Artist in Residence in Reflection
I was extremely fortunate to be awarded a residency at Hawkwood CFT, a beautiful centre for courses just outside Stroud, in September 2020, fully residential residencies for artists of all disciplines are funded by the Francis W Rickett Arts Trust.
My aim was to work extensively on plein air painting and drawing studies in the beautiful woodland that sits behind the house. I often walk in these ancient woods (mainly beech, ash and yew) but rarely make the effort to paint there so 5 days of intensive study was exactly what I needed.
I was fortunate with the weather and achieved a lot of work – it was so nice having all my meals cooked for me, and to be given a private en-suite room and a studio space so I could really concentrate on my work with no distractions.
I started off with a day of intense drawings:
Then spent the remaining 4 days exploring colour studies and finished paintings in oils, working on refining colour palette, and finding the best techniques to describe accurately what I was seeing, before moving into more experiments.
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The other 7 artists on residencies were all from a performance, writing and acting background and came from London, Manchester and Nottingham so we had some lively mealtime conversations. I learnt such a lot in my time there and feel incredibly grateful for the opportunity.
Find out more about Hawkwood Artist Residencies here. Angela will be exhibiting her work including the Hawkwood Collection in Cheltenham, Tetbury and Stroud in 2021 (all being well!) – to find out more visit Angie’s website.
Written by Angela Spencer – Images by Angie Spencer ©
Angie is a contemporary British landscape painter who works primarily within the Romantic tradition. She begins all of her paintings with contemplative plein air sketches, either in oils or drawing materials, often outside to enable her to feel the full presence of the place she is studying. As Eugene Delacroix, one of her favourite painters wrote ‘The closer I am to the original sketch in all my small pictures, the more energy they gain.’
It is the landscape which has always inspired her. She lives in the very soft, intimate landscape of Stroud, and finds much inspiration in the quiet places near her home. The Romantic movement had an emphasis on subjectivity and the primacy of the individual, with special attention given to an individual’s emotional responses and the importance of imagination. Angie’s aim is, likewise, not simply to reproduce Nature, but to respond to it and imbue er paintings with her individual emotional response to it. As John Constable famously said ‘Painting is but another word for feeling.’
