I had a GREAT time at Art Space Portsmouth.
Thirty-ish artists and their studios form Art Space Portsmouth, a former methodist’s chapel, where you would least expect it – Brougham Road, Somerstown. The architecture of each studio is different with high and low ceilings, light or no light, funny angles and stairs where you wouldn’t expect them.* Founded by graduates and lecturers from Portsmouth Poly in 1980, the space celebrated its 40th anniversary with Open Studios, talks and events on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th July.
My first peek was into Charlotte Brisland’s studio. The paintings blew me away a bit to be honest, they have a pristine finish, and are super moody. There’s something a bit Inception-like about them, the landscapes and lone buildings are real but not real. Definitely not your average landscape painting.
Next I trotted in to Philip Sanderson’s studio. It made me yearn to have my own, shelves piled with materials and samples/experiments pinned on the walls. Not forgetting the gold hands! (What were they about? I should have asked. Love shiny stuff.)
Philip is working on his submission for the 2021 Cordis Prize. He kindly answered all my questions about his day job and studio life balance. He works by day as Studio Leader at the Tapestry Studio and Subject Tutor at West Dean College. You can tell he loves his medium, tapestrin all day at work and then tapestrin* at night in his studio. He explained that in his day job the work is fixed, designing and translating the ideas of artists (inc. Eva Rothschild and Tracey Emin) while in his studio his work can really be his – and as random as he likes.
I slid into David Leefe-Kendon’s studio, packed with flowing geometric sculptures (mainly oak) and re-modelled chairs. The Mayor and Mayoress of Portsmouth came in (they ignored me, why wouldn’t they, random girl in a denim onesie) and I was distracted by their jewellery. Mayoress asked if she could sit on one of the modified chairs. She didn’t.
I walked briefly into a room of small, fragile sculptures, delicately laid out in uniform, by Neil Taylor. I believe these reference a building close to him that was cleared out, now empty of life and history. Each sculpture, foot-high paper towers supported by four delicate wire legs, although unthreatening, still seemed to evoke an other-worldy army. A three-year-old promptly came in and kicked one over, turning the installation into an interactive art exhibit.
Anne Shaw holds a large end studio at the rear of the building. Slightly dark, packed with paintings, lots of creating goes on in here! I was drawn to a large, many layered canvas with a gold hand, complete with rings (not as blingy as the mayor’s necklace though). I also love Shaw’s energetic, colourful oil pastels. Confident, rough, capturing the instability of light and the sea.
Upstairs I reached a room with oil paintings and no humans – literally covered in paint. Now this is an oil painter. Floor was sticky, in a good way, not like when you went to Fuzzy Duck on a student night back in the day. The work was dark and intense, and I was actually quite scared. Plastic gloves were lined up in many layers underneath the small window and it was all quite unsettling.
Colin Merrin and Lynn Nicholls, married artists with neighbouring spaces, came next. I immediately liked Colin. He answered my probably quite rude questions about how they sold their work and their practise in general. Colin highlighted the perils of focussing on the selling of work, and how he wouldn’t be satisfied if he’d forever churned out landscapes for buyers. He paints what he likes, and if people want it on their walls, it’s great, if not, he’ll keep going anyway. I really like his mixed-media work, the placing of the collage always flowing with the paint, these pieces you could delve into with your eyes for some time. Lynn Nicholl’s ceramics are superb. There is an abstract joyful pattern to much of her collection, but then the pieces with faces are wonderful and no doubt very popular.
Last was Jeannie Driver. Oh my goodness, she opened my eyes vis-a-vis the consumption of materials we use as artists. Driver re-uses paper from her past projects, manipulating the paper to show it in a way that says yes, it is produce, it’s got to GO somewhere once we’ve typed all over it, handed it out and then discarded it. It was wonderful to meet a successful full-time artist, who has two sets of children and still going strong. Her installation work is highly impactful, reams and reams of paper, shredded, chewed, compacted. Not stone, not marble, not metal, but paper – a very accessible material that you don’t need to go on a six month course to know how to manipulate. And manipulate it she does, the charcoaled paper was layered thick, almost leather or skin like, and the compacted paper (held together with only force) more like stone or granite.
Thankyou Art Space Portsmouth, I loved being nosey and asking questions of the artists. (I am so nosey, if I come round your house, I WILL look in the little drawer in your hall sideboard for no reason).
Art Space Portsmouth
27 Brougham Road, PO5 4BA
www.artspace.co.uk
@artspaceportsmouth
info@artspace.co.uk
*This is a real word.
*There was some talk of ghosts.
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