From the studio No.42

It's July and the dye garden is bursting with fecundity - of both plants and ideas.

Here’s a very short video of part of the regenerative natural dye, food and medicine garden, it forms a part of the forest garden.

Do you see it as chaotic and overgrown?

Or ABUNDANT?

This garden is full of flora and fauna. Full of dye, medicine and food plants. Here is a list of some of the plants in the video:

Budlia - colour

Rosa rugosa - food, medicine

Fennel - food, medicine, colour

Marshmallow - medicine

Sweet cicily - food

Tansy - colour, medicine

Mugwort - medicine

Elecampane - medicine

Evening primrose - food, medicine

Jostaberry - food

Comfrey - colour, food, medicine

Willow - food

Crab apple - food

It also has deep mineral accumulators and nitrogen fixers. Creating the edge of a forest garden. An edible forest.

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY! - FASHION SHOW 17th AUGUST

And a little head’s up. SARAH POLAND is taking part in a fashion show during Aberjazz Jazz n Blues Festival 2025, at the beautiful venue Ffwrn in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire.

There will be cheese and wine tastings with Feral Pig Wine , DJ’s spinning vinyl and fashion shows from SARAH POLAND, and Jolette Le Roux.

I’ll send more about tickets and details next week when I get the poster.

And there are so many more events to come to let you know about…LONDON, BRIGHTON, OXFORD.

Thank you for following my journey,

My best,

Sarah x

From the studio No.41

The Serpentine Gallery Summer Party is THE event on the art calendar. 

Photographer and film maker Mark Lebon, known for his boundary breaking fashion photography in the 1980's and 90's, wears a commissioned SARAH POLAND kilt to the Serpentine Gallery Summer Party 2025.

I met Mark originally back in 1998 when I was a stylist's assistant on a fashion shoot for iD magazine. We shot at Marks's super cool West London studio. 

I met up with him again last year and gave a gift of a natural dyed piece of artwork. He commissioned me to make it into a kilt, non-conforming and deconstructed of course, I painted it, natural dyed it, made sock flashes and a kilt pin badge using off-cuts and thread-ends. He wore it this summer to both the opening event of Serpentine Gallery Summer Party AND Graces Mews Gallery launch (founded by his son, photographer Tyrone Lebon) in South London .

I’ve got an exciting collaboration happening with Mark too.

All will be revealed in time…

My best,

Sarah x

From the studio No.40

A SHORT INTRODUCTORY VIDEO ABOUT SARAH POLAND, A NATURAL DYED, LIMITED EDITION, UK MADE CLOTHING BRAND.

PLUS A DIP INTO THE REGENERATIVE DYE GARDEN.

The why and what SARAH POLAND Art | Fashion is about and what it stands for as a clothing brand with sustainability and ethics at its core, with zero waste, circular design principles.

It takes time to refine and articulate what a brand is about.

YouTube introductory video

YouTube introductory video

From looking after the soil and the people who tend it, to growing crops for textiles, to natural dyeing with no toxic waste, ethically manufacturing in the UK, to the wearer and the life of the garment with the possibility reinvigorate by offering a repair and re-dye service, to its end-of-life composted back into the soil to support healthy new growth.

Circular design.

Zero waste.

Non toxic.

No over production.

Hand crafted.

Made with care and quality in the UK.

Chic, wearable, fashion conscious natural dyed clothing.

See also:

Meet The Designer

Thank you for following my journey,

My best,

Sarah x

From the studio No.38

In the studio, this year for me is all about getting out there - gaining visibility, collaboration and well, just keeping on keeping on.

This month and probably next month too, will be a creative time. For many years I’ve wanted to create my own wardrobe, wear mostly my own designs.

You could call it a capsule collection, perhaps a mini collection, I’m just going to call it a wardrobe for now.

I’ve been working on the website this month too and have added a new page WHAT IS NATURAL DYE.

So if you’d like to know more about what they are, where they come from, a little history and some images of the plants, dye extracts and natural dyed cloth, click the link.

My mission this year is to get better at creating blogs and write about the wonderful qualities and beauty of natural dyes - it’s all about visibility and letting people know what I’m up to.

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But for now, here’s a bit of fun with some contact sheets. I tried each jacket on…on top of the other, size 8 to 16…I couldn’t quite fit the 16 on too!

The background painting was made during an artist residency at G.S. Artists in 2019. Made using oak gall ink on raw cotton canvas, 3x4m, painted with a soft house broom and a child’s broom.

During the residency my 1.5 year old daughter would often join me, and I would put inks on her tricycle to make her own paintings, and create mine with her BRRM BRRMING around.

Perhaps they were mother and daughter brooms too?

My best,

Sarah x

From the studio No. 37

We’ve come to the end of the year again and I’d like to wish you a Merry Christmas on this shortest day, from deepest darkest drizzly West Wales.

It is the Winter Solstice - Embrace the dark and carry the light.

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It’s been a great year in the SARAH POLAND studio, not without it’s hurdles and losses. I’ve worked hard on building a natural dyed clothing brand and am looking forward to next year - I have a few exciting projects in the pipeline, including a natural dye collaboration and plan to get out and show at various events, including the Frome Independent Market.

I’d love to see you out there somewhere.

Building my website, brand and getting the Ande Bomber ready to launch have been some highlights.

The website has lots of new pages to view - Why I Natural Dye Clothing, Why I Make Clothes In The UK, Zero Waste and Meet The Designer. I also have Archive pages of paintings and prints from over the years.

Exhibition wise it was really exciting to get in to the Royal Scottish Academy AND sell my painting (below). The VAS 100 (Visual Arts Scotland) centenary exhibition did look fantastic in the hallowed halls of the RSA.

Prosodic Chapters Of Immanent Silence.

Oak gall ink on traditional gesso on birch ply panel.

60 x 91cm.

There’s so much to do to start a business, it isn’t just make some stuff and sell it to a shop anymore! To sell online you need all sorts of things in place, a website, branding (plus a rebrand, thanks J.D. Sports!), a privacy policy, a returns policy, product pages, selling paypoint, good photography, GDPR…the list goes on…and on. Put on the spot, I can’t even remember half of it. Responsible, ethical sourcing is BIG.

As I mentioned before, the hurdle to rebrand away from SONNET by Sarah Poland, because of JD Sports’ interference, has taken up some time. I am glad to have fully embraced the change and am going with simply my name, SARAH POLAND. I now have a new logo, garment label and event sign. The website merge with my artist site will take some time, it’s tricky - trying not to over complicate it.

Any thoughts are most welcome.

Here is my new branding:

My time mentoring on the year long course at Newlyn School of Art this year was so fun, finding myself working beside old peers from my time in Cornwall was a joy and taking part in their tutors exhibition an honour.

Fashion On Earth, Bristol Cathedral with Sustainable Fashion Week UK was a blast and what a deadline to work towards! Thanks to Sustainable Studio in Cardiff and St. John’s Hall in Bath for giving me space.

Thanks too to Helen Manley-Jones at Yr Oriel in Newport, Pembrokeshire for always showing my work.

A new gallery who has taken on my Moon Drawing, photographic and oak gall work, is Tides Gallery in Swansea and their new showcase space, Tides Uplands.

Here are some glimpses from throughout the year.

Thank you for following my journey.

Wishing you a warm winter holiday filled with love and friendship.

Keep in touch, my best,

Sarah x

Inspired by 1950s coffee culture (think Beat Generation), 90s London + an inner rock chick fused with the colours of natural dyes.

Coffee bar, intimate gig + cocktail cool, with quality + sustainability at its core.

From the studio No.36

I was a tutor at Newlyn School of Art on the year long mentoring course this year, and they invited me to take part in their annual online fundraiser.

I have ten pieces in the online exhibition. Included are some of my oak gall ink and Moon Drawing diptychs and triptychs, a card maquette for an installation plus a couple of pieces from the (2008) archive.

Sizes and prices at Newlyn School of Art - Sarah Poland

Nightwatch-No.3, Nightwatch-No.2, Moon Drawing No. 11, Nightwatch-No.8

All oak gall ink on etching paper + silver gelatin print.

Card maquettes for Shape Shifter : Bird Love

Night Watch No.3, Night Watch No.2, Moon Drawing No.11. All oak gall ink on etching paper + silver gelatin print.

Moon Drawing No.20; oak gall ink on etching paper + silver gelatin print.

The Clearing No.8; gouache on watercolour paper.

A bit about the Moon Drawings

During my time living in an ancient oak woodland in West Wales (2010-2015), I started going for full moon night walks and began making drawings in the dark. Setting my camera on a long exposure, I used the moon as a light source with which to draw. I call these photographic works Moon Drawings and Night Watch.

Since then, I have put them together with oak gall ink (also from the woodland) drawings and make small and large scale diptychs and triptychs.

You can see more and read more about them here Moon Drawing

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You can also regularly find my work at Yr Oriel in Pembrokeshire, Wales and Campden Gallery in the Cotswolds.

From the studio No. 35

I have been taking steps to potentially collaborate with an innovative bio-colour brand based in London, with the aim of working towards involving them in natural dye production for the garments. They use both natural dyes (plants), have pioneered microbial colour and are able to scale up to dye longer lengths. We got as far as sampling colours on the fabrics that I am using, but I realised a few weeks ago that they weren’t going to make the deadline for me to be able get the fabric sent off to the manufacturer to make my jackets in time for Fashion On Earth at Bristol Cathedral. Yikes!

However, commissioning natural dyes are costly and their lead time can be weeks or even months to dye the fabrics. The process of natural dyeing is both time consuming and the raw materials cost so much more than what we are used to with petro-chemical based dyes. So for now, as I build SARAH POLAND, the dye work will be done from my studio.

I’ve spent the last two weeks working 14 hour days to get this done in time, dyeing lengths of corduroy and rib. It’s been intense and heavy work too, lifting 1.5m of wet chunky corduroy and moving around heavy pots of water. I invested in another big stainless steel dye pot so it can be heated with gas outdoors - setting up the dye studio for mid-scale production is a step-by-step process, planning infrastructure and equipment.

When creating artwork dye irregularities doesn’t matter so much as it adds visual texture, plus I paint on top of the dyed canvas. But a mark in the wrong place on a garment can look like an unwanted stain. It’s one reason people combine tie-dye or batik with natural dye, the blemishes become disguised. But I want to create a different look than we are used to with natural dye - it’s a challenge to create an even colour - something more chic, by using interesting colour combinations (I’m a colour geek) and beautiful planet conscious fabrics. And let’s face it, there are after all, enough tie-dyers out there.

It’s all worked out and the fabric, grades (different size patterns) and trims have gone off to the manufacturer. It hasn’t been without hiccups, trip ups and hurdles though. One hiccup, was that I dyed 4 lengths of fabric (6m) and discovered that the new 100 litre dye pot that I had invested in, had several small rust spots. It was an expensive pot and when it arrived it wasn’t the quality I was hoping for, but with time short I gave it a go.

When ferrous sulphate (iron rust) mixes with tannin (inherent in certain plant colours) it changes the colour - this created unwanted spots and I had to start again with new dye extract and to heat up a new vat of hot water. I have had a refund on the pot and will use the fabric elsewhere but when time was short and a risk of not having enough fabric, it did ad an extra stress! The fabric won’t be wasted though, at a later date I’ll dip it in a dye pot again and modify the colour.

If you’d like to follow my journey to create a natural dyed clothing brand in the UK and hear about product drops, events and exhibitions you can sign up here: subscribe

Inspired by 1950s coffee culture (think Beat Generation), 90s London + an inner rock chick fused with the colours of natural dyes.

Coffee bar, intimate gig + cocktail cool, with quality + sustainability at its core.

from the studio No. 34

On Wednesday 6th November, SUSTAINABLE FASHION WEEK hosted an event at Bristol Cathedral called FASHION ON EARTH. They invited me to take part in this exciting event which included a catwalk performance, makers market, exhibited pieces, live music plus other stalls including the Soil Association and GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard). It is an opportunity to discover some of the artists, makers and organisations working towards a better fashion future.

It’s going to be a really exciting event, not in the least, because artist Luke Gerram has created a large installation titled Gaia, a to scale, glowing sculpture of our planet Earth. It looks incredible and I can’t wait to see it. Gaia will hover above the catwalk.

I worked incredibly hard to get work ready for this event and it will be the first public viewing of SARAH POLAND the natural dyed, limited edition, UK made clothing brand. A launch of sorts.

I showcased a natural dyed corduroy bomber jacket in five different colours with a few one-off pieces - skirts and a kilt made from painted art pieces.

Sustainable Fashion Week UK says - 'The backdrop of Luke Gerram’s ‘Gaia’ serves as a provoking reminder of the interconnectedness of all life on earth. As with any resources our society consumes, the clothing and materials we wear and dispose of have a significant impact on planetary health’.

Launching the

Ande Bomber.

NATURAL DYED.

MADE IN THE UK.

MADE TO ORDER = NO SURPLUS, NO WASTE.

A natural dyed, limited edition, chunky corduroy bomber jacket. Lined in luxurious organic bamboo silk, five beautiful plant based colours to choose from, with contrasting coloured rib and a cheeky puff sleeve, corozo nut buttons and helping to clear plastic out of the environment, with a recycled plastic Vislon zip.

Lush.

Photography: Trevor Carty @tippee68

They also invited me to display one of my art pieces as a backdrop for my stall. My husband, Ben Duckworth, who runs Raven Roundwood Timber Frames, created a stunning exhibition stand for me using larch, oak, and bog oak. The natural beauty of the stand complemented my work perfectly and looked breathtaking in the cathedral's magnificent setting. It was a wonderful opportunity to showcase a large piece in such an awe-inspiring space.

A detail from Sarah Poland’s natural dyed hanging canvas installation Forest, displayed during her 2023 solo exhibition at Elysium Gallery in Swansea UK. The piece here uses madder, weld, chestnut and iron to naturally dye and paint on organic cotton canvas.

Gaia, by Luke Jerram 2024

We are critically disconnected from our clothing, how it is made, it’s natural source and the many hands each garment passes through before it reaches us. All the resources that clothe our bodies come from this Earth and how we choose to care for and use such resources plays a significant role in planetary health.

All clothing comes from the land. Farmed, grown, extracted, picked and cut - your clothing begins in the ground and should return to the soil at the end of its life-cycle.

FASHION on EARTH invites you to reflect on the relationship you have with your own clothing; to consider how connected you feel to the place and natural resources that are intrinsically linked to the garments you wear; and to imagine a fashion production future wholly connected to and respectful of the natural world.

Join us on Wednesday 6th November 2024 for a night exploring fashion that is created in harmony with nature.

Sustainable Fashion Week UK

Inspired by 1950s coffee culture (think Beat Generation), 90s London + an inner rock chick fused with the colours of natural dyes.

Coffee bar, intimate gig + cocktail cool, with quality + sustainability at its core.

From the studio No.33

So…I’ve got some news…an update from the previous excitement!

I’ve had a logo made to my design, a sign, woven clothing labels, business cards and bought domain names for SONNET by Sarah Poland.

However, in a David and Goliath scenario, I’ve been pressured into changing my natural dyed clothing brand name (before it’s even launched).

We hear about insecure, avaricious big companies working to squeeze out independents, putting pressure on them in some way with their big buck budgets.

Well, they object to my use of the word sonnet in the name SONNET by Sarah Poland.

It’s JD Sports. They have an in-house, fast fashion, sports wear line who use virgin plastic (polyester) and high production.

It’s called Sonneti.

They’re not using the word sonnet and there are no similarities between our brands or our ideas.

Yet they are able to set out a list of restrictions. However, I refuse to adhere to this bullying tactic.

I’ve had to take down my SONNET by Sarah Poland website and social media accounts …or they might get heavy.

It’s a pain and has cost me a lot development time and money, including buying domain names, woven garment labels, a sign, plus I hired a graphic designer to make the logo to my specification.

So I’ve rebranded to just my name, and I’m getting used to it already. I will see that there is a silver lining, and with both websites merging on to sarahpoland.com, art and fashion will be in the same place.

As an artist and designer, my painting and clothing design do relate to each other, and they both use colours extracted from plants, so perhaps it is for the better and the story continues...

SARAH POLAND - Natural dyed, UK made, limited edition clothing, will embody slow fashion at it’s best.

Inspired by 1950s coffee culture (think Beat Generation), 90s London, an inner rock chick fused with the colours of natural dyes.

Coffee bar, intimate gig + cocktail cool, with quality + sustainability at its core.

From the studio No.32

I’ve got some exciting news about a new project that I’ve been focused on developing over the last 4 months. If you saw my solo exhibition in 2023 (either in the real or on my video tour), you will have spotted an area showing a few pieces from a mini clothing collection, natural dyed with botanical colour, with prints inspired by the art work. I am creating sustainable, ethical, designed, sourced and manufactured in the UK, clothing brand, SONNET by Sarah Poland.

If you'd like to follow my journey to create SONNET by Sarah Poland, receive product launch and pop-up invitations plus find out why the logo is like it is, you can sign-up on the website. www.sonnetbysarahpoland.com

You can also follow me on social media: Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook, Youtube, all sonnetbysarahpoland (now @sarahpolandstudio and sarah-poland)

Sunrise at the Do Lectures 2022.

I visited National Weaving recently, a label weaving factory which happens to be close to me here in West Wales. It was amazing and Very Noisy. They have many machines which weave names tapes, luggage straps, brand labels and badges and printed labels, each operated by a person (wearing ear defenders), they even have a vintage machine graveyard for spare parts and relics to one day restore.

I took a few videos of the looms which I’ll post next time, I’m currently on a weekend away at the Secret Dyery in Oxfordshire, learning about botanical ink screen printing with the wonderful Kate Turnbull - more on that next time too! I also visited a manufacturer in London last week to meet and talk over making a sample with them before production. It's pretty exciting And nerve-wracking!

Please help spread the news and if you know someone who might be interested, let them know.

My best,

Sarah

From the studio No.31

A glimpse from my trip to Edinburgh for

Visual Arts Scotland - Then and Now: 100 Years of VAS

It was great to visit the old city where I spent 4 years of my life as a student - humming with new coffee shops, tourists, bag pipes and creativity. Visiting this exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy was thrilling, it is a very large and glamorous space - I sipped prosecco and mingled with new artist friends from deep within the Highlands. It was a beautifully hung show with each room hung according to colour. It worked.

Apparently my second cousin was showing a painting there too (we both went to Edinburgh college of art, she was 3 years above me) plus a cohort from Cornwall (from a Cornwall-Scotland residency exchange). But alas we didn’t know and we didn’t meet. Shame.

Below are some images from the event.

Prosodic Chapters Of Immanent Silence 2022

Oak gall ink and gesso on panel; 122 x 122cm

This painting, was selected from over 1500 entries. 242 artists were showcased. Using my signature paint, made from locally foraged oak galls, I have made the painting with traditional gesso on sustainable poplar wood panel.

During the exhibition there was also a room showing work 30x30cm from all members of VAS, all under £250. This is a travelling show and next visits Borders Art Fair click for catalogue.

Exhibition photography - Instagram: @robin_mair_photography @colinhattersleyphoto & me.

Website: VisualArtsScotland.org

Instagram: @visual.arts.scotland

Twitter: @VisualArtsScot

Facebook:Visual Arts Scotland

From the studio No.30

It’s been a busy week with a trip to Hermon, Pembrokeshire, Wales and a trip to Newlyn, Cornwall.

In West Wales where I live, I was invited, along with 8 other creative practitioners, to talk about my creative practice, during a day of celebration of 'Making New Connections' on International Women's Day. Nearly 50 artists, makers, creatives from Wales brought together to give talks, partake in workshops, connect and share food, held in the new beautiful timber framed studio @ystiwdio and Hermon Village Hall. This part of the day was a Petcha Kucha, where creatives are given a 7-9 minute slot to give a slideshow and talk about their practice. Well actually, since I have a recently and beautifully made studio documentary by Huw Richards Photography, made in conjunction with my solo exhibition at Elysium Gallery in 2023, I played that on the big screen. It duration is 9mins, so perfect, not a lot of talking from me!

A special thank you/diolch to the steering group members @lindanorrisgallery @lisaevansstudio @pip_a_lewis_ @stirlingsteward @msbaker101, helpers on the day, the wonderful artists who delivered presentations and our photographer Dion Cowe @stoneandivy.photo

Making New Connections - Creu Cysylltiadau Newydd supported by the Arts Council of Wales Sharing Together Fund @celfcymruarts

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The very next day I was down in Newlyn, adjascent to Penzance, in Cornwall. There the fantastic independent Newlyn School of Art resides in an old school, started in 2011 and runs many many courses in fine art, mostly painting - such as is Newlyn’s tradition - taught by many of the best-known artists working in Cornwall today. Newlyn’s history is mainly of being a fisher town but also in the 1880’s a artist colony was established and in 1899 the Forbes School of Painting was founded by Elizabeth and Stanhope Forbes in the famous Anchor Studio in Newlyn.

I was invited for the weekend, as a visiting artist, to tutor on the year long mentoring programme. I had a fantastic time, it was so much fun and seriously, what a super course it is. I screened my two films including the exhibition tour and gave a 45 minute talk about my studio practice on the Sunday. The talk followed a journey of studio practice, beginning with my first solo exhibition at Belgrave St. Ives, to my 4th exhibition with the gallery, to leaving Cornwall in a converted luton box truck, my ‘Nomadic Studio’ on a 5 month travelling residency to the Highlands of Scotland, to landing in an 80 acre oak woodland in West Wales where I ventured to make my practice more sustainable, to my most recent solo exhibition in 2023, showing 5 years of work across 4 large galleries, all using botanical colour, foraged or home-grown to make paints, inks and dyes.

Driven by an inspiring course leader Jesse Leroy Smith, I was also working alongside fellow artists Marie Claire Hamon and Kate Walters.

For my third day in Cornwall, Jesse invited me to hang some of my work in one of the studios to set up for a filmed interview. Shot by film-maker Alban Roinard, another artist whom I met during my time living 10 years in West Cornwall, interviewed by Jesse, fuelled by good coffee and croissants, we had a blast. The interview will be available through the Newlyn School of Art programme where they are building a resource of artists, curators, gallerists and art practitioners.

What a weekend, who knew working could be so fun!

From the studio No.29

It’s 4th of February as I write this and the new year has careered into place, there is always a settling in period I find and a hopeful promise of snow. This is just a short missive to let you know a bit about the current exhibition that I have a piece of work in.

Prosodic Chapters Of Immanent Silence 2022

Oak gall ink and gesso on panel ; 122x122cm

The above painting has been accepted into the Visual Arts Scotland - Then and Now: 100 Years of VAS at the Royal Scottish Academy.

I am excited and grateful to have my painting included in this landmark exhibition. It's a substantial piece at 122 x 122cm and was selected from over 1500 entries. 242 artists will be showcased. Using my signature paint, made from locally foraged oak galls, I have made the painting with traditional gesso on sustainable poplar wood panel.

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A little background history - Who are VAS?

On a winter’s eve in Edinburgh, 1924, Visual Arts Scotland (VAS) held their first-ever meeting, becoming early pioneers of inclusivity within Scotland’s artistic landscape. One-hundred years later, the organisation has grown into a leading platform for national and international artists and now celebrates its centenary with a year packed full of opportunities for its members. To kick off 2024’s celebrations, VAS are holding their biggest-ever exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, showcasing work from the finest contemporary artists across Scotland and beyond. THEN AND NOW: 100 YEARS OF VISUAL ARTS SCOTLAND will showcase over 300 artworks, with art ranging from ceramics, paintings, mixed media, photography, sculpture, and a variety of contemporary art forms.

VAS has seen a lot of growth and change over the past 100 years. The organisation began as The Scottish Society of Women Artists in 1924 with the aim to empower women after their contribution to the war effort. In the early 90s, the organisation’s name changed to Scottish Artists and Artist Craftsmen to embrace the high-quality experimental crafts taking place.

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The painting has already been collected by courier and I head off to Edinburgh next week to join it and shmooze with the best. Hmm, now the next problem…what to wear.

FROM THE STUDIO NO.28

My solo exhibition is Officially open and continues until 1st July.

Updates on my website show installation images of the exhibition and there is also a video tour. I think Huw the film-maker has done another great job of putting it together. www.sarahpoland.co.uk

Click on the image to watch the film.

From the studio No.27

It’s May the 5th and I’m up late updating my website. It’s all about my solo exhibition now, so much to do, many people to liaise with regarding the gallery. The last month in the build up to a show has little to do with making the work and I’m glad I started a month before this. This is a big one! The gallery have dropped an extra (large) gallery room last minute…it’s ok. I’m not turning out the lights in that room, I have work, I just have to get it into an exhibition state. Pressure and opportunity on.

The exhibition opening is on 20th May 6-8.30pm.

I have a week to hang the show and once up I will have installation shots taken which I will duly add to my website. On 23rd May there will be a live online ‘in conversation’ event with Mark Halliday which will be edited afterwards to include Welsh subtitles and available for replay online the Elysium Gallery website and on my Youtube channel (yes really, I have a channel!)

Below is an Official Exhibition Invitation.

About the exhibition

Silence - The Messenger And The Metaphor has grown over five years and there are four main parts to the exhibition.

I think of the flat panel paintings as portals in present time, to timelessness and infinite possibility, to oceanic states. In the main painting room I have included fragments of text from Notebooks Of Eurydice by late painter Partou Zia, a text I has been ‘in conversation’ with throughout the project. (1)

The two installation pieces, Forest and Shape Shifter - Bird Lover, have grown from a context of painting but they're in that realm of time and space, where the viewer can walk through, become a part of the work. It can create a sentient experience. Forest, a hanging canvas installation has a mass to it, yet you can enter, get body to body with it, find different view-points and become a part of it. It's like an immersion in an environment where for example, there is no horizon line in particular, there is sensation and hopefully connection. Cloth has so much inherent potential, so I've hung them together or made clothes or put them on a line - the washing line for me evokes a domestic safe space, a place of timelessness, meditation and potential.  

The final room shows collage of painted botanical colour on paper or panel with Moon Drawings. These photographic drawings I make during a full moon, using a long exposure with the moon as a light source.

Part of the process is working with seasons and cycles, of nature and of my own. Some processes take days, weeks or months even, and in that, there is a deeper sense of time. .

(1) Several years ago, painter Richard Cook, in Newlyn, Cornwall, gave me a copy of the manuscript (since part published in a compendium) by his late wife, Persian painter, Partou Zia. It has been a companion, a conversation, over the last few years. I have found it beautiful and profound, of a kind of truth and of human experience. I also found that it has helped deepen my understanding of my own work. The similarities of approach to practice and the sacred drew me to want to collaborate with it - Zia lived by the sea and its magic, light and energy come out clearly in her work.

In the mean time, here is a little taster for you - I mentioned a studio documentary in my last newsletter - it will also be screened during the exhibition. The documentary was made by film-maker and actor Huw Novelli. He had three cameras with him including a drone and I think he’s done a great job in capturing the space and making sense of it all. He was also really nice to work with.

Do let me know your thoughts on all of this, your feedback is always appreciated.

FROM THE STUDIO NO.25

Seasons greetings and I hope you are keeping warm,

I last wrote at the end of October and now we are fully wintering. It’s been -10 here in my corner of Wales, very slippery and very beautiful.

It’s been a great year in the studio and I’ve had some wonderful moments out on the exhibition scene and met lovely new people. I finally started a newsletter, kept it going and have received some lovely and encouraging messages from you.

Over the last month I’ve had my head down and hands in dye pots in between running a workshop series at Elysium Gallery in Swansea. I had a fantastic time there, sharing and exploring techniques in making willow charcoal, botanical inks, natural dyes as well as how to make a frame for a canvas. There will be more of those during my exhibition.

Every moment counts now towards my solo exhibition next year and this month the studio has been a flurry of textile colour, drying, ironing, sewing, painting, all finishing off a large installation piece for the exhibition. Below are some glimpses into the changing space.

And for a bit of fun, click on the button below to see a short studio time-lapse video.

FROM THE STUDIO NO.24

I’m very excited and honoured to be a part of this one!

Paul Croft TMP, Master lithographer has been on sabbatical and has spent a year funded by a grant from the Leverhulme Trust. It has enabled him to research and curate an exhibition of British Lithography which is due to open at the Aberystwyth School of Art Museum and Galleries on the 24 October 2022.

Titled Collaboration in Practice: British Lithography 1800 – 2022, the exhibition traces the history of British Lithography through the lens of collaboration, and provides examples of lithographic practice from C19th, C20th and C21st.

To coincide with this exhibition Croft has written a book which will be published by Gomer Press and will be available during the exhibition and online. He has previously written a few books on lithography and is a tutor at Aberystwyth School of Art. He is the reason that I did my MA there, a great combination of pedagog and master lithographer.

Paul Croft trained at the Tamarind Institute in New Mexico, THE place to train to become a master lithographer. It takes a further 2 years once you’ve completed your post-graduate degree. It’s serious stuff. He’s a dude. He also by-the-way, like me, went to Edinburgh College of Art.

AND what’s more, he’s including my work, The Woodland Bath (illustrated below), in the book and exhibition.

The exhibition opens on 24th October 2022 at Aberystwyth School of Art, Buarth Mawr, Aberystwyth, SY23 1NG. It will also travel to Bankside Gallery in London.

The Woodland Bath 2012

Colour Lithograph; 445mm x 315mm

In 2012 Paul Croft also put together a print portfolio, Collaborations: Aberystwyth Paper Press Print. He also invited me to submit a print for it and this lithograph was included.

On his web-site Paul describes it as ‘a portfolio celebrating the diversity of printmaking from traditional to digital. Each of the 30 professional artists, staff and students participating in this project have had contact with the print studio at The School of Art Aberystwyth between 2000-2012. Artists have been encouraged to be experimental and processes include combination of print media, traditional and digital processes, hybrid prints as well as more inter-disciplinary activity such as prints developing from photography, film and video. Artists were also asked to reflect upon their own practice and to produce a print that is representative of their current work’.

A few names of artists in the portfolio to ring out are: Wuon Gean Ho, Shani Rhys James, Edwina Ellis, Paul Croft, Ruth Jen Evans and Marcelle Hanselar.

Aberystwyth : Paper Press Print was accepted into the print collections of the Arizona Museum of Art in Tucson Arizona and well as the V&A Prints Collections and the University of Wales Art Collections where research is an important aspect, with emphasis particularly upon the history of graphic art, the development of new processes in etching, lithography and relief printing. The University of Wales Collection currently has an archive of over 10,000 prints, drawings.

The portfolio has been included at IMPRESS 13 , an international printmaking festival and at Hong Kong Graphic Art Fiesta 2013 which was a major international graphic art exhibition featuring prints from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, UK and the USA illustrating the diversity of contemporary printmaking practice. It highlighted both thematic and cultural issues as well as more pragmatic matters such as media, technique and format. By 2010 it had developed into a major annual international printmaking exchange exhibition.

From the studio No.23

In the studio I'm working on deciding which text to display on the wall for my solo exhibition next year at Elysium Gallery.

The words are from a text written by the late Persian painter Partou Zia. I met her when I lived in Cornwall. I remember going to the talk she gave during her solo exhibition at Tate St. Ives and was blown away by how articulate, how intelligent and how sparkling her energy was.

Her husband painter Richard Cook gave me a copy of the manuscript a few years after her passing. He was so right when he said he thought I might resonate with it.

I have read the text many times with each time discovering something completely new about it and myself.

While working towards my solo exhibition 'Silence: The Messenger and The Metaphor', I have this text with me. The idea is not to illustrate it or to make the work about it but more partner with it, to keep me accountable. The phrases, thoughts and ideas within it are profound, philosophical and poetic. I would say it is in part ontological prose about truth and beauty.

More will be revealed at a later date.

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Update on the RWA 169th Autumn Annual Open Exhibition

This show for the Royal West of England Academy is the equivalent to the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy in London. I said in my last newsletter that I had two large paintings selected but not necessarily hung.

Well…they were both hung!

I attended Varnishing Day, the artists' private view, which was such an inspiring opportunity to meet other artists. What was particularly amazing was that nearly every single person in the room was an artist. What an energy of creative solidarity. I looked around with a knowing that we all work away mostly on our own, believing in it, not believing in it, and doing it no matter what.

The image below shows my yellow stripe painting, Prosodic Chapters Of Immanent Silence, which was hung next to several paintings of invited artist Matthew Burrows MBE and President of the RWA Fiona Robinson PRWA below mine. What company I am in. Burrows was one of the selectors as well as invited artist and the curator was Fiona Robinson PRWA.

It's the top spot in the main room on the end wall. You can see it as soon as you walk in and even at the private view, with hundreds of people, it was hung high enough to be seen above everybody's heads. It was soo exciting!

3756 works were submitted by 2082 artists. The curation of this show really is astonishing, I don’t know how she and her team did it, so difficult to make it coherent. It is a really great show, one of the best yet I think.

Top right - Prosodic Chapters Of Immanent Silence 122 x 122cm

Top left - Mysteries Unfold Outside Of Time 122 x 122cm

I'm still pinching myself that both large paintings were actually hung!

And by-the-way, I went for a SRFace wetsuit in the end. A new start-up from the Netherlands, well priced, sell only wetsuits and are made from Yulex, the plant-based neoprene that I mentioned before. I am VERY pleased with it. I spent last weekend on a women’s surf retreat in Pembrokeshire, just down the road from where I live and was as cosy as a seal. I even had a baby seal pop up next to me!

Cornish coastal wear company Finisterre also do good planet friendly Yulex wetsuits.