New Year Newsletter
Welcome to my newsletter, keeping you up-to-date with the latest from my studio.
Happy New Year. I hope that you had a relaxing and enjoyable time over the festive period. After lovely visits to our families over the break, I am now back in my studio making final preparations for my Room for Art exhibition at the Gardens Gallery in Cheltenham next month. As well as previous artworks, this exhibition will showcase a new collection that I am working on entitled Breathe, inspired by my experience of living with Long Covid since March 2020.
The paintings in this collection feature a visual representation of Morse code spelling out the word "breathe". This word has had importance to me during the past months for a number of contrasting reasons. Breath has not always come easily, and I am relearning how to breathe correctly. I have always enjoyed spending time in nature, and this time has felt precious during Covid. Taking time in fresh air, breathing deeply, provides great peace for me. Finally, I have used mindfulness and breath as a way to sooth my body and mind, to find calm.
You can read more about the inspiration behind this collection in my blog post here.
During this upcoming exhibition I will be hosting a collaborative art project, Make Room for Art. Art has always had great benefits for my mental health, and I want to provide a space where other people can take some time out for themselves and get creative. I am really looking forward to meeting those who have signed up to take part.
Participants in the collaborative project will each create a small abstract acrylic artwork on a piece of MDF during the exhibition. All of these artworks will fit together to form one larger artwork. The complete work will be an abstract representation of the view across Cheltenham from Leckhampton Hill, including Devil’s Chimney. After the exhibition, participants will receive their own small artwork, as well as an image of the complete piece.
If you haven't yet registered to take part, you can do so here.
In between preparations for my solo exhibition, I continue to work on pieces for the Fragile with Attitude exhibition that I will be taking part in at Westonbirt Arboretum in April. Several of the pieces that I am creating will combine leaves and other natural objects collected at the arboretum in the autumn, alongside painted elements. The leaves collected at autumn time have such vibrant, varied colours. As they lose their chlorophyll, which helps plants to create energy, their other pigments are revealed in all their glory.
If you would like a quick creative challenge, why not try a one-line drawing. All you need is a pen and paper and something real or imaginary to draw. Put pen to paper and draw using a continuous line without lifting the pen until you are finished. Set yourself a short time limit - I gave myself two minutes to make this quick sketch of a thistle plant.
You could even try doing this every day and see how your drawing style develops. I'd love to see your drawings. Why not share them on Facebook or Instagram, and tag me @sarahgoddardartist so that I can see them.