Hannah Farthing

Arriving at Mawddach Crescent on the first day of our residency felt like a kind of homecoming. After a long cross country drive from Suffolk - well known as being a very flat landscape - being greeted by the serene gentle mountains and sky embracing the estuary as we parked up was instantly calming. This view became the focus of my gaze for much of the residency, and as anyone fortunate enough to spend time by the Mawddach will know, it is truly enchanting whatever the weather or light in that particular moment.

I am a printmaker and illustrator taking inspiration from the natural world, and I arrived with one clear guiding feeling for my time; that I wanted to experience and document the surrounding landscape in as many ways as possible. To fully immerse myself in this new-to-me place and see what emerged creatively. 

I brought lots of different materials with me including sketchbooks, loose paper, drawing, painting and collage materials and some printmaking equipment, so that I could act on my instincts and respond to the flow of ideas. In reality, most of my residency’s creative output was observational drawings and short stream of consciousness writings made on location, whilst immersed in the weather, atmosphere and feeling of the places we visited. I also made some very experimental slate ‘prints’ in the studio using pieces of stone collected from the estuary, and then printed on to paper using gouache paint. This was a fun way to connect with the landscape, document colour and shapes whilst linking to my print practice but also, to step outside of the pursuit of perfection for a moment and just play. We were also very grateful to have a foil lithography workshop with Scarlett which was extremely enjoyable and enriching to try a new process, sparking new ideas and thoughts which will inform future work.

I attended the residency with my friend and fellow artist Chloe Heffernan, which added another dimension as we each brought our unique interests and ideas to the shared experience of the residency. Chloe is fascinated by folklore, Neolithic sites, standing stones and burial cairns, the imprints of ancient people and cultures on a place, whereas I am often drawn to the wilder places where you could almost forget about the human world, where you catch yourself believing in magic like I do when in the presence of waterfalls, rivers, lakes, forests and mountains. Luckily, North Wales and Eryri (Snowdonia) has all of of these a-plenty and it was wonderful to bounce off each other’s ideas to find inspiration in unexpected places.

Scarlett and Jake (and Toby the cat!) welcomed us so warmly and thoughtfully to their beautiful corner of the world. The studio became our sanctuary for two weeks and every morning I felt a childlike wonder as I rushed to open my curtains, barely containing my excitement to find out what the landscape looked like that day. Drinking our morning coffee outside whilst soaking in the magical views across the Mawddach Estuary was an excellent way to ease into each day.
 
I think what was most valuable about the residency for me was the space and time away from ‘normal’ life, but not just to be away from home, but also to be fully present in the here and now. The kind of space that feels sacred because it is fleeting and you know it is not going to last forever. Every moment of the residency felt precious and reflecting now a few weeks after leaving, I know that the experience will be one I carry with me fondly for a very long time. It has left me full of inspiration that I am now beginning to translate into linocut prints that I hope will hold even an ounce of the wonder that the Mawddach Residency gave to me. 

Hannah Farthing
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