 ..click on images for a larger view.. On the day I arrived in Eryri, I sat outside drinking tea with Scarlett overlooking the estuary at low tide. My phone tucked away in my handbag somewhere deep inside the house. Later, once my co-resident Amanda had arrived, we’d have a lovely home cooked dinner and I would get a glimpse of the tone of the next two weeks: rest, enjoyment, solitude, connection, breathing space, routine, and spontaneity. On my second day at Mawddach, my Tesco food shop arrived, along with the fear of getting started. I drew the breakfast on my plate, the view beyond the studio window feeling too big and beautiful to tackle just yet. Throughout the first week, I explored the local area across the bridge to Barmouth and along the Mawddach trail to Rhaeadr Arthog. I would draw instinctively but outside of my sketchbook comfort zone, which can sometimes make my practice feel both literally and figuratively small. Back at the studio in the evenings, Toby came by (sometimes to hang out, mostly for cat treats) which was a very exciting development. On the sixth day I swapped drawing for writing. On the seventh, I swapped writing for getting lost in a field. I was trying to reach the carefully crafted garden rooms of Plas Brondanw, which I eventually found just in time to see its interior rooms, filled with Susan Williams-Ellis’ colourful pottery and textile designs. On day ten I sat for the Draw Brighton portraiture session, the tension in my neck not from stress or worry but from trying to stay deathly still for 45 minutes at a time. I felt good about the chat with Jake at the start; it helped me to reflect on my first week and set me up for the second. It was at this point I was able to articulate that my drawings made most sense when they captured a moment, as opposed to a view. I didn’t know how to tackle the vast expanse of sea and sky before me, but a mug of tea, a flash of my socks or a window frame in the foreground helps to put myself in the moment, and sometimes the viewer too. The sky and the sea seemed to draw themselves in after that. I really liked the Crescent’s immediate surroundings - tangly oak trees meeting little beaches. With my two main goals being to capture more nature in my drawings and to scale up in size, it was a no-brainer to explore this landscape further. On days eleven, twelve and thirteen I went out with a big drawing board, spread out my supplies on the grass and just enjoyed playing with oil pastels and oil sticks. It took a while to get there but as the whole experience drew to a close, I was no longer scared of the big blank piece of paper. Elevated from my usual practice, the results still have an energy that feels and looks like mine. On my last full day at the residency, I put everything I’d make up on the studio walls and invited Scarlett and Jake to a mini exhibition, reminding myself to be proud of the breakthroughs I’d made, not the volume of work. As we sat outside again, this time with a fire and wine, I cheers-ed to what had been accomplished and the progress that is still to be made. My art isn’t ‘about’ anything ground-breaking – it’s just documenting a series of places in my life as I’m living it, and I’m forever grateful that that was enough for Mawddach. Am brofiad bythgofiadwy!
Cerys Scorey website ..click on images for a larger view..
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