I’m now into the seventh month of my Gallery Watching project and I am so excited by the possiblities it has opened up for my drawing and for my practice as a whole. And the conversations I have with the […]
My Gallery Watching project at Ruthin Craft Centre and Oriel Davies, Newtown is now at its halfway point. To read how it has been progressing do visit my Gallery Watching blog: https://gallerywatching.ellenbell.co.uk/
Hi I am currently carrying out some research into artists and practitioners experience of postgraduate education, either through traditional, established institutions, universities, art colleges; or through alternative pathways such as School of the Damned, AltMFA or any other organised activity […]
I’ve begun a monthly blog sharing my experiences about doing the project on my own website – here is the link: https://gallerywatching.ellenbell.co.uk/
A year-long Arts Council of Wales funded reportage drawing project in which I draw visitors to Ruthin Craft Centre and Oriel Davies as they engage with the art and the art spaces.
My Gallery Watching live reportage-drawing project begins tomorrow Tuesday 20th September at Ruthin Craft Centre and then Wednesday 21 September at Oriel Davies Newtown. I’m both nervous and excited!
For a while now, I have been unhappy with my materials. It has creeped up on me slowly, until the realisation, the fact, is clear. The man-made materials: wire and silk no longer embody what I wish to say through […]
My Gallery Watching project starts next month and my drawing practice has increased a pace, with my intention to make a drawing every day so far being kept. And the self-challenging never stops (I now dream about drawing continually) whether […]
I try to push myself, to challenge the safe, the comfortable. We sat at a different table. It was near the door and with a view of the barista’s work space. I wasn’t comfortable. And people joining the queue kept […]
I need to test myself. And drawing at the circus seemed a good idea at the time. It was hard. Harder than I thought I would be. I remember circuses as a child being lit up inside the big top. […]
I try to keep the practice alive. Mostly it is a daily breathing in and out, a trying, except that is when I have writing to do. Like today. Sometimes I can manage to write in the morning and do […]
Over the three years of degree – and particularly these past two – my role and practice as an artist has changed enormously, and in this post, I want to examine how and why it has, and how it will […]
My ACW funded project doesn’t begin until mid September but I’m still trying to uphold my resolution to make a drawing every day. It’s an up and down thing, and sometimes just a case of following the tracks. I’ve been […]
They said yes. I’ve been awarded a grant after the second try. I begin my Gallery Watching in September. The fear of what I have left myself in for comes and goes, as does my confidence in my drawing. Nevertheless, […]
It’s a compunction that certainly began at art school. Drawing was always held up to be the ultimate in expression, the fundament of it, if not the whole. For me it has gone beyond that, though I must admit to […]
I’ve been thinking about sketchbooks. They are beautiful things, well they can be. I love the paraphernalia of them, the elasticated straps that hold them in place, the endpapers, the red ribbons that save a page. I like them small, […]
There’s been a gap. A drawing gap, that is. Well, not completely. I went away and before going had to finish 3 articles, so my drawing practice, sadly had to be put aside. It hurts when I have to do […]
The point of any practice surely is to learn, evaluating as one goes so that there is some kind of betterment. Nevertheless, getting stuck in those formulaic methods of seeing and responding still happens, particularly, as with reportage drawing, the […]
I want a lot from it. And sometimes it is the only thing that makes sense. Drawing, for me at least, is a true thing, an authentic thing. It goes beyond thinking, and that is its pleasure for me. I […]
‘So it will be like Rolf Harris, then?’ said my partner when I told him about the changes I want to make to my project. He was referring, of course, to the Saturday night programmes that Rolf Harris used to […]
They’ve suggested I resubmit my application for ACW funding. I don’t know, and yet I’ve thought of little else all week. There is fear, certainly. Will I be rejected again? The project needs a rethink and I’ve done it. I’ve […]
I had three people asking what I was doing in a space of two days. This is unusual even considering the fact that I’ve been drawing the customers in the same coffee shop for almost five months now. The first […]
Yesterday I had really interesting conversations with three visitors at the show/live work. Not having had the time to write (nor even reflect!) since coming in the gallery last Wednesday I feel as though I am ’out of order’ – […]
Part of the reason that I began a daily drawing practice was in anticipation of a project for which I’d applied for funding. I heard over the weekend that I’d failed to secure it. One of their reasons for refusing […]
