The artwork I did during my recent German residency was in black ink onto white paper, very stark, expressionist. Now that I’m back home, away from the Gothic forests and wolves, I’m playing around with colour (Adobe Photoshop Gradient Map). The images are so different. Yeah I know that’s stating the obvious, but adding colour changes the emotional impact, makes the figures fun and decorative.
I went to the artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees and Rhian Haf. We have been supported by Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We were mostly at the Atelierhof Werenzhaim, an artist community founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.
I think I’ve posted all the work I did at my recent residency in Germany, where I worked mostly in black and white. Now I’m going to spend a bit of time having fun with the images and see what I can do with them in Adobe Photoshop. This is a section of the first work I did at Atelier Werenzhaim, where I drew intuitively onto very large paper with a bamboo dip pen and ink. I’ve put the image through AP Gradient Map and now the little creatures look a bit like multi-coloured angels, well, to me anyway.
I went to the artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees and Rhian Haf. We have been supported by Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We were mostly at the Atelierhof Werenzhaim, an artist community founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.
There was a time, not that long ago, when I would never have thought that I would be able to visit the German Democratic Republic. And then “The Wall” came down and here I was, just a few weeks ago, in what used to be East Germany, in the silent and dark countryside surrounded by forests and lakes, where wolves are known to prowl. And after a few days these strange figures began to emerge. I had decided that I would not draw from life, but suspend thoughts and direction and let something else guide my hand, with the twig dipped in ink moving over the Khadi paper. The figures that came through seem a bit Gothic to me, dark, strange, otherworldly. I remember the fear of Grimm’s Fairy Tales from my childhood; my love of Expressionist art and film; my scary nightly walks across the deserted courtyard to the toilets, and I wonder if these influences were added into the mix as I drew.
I went to the artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees and Rhian Haf. We have been supported by Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We were mostly at the Atelierhof Werenzhaim, an artist community founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.
I spent almost a week at the Atelierhof Werenzhaim in the town of Doberlug-Kirchhain in the former German Democratic Republic, between Berlin and Dresden and not far from the Polish border. The Atelierhof was out in the countryside, near forest and lakes in quite a Gothic setting. My accommodation was in an ancient stable block, across the courtyard from the modernised main house, which had the toilets and a shower. On my first night, being “of a certain age” I needed to cross the grassy courtyard in the early hours to use the facilities. It was so dark the Milky Way sparkled above. I hurried to the toilets and back in the absolute silence, wondering nervously how far we were from Transylvania, and as my hand touched the bolt of my stable door to get back inside to safety, a sudden ear-splitting noise came from the sheep in the stable next door! I nearly had a heart attack!!!! They kept up their raucous baah-ing for several minutes, I had obviously spooked them and it took me ages to calm down and get to sleep.
Right: the stable block – accommodation for artists and sheep.
The following morning, my host asked if I had slept well. “Not really. I disturbed the sheep and they made a lot of noise.” She thought for a moment and said, matter-of-factly, “No, it was not you, it would have been the wolves. They like to eat sheep.”
I SCREAMED SILENTLY INSIDE MY HEAD!!!!!
(to be continued…)
I went to the artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees and Rhian Haf. We have been supported by Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We were mostly at the Atelierhof Werenzhaim, an artist community founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.
Here are a couple more drawings of multiple figures I did before realising that single figures were the way to go on my A5 sheets of Khadi paper. I did these with a bamboo pen with a blunt cut-off end dipped into ink. I didn’t intend them to be dancing, they just turned out that way.
I went to the artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees and Rhian Haf. We have been supported by Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We were mostly at the Atelierhof Werenzhaim, an artist community founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.
The past few days I’ve been posting drawings of single figures I did during my recent residency in Germany. I worked quickly and intuitively with twigs and ink onto Khadi handmade paper (320gsm). But before that, I did a few sheets with multiple figures on. It took me a while to realise the paper needed just one figure on a sheet. This one is drawn with a bamboo pen with a narrow nib. Although some of the figures are interesting, the sheet is crowded and doesn’t, in my opinion, give enough space to each one.
I went to the artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees and Rhian Haf. We have been supported by Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We were mostly at the Atelierhof Werenzhaim, an artist community founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.
These two single figures drawn with twigs and ink have a dynamic relationship between them, even though I did not draw them with that intention. I thought that figure on the left needed something else on the paper but after I had done it, I changed my mind. But that’s the way it happens sometimes.
I went to the artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees and Rhian Haf. We have been supported by Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We were mostly at the Atelierhof Werenzhaim, an artist community founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.
These little drawings from imagination I did on my recent artist residency in Germany are powerful on their own, I think. But some of them can be put together and become even more powerful, they start to tell a story. Look at these two. What is their story?
I used a twig dipped in ink onto Khadi handmade 320gsm paper. I emptied my mind of thoughts and direction and let my hand be guided from somewhere, I don’t know where.
I went to the artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees and Rhian Haf. We have been supported by Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We were mostly at the Atelierhof Werenzhaim, an artist community founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.
Carrying on with the twig and ink drawings I did in Germany, I did these very quickly and intuitively, one figure per page (Khadi 320gsm size A5). These two were one after the other. It wasn’t my intention that they should be looking at each other but that’s what happened. There’s little control when you’re drawing with a twig, no chance of fine detail. You just have to accept how it turns out.
I went to the artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees and Rhian Haf. We have been supported by Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We were mostly at the Atelierhof Werenzhaim, an artist community founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.
I took a set of 20 pieces of hand-made Khadi paper, size A5, to my artist residency in Germany earlier this month and after making over a hundred drawings on a very large piece of paper (see here) I switched from a big studio in a barn to a tiny ancient stable to work small. I had used 4 pieces of the Khadi paper before I came to the Atelierhof Werenzhaim, I decided to use the remaining 16 to draw from my imagination with twigs dipped in ink. I drew figures singly, mostly on their own but in one or two it seemed right to add something resembling a landscape, like the figure (above) on the left. Those marks might be trees, or stags, or …..
One of the big barn studios.
The first four Khadi images are below, drawn in Berlin and Dresden before I started my residency at Atelierhof Werenzhaim.
I went to the artist residency with four other Welsh women artists, Chris Bird-Jones, Sarah Hopkins , Rhiannon Rees and Rhian Haf. We have been supported by Wales Arts International. We are all members of AGOR Abertawe, set up to facilitate creative activity between women artists in Swansea / South Wales, and the Brandenburg area. We were mostly at the Atelierhof Werenzhaim, an artist community founded in 1996 by artists from East and West Germany in a 14th century former feudal tavern estate.
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