The paper for this was so absorbent it was really hard to work with and I am so impatient I didn’t wait for all the layers to dry but I am actually quite ok with it. I did wait overnight though when the paper started to get really wet. (NB it is a different drawing from the one I posted previously.)
Apart from staying at home as much as I can, I am wondering about going to private views …. being immuno compromised makes being in even small gatherings seem risky.
Residencies are impossible for me at the moment even though I always read through the opportunities and wish I could do them!
At the moment I am working in “families” rather than series as suggested by a curator who visited my studio last week. It was the first time I’ve had a curator visit and she was there for an hour. It was really exciting and so rewarding to be able to talk about my work and even sell 2 small pieces and reserve 2 more. Quite unexpected I have to say
I’m carrying on with the 2-weekly chemo drawings
but also starting on a new “family” of ink drawings – to start with of my mother from photos. She was and still is so beautiful though complex. This is work in progress and I have made her rather severe, which is very much how she seemed to me as a child and when I was younger.
I am showing 15 of the Hug those you love drawings for a month from mid-April and made a selection for framing with artist and co-director of DAD (Dover Arts Development).
It went very quickly – I was quite nervous as I thought they were paintings and I am so in awe of her paintings but as she was adamant they were drawings I relaxed a little.
I’ve been back in the studio, trying to be in there when the sun is shining (not very successfully). The Dover Studio Collective which is my studio share members plus a couple of past studio holders and honorary members is co-running the Dover printfest in May so I need a few pieces. These are some experiments from this morning (7/3//20) using oil-based inks on pages from a Chinese book.
I posted an image of the Lino cuts on social media and immediately sold one! This has never happened before…. So one of these is off to a new home.
I am working flat out for two shows coming up soon including an exhibition of the watercolour collages. I do these at home on a smallish table so they are domestic both in terms of production and scale.
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.
