The Beach Hut Residency

One week, in March, in a beach hut.  At my nearest local seaside town of Lyme Regis.  A self funded residency.  With the most unexpectedly sunny and dry week of March.  I started the week in three jumpers and woolly socks and ended it in shorts and flip flops. 

I was unsure about undertaking this exercise.  Over the last couple of years I have become more intrigued by the concept of residencies, immersive experiences.  We have been in an unsteady world where our schedules may be even harder to align and after some discussion with other artists realised that a self planned, self funded artist residency could be a valid course of action.  I investigated various options last year and then realised this idea had been staring at me every time we visited our nearby seaside town of Lyme Regis.  Always appealing but I just hadn't clicked the huts with my art practice and it turns out they are quite affordable in the off peak seasons.

I am delighted I took on the experience.  I planned, learnt, communicated, reflected and enriched my art practice.

I kind of decided before I went that there would be no rules, I took as much as I could in the way of materials, I wanted to experiment and play, and with my little beach hut studio I had everything at my fingertips.

The week served to remind me of my creative voice, my independence, my curiosity.  I reminded myself how important it is to make this time, for my art practice, because it's harder without practice.  Creating everyday is vital, observing, noticing responding, making.   I hope to embrace the the dual complexity and simplicity of artmaking and of nature.  The energy of what is around us is too important and beautiful to not try and capture in some way and it gives me solace.