A Portrait of an Artist as a Very Late Starter

An ongoing project, running alongside my work as an artist is the refurbishing of our Victorian house. The plan had been for it to be finished within 5 years of us moving up here, but life got in the way as it always seems to. So, this week, alongside my meeting with Kingy the chippy to sort out my studio and get it back to a workable space, I have been clearing up at home, in readiness for the builders’ imminent arrival to finish what we began last year and was halted due to lack of funds. Actually, I am beginning to wonder if we should have bought a small house and an industrial unit. . .

Had a trip out to Scarborough last Thursday http://suegough.blogspot.co.uk/ and it struck me that it is only the second time I have had a day out with fellow artists since I moved up here. I am planning a trip to the Hepworth to see the William Scott this week and put a call out on facebook to see who wanted to join me. 2 replies so far, so should be a good day too! I think this is something we could develop within Ryedale ArtWorks; I know some of our artists do not often take the time to go to exhibitions.

Meanwhile, despite today’s pouring rain, I am off out to the studio to try and find my Chinese ink as I have some drawing ideas I am going to explore at home, plus I need to clear a bit more space in readiness for the constructing of my storage units. I also have my Sketchbook Project book to make a start on in between clearing out more junk. http://www.sketchbookproject.com/

I am not sure what I am going to do in this book yet, but I think some automatic drawing for a first layer upon which I can make some more considered responses is the way I shall start.

I have started going through some old work stored in my plan chests and throwing out the absolute dross; I found some of the work I started during the graphics module of my part-time foundation at Basingstoke College of Technology in the ’80’s. I say started, because I found it all so tedius I never completed any of the projects and, if my memory serves me correctly I didn’t actually attend all the sessions! These pieces are in the bin bag, to be joined by other poor drawings and scuffed up bits of paper that I know I will not use. All this clearing of spaces and throwing out of rubbish is good for my soul but I am having to be careful not to chuck anything of value or that might be useful for incorporating into new work.

It will be really good to get the studio sorted out and start exploring my print-making ideas before the cold weather hits once again because the studio is bone sappingly cold during the winter! By Christmas, (sorry for mentioning the “C” word), we will have the house back to normal instead of living surrounded by boxes. There will still be some smaller bits of the project to complete as and when we have the money but I will feel slightly less stressed. That’s the plan anyway!

So, here I am; getting more grown up with every day that passes in my very late-starting career as an artist!

Since moving to North Yorkshire from Hampshire eight years ago and taking five of these to recover from an unexpected illness that nearly did for me due to late diagnosis, I am determined to try and make the most of every creative day.

I started seriously thinking about and making work again two years ago, having exhibited some old work that no one up here had seen, and working voluntarily as a gallery assistant for a couple of years before that. The Gallery, Ryedale Folk Museum was a beacon for contemporary art practice in this deeply rural area and I could not believe my luck at finding it and that it was so close to where I now live.

Working with then manager and curator Andrew Dalton was a fantastic opportunity for me to get to know the quality artists in the area as well as to refresh my critical eye and brain. I was in heaven!

Andy saw some of my work, when we were preparing for Ryedale ArtWork’s inaugural ArtFest exhibition and, I am proud to say, he offered me a solo show on the strength of it. This was exactly the focus I needed at the time, the end of 2011, and I began to ponder on my theme. I had time to develop new work because the show was booked for 2013.

During my convalescence I had the added stress of losing four very special friends; I seemed to be driving up and down the M1 constantly for some months, saying goodbyes. It was sad and I became dangerously close to allowing it to engulf me.

I struggled to find a way to deal with all this in a visual form that was positive and not maudling. Slowly, my imagery emerged, starting with a series of small drawings in books, thoughts about the passing of time, loss and memory. My husband’s mother was suffering early stages of dementia and this hooked in to my thoughts as I worked on larger drawings and began to think about some paintings.

I used the colours and textures of the seasons, researched and executed in an earlier series of small paintings, as another way to hook into the idea of visually expressing time passing, along with the tally mark, which had been creeping into my work before I moved to Yorkshire.

For my degree show in 1995, I had made a series of 4 large paintings that related to my personal reach; as far as I could reach to either side and as high as I could reach above my head. I continued this size relation, making 2 new paintings of these dimensions alongside another wider but shorter one, the result of an experiment. I have 2 more paintings to make to match the first to complete my ‘Seasons’. I showed the completed paintings alongside drawings and smaller studies. The show was quite successful considering the remoteness of the location and I received encouraging feedback and some sales, something I had not considered and was astounded and pleased by!

So far, in the two years that I have seriously been back on “my path”, I have participated in several group exhibitions as well as having the solo show. I have just had the excitement of being accepted for SKETCH 13, the open sketchbook submission run by the Rabley Drawing Centre. http://www.rableydrawingcentre.com/sketch-2013.html This seems to me to be a step up, onto the next rung and has given me renewed confidence.

My work with Ryedale ArtWorks is beginning to bear fruit; we have just been selected by our Council to receive funding to provide services to artists and makers within our membership.

My immediate plans are to finish clearing up and reorganising my studio in preparation for developing and making a series of prints and books.

Longer term plans are to find a larger studio space as I have outgrown my current one already and I can’t seem to help making large paintings!

Oh, and I could do with earning some money. ’nuff said!

http://suegough.blogspot.co.uk/