I remembered my charcoal this time and did a two-hour drawing in the shade by the pond. The drawing got darker as I went on; it was impossible not to reflect on politics and the Manchester bombing. Bright sunlight but dark day.
I was drawn to the bright red poppies too and the bees …
I wanted to see the garden in the evening light and Laura also wanted a catch up so this came together last Saturday.
I had asked Laura if there was a potting shed in which I could project the film and to my surprise she loved the idea and on Saturday she and Andrew (her husband) took me to have a look. There was a choice between a shed next to the chickens, the chicken shed (cleaned up if chosen) and another shed the other side of the chickens, which we have gone for. It also happens to be next to another shed with electricity.
This is all getting very exciting.
First a big thank you to a-n for featuring this blog in the May digest/e-alert and to those who haven’t seen it yet, the May digest has a link to a pre-election advocacy toolkit to help artists continue to make the case for the arts.
I was going to go to Boldshaves early this morning but the weather forecast was a bit gloomy and I decided I have enough rainy footage so had a Sunday lie in instead.
Sunday is often a day for catching up with business paperwork, a teeny bit of housework and the like but also for grabbing time to get into the studio. I have been planning to try some work on newspapers as a way of responding to the idea of gardens as “glowing islands of civilisation” (see 20 April blog post) in a context of growing political tensions around the world and this is the result from today. Still a work in progress, but working better than I thought it would.
I’ve also started to sort my video clips for the film.
Having been away last week in Suffolk on the North Sea coast where I braved the cold wind with husband and dog, I was keen to get some drawing done today and was determined to stay long enough to do two charcoal drawings. On setting up realised I had no charcoal so worked in conte crayon instead.
When I arrived, Duncan who warned me that there were several swarms of bees so it was with some trepidation initially that I walked round the garden recording the changes since my last visit. I actually managed to miss the swarms …
… so was grateful to Duncan who took me to see them after lunch.
The weather was glorious and my face is quite red from the sun.
Clare Smith's mixed English/Chinese heritage informs her perspective on issues of identity and categorisation. Her nomadic childhood and early adulthood have meant a somewhat ambivalent relationship to place, reinforced by the sense of ambiguity that comes from her mixed identity. Smith works with drawing, print media, collage and moving image to investigate this ambivalence, with references to craft, the importance of labour and the handmade. Through her choice of materials and approaches, she creates work which attempts to create a sense of unity, an interpretation of Homi Bhabha's "Third Space" - seen as a space in which different parts can come together to challenge dominant ideas of wholeness. Collaboration is part of Smith’s practice and she is also co-founder of Dover Arts Development (DAD) together with painter, Joanna Jones. This involves working with many different artists, curation, organisation, event management, creating networks across East Kent and influencing the public realm in Dover. Clare works from a studio in Dover. She has an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins and has exhibited nationally and internationally.
