Myths and Maps

Hafod Studio Artists Residency

Beginning an artist’s residency in Snowdonia for three weeks has been a truly extraordinary and wonderful experience. Three weeks is a perfect amount for a residency of this kind. Before this, in my 25 years since I left my postgraduate painting course at the Slade London, I’ve had two supported years, a year at The British School at Rome which, like the Hafod Studio Residency, had a live work studio with a mezzanine bedroom. A year at Gloucester Cathedral had a house in the Cathedral Close and of my three week residencies, two were at Bleddfa, in a little house near The Bleddfa Centre where a solo exhibition of my work was held. I also had a nine day residency in a sleeping bag, in Leominster Priory where bats circled above at night. I loved painting there by day, and enjoyed visits from pupils of the referral centre next door.

The residency in Hafod Studio is like a retreat. It is peaceful. The exhibition, in Plas Brondanw, is a display of my paintings put up at the start of the residency. Slides and a statement for the talk at the end of the residency are handed in before you get there. So you arrive already having done the admin and requirements for the residency. The talk is your contribution to the community. The residency is hosted by the artist Noelle Griffiths. The first artist was a friend of the artist, in the three years following the residency artists were people she knew, or knew of and extending out to artists previous residency artists knew, the whole thing has that art community feel.

The art residency is one artist at a time with no partners included. The accomodation is wonderful and has everything an artist would need. An etching press is there. There may be people who would miss a dishwasher, microwave, tumble drier, central heating, and tv, and oven. To me it helped with the retreat feel. A retreat is what I needed due to recent life experiences. There is a hob, hot water, drinking water on tap, a log burner, Wifi, a washing machine and kettle. I had brought a radio.

The setting is amazing. It is in Snowdonia National Park with its hills, valleys and views of the mountains. There are waterfalls, woodland, railway lines, mossy stone walls and lakes. I’m just beginning to make work so I won’t post too much about it yet except for to say I’m inspired. The view sitting at my work table is amazing with beautiful old trees on a mound close, and above stretching green wild fields. Sometimes misty, sometimes clear and bright. Over a wooded valley there are ancient mountains. My hosts could not be more kind, generous and thoughtful. I’ve already had two breakthroughs in my work. I’ll share about these next post.

As an art tutor, and an artist, there are two bookcases with broad topics I access for reference. Maps, in a glass fronted cabinet that takes up a wall of my main studio and is neatly arranged in subtopics such as Mappa Mundi, Celestial Mapping, and of course Maps of the Imagination.

The Mythology Bookcase, outside my tiny office studio where I zoom teach for the Royal Drawing School and hold my ‘Blake for Artists’ group is surrounded by seven or nine book stacks of growing themes within Norse, Egyptian and Celtic mythology.

However, Mythology for artists is not contained in these books, it’s a seeking world they join. Myth is new in the retelling. That is something to be careful about, reflective about, playful about and get lost in. It is an adventure in the present moment.

The projects that follow are small and are designed to fit into a morning or a day. They are drawing projects that take the identity of amulets, talismans, maps and globes for your journey as an artist of the imagination. Do add any feedback which is gratefully received as creative communication nourishes our journey as Mythical Artist Cartographers!