MARITIME - FRANCE / IRELAND RESIDENCIES THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS 

MARITIME - FRANCE / IRELAND RESIDENCIES PRESS RELEASES

maritime - france / ireland residencies

The breton artists Caroline Boyfield and Laure Colomer travelled to Cork by ferry arriving on 8th May 2024, in order to undertake residencies at SIRIUS ARTS CENTRE and UILLINN WEST CORK ARTS. They responded to their environments, to the landscape of south west Ireland, its culture and history within the context of their individual practices. Studio spaces were provided at UILLINN WEST CORK ARTS where they developed a body of work towards the exhibition at TRISKEL / SAMPLE PROJECT SPACE. Whilst in West Cork, they engaged with the public through an Open Studio event and a workshop. The aim of the residency was to develop work in response to their experiences of maritime journeys and to research the poetry and myths of both regions in order to produce a body of work to present in exhibitions in France and Ireland. The physical and poetic space inherent in the boat and in maritime journeys is also explored, as well as our relationship with myths, language  and the sea.

Laure Colomer :  https://laurecolomer.wixsite.com/site.    https://www.instagram.com/laurecolomer/  

MARITIME - IRELAND / FRANCE RESIDENCIES

The artists Rebecca Bradley and Ida Mitrani were selected by Embardée after an open call in August 2023 to submit a proposal on a Maritime theme. They arrived in Roscoff at the Port du Bloscon from Cork aboard a Brittany Ferries ship on April 21st. They were provided with a studio each and accommodation for two weeks by Atelier Penlan. They explored and were inspired by the surrounding landscape and coast line around the Baie de Morlaix and visited cultural centres such as the maison Prébendale in St Pol-de-léon and the Manufacture des Tabacs in Morlaix. They met other artists working independently and collectively in the Baie de Morlaix. They were able to develop work in their respective studios inspired by their research. An Open Studios event on 3rd May enabled the artists to show their work to other artists, cultural representatives and members of the public. Their exchanges with breton artists Caroline Boyfield and Laure Colomer begun a collaboration towards a group exhibition in Cork City in July and August 2024 in the Triskel / Sample project Space. 

 Rebecca Bradley and Ida Mitrani have both developed a creative practice which makes references to maritime elements within. Both artists in turn express ideas about our encounters with landscape and place, highlighting the contrast between impermanent organic elements that will transform and decay, to more permanent materials that will remain, reflecting humanity's legacy in the oceans. The links between their work can be found in the thresholds between liquid and solid matter, in the spaces revealed by the tides and the flotsam and jetsam left behind.  

Rebecca Bradley : https://rebeccabradleyartist.com/Rebecca_Bradley/Home_Page_1.html    https://www.instagram.com/memorygram/

Ida Mitrani : https://www.idamitrani.org/      https://www.instagram.com/idamitrani/ 

un jardin est une forme de résistance - an artist book - 2023

A small edition of five handmade artists books, each with unique painted pages, four pages of my poems in French on the reverse and a cover printed with typography. The pages are glued onto handmade hemp and linen paper from Moulin Keréon, a local paper mill.  Available from Galerie 6, 6 rue Haute, 29600 Morlaix, FRANCE.

WORK IN PROGRESS ON ARTISTS BOOKS

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QUATRE FEMMES - DE L'INVISIBILITÉ À L'AFFIRMATION

LA MAISON PRÉBENDALE,  ST POL-DE-LÉON, FRANCE - 04/02/2023 until 26/02/2023

A collective exhibition with women artists Mich Maroney, Véronique Duprat and EDMA, the exhibition was a great success with around 600 people visiting over the course of the three weeks and many conversations around the status of women, art and life.

SWERVE

A new venture with Swerve Magazine has begun. I am very excited to be the editor at large for this exciting literary and artistic project. Swerve is based in Ireland with an editing team in County Cork and a team based in Finistère.
We are building a poetry and prose project with contributions in English, French, Gaelic and Breton languages, a partnership of writing and visual art between the two regions of Cork and Finistère.  I will be coordinating and translating new writing and sourcing the work of exciting visual artists in Brittany and beyond.

Our first edition is an anthology of new writing in English written by the Cork Collective, accompanied by unique photographs. With a prologue written by the poet Matthew Geden and  sharp and fresh communication by the writer and artist Mich Maroney, the brains behind the magazine. We are currently working on issue 2, which will be published in July 2023. Issue 3 due out in 2024 is also firmly in our sights. 

The 2022 issue retails at £/€15 + P&P.
If you are a bookshop, library or individual in Ireland, France or elsewhere and are interested in stocking or owning this publication, please contact Mich Maroney : michmaroney@mac.com or me : carolineboyfield@gmail.com.

You can follow us on Facebook Swerve Magazine France and Swerve Magazine and/or on Instagram @swerve_magazine 

2 DAY RESIDENTIAL COURSE AROUND THE BAIE DE MORLAIX - JUNE 2022

It was a pleasure to welcome Sarah and Beverley for a two day residential course out and about the Baie de Morlaix and in the studio. They were able to immerse themselves in some plein-air sketching and to consolidate their work in the studio with plenty of one to one tuition available.  

 

 

RESULTS FROM 6TH JUNE 2022 WORKSHOP 

The weather was terrible on 6th June and I made the decision to abandon our visit to the gardens at Pont Born and to focus on a studio session here at Penlan Vraz . There were plenty of flowers available in the garden and we used these as a starting point to create a small sketchbook using water-based media with some unique results achieved by all. Lovely work by Ann, Dawnel, Jacqueline and Marion. 

 

 

STUDIO UPDATE - MARCH 2022 

Very happy to share an update on my studio renovation with 4 new roof windows installed on the north facing side of the barn / studio. This has made a huge difference to the amount of light in the studio and has enabled some rearranging of the space to maximise the light. 

 

 

BAZAR SARAGOZ - JULY 2021 / JANUARY 2022

I am very happy to announce the launch of a new project, written by  me and supported by the town of St Pol-de-Léon. Together with another 3 artists, a playwright and a comedian, we are renting a space in St Pol-de-Léon, close the town centre to open up as a self-managed artists gallery, a teaching space where we will run a variety of courses for adults and children, as well as a space for regular events . 

 

COURANTs D'ART @LA TANNERIE - AUGUST 2020 / JANUARY 2021

A collective project with another 6 artists, COURANTs D'ART is a visual arts project situated in La Tannerie, a renovated tannery in Morlaix with 3 floors, rented by us to run visual courses for adults and children,  to provide a space for an artists' gallery, as well as a meeting place for collaborative projects with other artists, be they local, regional or international.

We opened on 1st September 2020, started our courses on 14th September and will be launching our first exhibition on 1st October 2020! Exciting times!

For daily news updates, check our Facebook page ( facebook.com/courants.dart.morlaix ) or email us on courantdarts29@gmail.com

 

 

PORTRAITS FOR NHS HEROES

Launched by the portrait artist Tom Croft, the Portraits for NHS Heroes on Instagram was a fantastic  community initiative, which brought artists and NHS workers closer. It helped showcase the hard work and dedication of hospital workers, at a time when hospitals were overloaded with COVID-19 cases and staff were facing very challenging working conditions. A great showcase for artists too who offered a free portrait to any NHS worker who contacted them on Instagram. I am not a confident portrait artist, but  thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity of painting the portraits of three NHS angels: Maddie -a neonatal nurse, Sarah - an ICU nurse and Vanessa - a senior midwife. A humbling experience....

covid19 - lockdown sketches

A global pandemic in 2020..... Following the announcement of the French government on lockdown restrictions and being on my own in Brittany at this time, I decided to catch the last but one ferry from Roscoff to Plymouth on 17th March and to spend what was likely to be a long period in the company of John in Newcastle-under-Lyme. Despite separation from loved ones and a strange paranoia settling into our very reduced freedoms, lockdown was for me a  time to reflect, a time to think about how to reconnect with self and how to imagine a different world, one in which we learn to appreciate each other and to feel more connected with nature and above all to appreciate the gift of small things : birdsong, a garden in spring, a meal prepared slowly and with love, time to be creative and with the inability to plan, a welcome release from artificial time constraints. Time became elastic and keeping a routine was an important part of preserving a normality in times which seemed very uncertain and anything but normal. For me, a sketchbook was part of this, both as a private activity but also one where any interaction with others was a lifeline. Social media and virtual communications became the norm between friends and family, but also many inventive projects to help artists showcase and sell their work were born.  Matthew Burrow's Artist Support Pledge and Tom Croft's Portraits for NHS Heroes on Instagram were two fantastic initiatives. Urban Sketchers groups, unable to meet in life took to sketching their interiors and their domestic life, as well as creating Virtual Sketching meetings on Zoom. We discovered a love of gardens and growing things from seeds, to mark the slow passing of time and to sow hope for the future; we clapped for the NHS and posted rainbows in our front windows; we chatted with neighbours at a safe distance over garden walls; we rediscovered what makes us human.....

INKTOBER 2019 

I enjoyed taking part in this daily challenge using Gwen Sharlipp's list of themes (see Instagram @gweninktober). An illustrative style mostly completed in the studio with some starting points for paintings in the future, with ten of the better ones below:

 

 

URBAN SKETCHERS MORLAIX - JULY 2019

A new USK group right on the door step! Wanting to get back into drawing after retiring from teaching and to meet like-minded people, I first joined an Urban Sketchers group when living near Stoke-on-Trent in 2017 (follow them on Facebook @Urban Sketchers Stoke-on-Trent). When I moved to north Brittany in 2018, I looked for an Urban Sketchers group near me and found another friendly group of people in Brest (@URBAN Sketchers Brest), however Brest is almost 50 mns away from where I live, so I wasn't able to make regular meetings. Delighted to announce that as from summer 2019, a new group based in the Baie de Morlaix , of which I am now an administrator, was set up by Renata Coach Dessin (follow her on Facebook @Renata Coach-Dessin) . We had several successful meetings this summer and continue to meet at least once a month. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @USK La Baie de Morlaix.

 

 

BARN / STUDIO CONVERSION - JULY 2019 (ongoing)

Back in the house after our sailing trip and with some time to spare before the house was rented out from late July to the end of August, we set about improving the barn to provide a bigger studio away from the main house. In the space of an epic 3 weeks, we made and painted doors for the barn, built a new staircase from scratch together with a bannister, laid 50 square m of flooring boards and 70 square m of waterproof membrane between the rafters!! A new window was made by Sébastien Kerbrat, a local carpenter / joiner and installed at the end of September. Already the space is in use and enabling me to produce bigger and messier paintings, which I have been craving to do! Work on the barn is ongoing and may involve  a new slate roof at a later date, rather than the existing clay pantile roof, which is too heavy for the rafters. This will then incorporate some additional Velux windows to provide further light. I would also like to install a woodburner, electrics and some built-in storage..... TBC 

 

TRAVEL SKETCHBOOK - BRITTANY SAILING  - MAY 28th / JULY 3rd 2019

Setting off from Roscoff on 28th May aboard Ceilidh, we day-hopped around the north coast of Brittany (Finistère) to the south coast (Morbihan) and back on 3rd July. Rarely sailing more than 60 nm each day (about 10 hours), we stayed for a few days in a location if we liked it or hadn't visited before, either anchoring, picking up a mooring buoy or going into a marina. This was my 3rd year of keeping up a regular sketchbook of the locations visited. More of a travel diary than a sketchbook of preparatory drawings for paintings, these sketches are done in situ and are a better way of remembering a place than a photo.

 

 

OPEN UPP ART EXHIBITION - MARCH 1ST - 23RD 2019 

Very excited to be exhibiting with another 45 artists in this pop-up space at 8, Ayston Rd in Uppingham, Rutland, UK.  See work by Maxine Greer, Jane Hindmarch, Gillian Durno, Jennie McCall, Nita Rao and Thierry Miquel amongst others.