Devon Artist Network has made five awards which support artists to take part in this year’s Open Studios in September.
The Emerging Artist Bursaries are awarded to help artists take their creativity in a new direction or to support recently qualified artists taking their first professional steps.
The five bursary winners will be amongst more than 400 artists taking part in this year’s Open Studios event.
Artists all over Devon will be throwing open their doors to welcome visitors and showcase their work. Local people and visitors to Devon will be able to see a range of art and craft, which includes painting, photography, sculpture, textiles, prints, jewellery, ceramics and furniture.
This year’s Emerging Artist Bursary winners are:
After years of teaching, Kat Blockley decided to develop her own work as an artist. She started exploring an archive of newspaper cuttings she has been collecting since the 1990s. The cuttings from local Westcountry papers show how the news has changed over the time she’s been collecting, with more reports on extreme weather and foodbanks and not so many about local traditions.
Kat keeps the cuttings neatly indexed in a series of shoebox files, which she calls The Common Treasury. She stitches words and images selected from the cuttings, inspired by stitched samples of the past and with an element of humour.
Kat said:
“The archive reflects the ways in which people negotiate their lives through celebration and through complaint as documented in our local newspapers. Of course, The Common Treasury can’t represent everyone everywhere but there are universal themes and interests. You can see glimpses of the ways our communities negotiate contemporary life and honour tradition as we live lives woven through with both continuity and change.”
Kat’s studio is in Talaton, East Devon.
Jacqueline Seviour uses glass as her canvas. She was inspired by attending a glass fusing taster day, and she has gone on to develop her own style inspired by Devon’s coast and countryside. Jacqueline creates jewellery using layers of glass and incorporating scenes from the places she explores while walking and surfing. Each piece of jewellery is an individually created artwork with its own name.
Jacqueline said:
“Glass is a perfect medium to interpret landscapes with its ability to capture depth and celebrate the beauty of colour and light. The processes and techniques are endless, along with the complexity glass brings. The mix of science and art nurtures my passion, creativity, and curiosity to hone my skills as a maker and artist.”
During Devon Open Studios, Jacqueline will be showing her work near Lustleigh.
Willow Taylor who enjoys the meditative nature of the sea, and tries to capture the feeling of calmness in her work. She works with oil and acrylic on canvas, mixed media and embroidery.
Willow meditates with the waves, infusing her creations with a sense of spirituality. She’s also inspired by the intricate patterns in nature and how these can be reflected in our own bodies, such as our veins resembling the branches of a tree.
Willow said:
“My paintings reflect my surroundings and spirituality. I use paint as a form of documentation of the healing power of nature. I explore patterns and shapes that are seen in environments I feel connected to, through the style of Automatism. I aim to encapsulate the beauty of nature’s designs, with an awareness of how these natural patterns are repeated. Art is a meditation practice for me and I wish to share its healing qualities. “
During Devon Open Studios, Willow will be showing her work at the CREATED 24 event at Abbotsham, hosted by The Big Sheep in Bideford.
Octavia Madden grew up in Devon and is just starting out on her career as an artist, following her graduation from Aberystwyth University last year with a First Class degree in Fine Art.
She is currently exploring the lichens in Wistman’s Wood, an ancient oak woodland on Dartmoor. Octavia invites the viewer of her work to consider the smaller details in the landscape which reflect bigger changes in the environment.
Octavia said:
“People come to Devon to look at the big landscapes. Lichens are such a small detail in those landscapes, but they reflect the broader environment, such as the quality of the air. Unless you have a connection to nature, you can’t grasp the reality of climate change.”
Octavia has also been awarded the Joanna Radford Award with a grant to help with purchasing art materials.
Octavia will be showing her work in Ottery St Mary.
A while ago, Georgi Gilpin re-discovered her old journals in the attic. She kept a diary as a child and continued until her late thirties. Rather than throw the documents away, she decided to use them in her art. Casting from her own body, she creates sculptural figures using paper clay – a mix of paper and bone china. Georgi is working with a photographer and filmmaker to project images onto the sculptures.
She describes the work as ‘processing her life’; a creative response to releasing the diaries which document important events.
Georgi also makes ceramic vessels which stack to create contour lines inspired by Ordnance Survey maps. She uses glazes in natural colours such as oyster, shades of green, and gorse yellow.
Georgi spends a lot of time on Dartmoor and swims every day, so the moors and coastline provide inspiration for her work. Her coffee beakers are decorated with small landscapes, each one slightly different. She creates handles for her jugs from driftwood and long pebbles which she finds on the beach.
Leftover pieces of clay are used to create tiny dog sculptures which Georgi houses in upcycled fish tins lined with Japanese origami papers.
You can see Georgi’s work during Devon Open Studios at Unit L Pottery in Totnes.
Avenda Burnell Walsh of Devon Artist Network said: “During Open Studios, visitors can see work by experienced artists and makers as well as emerging new talent. Our bursaries give an opportunity to artists just starting out in their careers or those who want to try a new direction. So Open Studios is an opportunity for visitors to be amongst the first to see some new work.”
Devon Open Studios runs from 7 to 22 September. Guides will be available from community venues, libraries and tourist information offices in late July. An online version will also be available, along with more information about each of the artists on the website.