, and I finished off with a demo. This was more challenging than it sounds due to my encaustic process involving lots of HEAT and, FUMES and other precarious Health and Safety potential nightmares. Luckily, I had me good mate James (H&S legit person) on hand to watch over us. We sensibly decided to take the demo outside, despite the finger numbing cold (typical English Spring Day). So, most people managed to have a go on the hot plate palette and get a feel for the melting process.

We then held the private view, which was particularly special for me due to several of my best mates and my sister travelling from various parts of the country. I know that they secretly came for the bubbles haha. Seriously though, I have had the most amazing support from friends and family over the years, with my arty practice, and it is very, very much appreciated.

Anyway, enough of that soppy stuff.

So, the other thing I came away with was loads of inspiration from the gorgeous gardens at the hotel. It was magnolia time and I do love a good magnolia tree. I couldn’t wait to get back in the studio to get it all out of my head and onto paper (or board, in my case). I started my Spring collection of small works that has become a bit of a regular feature. This time I painted a lot of round boards as I wanted to try something different. I was surprised to find that I really loved painting round. It brings more importance to the composition of the painting and pulls it all in somehow. I’m still totally digging the neon, as you can see

My latest painting is made up of lots of mistakes. If you are a fellow artist, you will know what I mean. This painting started as this (alcohol inks), back in April. I then began to paint the layers of encaustic but was unhappy with it, so it sat for several months while I focussed on a commission (can’t show you that yet, sorry). I came back to this one a few days ago and decided to scrape the board back to the base layer. I still find this hard to do, as I can’t help thinking of all of the wasted wax (it is from R&F paints in the US, so not cheap), but needs must. There is no point in chugging away at something that you’ve lost the spark for. Mistakes can be the start of something great, but it’s also good to know the time to scrap it.