Getting ready for Brisons Veor

A few years ago I spent some time walking and sketching around Cape Cornwall, a small headland on the West Cornwall coast, It's a spectacular location, with breathtaking ocean views, craggy cliffs and the ruined remains of old Cornish mines. This experience fuelled a series of seascape paintings where I tried to capture the malevolent, wild nature of the ocean around there.

Imagine my delight when I discovered that I could apply for a residency on the Cape itself! 'Brisons Veor', (the name comes from 'The Brisons', two offshore rocks just southwest of the Cape), is a residential studio, perched literally on the edge of Cape Cornwall, a few meters from the crashing waves below, and is the most westerly dwelling on the English mainland. Each year large numbers of artists: enjoy residencies of up to four weeks. The cottage is big enough to accommodate up to six people with two studios.

And so I applied for a joint residency with fellow artists, Karen Stamper and Lesley Birch with plans to collaborate in a project about our love of land and sea. I have known Karen and Lesley for many years, both as friends and as fellow artists. When Lesley moved to York we began ‘The Cambridge Three’, creating a succession of shared works by posting paintings on paper to each other. We each responded to the piece we received and posted it onto the next person. We have been looking for an opportunity to work in a focussed way for a while so the seclusion of Brisons Veor and the immediacy of the intense Cornish landscape will provide the perfect conditions for a week of creative exploration to revitalize and intensify our individual practices.

We will be in residence at the beginning of June; I can hardly wait to immerse myself in the rugged coastline and historical archeology and am busy collecting materials for my 'en plain air' work. Watch this space!