Dreams and Memories drawing workshop at St Ives School of Painting, July 2014…

This workshop, which finishes today, has been a full and intense experience. We’ve worked with dreams, memories, the breath, bodily impulses, the intuition and shamanic walking. A group of eight has come together as one animal, or a flock of birds, to produce something memorable and fine.

I have used my drum to help with drawing out memories, and also to enable participants to make contact with ancestral voices and images.

Here are some photos of students working, and their drawings.

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2014-07-10 16.28.32     2014-07-10 16.29.09

2014-07-10 16.28.57     2014-07-10 16.31.15

New essay on my work by Professor Alan Bleakley

Poet and Professor Alan Bleakley has written a wonderful essay on my work. I am very moved by his words, and grateful to him for reflecting on my work so deeply.

Kate Walters’ Bodies Without Organs

 

Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari describe a difference between smooth and striated space. Striated space is settled or territorialized, delineated, conquered, mapped, articulated. Smooth space is territory for nomads – moved through and lived with but neither exploited nor conquered. The shifting desert traversed like a sidewinder, tracks soon blown over; the snowscape bleaching into a glaucous grey sky on which human nomads are small tears in a fabric soon repaired after their sapping journey. The journey itself is mapped in advance by the ice-threaded treads of animals and the tracks of their collective breath left as low clouds. In contrast are the tent pegs of conquerors turned into foundations over which concrete is poured and steel and glass bodies rise. Shift these metaphors to the body and a body that is mapped, territorialized, conquered, is a body with organs. A body as organ systems is articulated and in pieces – the vascular system, muscle, bone, the autonomic and central nervous systems, the lymph system, the reproductive system, the digestive system

 

But take away the skin – the largest organ of the body – and look without articulation, seeing the body-without-organs, and you see a lake, weather, tenderness, a breeze, a growing bruise, a wheatfield in motion, relaxation, stricture, pulse, whispers and cries. You see the processes of alchemy – burning substances to dry embers, coagulation, dissolution, salting of fertile ground, the emergence of the blues of bruising, the yellowing of the white as something goes off, the stink of putrefaction, and the glorious swelling of the peacock’s tail as layered rainbows on green silk. Strip away the organs and grasp the body in eye contact – again, in contact – and what you take in is a smear, an approximation, a trace, a ghost, but a whole and not its parts. This is the process of painting as if an animal, as an animal, or as humanimal.

 

Kate Walters deals in traces, animal spoor and doubles merging in a way that brings you back to the body-without-organs, the existence of the nomad, the spittle on a plant that burns off in the early sun. Dyads, interiors and fusions pervade her work, as does mystery. But the overriding sense is one of delicacy, of soft footfall, of leaving little trace, despite the strength of colour, often as dark as tar. This is not to suggest that the work is slight – far from it, the big themes of birth, transgression and containment run through the body of work, but they seem to wear their burdens lightly. And the body of the work resists tethering. This is because of Kate’s idiosyncratic use of containment – one body in another, animal-in-human, human-in-animal, human-in-human and animal-in-animal, suggesting not birth but protection, hibernation, involvement and involution. But a sense of contamination lurks beyond this. Containment may lead to infection, the seeds of which lurk in the borders of her work.

 

In a watercolour ‘Little Wing’ (also known as My Brother the Bird) a woman is simultaneously descending from the dark foliage of a tree and ascending to become that foliage which is also a spreading wing, a fan, likely to draw her away. But her feet are rooted in a birth caul that is also a transparent and dislocated trunk of a tree whose flowering head is a black bird, its wings clipped. The bird looks stumped. The woman looks stumped. They seem locked, but paradoxically there is no struggle. A strange sense of stasis and then transparency sit side by side as time standing still is stitched into the work, and the blacks bleach out as the eye scans. In alchemical terms, the nigredo, or darkness, is haunted by the rubedo or reddening – the bringing of lifeblood, which the spirit woman seems to crave.

 

Kate’s own title of her work ‘Generative Absence’ sums up the body-without-organs, the gentle cuff that keeps you awake but neither hurts nor insults, so that you remain suspended between sleep and waking in a world that is complete in itself, without echoes. Earlier work has a regular motif of animal-human enantiodromia where animal and human are poised as likely to turn into the Other. This is played out within tight borders and tar-dark backgrounds, as if within a cave. This world of pitch, paradoxically stripped of its stickiness, is like a drumhead, taught. And itself is pasted on a containing world of colour, as figure and ground. Madonna with Serpent is set in this umbrous underworld that remains placid but carries a lingering threat. The Madonna has snakes for arms and they seem content with their tar-dark world. Newer work has broken out of this more sombre frame to celebrate rising figures carrying promise, zest and oxygenation rather than compact and dark soil. ‘Shepherd with Goat Woman’ shows the realization of the marriage that produces the humanimal, the goat herder looking on in approval as the human loses the desire to stand upright and wills herself into the four-legged world.

 

 

Alan Bleakley 03/07/2014

Professor of Medical Humanities Falmouth University

 

Generative Absence
  Generative Absence   
Little Wing, or, Mr Brother the Bird
Little Wing, or, My Brother the Bird

 

More news, June and July….

I am working hard in my studio with oil and watercolour, preparing for a show at Arusha Gallery, Dundas Street, in Edinburgh opening early August. I will be going up there to give a talk on August 24th.

I’m also excited about going to run a stall at A Fête Worse than Death in London on July 19th. I’ll be running a stall called I CAN DRAW YOUR DREAM and I’ll be asking people to tell me their dreams, which I’ll do my best to respond to with either drawing, monotype, or drawing through carbon paper. I’ll have colour available too and maybe respond with that.

FWTD 2014 A2 poster copy

 

I’ll also be teaching in St. Ives (St. Ives School of Painting) a course I’m calling Dreamscapes and Memories (July 8 – 11th), where students will use various drawing techniques to explore and reveal their important life experiences and incorporate them into their creative language.

I am very pleased indeed to be able to say that Susan Daniel McElroy(until recently curator at Tate St. Ives) has agreed to work with me to help me forge a stronger path with my work. I am going to be making much larger works in the very near future.

What I am doing, June… July

I am frantically busy trying to cram as many minutes a day as I can into one of my studios. In Newlyn, at Trewarveneth, I keep a large jug of garden flowers which give me a lovely welcome each day when I arrive. The room is gradually filing up with works, many of them not yet complete. I am working with watercolours and with oils. The date of my show in Edinburgh has been brought forward, to coincide with the Edinburgh Festival, and I  need many finished new works for the show. At home I am working on smaller watercolour pieces, many of them re-works of pieces which were not finished ( even though I once thought they were!… I usually have to push works so far before they are really complete).

I am working with the images of the umbilicus, the pre-born, the wild, psychic antennae,  the matrixial, the hovering at the borders of known and not-known.

I’ve also been invited to be part of a show at Bridport Arts centre early next year, called The Theatre of the Soul.

Next month I’m going to be working with Alice Herrick in London at an Art Fete. I’ve proposed a stall called  ‘I CAN DRAW YOUR DREAM’.

Before that I’ll be teaching two workshops – one at St. Ives School of Painting, and the other at Cornwall College.

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Kate Walters monotype 40 x 30 cm new work                            CIMG8195

Some pictures of Italy

It’s just two weeks since we returned from Italy, and the paradise on earth that is Castelluccio in Norcia.

I still can’t read my notes, made when being quiet in the beautiful immensity which is the Piano Grande.

The ribs of Monte Vettore still snow-capped
The ribs of Monte Vettore still snow-capped   

2014-05-18 10.25.45      CIMG7906      CIMG7980

May in Italy, first few days…

Last weekend I returned from 12 days in Italy, walking, researching,drawing and being quiet (if not still!).

We flew to Rome, then train and bus to Norcia through an almighty thunderstorm, which became more powerful as we climbed through the passes to Norcia.

The next morning was cool but sunny and after taking in the lovely Piazza, with many breaths of gratitude, we went into the Church built over the birthplace of St Benedict, where I spent several hours tuning into the strong and holy sense of place, and listening to the beautiful Gregorian plainchant sung by the monks. Hearing that Castelluccio was having a second winter, we bought warm jumpers; we had only brought summer clothes…!

Having bought strong dark chocolate from the wonderful chocolate shop, we caught the weekly bus to Castelluccio. On the  the little bus we were the only two passengers. It climbed slowly up through the switchbacks until we reached the pass where you glimpse the glorious wide opening Pian Grande and the ribs of Monte Vettore, topped with fresh snow; and little Castelluccio perched upon a hill in the middle of the plain. I gasped at the spectacle of beauty and wilderness which was opening in front of us.

We reached the village at lunch time. It was cold. We were several hundreds of metres higher than in Norcia. So we headed straight to the little  hotel (Locanda di Senari), put all our clothes on, and headed out for a walk and a picnic.

We turned behind the village, where I felt it would be more sheltered, and we followed a wide gravel track around the bend; the little hillocks at the edge of the forest were covered in tiny brilliant blue gentians, just opening for the coming sun. It was wonderful to be back.

In the Piazza in Norcia.
In the Piazza in Norcia.           
Gentians, holding the sky
Gentians, holding the sky

Following a farm track  up a sheltered valley we saw ahead of us a sheep dog (of which I am wary). Then we heard incredible loud happy tuneless singing… and leaning against the only sheltered spot, was a shepherd, with a little transistor radio clamped to his ear, yelling along to the songs. It was great.

We walked around him, giving his dogs a wide berth, and found a sunny spot against a ban,k up a second valley, to sit and have our first picnic lunch. Opposite us on the great flank of the hill was a herd of about fifty sheep with a few young. Around them were stationed about 6 large white long-haired sheep dogs, who were looking after the flock, apparently without any instructions from their singing shepherd.

Mountains in snow
Mountains in snow

2014-05-18 09.33.06     2014-05-17 14.32.25  2014-05-18 11.20.26

2014-05-18 11.11.44

 

Teaching Life Drawing at Newlyn School of Art

I’ve spent two lovely evenings the last two Wednesdays teaching a life class at Newlyn School of Art. Before I go to teach I focus on asking what the focus for the evening should be. For the first evening the word’ fluidity’ came to me strongly, so we worked with wet paper, using mediums which were well received by this. We asked the model for poses which emphasised fluidity in the human form, and the drawings which were made were very exciting, and the evening was very productive and rewarding. Here are some of the works made:

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2014-05-01 19.43.09        2014-05-01 20.12.25

2014-05-01 21.06.06      2014-05-01 21.05.43

Last night the word which came was’connections’ so I spoke out how we can feel connected to our drawings, to the model; through an enhanced sense of empathy, for example, as one draws the model’s hand one becomes more aware of one’s own hand…I also suggested that phenomena might be seen around the model, connected to her visually, in a subtle way, made evident through the process of drawing, but this was not developed. I would need more time to introduce this properly. We also did an awareness/perception developing technique, bringing our focus to ourselves in an intense way, and then to the model, but without being penetrating or being intrusive in any way. Afterwards there was a strong lovely quiet sense in the room.

The drawings made were really great, I was very pleased. I will be one of the tutors on the new year long life drawing course which Henry Garfit is going to introduce in October 2014.

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2014-05-08 19.24.23      2014-05-08 19.24.31

2014-05-08 19.37.19      2014-05-08 19.37.29

2014-05-08 19.56.18      2014-05-08 19.56.54

2014-05-08 20.42.25     2014-05-08 21.05.49

New Schoolhouse Gallery, solo show

I returned yesterday form York, bringing a few pieces of unsold work home. Quite a lot has been retained by the curators, Robert Teed and Paula Jackson, and some have gone to Edinburgh for Arusha Gallery’s show at Edinburgh Cathedral.

Both my talk and the drawing workshop went extremely well, and I was delighted by the overwhelmingly positive responses my work received.

Beginning my talk...
Beginning my talk…

 

Discussing possible interpretations of the work 'Vessel with One' considering the deer, the dog, the intra-species blessing, and also kangaroos, with their ability to carry and nurture their young in such a special way...
Discussing possible interpretations of the work ‘Vessel with One’ considering the deer, the dog, the intra-species blessing, and also kangaroos, with their ability to carry and nurture their young in such a special way…

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Another favourite from the show, the Turrets of the Impossible, now in Edinburgh...
Another favourite from the show, the Turrets of the Impossible, now in Edinburgh…
another favourite in the show, Becoming the stillness of animals, retained by Robert at The New Schoolhouse Gallery for a while...
another favourite in the show, Becoming the stillness of animals, retained by Robert at The New Schoolhouse Gallery for a while…
An example of work by one of the participants in the workshop...
An example of work by one of the participants in the workshop…
another example of student's work..
another example of student’s work..

 

I will be returning to York to give longer drawing workshops next year….(three days); I was so encouraged by the positive responses…

 

 

 

 

 

Workshop dates 2014…

I will be teaching a few workshops in the next months… here are some details, with dates.

I also teach 1:1 if artists/students  feel an intensive private session would suit them better.

St. Ives School of Painting July 8th – 11th, working with Dreamscapes and Memories, drawing with the breath, with music, shamanic walking, monotype; tuning into body memory and sensitively drawing it out in a supportive and focused environment.

 

Cornwall College, Camborne, 15th – 18th July,

Working with a range of musical sources including classical, sacred and ‘world’ music participants will make drawings, monotypes and possibly paintings as responses. Students will be taken through steps to enable them to respond with fluidity and confidence.

Poetry from a range of inspirational sources with a focus on the natural world will be used as starting points for discussion and drawing. An open-ended approach is encouraged where students will have fun combining music, text and drawing to make exciting new works. Suitable for beginners keen to learn, intermediate and more advanced students.

 

Newlyn School of Art August 18 – 20th, Drawing Methods, Materials and Meanings, considering how and why we draw, looking at the wide and varied roots of drawings, learning about supports such as panel and paper and preparing them with gesso which we will make and work with. We work in the beautiful restored school buildings/studios.

Teaching at Cornwall College

I taught a day’s workshop at Cornwall College, after giving a talk on my work. We worked with drawing and the breath, non-dominant hands, music and the body. Intense, tiring, but extremely productive. Lots of people came and they worked hard all day to produce some really interesting work.

Here are some photos (taken with permission):

2014-04-04 11.12.34    2014-04-04 11.13.26    2014-04-04 12.24.05

2014-04-04 14.29.30    2014-04-04 14.34.08     2014-04-04 14.48.10

2014-04-04 15.26.19    2014-04-04 15.35.24     2014-04-04 15.35.41