From the studio No.31 (17th Mar 2024) →

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.

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

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 (4th Feb 2024) →

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.

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.

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.

STUDIO JOURNAL 8

From newsletter 27th March.

Vignette (study), 34.5 x 61cm. Botanical inks on gesso panel 2022

I’ve got some grreat news.

After a lengthy and meticulous application for an Arts Council Wales grant, I have now received an email saying that my application has been successful. Hurrah!!

The grant is to create a solo exhibition to be shown at Elysium Gallery in Swansea in 2023. It is a large space and I have lots of ideas. I plan to have two painting installations, one with 3-Dimensional work as well as individual paintings and diptychs. The grant will enable me to commission and collaborate with other creatives as well. For example, I’ll be able to get some professional photography of my work a video documenting my process and a sound commission for an installation. It is very exciting and lots of work to do.

More information about the project will be unveiled over time. The exact date is yet to be confirmed with the gallery, I really hope you will be able to come for the opening night or during opening hours of exhibition. It will of course also be documented online, for those who can’t make it.

Oak gall ink and gesso on paper.

I’ve made a start by making some small studies on gessoed paper, board and panel and although when I start working on a series I don’t look at anyone else’s work, I’m currently re-reading books ‘In Praise Of Painting’ by Ian MacKeever RA, ‘Agnes Martin’ by Frances Morris and Tiffany Bell, ‘Resistance & Persistence Selected Writings by Sean Scully. I’m thinking I’ll look out my book of Bridget Riley’s writings, she writes with such insight on her own work and of other artists’.

I’ve also been watching videos on Youtube of Brice Marden talking about his work. There’s such an incredible archive online.

Studio table

Studio journal 4

I've got a little box of watercolour tubes that I've had sitting around for a few years. My father-in-law gave them to me, his father was a painter. I, or perhaps they, have been waiting for the right time.

I've found it difficult to get motivation moving these last two weeks. It is far from a usual problem. Perhaps there's the overwhelm of moving house and trying to clear a pathway into my studio where things have been strewn amidst the chaos. Plus the bliss of finally being in a house and wanting to slack out on the sofa.

I did something I've often done when I don't know how to get started. I went to the sea. I packed my special off-piste snowboarding rucksack - used for day long adventures. It helps me to create intention of letting go and exploring what comes up. Off to find a wild, windswept, isolated beach I did.

I packed a little portable set of watercolours. Perhaps the time is right now to explore watercolour but…note to self to not drift too far into the allure of what they can do - the pooling, the reticulation - not make 'watercolour paintings' per se but to use them in my own way. For this, they seem a good quick sketching tool.

The morning started with a thick freezing fog at home, the journey to the sea opened out and the long steep walk down brought a pool of sunshine to where I positioned my belongings on a flat boulder.

The day was beautiful.

The sea was calm, small waves dolloped the shoreline dragging pebbles away with them. Such a beautiful sounds that makes you sit very still and Listen. Out at sea cloud was low and colours were limited to gorgeous greys and aqua of the small cresting waves.

By the end of the day I was watching the freezing fog roll in and envelop the beach.

Play the above video to watch waves dolloping onto the shore in fog.

Thank you for reading this. If you would like to follow this studio journal and sign-up to my newsletter for exhibition updates, inspiration and available work you can sign up at sarahpoland.co.uk/subscribe I send it out some Sunday’s at 11am.

And do please reach out through the contact form if you have any questions.

Studio journal 3

Souvenance

I think the poet is the last person who is still speaking the truth when no one else dares to. I think the poet is the first person to begin the shaping and visioning of the new forms and the new consciousness when no one else has begun to sense it; I think these are two of the most essential human functions’ ______________________________________ Diane Di Prima, _____________Beat Poet (August 6, 1934 – October 25, 2020)

And so too the painter.

Diane Di Prima was a poet and writer of the American Beat Generation.

Back in 2002 I went to Western Canada to meet a great friend of mine, to snowboard as she finished her season and to travel together up the West coast. We stopped a night or two in Tofino, B.C. I wasn’t sure at the time why I didn’t join her on a whale watching boat trip, but I drifted into a lovely bookshop, sat on the floor to browse a shelf and came across this wonderful book. Actually, it pretty much jumped out at me.

Some years prior, on a U.S. trip, someone I met recommended Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. Another great book for that time in my life and it turned out, took the same route that I did. That was my introduction to the Beat Generation and so finding this book focusing on the Women was very exciting.

They are the reason I drink coffee - Coffee And Writing Go Together.

For me, a coffee taps into this culture and also our European cafe culture, particularly of the 50’s and 60’s. I Love the B&W photographs from these era’s, the starkness, the contrasts.

One of my favourite poems ever is Rant by Diane Di Prima - it is in this book. I also discovered Jay DeFeo and her incredible work The Rose, a 2,300 lb. painting which she spent eight years making.

The Beats in turn lead me to Patti Smith, punk poet, writer, rock musician’s thoughts and writing.

So this was the reason I missed the whale watching!

Jay DeFeo working on The Rose, 1958–66,
in her Fillmore Street studio, NYC 1960. Photo: Burt Glinn.

I’ve just gotta squeeze in a favourite photo…one of British painter Sandra Blow who lived in St. Ives for many years. I love Roger Mayne’s images of the artists there. The other Michael Gaca, director of Belgrave St. Ives took of me at Carn Galva after a bush fire in 2006. It was in my 2006 exhibition at the gallery Tuath (click for catalogue).

Studio journal 2

What I saw in 1993 was an exhibition by American painter Robert Ryman. Known as the ‘painter of white paintings’, he is one of the foremost abstract artists of his generation. The influence that this one exhibition had was so profound it still resonates deeply today.

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