Erewash Fine Art Residency 2008

I found out today that commencement of my residency will be Monday of next week, the 15th September. I cannot believe how quickly it has come around.

I shall have to hit the ground running as I have a body of work to produce for exhibition in derby and in Buxton (in the Dome). The exhibition was commissioned by the Cavendish Decorative and Fine Arts Society. I have already started the work as it needs to be completed by the end of October, although there may be an extension to the deadline as the Derby exhibition seems like it will have to be rescheduled for next year.

Thank you to Anna, Angie, Tim and Debbie at the Willowbath Mill Studios in Wirksworth for allowing me to use their studio until my new one became vacant.

The title of my exhibition will be

"Cold and warm at the same time"

My paintings are fleeting glimpses of the landscape, they are borne from countless exposure to the raw elements of the Derbyshire Peak District. They are not picture postcard recordings of any particular vistas, but more a memory of an experience, a culmination of many remembered and hidden elements of the landscape, merged together and embodying a sense of the place. The paintings act as a freeze frame to my subconscious mind, capturing little snippets of long forgotten experiences of a Derbyshire that exists only to me, that is hidden from the view of others and can only be experienced through my paintingsThe work is focused on two distinct, but totally differing areas of the Derbyshire Peak District. The Dark Peak with its gritstone edges, harsh landscape and unforgiving weather system and the White Peak, with rolling hills, limestone dales and milder climate.Derbyshire is an environment that allows me to explore the boundaries between nature and imagination. It offers contrasting elements that sometimes make me wonder if they could exist in any other place: it is a mix of beautiful yet harsh, bright and yet dark, cold and warm at the same time.

I am about to commence a year long residency at Harrington Mill Studios in Long Eaton. I am extremely excited about the coming year and cannot wait to get started.

Since leaving University in June and having confirmation of the residency in July I have been involved in exhibitions and festivals throughout the summer with barely little to time to think about my work and the direction that it is going. This has been quite unusual for me as at University there was plenty of time to do this. So the residency is a welcome focus for me. It will allow me the freedom to continue to make work but also give me an environment to think about my work again and allow me to take it in new directions.

A wonderful thing about the residency is that I am in a position to make the work that I want to make, there are no restrictions or requirements about my work. I will also be involved in leading a community art project and will be involved in some exhibitions.

My aim is to keep an ongoing blog about my work and the residency. I think it wil be really good to give other people an insight into what the residency is about.