ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - KATIE BELCHER (CANADA)
Feb, March, April 2013

Having come of age in what we call the “Knowledge Economy” I am particularly interested in my own lack of understanding of historical processes—specifically agricultural, culinary, building, mechanistic and medical knowledge. My drawings stem from my examination of these unfamiliar spaces, objects, species and processes.

My recent drawings examine agricultural history and cultural memory. My large-scale charcoal drawings merge natural and manufactured forms with landscape. I combine subjects drawn from observation with those done from memory—animal specimens, wood, furrowed fields, and abandoned architectures.

My work at DRAWinternational is centred around the experience of plucking a bird for the first time, a pheasant. The awkwardness with which I completed this previously “routine” task, is the inspiration for a new drawing project. I’ve documented the process, and categorized and documented its trace—the feathers. I aim to describe the pheasant itself, as well as the action of plucking.

I have made drawings in charcoal by mimicking the tension felt in my hands and arms while I held the pheasant and pulled away its feathers. Relying primarily but not solely on the motion of plucking, I continue to work into the drawings using charcoal, eraser and graphite. I aim to merge the drawing process (the doing—faisant) with the subject matter (the pheasant—faisan).

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - HANNAH SARAH JAMES (UK)
March 2013

My practice encompasses the gestural motion of the hand drawn mark, typically through site-specific drawings using thousands of straight lines.

During the residency at DRAWinternational I have continued to examine repetitive linear drawing, investigating ways of manipulating simple lines. I have employed concentric circles as guidelines for this process.

My project is a mathematical interrogation of the space within the circle. I have been exploring this process by working with the length and direction of line, speed of application and points of change.

By setting up more rigid constructs, I maintain a curiosity with regards to the outcome of this obsessive act.

The simplicity of a line repeated highlights the variations of the gesture that would not be present in a mechanical process.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - KELLIE O'DEMPSEY (AUS)
Jan/Feb 2013

As artist in residence at DRAWinternational I developed a body of work which investigated hand drawn gestural mark making in combination with live digital drawing. I incorporated elements unique to Caylus, a medieval village in the south of France, which resulted in a site-specific installation within a vitrine which overlooked the market square.

I made drawings of the villagers during the day and experimented with digital projections in the evening.

This drawing project focused upon the various interactions between people within the context of this historic setting.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - JULIE PAYNE (AUS)
October 2012

I arrived at the studio wishing  to develop a far greater breadth of drawing skills, along with an understanding of new materials and a more critical questioning of my practice.

During my time here,  I have selected simple, often overlooked objects and transferred these to a series of drawings examining different techniques in each. These approaches have included the use of pastel, oil stick, ink, drawing pens, graphite, blind tactile drawings, reverse light drawings and rhythmical pattern drawings.

I also wish to thank those that have donated their own unique items for me to examine, record and to tell graphic stories with.

Julie Payne
www.juliepayne.com.au

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - ANNA HAYES (UK)
September/October 2012

Art is, in a certain sense, an instrument of research from which to explore the mysteries of life and the universe. Painting, as one discipline, can enable the expansion of vision and all its creative powers. Therefore, for me to attempt this requires a production of many pictures from the same source which feel united by a common idea of separation. In this way it is not art for art’s sake but for communication itself. 

An intense feeling for life and a vivid sympathy for human sorrow and suffering is a concern. Life as it is witnessed first hand and by way of the media can lead some to a restless and introspective preoccupation. At times this can manifest itself as a deep and painful pessimism created within an environment of dread. Contrariwise, this very dynamic in all its machinations can be appreciated as a lesser and more invigorating force of nature.  

Many of us try to move toward a more mature and positive view of human existence through positive, thoughtful contemplation. As an act of faith each of us has to offer an element of hope and sensitivity through the way we live and what we create.   

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - EVAN BROENS (CANADA)
September/October, 2012.

Thoughts on drawing. Drawing on thoughts.

Drawing - its choreography, realization, and articulation - is about learning. Learning the form, learning the looking, learning the idea and meaning. It is through drawing that we learn to comprehend the thing that has arrested our attention.

There is a way in which a line, a mark, a gesture, is made. No right way or wrong way, but a specific movement, weight, and relationship to the indication of that specific line or mark. How a mark is made is numerous in its possibility, and within that spectrum the possibilities continually unfold. The unfolding happens between direct and indirect mark making.

The way in which the line is drawn ultimately comes from the body, and how it manifests will also position the work in relation to scale. Its about finding how that line needs to be, following its trajectory and pushing the possibility spectrum in finding the way of the line.

Where does a line begin? Years ago in the dusk before the twilight, a few days from now, in the slight pause of a hand held in fear and caress, yesterday. Page is not where it begins, nor where it seeks to finish.

Chasm
separation
right hand move from bottom to crest and roll out, left hand move from bottom to crest and roll out left do this at the same time.
Scale is to the torso from the weight of the shoulders
to the center of the gut below the naval

it’s essence is in the line and the separation of this line, the two parts parting
there are indirect and direct circumstances
clarify and clarifying the situation

the gap between the two lines is a mark, it’s the crux of the content
how is that negative space utilized
the weight and presence of the line is both delicate and heavy
not a polarity or a balance one and the same throughout

Mother Father
the space between is definite and yet unclear
if what cannot be undone there is permanence

the seed needs to be fostered
Feel the seed that is present in the work and keep it throughout – every line, every mark. Explore the drawing, understand the drawing. Each line has a relationship to the other, both distant and close.
a long division at the heart of the matter
Egyptian hieroglyph lock up or contain
fissure divide split, splinter chasm schism discord

Chasm: a profound difference between people, viewpoints, feelings.
Relation
Work. Structure.
four lines – a base, small medium large complicated scale small is palm size, medium is body, large is architecture within the body range
speculate each line as its own purpose
what is the seed of this?
a feeling of grace
a feeling of togetherness
of unity
there are stages there is growth lines attached, lines apart

there are three and a support three graces – charm, beauty, creativity
Detached line is the base, the foundation, the weight, its strength
sense the lines need to be made horizontally, not drawn in a vertical position
the base is hard and rigid – the others be free to their movement.
Stages of growth.
Stages of being.
Stages of life relationships.
Stages of distance.
Script, set of parameters in the movement. Page surface rubbed in repetitive motion.
Third person
a distance of self looking downward
preparation, exaltation
self distance
Technical complete. Find the meaning, bring it out.

Embedded levels different lengths and downward turn detached lines
Comprehension
relationship to others close to touch a gap between

What seems like a trace may be embedded.
What maybe present or left behind.
a thinning minor attention Relation.

Evan Broens 28th October, 2012

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - NONI BOYLE (CANADA)
September 2012.

Water is water
and clouds billow or stretch out in wisps wherever you are.

Some of the vegetation will be familiar to you - some not

But is all comes together in a way that is unique to that particular place.

And so to travel is to experience the familiar as new - and the new as familiar (since it will always be composed of the same elements)

(Nakamaro's moon is my moon!)

I am finding my way into into this landscape through the medium of water.
Mediating the landscape image through the element of water serves as a metaphor of knowing - the incompleteness of it.

(Through a Glass Darkly)

The landscape is inverted and subject to disruptions or disturbances.
Ripples or waves will distort, fragment, blur, or shatter your sense of the whole.
There are foreground elements, that may be familiar or or elusive, and they serve to further the confound the logic of the image.

Through this process I am also finding the forms, shapes and textures that seem to me to be particular to this place.
The shapes gradually become abstracted into marks or notations with which to compose drawings that reflect my own response to this environment.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - SARA SCHNECKLOTH

A sample of recent work and drawings carried out at DRAWinternational and since.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - BENJAMIN SHEPPARD (AUS) March/April 2011

Being at DrawInternational has provided me a terrific opportunity to extend my practice in a fantastic space with wonderful support.
And being in Caylus has given me the space both physically and conceptually to explore other aspects of my practice.
I chose the Coq initially as it represented France, but as I explored it as a subject, I was surprised at how the various posturing and preening resonated with human, specifically male, characteristics.
Masculinity, pride and ego are all at the fore when regarding Le Coq. These are things that occur to me as I view the world politically, locally and whilst regarding personal relationships.
The Coq here represents so much about humanity and these works will resonate across cultures given the ubiquity of the animal in all its variety. Indeed, in more developed countries/cities more and more, people are keeping chickens in suburban areas- as indeed I have back in Melbourne, Australia.
The choice of pen harks back to previous abstract drawings I’ve made. However, the fine rendering is new to my practice. I see drawing as the working idea. As the idea develops, so does the drawing. I also consider the sculptural aspect of my practice to be a kind of drawing. An assemblage of lines to express an idea that is hollow of form but lineally describes an object or space.

Exhibition 'AS' Digitaldialogues.co.uk

The origin of this collaboration was borne out of the desire to be more creative with electronic communicative technology, whereby the process of production is central to the project.
Given our socially and personally shared limitations and imposed parameters regarding time, space and finance, we wished to develop a collaborative art form in which issues of geographical distance, finance, leisure time and working space, could be traversed by the mediation of commonplace technology- the home computer suite.
We are currently engaged in a long distanced collaborative project
utilizing the generic email system and creative packages within the home computer suite. Drawing occupies a central role in the work, often being both the initial drawn component scanned into the PC, and an integral part of the images development as it zips back and forth between collaborators in file format.
The mark making is directed using either a drawing tablet or the mouse itself,
and drawings are instigated by either collaborator. Although this form of pictorial communication is itself the primary subject matter, each individual dialogue is representative of concerns, expressions and incidents based on our own particular experiences and personal histories. We literally draw out the threads of our daily lives, ritually recording the most pertinent in sketch form.
These ‘diaristic’ sketches are then worked upon and expanded until each subsequent e-drawing reaches completion. The sleeping partner in all of this is the machine, or program itself, for as expansive as the possibilities within each program may be, our choices are still confined within its parameters.

A recent development has seen the project website develop beyond a mere depository for the dialogues into an arena where live works can be instantly uploaded, providing a visual blog. This has coincided with the utilization of photographic imagery collected with the ubiquitous mobile phone.

Jason Davies - Darren Williams, Digitaldialogues.co.uk

YANN LESTRAT 9 Photographies Nevroz and Video

Exhibition 8-22 December 2010

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - Christine McMillan (AUS)- JULY 2010 continued.

Examples of related ideas and processes carried out at a residency in Bali commencing immediately after the DRAWinternational experience.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - BRITT SALT

A sample of recent work.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - POLLYXENIA JOANNOU

A sample of recent work.

Barrett Danes - a continuing tradition
Exhibition 31st July - 19 September 2010

The exhibition presents the work of Alan, Ruth and Jonathan Barrett-Danes referencing the fascinating connection with Upchurch Pottery and the major influences made on the next generation of potters, within an historical context of the development of 20th Century studio ceramics.
Barrett-Danes: A Continuing Tradition offers the viewer an opportunity to see the life and work of an artist who was able to take the story of ceramics apart and then put it together again in new and challenging ways.

From early boyhood onwards Alan Barrett-Danes was well aware of the possibility of a life working with clay. His grandfather was Edward Baker who, by the early 1950s, had bought the Upchurch Pottery in Kent where he had worked for various proprietors over the previous four decades.

Working jointly and individually, Alan and Ruth Barrett-Danes made a major contribution to the development of studio ceramics in Britain. For the
Barrett-Danes, ceramics has been a tradition spanning six generations and dating back to the early years of the nineteenth century. Over many decades Alan and Ruth Barrett-Danes passed on their skills and enthusiasm to generations of students, to an increasingly well-informed and appreciative audience and also to their son Jonathan whose work shows evidence of their influence while at the same time having a life and direction of its own.

Alan’s experiences and training in the mid twentieth century meant that he was uniquely positioned to play a key role in developments in the field of studio ceramics in the later decades of the century. No one else was as well-equipped as he was to take advantage of that moment when ceramics opened itself up to its past and its future. In his life and work we see someone who was able to take the story of ceramics apart and then put it together again in new and challenging ways. Alan Barrett-Danes had felt it necessary to leave Upchurch and Stoke-on-Trent behind him and move on, but many people have cause to be grateful that he continued to wrestle with their legacies for the rest of his career.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - Christine McMillan (AUS)- JULY 2010

I walked along a lane, in a country where I was overawed by the age of the built environment with few tools, all from books, for understanding. On that lane I picked up a stone, it could have been a tool. These I knew about, these I have picked up in Australia. Man made, edges chipped off stone to create a tool. This action of a human was a common point in France and Australia. I felt a sense of relief and reassurance in the familiarity of this object and the action of picking up the stone.
My aim in participating in the DRAWinternational program was to learn to draw in a different way, breakaway from old habits, build a new structure or framework of communication and to be challenged. I asked John to lead me on this journey to explore the process of integrating drawing into my arts practice.
Previously, part of my drawing style had been to use many lines to make one line. I also laid materials over each other, white oily crayon over black charcoal, over pastels, over ink and water colour...scratched back... etc. I had developed a style of drawing that was more about the materials than the marks. I was physically pushing the actual materials around and did not use drawing to develop new understanding or a clarity of thought. I was also reliant on pattern making.
The Artist in Residence program at DRAWinternational helped me to develop a drawings that are about an understanding and an intelligence of drawing. Intelligence of drawing being that through drawing conceptual leaps and new ways of exploring ideas are fostered by the act of drawing and by the drawing itself.
With the guidance of John McNorton of the DRAWinternational I was able to do these things and more. I also acknowledge the support of Grete and Aloise McNorton.
The Process
The DRAWinternational work began with the drawing of the figure through touch whilst blindfolded. This helps to engage the mind, marks are created which are ‘fresh and authentic’ (John McNorton).
I didn’t want to look at the drawing before John. I wondered if by his talk I could visualise what the drawing was like. Of course I was totally surprised when I saw the drawing. I had imagined so many more lines and tonal areas.
The next step, look at the drawing you were making, but still touch the object of the drawing. ‘Draw the figure, concentrate on essential (the essence), focus on the centre’. I began to develop techniques for drawing what I couldn’t see. Some lines could be made at the same rate as the feeling of the line. Some had to be created by memory as it was not possible to draw and feel with the same hand at the same time. The challenge was how to transfer the turns, the direction, the length, the plane into a line with qualities that reflected the source. One solution was to create a series of sounds which embodied the quality of the line. The sounds were attached to the length of a section of line through time and rhythm. As I was feeling the object I would create the series of sounds, practice and repeat the series through touch then draw. In future drawings I called upon the concentration I experienced in the blindfolded drawing to help me understand what I was seeing. I would go back to touch, to see. I found that by touch and sight I could draw more effectively than by sight alone.
John commented that my drawings were sculptural and suggested working in clay from the drawings. Create a clay figure of the essential, turned out like a Venus, bit cliché but again I learnt.
Next step is drawing through touch using the clay figure. I aimed to retain the feeling of going around the clay figure or the figure going around, creating solidity. I tried to throw away the unneeded. There was a heightened awareness of the 3d aspect of line and shape. Feel there is a line circling, the challenge is to translate this from a 3d surface to a piece of paper in a fresh and authentic way.
The making of the second, third and fourth clay figures were interspersed with drawings focusing ideas. By using the clay then paper I could make leaps, jumps, find new ground.
A series of drawing using only planes used a key that was drawn on the base of the sculpture like a compass, to keep track of the views. That key transposed onto paper so a layer of line could be drawn on with architects tracing paper. This helped to focus the way I looked at, always including touch, the object.
The large drawings allowed concentration on the creation of a line, a focus on it’s quality, it’s direction, intensity, thickness and broken length. The drawings allowed the line to explore what has been touched. Is there a reason for the line being, fine, dark, thick or broken. I hold my breath while feeling the line, and drawing the line. A sigh and breath as the line is completed. I catch myself in the middle of a line, bring mind back to the line questioning the reason for its quality. Why does a line have the quality of a fly trail across the paper, a dramatic gesture, a fleeting moment, a stop or a circumnavigation? Each line is contemplated. Each line assessed. Each line is a release of the knowledge gathered by the touch.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - Margaret Brooks (AUS)- JULY 2010

PROCESS

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - Megan Ehrhart (USA) July 2010

The inspiration for this installation unearthed itself when I began spending long months roaming around the French countryside and reflecting on life. Working in remote villages forced me to slow down and adapt, turning inconvenience into an opportunity for innovation and self reflection. Everything is transient. People come and go, emotions and personal attachments whirlwind around in a tornado of intimate international social interaction. “Grounded” is the result of having the chance to be truly removed from the world as I know it and the unshakeable whirling thoughts building strength and haunting my mind for the last thirteen years.

“Grounded” is a growing project, a body of work I am showing in stages, building up to a grand final installation complete with a full interactive sensory environment enhanced by five intertwined chapters of stop-motion media. For each exhibition of Grounded, new elements are added.

Using very tactile natural materials hand picked from the ground, the first execution of the “Grounded” series features the film entitled “Echoes of Abandonment.” In an attempt to feel a sense of belonging, we may imagine an idealized dream of humanity as part of a greater, singular whole. I explore the common desire to make lasting emotional connections, trading individual identity for the power and comfort of belonging to a larger community. Taking advantage of the unreliable perception of time, at a very primal level, the film provokes disillusionment caused by feelings of isolation and abandonment while questioning the audacity of the persistent, seemingly indestructible, “self”.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - Ruth Trotter June 2010

 Ruth Trotter’s works shown in Second Nature: Landscape Variations are from a series she created in 2010 as an “Artist in Residence” at DRAWinternational, a contemporary art center in southern France. While there, she developed a group of drawings and paintings that explored modes of representation rooted in both psychological paradigms and themes of landscape.   Her paintings originate as carefully articulated drawings, and are thereafter built up with bold impasto strokes and smears of color.  The original drawings that support each painting typically start from the definitive contours of Rorschach inkblots, patterns rooted in abstract expressionism, and iconic references to modern art.  For Trotter, the drawings function as an intellectual underpinning for the paintings.  She then applies the memory of specific landscapes by working the surface with layers of paint, often obscuring the foundational drawings that lay underneath, in what is an oblique reference to the conscious and subconscious, the rational and irrational, the emotional and logical. Thus, the paintings embody the idea that true perception requires a recognition of cognition and intuition -- as does the creative process itself.  For Trotter, the notion of landscape is, at a very fundamental basis, a kind of Rorschach in itself.  Indeed, human perceptions of landscape can only be truly understood by extending beyond the tyrannical filter of plein air-type realism or photographic renderings that could otherwise potentially ignore the viewer’s role in what is a complex and subjective interactive dance that is  continually played out between the perceived and the participant.   

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - Katherine Boland - May/June 2010

During my two-month residency at Drawinternational I was inspired to respond to the surrounding environment by using local materials. I discovered 300 year old oak beams, unrefined beeswax from a local honey farm, clay dug from a river bed on the edge of the village, 'brou de noix' - a stain distilled from walnuts - and 'la chaux', a powdered limestone used for centuries in the linen-coloured stone buildings of the region. The delicate balance existing between bees and flora is becoming increasingly tenuous, so the idea of melding these two together in sculpture very much appealed to me. 

The body of work I created in France is entitled 'Beyond The Black Stump'. The origin of this Australian expression derives from the use of fire-blackened tree-stumps as markers when giving directions to travellers unfamiliar with the terrain. In it’s evolved usage it describes an imaginary marker in the landscape beyond which the country is considered remote or unknown. It taps into the sense of distance and dislocation one can feel when far from home. I have used fire to char the oak beams whilst scraping the residual charcoal with hand tools to sculpt the desired shape. The charred wood is further blackened and preserved with 'poudre d'asphalte' - the blackness enhancing the sense of age and time. The treatment of the timber respects the natural form and tendencies of the grain as I consciously restrain from imposing my will upon it to any large extent. It seems almost sacrilegious or disrespectful to compete with nature and the artisans who originally fashioned the beams so long ago. The finished surface has a subtle lustre which, when combined with the encaustic medium, is seductively tactile, contrasting with the solidity of the geometric forms. In the process of making these works the pungent smell produced by the burning wood and the melted beeswax reminds me of both my days in the Australian bush and the hushed atmosphere of a French medieval church.

On returning to Australia I intend to develop this work on a much larger scale using Australian hardwood and local bees wax. In keeping with my enduring passion for black and white - which began as a child watching my father, a professional photographer, develop photographs in his darkroom - I will also produce a white series using bleached driftwood.

This residency has allowed me to step outside my normal art practice and take the time to respond to the local environment and explore different creative possibilities. I know I will be influenced by the work I began here for many years to come.

(22 June 2010)

'Timescapes' - Paul Beauchamp

‘Timescape’ opposes itself to the notion of landscape and in so doing questions the significance of the visual.

Paul Beauchamp’s photographs take this notion of timescape as their starting point. Although many of the photographs are beautifully composed and rendered, they are arranged to ask questions about the visible world; they are an investigation of the site rather a simple representation of it. The quarries themselves are places that are usually out of sight, but here they are made visible and connections are drawn between the quarry and the society that made them. The quarry itself belongs both to the natural order and the civilized world: its terraces are both parallel and uneven.
The photographs are mostly presented as triptychs and this format allows Beauchamp to intervene in the tradition of landscape photography and painting and question some of its conventions. Perhaps the most important effect that it has is to fragment the perspectival unity of the scene. The intervals between the photographs introduce a principle of discontinuity into the images that is quite unlike the spectacular totality that many landscapes pursue. They function as a pictorial form of non-resolution. The space between the images is like a cinematic jump-cut that reminds the viewer with a jolt that these photographs are material objects. Through the use of reflection, fragmentation and juxtaposition these photographs allow us, as viewers, to bring an important aspect of our relation to the land into focus.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE ANOOK CLÉONNE (NL)

'Fragments of Landscape'.

Drawings made by Anook Cléonne during February 2010.

JOHN MCNORTON

‘Something about embryonic stem cells’ 2010

I have not painted pictures for some years as other responsibilities have taken priority. I have, however, continued to study, make and teach drawing to foster ideas in order to keep me focussed upon potential creative action. A process, one could say, of soliloquy and ‘indirect language’.

The methods in these paintings on show are consciously linked to the processes employed in drawing, both past and present. The subject matter, however, is different. The overall title of these works in progress is : ‘Something about embryonic stem cells’ a project which endeavours to make open and diverse connections with current scientific/medical research, as I understand it. May I add that it does not take any political or ethical position per se. It merely uses thoughts in a free flowing way to hopefully reach a position, yes, often paradoxical, and contradictory, but dare I say, beyond dogma.

This recent work has been fun and liberating to produce and particularly challeging when trying to play with such disparate ideas as they relate to content , method and aestheics. The outcomes, I see as, awkward never quite arriving and always in a state of becoming.

‘Something about embryonic stem cells’ continues to test me and I hope that it might instigate some form of collision in the minds and bodies of those who have time to look and contemplate other possible worlds.

John McNorton

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - BAHARADDIN ADAM (SUDAN)

Work produced during a three week residency

E-DRAWINGS

An interactive digital drawing collaboration between three artists:
Darren William(Wales) Jason Davies(Wales) John McNorton(France).

EXHIBITION: 'UNTITLED' LOUIS PERRIN
7th August - 5th September 2009

The title ‘untitled’ refers to an exhibition held at the Contemporary Art Centre ‘La lune en parachute’ which took place in Epinal in 2001 and also to my initial selection of works for this exhibition space which had no titles.

The pieces have been chosen because they are essentially made of metal and wood. They play a role as a kind of story that one could tell around the fire-place, or more precisely the wood burner, situated in the gallery space like a sculpture waiting for the winter to arrive, when it once again becomes a source of warmth.

The works presented in this show are from various periods. Some have not been exhibited for a long time: for example, the ‘microcosme’ made up of 20 wooden logs dates from 1982; the large steel sculpture outside is from 1990; the 4 ovoid pieces in steel are from 2001, the Zep K from 2009…

I wanted to avoid organising the show on plinths in order to use the realness of the space - stone – and propose an installation that is in resonance with the space.

The passer by is invited to look in through the metal gates and join the exhibition as a spectator, or push open the wooden doors, enter and participate…



Louis, August 2009.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE- ALLEGRA DENTON - July/August 2009

Before I flew over here, I found this book in an antique store in Minnesota. It’s one book from an American James Bond-type adventure series, which are called “Killmaster Spy Thrillers”, and they all feature this one man, Nick Carter who travels the world completing adventure-filled missions assigned to him by the agency he works for. I decided to use this paperback— which was published in 1964— as the base medium for my project, which has come to be known, appropriately, as Safari for Spies.
I began by making one collage a day, each one corresponding to a chapter in the book. As I was making the collages, I found some images that seemed to lend themselves to the theme of the project, and began keeping them with the collages.
I choose a page based on the narrative— I choose part of the narrative of the chapter that sticks out to me. I then, take pieces of photographs that I’ve taken here in Caylus, and also pieces of images from books and magazines I’ve acquired since I’ve been here, and fit them together to create a sort of abstract narrative within the existing one in the text.
Along with the collages on pages from the book, and the found images from books I got here, I have included some of the photographs I’ve taken while I’ve been in Caylus.
Part of how I am relating to the protagonist in Safari for Spies, is that I am an outside observer in a foreign location. I observe the city and my surroundings within it quietly, taking in as much as I can, and noting my observations, representing them with the combination of image and the narrative that has become somewhat of an alias for my own, that of Nick Carter, in the book.
It makes more sense to me to display them in a non-hierarchical and non-linear way, as together they represent the whole of my experience thus far.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - WILL ZAJAC - April/May/June 2009.

The past 2.5 months have been dedicated toward developing drawings that begin to record Caylus’ unique architectural habitat. I have selected several components, which I believe are essential for a sustainable and ecological co-existence with the environment.

The components [things] that I have studied are all typical of Medieval and Romanesque architecture. The village of Caylus contains both, as well as characteristics of a bastide. My understanding of a bastide is that it is a medieval urban village built as a single unit for the purposes of defense and sustainability. The elements of a bastide include the core: La Place, Halle/Marche, lavoirs, couverts, rues, portals, clocher, fontains, esplanades;…all of these are enveloped by an agricultural landscape of terraces, gardens, pigeonniers, pierre seche, cabanes, etc. These elements are organized around a centralized plan similar to a roman castrum, which has a grid layout of intersecting streets, with wide thoroughfares that divide the town plan into insulae, or blocks, through which public passageways run. The central market square/halle is at the urban center and it usually acts as the module into which the bastide is subdivided. It’s an interesting organizational pattern because it is an efficient model for self-sustainability. A core urban habitat interwoven with essential systems of water, food, vegetation, etc.

What I find interesting about Caylus is how its form is more organic and sympathetic to the landscape than others. It reminds me of a quote by the historian A. Randolph: "The block geometry of some bastides was not always a rigid framework into which a town was squeezed; sometimes it resembles more closely a net, thrown upon the site and adapting to its nuances."

And, therefore, I’ve started a series of drawings that try to communicate these components. The first drawing that I’ll present is based on the central square of Caylus [the heart of the village].

Weekly Life Drawing Workshops

Life Drawing 29/04/09

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - NADEZDA TSERNOBAI (ESTONIA)

Work in progress.

Exhibition 'PORCELAIN : RITUAL AND PROCESS' five artists working in porcelain with photographs by Toril Brancher

This summer the centre 'DRAW' hosts a touring show from Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre , Wales.'Porcelain : Ritual and Process'

This exhibition aims to present a pictoral essay that charts the rituals and processes that occur within the studios of the five artists:

SAM BAKEWELL, JENNY BEAVAN, MELANIE BROWN,
JOANNA HOWELLS & VICKY SHAW

We open the studio door and take a peek inside at what goes on behind the making of the work - to gain insight into the processes and the rituals tha artists force themselves through to produce objects that stir our senses.

Hywel Pontin/Hannah Kelly 2007

Drawing/Construction Workshops April, 2008 - West Island College, Montréal, Canada.

Nine students : Gabby, Sydney, Alexandre, Philippe, Nick, Dimitri, Kaelan, Anthony, and David, and two staff :V. Caldareri & A. Garneau, followed a course of drawing/construction workshops and cultural visits. They were joined by local students for part of the course and participated in a spot on the local radio station, CFM Caylus.

CERAMIC FUTURES
1st - 31st August 2007
DRAWinternational - ArtHouseCaylus

A selection of contemporary ceramics by 15 artists from Wales, UK.

Maggie Andrews, Pete Castle, Natasha Mayo, Graham Williamson,
Duncan Ayscough, Melanie Brown, Caroline Taylor, Pauline Monkom,
Sally Bradborn, Alison Graham, Sara Moorhouse,
Matthew Thompson, Jin Eui Kim,
Claire Curneen, Jake Bodilly

A collaboration between the centre Drawinternational, Caylus, and the Centre of Ceramic Studies, Cardiff.

CERAMIC FUTURES
Artist in Residence - Jacob Bodilly -1st - 31st August 2007
DRAWinternational, ArtHouseCaylus

Jacob Bodilly, a student at the Centre of Ceramic Studies, Cardiff, was invited this summer by GA2C and DRAWinternational as resident artist .

JOHN MCNORTON 'Le lieu du geste'

Drawing as Vital Practice 19 january - 3 March 2007
THE CENTRAL LINE, PM Gallery, London.

Exhibition - Reflective Interventions - John McNorton
7th October - 5th November 2006
Abbaye de Beaulieu en Rouergue

'Reflective Interventions' alterations and modifications - John McNorton

This project considers the dimension of collaborative drawing, taking place in three and four dimensional space and relating to the two dimensional space of a drawing.

The drawing activity therefore consciously explores the dynamic relationship between participants in a site specific situation.

These works have been instigated on a horizontal plane as an interactive performative event and further realised in a studio situation on a vertical plane.

The attempt therefore, is to explore the relationship of subject and world, embracing the self with others. Merleau-Ponty, 1964, has referred to this as the primary source of expression in his essay 'Indirect Language', the area where the embodied self is slightly out of focus but situated where it may collide with new possibilities...

The whole process of drawing and reflection for the project embraces ambition and intentions for development, which may enhance comprehension, performance, and communication skills in and about drawing.

This dimension relies upon observation, insight, reflection and interpretation from a multitude of viewpoints.

I am reminded of Jean Baudrillard (1996,p174)
'The Transparency of Evil - Essays on Extreme Phenomena', where he states:
'The other is what allows me not to repeat myself for ever'

John McNorton.

'Drawing Inside Out'
March 2006
West Island College, Montreal, Canada

Drawing activities and cultural visits.

Reflective Interventions
11-13 November 2005
Abbaye de Beaulieu en Rouergue

Drawing Performance Installation - avec 10 european artists.

Choreographique dessinateur - John McNorton
Sonic artist - David Handford

Patrik Brigo
Nathalie Céré
Olivier Gentilin
David Handford
Grete Hayward
John McNorton
Bernard Niemietz
Seth Oliver
Alice Popelin
Heather Reid

September 2005
Power Drawing/NSEAD National Drawing Conference

A series of workshops, lectures and key note speeches delivered by John McNorton at Glasgow School of Art and Bath Spa University on the subject, 'The Corporeal Space of Drawing'.

Nest Shelter Column
Sculpture, Installation, Performance.
15-31 July 2005

Contemporary artists create site specific works at 'Lac de Labarthe, Caylus.
DRAWinternational and ACE (Art-Culture-Education) selected a group of international contemporary artists to participate in a two week residency/exchange project.
This project was supported by the European Community programme Leader+ Midi-Quercy.

MA Fine Art students

May 2005

Intensive drawing programme.
MA Fine Art students, UWIC

MA Fine Art - Drawing Course

October 2004

Intensive Drawing Course for MA Fine Art students, UWIC

'FACE TO FACE'

16th and 17th October 2004
rue droite Caylus

100 metres of drawing/performance in a medieval street
in association with Power Drawing UK

TOM BARNETT

Firing Project