http://www.openstudioscornwall.co.uk/artist/kate-walters/

I’ll be open on Saturday May 28th,Sunday May 29th, Friday June 3rd – Sunday June 5th.   Or by appointment!

I’ll be showing a wall covered in recent drawings, examples below, and new work made very recently, exploring spaces for consciousness. There will be many pieces for sale, framed and unframed, and archival work too. My extensive library will be available to see, and sketchbook notes too. I’ll also be happy to talk about my forthcoming research trip to the Outer Hebrides and Orkney, generously supported by a-n Artists Information Co.

  This picture, Sacred Hoop, will be on show at Moncrieff Bray Gallery in Sussex from next month…along with work by many other tutors from Newlyn School of Art…

Iona Workshop October 2016

Dates : Arrive afternoon October 21^st ; course begins around 5pm, before an early dinner time.

Course closes Tuesday 25^th after lunch; in time to catch afternoon ferry if required (you would be able to stay on at the hostel – or arrive early-  if you make arrangements with the owner John Maclean  http://www.ionahostel.co.uk/ telephone 0168 1700 781 . It would be fairly quiet there then – approx. £21 per night accommodation ).

Transport: Flight to Glasgow then train to Oban, ferry to Craignure (Mull), coach to Fionnphort, ferry to Iona;  Drive to Fionnphort via ferry, park free at Fionnphort, ferry to Iona: If several friends came together sharing the drive might be the easiest. Train to Glasgow then as first option;  Coach to Glasgow then as first option (cheapest). I will be going up early in my car via Halifax where I have an exhibition to install so cannot offer lifts, I apologise. If you need to stay the night in Oban The Caledonian Hotel is opposite the station and they do a very good breakfast.

Course details:

We will work in a ceremonial way, but without undue strictness. The work we do there will have power and be gentle; the emphasis will be on the feminine.    We will walk around the island, ‘tuning in’ to how it feels to us individually. We will spend time on the North Beach pictured above, working with the natural holiness of the place. In the hostel there is a large work room which we will use for practical activities such as guided drawing, monotype, writing, and painting. You will be encouraged to keep a sketch/notebook to record all your insights, dreams, and processes. The beach is clean and we might work with things we find and gather to make little totemic objects or sculptures.  Iona marble and serpentine is quite easy to find and is very beautiful. You will have time alone to walk and work, and there will be work in a circle and with my shamanic drum.

Teachings from the local Saints, nuns and monks will be shared, as will teachings from indigenous peoples where relevant. We will look at a facsimile copy of The Book of Kells, and learn about local stories and mythology. We will visit the Abbey and other holy sites on the Island.

Iona is a most impeccable place, seemingly untouched by modern human ways. As such it invites an opening of the body in a wonderful way, which led to great illumination for me when I worked there last October. It is also known as a ‘thin’ place where the veils between worlds are diaphanous. Your dreams may well increase in their clarity and colour; mine always do.

There is also the likelihood of seeing golden eagles, white tailed eagles, and otters – which live on the North Beach.

Food will be mostly vegetarian and simple. We won’t be able to cater for very special diets; in such cases you would need to bring your own items. Contact me with any requests please!

A reasonable degree of physical fitness will be required if you wish to take part in any optional  (longer) walks; there isn’t a doctor on the Island, so please bear this in mind.  For this reason this workshop isn’t suitable if you are recovering from recent surgery or illness.

You would need to bring warm, waterproof and comfortable clothes and boots; and a sketchbook.

The group size will be small – a maximum of eight participants (not including Hostel/workshop staff).

The price for all tuition, materials, accommodation and food (but not travel) is £500.

http://katewalters.co.uk    https://ionaartresidencies.wordpress.com/tremblingonthebrinkoftransformation     http://www.ionahostel.co.uk/

“Kate is a listener. She listens to her psyche and dreams and an to altogether more ancient response to the land than that which we currently know; what Thomas Carlyle described as ‘ the ancient dialect’. Her work is in part an exploration of this dialect. It explores place through archetype, symbol, the animal world and the older religions. This is home territory for Kate -she is quite comfortable in the company of the ‘Sheela’s (the Sheela na gigs).

Kate’s work isn’t easy in the sense that it neither makes assertions nor statements. It seems to be deliberately un-emphatic. The effect is to unsettle, to make us alert and create a pause. We find ourselves listening. The image that comes to me of her work is of that moment, in the stillness, when you hear a faint and tremulous bird call. You ask yourself if you even heard it (was it your imaginings?) and are silent and poised, listening for it again. You are completely present. In a review of her work art critic Laura Gascoigne gets it dead on when she says ‘It is this sense of trembling on the brink of transformation that lends Kate’s shadowy forms psychological substance’. ” John Maclean, Lagandorain, Isle of Iona.

I will be showing new drawings and paintings and monotypes with my friend Karen Lorenz at Cornwall Media Resource in Back Lane West,Redruth from Good Friday – Easter Monday, 11.30 – 4.30 daily, except Easter Monday when we will close at 3 pm.

It’s 3 minutes walk from the station, and beside a large car park.

All are welcome! Please come to see our work. Karen will be showing animations, film, and drawings too. We will both be there all the time, and happy to talk about our show.

I’ve been working with a group of 14 other artists to bring this exhibition together. It’s been a very rewarding time curating the exhibition and seeing everyone gain such a lot from the experience. We’ve had a constant stream of visitors, all of whom have been very enthusiastic about the work we are doing.

We’ve run lots of workshops and talks, including expressive painting, mindful drawing, drawing mother’s hands, talks on digital poetry, and a film and talk about the work of artist  Meinrad Craighead.

It’s the last day today (Saturday 12th March) and we are very happy that the show will be on again from May 18th  (for a month) at The Plough Arts Centre. Most of the works shown will be the same, except for a few which may have to change  due to technical reasons such as framing.

Here are some images from the installing day and displayed works (sorry about the poor quality photos, light wasn’t very bright):

Beginning late afternoon on Friday October 21st I’ll be leading a workshop on the Isle of Iona, at the award-winning Iona Hostel situated at the North end of the island, where it is very quiet. Gazing out of the windows across the sea the Treshnish Isles, Coll, and Skye are visible,  as if floating on the cystalline ocean.

The group will be small, a maximum of 8 people will be accepted.We will work together exploring themes around bodily awareness and the importance of working in a pristine place if one wishes to do this fully and without anxiety. We will draw, paint, write and make monotypes.

All materials and paper will be supplied, except for participants’ own sketchbooks and possibly favourite mediums (if unclear about this please contact me here: k.walters@outlook.com).

We will walk together and individually, tuning into the very special beauty of the Isle, making notes and drawings. We will practice walking together in silence and according to the teachings of indigenous First Nations Peoples. Wild life here is abundant – you could see golden eagles, white-tailed eagles, and otters.

The poetry and history of the Island will be reflected upon, including trips to the Abbey, reflections on the Book of Kells,  and -weather permitting- St Columba’s Bay.

You would be shown techniques to help you tune into the very special impeccable quality of this place, and there would be time for individual work and time together in the spacious, sunny and warm group working room.

Accommodation will be in the hostel. One or two people might be able to have single rooms; most will be shared between two or three people.

The course will finish on Tuesday October 25th after lunch, allowing participants to catch the afternoon ferry. They would also be welcome to stay on for longer, as individuals making separate arrangements, at the hostel. During the course meals are included. They would be simple, and shared.

Visitor cars are not allowed on the Island. I would do my best to meet most people as they arrive on the ferry and help to carry luggage. Visitors can park their cars free at a car park in Fionnphort (on the Ross of Mull) near the ferry to Iona.

For more details please email me here: k.walters@outlook.com

  The Saint and the Oystercatcher .Drawing. January 2016 Iona

  The Saint with her Bird and protector. Drawing, January, Iona.

I’m so pleased to have had my work selected for Fresh Paint Magazine… by  curator Alice Herrick of Herrick Gallery in Mayfair.

The works chosen are recent watercolours, finished before my recent retreats/residencies on Iona.

 I’ve given this one varying titles…birthing from the dark gum; with coracles; for me meaning revolves around that feeling of being held, suspended, in a little coracle or shell or skin-bound boat. I have been to the beach on Iona where St Columba is said to have landed. I like the thought of being adrift on a big sea in a little vessel which carries us. I see that knowing one;s animal soul can help with birthing, I see the dark gum as the mouth of Mother.

   Sacred Hoop.

  Obsidian

Back in my studio in Newlyn I’ve been working on drawings, prints and writing which I began on Iona. Or rather the seed of them germinated on Iona. When I work I need to be able to open my body fully, to become part of the process, and I realised on Iona that the impeccable nature of Iona makes that a more fluent and powerful process. The pristine nature of the place enables flow and connection.

 waiting   you a tower I fly about

 dream of breathing under water

 to flicker to release

 the saint and the oystercatcher

 the bond resulting from acts

 red grass and arms

 he whose roots grow upward with hand on belly

 girl saint with her bird and protector

And I’ve been making written drawings…

even though I haven’t been to the sea today I can smell her, she is in this room; the otter stalks my dreams, and trees which float, and people left behind; and bending to the breast of a bird, my hands behind my back.

..Or feeling the head pressed against my belly I press the sky into yours; I have control over my heart I say, casting a pink net (bestowed by dusk) around me. Bird on my head now eyes closed, eyes open

Crouching with wounds and flowers. Planet seed growing in her mouth

pink cloud of knowing

around her crown

With fifth foot she tunes in with her heart

Heart with heart foot

I have brought together a group of 11 women and 3 men to work  to make work about the feminine principle.

The artists are: Karen Lorenz, Professor Penny Florence, Jim Carter, Faye Dobinson, Maggie O’Brien, Max Burrows, Scarlette Von B,  Jo Jewers, Otter Rose-Johns, Mat Osmond, Professor Tanya Kryzwinska, Karina Hosking, Valerie Dalton and myself.

We are all excited about our forthcoming exhibition at Newlyn Art Gallery, as part of Transition, opening March 8th and running for that week.

We have launched a Crowdfunder appeal to help us raise the funds we need to produce a good quality catalogue… here is the link:

I’ve been on Iona for almost two weeks and it’s been so beautiful here. Most days I walk across the field outside my window, through the tiny black sheep and the heavy gate, to the rabbity tussocks above the North beach. The first glimpse always takes my breath away. I take with me sketchbook, cameras, thermos; I wear two coats, three scarves and two pairs of gloves. I don’t usually walk far; a few steps and I’m near the Otter hollow, Otter path, his runway to the waves, and I sit quietly to see if he will come again.

My intention is to tune into the beauty of the place, to draw, to write; but mostly I sit quietly on the sand, feeling too small and insignificant to do anything. I find the purity and strength of this place almost overwhelming … so I am still in it, breathing quietly, my heart opening like two shells or opening hands. Yesterday I walked west and the wind-blown sand was like fire on my face. I photographed the wave-gestured watery hair on the tips of tumbling waves; I did write a few words, and I saw a fiery form in the sky at sundown..as if the sky mantle had been split open.

Later, reading about St Columba, I turned to a passage about a white horse who pressed his head against the Saint’s chest, weeping, knowing the Saint was soon to pass away. My horse used to stand and press her head against my chest, I used to stroke her brows and broad forehead. It was a peaceful and lovely communion and finding this passage at random brought me home to myself.