Research

From the Dower House sitting room at sunset   Together with three other artists, I spent four days in October in the East Sussex countryside absorbing the Bloomsbury aesthetic and developing a number of new sketches for paintings I'll one day add to my Sussex series.  In the familiar words of my son, "now if you didn't know ..." the Bloomsbury Group comprised many great artists and thinkers of the early 20th century. Central to the group were Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant who made their home at Charleston House near Firle, East Sussex. Virginia Woolf, Vanessa's sister, and her husband Leonard lived nearby...

I applied for the Outside In Step Up course at West Dean as I wanted to explore the surrealist tendencies in my own work. In particular I wanted to connect with the women artists of the movement and see how they might influence my practice. I had no plan, but I wanted to explore the outlandish, mystical, and playful qualities of their work - and to find a way of bringing those elements into my own work in a way that felt authentic to me. Most of all, I wanted to borrow their confidence in doing things differently and in...

This spring and summer I will be one of a small group of Outside In artists exploring the Edward James archive and the surrealist artists featured in the West Dean College art collection. From submitting my application only a few weeks ago, to attending the interview this week, and with the course starting just next week ... the whole thing still feels a bit unreal to me even as I type this.  After years of trying to find a way of engaging with the West Dean art collection and course offerings, suffice to say this opportunity is beyond anything I might have hoped...

  With many thanks to Melissa K. who put me onto this artist! Rebecca Salsbury James was a studio companion to Georgia O'Keefe, reverse oil on glass painter and traditional colcha embroidery artist with ties to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. A quick introduction to her life and work can be found in blog posts celebrating the women of Taos, New Mexico (Part 1 and Part 2) or clicking here.Pictured Winter in Taos, 1948, Reverse Oil on Glass

This area of my website remains a work in progress. In time I shall be updating it with some of the research I've done and continue to do into reverse glass painters and glass painting traditions from the UK and beyond. Please check back soon! Thank you ;)