Summer 2016 b

DORSET
SUMMER
2016
ARTISTS
1

Editor’s
Letter
Well, here we are, Summer
is finally upon us after what
has felt like a very long time
of waiting. Our Artists have
been busy beavering away to
get everything ready for the
spectacular Dorset Art Weeks,
which by the time this issue is
rolled out will probably have
just ended. I’m sure it will
have been a major success!
So, what do we have in store for you
with this issue I hear you ask. What
could possibly top that? Well we have
an interview very talented non-Dorset
Artist, Caro SaintVire, a major coup!
I think so anyway, I’m sure you will
too. Our lovely Andrea Jenkins writes
about the muse/mistress of Rodin. Annie
Taylor gives us the low down on
her thoughts on her mountain top, and
we have two short stories penned by a
new contributor, Michael Bailey, with
one to follow in the next issue after
this! Also Michael Hemmings shares
his art and provided the front and back
cover images. What an Artist! Plus
much much more.
We hope you love the new funky look
to the magazine, we have been working
hard to give it a new lease of life,
freshen things up a little, make us and
you feel summery and get in the mood
for those long hot summer days...oh
wait this is England not the Med!! We
can but dream!
Which leaves me to say thank you to
everyone who has contributed to our
magazine, to those who have supported
us since the beginning a little over
a year ago. It has been an incredible
journey steeped in tears, joy, frustration
(at times), and sheer pride. Sadly it
is a journey I can no longer give 100%
to, so I had to make a hard decision. It
is now time to hand over the reigns to
a new editor. At the time of me writing
this, no one has been chosen so I have
no idea who will be taking over the
production of our magazine. Or even if
anyone will (I do hope it continues), so
without further delay I shall say goodbye
to you all.
Thank you...
Bye
Bye!
Front and back cover images
Michael Hemmings ©

in this issue
Features
Regulars
Hall of Mirrors - Michael Bailey 15-16
Annie Taylor 3 - 4
Chopstinking - Maureen Nathan 19 - 20
ScottScott 18, 34 -35
Michael Hemmings 28 - 30
Andrea Jenkins 25 -27
Caro SaintVire 41 - 50
Stephen Yates 37 -40
Plus Much, Much
More
Front & Back Cover Images © Michael Hemmings, Artist
summer 2016

Thoughts
From
My
Mountain
Top
Remember the friend I told
you about when I talked
about creative block in the
last issue? The one who was
about to give up painting forever?
Well I have to be honest, she is a bit
like a dog with a bone sometimes and
she’ll worry at a problem until there’s
no bone left and she has to dig up another
one! This week she has been bemoaning
the fact that she flits around
all over the place and can’t stick with
one idea or style. ‘Why don’t you try
them all?’ I said as I reached a near
terminal state of exasperation. Result!
She hadn’t thought of that! Why
shouldn’t she indeed? After all what’s
stopping her? Some unwritten law that
says you MUST focus and develop a
style or forget about being a painter?
Actually I think it all boils down to remembering
the importance of having
‘fun’ with your work. Fun can be a
tad illusive sometimes if you are trying
to make art your business. In fact
many people prefer to remain gifted
amateurs rather than to risk losing the
joy of creativity because they ‘have’ to
create in order to live. But I maintain
that even for the ‘pro’ the fun or joy
of it all has to be an important ingredient
in the process even if there’s a
certain amount of creative angst along
the way. In fact the day I completely
stop feeling that I am getting a modicum
of fun out of it all I will close the
studio door.
One time when I was very stuck another
painter friend of mine was talking about
her work and said: “I do it because it
makes me feel good”. That was a good
reminder at that moment and helped to get
me moving again. I had been agonising
so much about the ‘validity’ of my work
that I had completely lost touch with why
it was I wanted to be an artist in the first
place - painting was something I loved to
do and it gave me pleasure.
Of course for many of us creativity is also
a ‘fix’, a daily necessity which I think has
much in common with daily meditation -
it is all absorbing and focussing and you
can not do without it for very long because
actually when all is said and done, it does
make you feel better and after all one day,
just possibly, you might produce something
really good! What’s so great about
making art is that it is a never ending journey.
There are always new places to discover.
There are no limits of time or destination
on this journey, other than those in
your head.
I love discovering new places both physically
and in my head and in mountain
countryside that possibility is endless.
So when I’m not working I’m walking. I
have access to literally hundreds of paths
through the mountains from our back door
and particularly at this time of year the
pleasure of that daily walk is a marvel and
a wonderful source of replenishment.
With the arrival of Spring we look
down onto a valley planted with miles
of cherry and nectarine trees – a cloud
of pink that stretches for miles. On the
mountain slopes the mimosa has now
given way to vast swathes of brilliant
yellow broom and bushes of wild lavender
providing a veritable orgy of
pollen for hundreds of thousands of
bees. The temperature on the mostly
sunny days is up around the 20’s, the
eagles are soaring, the mountain tops
are glowing – all in all not a bad way
to start off a day in the studio!
By
Annie
Taylor
4

5
ICELAND - A
PHOTOGRAPHER’S
DREAM
Last year my husband and
I celebrated our tenth wedding
anniversary. As part
of that special event we
decided we would book a
holiday to Iceland.
We originally intended to travel there
for Christmas and New Year, however
we were thwarted by leaving it
too late to book, thus we could only
achieve 7 days. In hindsight this was
in our favour, even if a little disappointed
at the time. Travelling to Iceland
in March would be much better...longer
days for starters.
With much preparation, research
and general internet surfing, we were
ready to head off on our Icelandic adventure.
Full of anticipation, excitement
and just not knowing what to
expect once we arrived. We weren’t
disappointed with what awaited us...
I don’t want this article to become a
review or a blog entry/diary of our
time there, rather to share with you
what the country has to offer from a general
tourist and photographer’s experiences.
It’s difficult to know where to start, so
I’m just going to go for it. We hired a 4x4
as part of our package mainly because we
knew we didn’t want to be a part of a group
tour. We wanted the freedom to make our
own choices of the places we wanted to
visit. That was our choice but if you want
to be part of a group then there are plenty
to choose from. We had also booked a
whale watching excursion and snowmobile
ride on a glacier as part of our package
deal. Neither of which we did. Bad weather
and bad planning put paid to those two.
My advice is to wait until you arrive, you
just don’t know what the weather is going
to throw at you.
Right then, that’s the boring bit out of the
way, now to tell you about the holiday and
our experiences! What to say and where to
start? The country is amazing and the Icelanders
we met were friendly. Don’t worry
about any language barriers, English is
their second language. Yes that adds to the
English being lazy language learners theory
but...
We stayed in Rejkyavik for 6 nights, 2
nights in Vik and our last in Grindavik.
We wished we had stayed longer in Vik,
another mistake on our part when booking.
Hey, you live and learn! It wasn’t
such a bad decision we just didn’t know
that we were going to fall in love with the
area of Vik!
We drove and drove but the roads were
easy to traverse, no road rage, no endless
traffic jams, just long open roads. Sometimes
the scenery was a minimalist’s
dream, follow a bend and you’re in mountainous
terrain, then in amongst the moss
fields. Such diversity. Wide open spaces,
with scattered farming communities
with their traditional stone and grass huts
built into the base of mountains. The odd
church here and there with maybe just one
or two houses nearby to serve them. Huge
glacier faces that seem to go on for miles
and miles and miles. Are you starting to
get the visual picture yet?
Our eyes were treated to a veritable feast
of magnificent, epic landscapes and seascapes.
There were times when I just forgot
to use the camera, times when I just
wanted to take it all in and process what
I was seeing, the first time that has ever
happened to me. Mr B commented

Sometimes the scenery was a minimalist’s dream...
7
that I wasn’t taking as many photographs
as when I’m on a walk in Puddletown
Woods! There was just too much to absorb.
There are not enough superlatives
to describe how I felt about the whole
experience.
I could tell you about the places we visited
but then I run the risk of this article
turning into a holiday brochure. Maybe
you should visit them for yourself, create
your own memories, collect your
own thoughts and experiences. Yes, we
visited some of the tourist attractions
like Gulfoss Waterfall, the Geyser, and
Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon and Ice
Beach. You just have to do it, don’t you?
We visited Pingvellar National Park and
saw the place where their first parliament
was formed in 900AD, we walked
through the two tectonic plates (I think)
of two continents, we did those touristy
things. The one thing that I noticed was
that it never felt too busy, I never felt like
I had to wait my turn to see and experience
something or some view. Occasionally
people would inconsiderately walk into
my shot without realising it and yes I had
to stop myself from shouting out. The polite
Englishness in me won and so I would
just wait patiently, they were on holiday
too just like me! They were also creating
their own memories.
From an artist’s point of view, there is an
art scene in Iceland. Plenty of galleries in
Reykjavik, many dotted around the country
and of course there are the Museums in
the capital as well. I didn’t get the chance
to look at any of them.
I was too busy taking in and absorbing
everything else!
It just leaves me to say that we fell in love
with Iceland and plan to return in 2018…
By
Sarah
Broome

9 10

By Janis Martin ©
The Saturday Girl
Saturday morning
My dad touched me.
He laid his head in
my lap
He moved his hand
under my skirt.
Sneakily. Quietly. To
the tops of my legs.
My dad touched me.
Over forty years ago
– for the first time.
A different Saturday.
My dad touched me.
Bumping along the
white, chalky lane.
He stopped the
minibus.
He said I could drive
–
I had to sit between
his legs, though.
The Death of Punch & Judy
© Sarah E Broome
Mum’s working
again.
My dad touched me
Over forty years ago.
I got myself a
Saturday job.
Opposite Page
Model: Sophie Johnson
Image: © Andy White
11

Image and poem © ScottScott
We Miss Our Sister...
13 14

“Have you got anything on under
that overcoat?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Good, take it off
and squat over there. Get down on your
right knee with your left hand on your
left knee and hang your other hand
down by your side. Twist your neck to
look over your left shoulder.” He tilted
his head to the side and looked up at
her standing behind him. “Now don’t
move. Stay like that until I say” He
nodded. Suddenly bright lights seared
the darkness pinning him in their glare.
Twenty pairs of eyes stared at him from
all around. He tensed his muscles then
relaxed, breathing slowly, moving his
eyes to look from one face to another
as far as he could. He was used to this.
The lights on him were hot but he didn’t
sweat, his mouth was dry but he stayed
still, not tempted by the glass of water on
the ground near his dangling hand. He was
not young or old, neither fat nor very thin.
Mr Ordinary, he was balding slightly, with
two day’s growth of grey stubble and dark
hair on his chest, belly, groin and forearms.
His penis and testicles hung exposed between
his thighs.
Maybe that was because he rememberedcoming
here years ago when he was young
and wild, running with a pack, a gang. That
had been a bad night, out of control but
it was so long ago and he had long since
put it from his mind. The stare unsettled
him somehow, drilling into his skull like a
dentist, it was giving him a headache. He
blinked and dry swallowed, suppressed a
cough and breathed in more deeply, shifted
his weight slightly. “Can’t you keep still?”
A loud brash voice, probably some banker
wanker. His neck reddened in anger, he
swallowed again, his jaw twitching as he
clamped his back teeth together.
Relax, let your thoughts empty, concentrate
on not moving, mentally massage your
thigh muscle as it aches, meditate away the
pain in your foot, relax. It usually works
but not tonight. Tonight, in here of all
places, his mind is on the tear, racing from
shadow to shadow back into the past, back
to that night when he was here before. Now
his skin feels chilled and clammy, his cock
and balls feel shrivelled, only the hand dangling
at his side feels alive, heavy, tingling
with energy and menace. He feels the pulse
in his wrist and his fingers twitch as if curling
around something long and thin. Face
blank, his eyes stare unfocussed back over
his shoulder, back into the past.
his gaze away but it is dragged back
against his will. The light seems to have
drained from the room so that all he can
see is the outline of heads and shoulders
crowding in towards him. The contours
weave and shift, dancing around him to
the chaotic beat of dry insect rasps and
wet amphibian flops. His vision swims
and swirls of light like sparks from a firework
swarm across his eyes. He wonders
if he is going to faint and then everything
clears as if someone has lifted a blanket
that was suffocating him.
He relaxes, the tension ebbs from his
muscles and he feels back at home in
his skin. “Ten minutes left.” The woman
says, the sounds around him quicken,
more urgent, frantic. On the home
straight now, he tells himself, confident
he can pass the test again, last them out,
stare them down. That cocky feeling that
comes with knowing he is still on top,
better than any of them, just like the old
days. After all they never caught him did
they, never even guessed. How many was
it? Seven? Eight? He’s lost count. After
the first one who cares anyway and the
first one was right here and none of these
tossers has any idea even after staring at
him for more than an hour. It makes him
feel so good his cock is getting pumped.
Hall of Mirrors
by
Michael Bailey
Their noises were surprisingly loud,
scratching, rubbing, rasping, tapping, the
sound of water and glass, metal and wood,
heavy breathing, low moans and mutters.
Their eyes flicked away then back again
to stare as intensely as the lights, hard unblinking
stares, probing his body, peeling
his skin, raking at his hair. No problem. He
was used to it.
An hour and a half, he’d done longer that
than countless times, staying silent and
motionless as they searched for him. He’d
been cramped and cold, wet with sweat and
rain and worse. This was a cakewalk compared
to some stinking ditch or car park.
Funny really, so many hours spent hiding
from the searching eyes and now here he
was exposing himself, like he was thumbing
his nose at the world.
He found that he kept coming back again
and again to one pair of eyes that locked
onto his own, opened unnaturally wide in
an expressionless face. Not someone to
play poker against, he thought. It was hard
to look away from them, impossible not to
look back as soon as he did. He shivered
slightly despite the lights as a thin trickle
cold sweat ran down his ribs.
A roar of motors, racing, over-revving,
tyres squealing then boots smashing on wet
concrete. Running, running, heavy leather
and iron crunching small stones, splashing
oily water, slipping. The smell of exhaust
and fear, adrenaline sweat and excitement,
beer breath, whiskey and cheap aftershave,
tobacco and wet hair, wet clothes. He cannot
close his eyes, he doesn’t need to, he
only sees flashes of shapes in the shadows,
broken street lights and bricks in the road,
the wet slick of rain on the tarmac, pools
of piss and vomit, sodden trash, tangles of
wire.
Outside, in the room, his body is still except
for the slow breathing, the film in his
head is in black and white, flickering images
like an old news reel of a long forgotten
Bank Holiday down on the coast. He wants
to shake his head but the muscles of his
neck keep still, twisted so he gazes back
into the path of those penetrating eyes.
They pull at him, devouring him, travelling
from his head to his shoulders, chest, waist,
cock and along his legs to his feet. They
consume his hunched shape, his tension,
the arm hanging loose, the hand closing.
He searches for the eyes, those eyes but
they are too strong to keep looking at now,
he shifts
“Thank you, time’s up” She says just in
time. He casually picks up his overcoat
and holds it in front of him as he stands
and stretches. He eases his shoulders and
looks around the room. It’s like being in a
hall of mirrors, he can see his body from
all angles, crouching as if ready to spring,
looking back as if ready to run or to spin
around. Some of the pictures distort him
making him unbalanced, awkward, grotesque.
They always do. Some make him
look fine like a dancer or an athlete. A
couple tell the middle-aged truth accurately.
One is still turned away, the one in front
of those intrusive eyes. As he takes a step
towards it the noise in the room quietens.
Now everyone is looking with him as the
board turns and the picture comes into
view. His shape is there, his crouched
body thin, naked, raw. The face looking
back is young, savage under long lank
hair. The figure is drawn in stark crisp
outlines as if lit by a searchlight or a forensic
photographer’s flash. It is colourless,
black and grey defining skin, muscle
and hair. Colourless except where, in
the hand, the silver glint of a cutthroat
blade is distorted by a wide smear of
fresh bright blood.
15
Image © Michael Bailey

Zara McQueen ©
Zara McQueen ©
Grandmother sister daughter and wife
All of these aspects you share in my life
Constantly with me you faithfully stand
If ever I need you’re holding my hand
Distant yet touching caressing your face
Forgetting all cares so safe your embrace
Although as light grows my feelings are torn
Prepared for the world I approach each new dawn
Grandmother sister daugther and wife...
Image and poem © ScottScott
17 18

Maureen Nathan: “Chopstinking”
Mark Making with Chopsticks & Ink
Tulips, ink, chopstick and watercolour
Colmers Hill, ink, chopstick and chalk in sketchbook
I’m a painter/printmaker who works
figuratively. Drawing is key to all my
work and I love lines and marks.
About five years ago I felt that my drawings were
tight and stale and it worried me. How was I going to
loosen up and free up my mark making? I tried various
exercises that suggested new ways to engage with
drawing. Nothing really seemed to work for me until
one day I was looking at some chopsticks I’d brought
home from my daughter’s birthday at a Japanese restaurant.
I took one of them and stuck it in a bowl of
Indian ink and started drawing.
The chopstick isn’t made to hold ink so it was a
case of constantly dipping it in the ink and drawing
and holding it sideways or straight on to stop
it from dripping down the paper or into my hand.
No time to think, just get those marks on the paper.
Hold the chopstick sideways to fill in large areas
and using various pressures get thin or thick lines.
Use the ‘wrong’ paper and the lines swell up thickly
– if it looks good, then do it on purpose!
I want to make drawings that capture something of
the sitter or motif and at the same time acknowledge
that it is 2D and show the workings of it, even
the ‘mistakes’. They show my part in it and I think
give an energy and emotion to the image.
I have a diploma in portrait painting from the
Heatherley School of Fine Art but seldom paint
portraits traditionally now, instead I draw them
with ink and chopstick and use pastel, paint or
watercolour in addition to that.
I teach drawing using ink and chopstick with
the aim being to freely make marks, looking
and drawing, and looking again. Participants
loosen up, ‘feel’ their drawings and realise at
the end of the sessions that whether a likeness
of a sitter or replica of the motif is achieved
they have created a pleasing set of marks.
They have also learned a new way of approaching
drawing which they can incorporate into
their own way of working.
As a note to anyone who wants to try this, use a
wooden chopstick. The plastic ones don’t hold
any ink and result in huge frustration!
Maureen Nathan
www.maureennathan.com
19 20

ART
EXHIBITION
CHURCH HOUSE
High Street, Wimborne, BH21 1HT
Monday 8 th - Tuesday 16 th August
10.30am - 4.30pm
Stairlift access available
Entry by donation
Leukaemia Educating and Fundraising
www.leafcharity.com
Registered Charity no.1113696
Outsider © Ian Rowden
21 22

Wild Sketching with Sarah Humby
I love sketching
outside, and I do it
often, come rain or
shine.
I used to paint mainly from photographs
and it wasn’t until I visited
a wonderful exhibition at The Fine
Foundation Gallery at Durlston Castle
by Tony Kerins; a great advocate of
sketching, that I became inspired to
start drawing while out and about and
learned that a sketch is vastly more
useful as a reference tool for studio
work.
How I work has changed a great deal
since I got into the wild sketching habit.
It has become a major part of my
art practice. Work made and developed
from sketching in the field is invested
with my own personality from
the very get go.
You can focus on the things that attract
you and which you want to explore
later and develop into new work. You
learn how to problem solve and record
things quickly which is a great way of
23
loosening up and allowing your creativity
to ‘flow’. Soon you begin to develop your
own personal ‘language’ when recording
and documenting the world around you. I
regularly sketch with a friend and it’s always
interesting to compare the different
ways we depict the same views.
Emotional response David Hockney calls
it.
The very act of sketching requires you to
tune in and properly look at the subject
and make personal decisions about what
you want to say about it. And that process
is the starting point from which you can
later translate and develop finished work.
However beautiful a photograph may be
it will never do that work for you.
Sketching grounds you firmly in the environment
and requires you to engage with
it. You need to be prepared sometimes to
battle with the elements. Wind and rain
should be no match for the well prepared
sketcher. Tony Kerrins even sketches in
darkness. Some of the worst weather creates
some of the most fantastic opportunities
for drawing and recording in whatever
medium you like. You will need
sunglasses and sunblock sometimes but
you will also need a woolly hat, gloves
and a good set of waterproofs.
On a recent trip to the ridge above
Durlston Lighthouse I needed all of
the above in the space of three hours!
Only the threat of lightning strike
made me consider moving to lower
ground. I call it wild sketching for
good reason.
It’s useful to have a bag dedicated to
your sketching trips with everything
in that you need. Remember it’s going
to be windy so take lots of clips!
Watercolour is the perfect sketching
medium in a lot of ways. It is so transportable
and convenient and obviously
perfect for recording even the most
subtle of colours (and boy don’t the
colours change quickly when you are
out in the real world!) But you can use
whatever you find easiest to document
the scene. I use pastels because they
are direct and dynamic (and, truth be
told, because I am not very confident
with watercolour).
So go to it. Get out into the
big wide Dorset world; it’s
one of the most inspirational
counties in the UK
for the intrepid artist and
it’s all just waiting to be
sketched!
joyce
ringrose
sarah
humby
coastal
colours

Andrea Jenkins takes a look at...
The Muse and The Artist:
Camille Claudel
The idea of the muse originates
in Greek mythology,
nine goddesses, daughters of Zeus and
the Titan Mnemosyne (Goddess of memory),
who inspired literature, science and
the arts. Each had an attribute but none is
applied to the visual arts.
The current concept of an artist’s muse
has evolved from this and covers a huge
range of sorts and conditions of people
and other anthropomorphic sources
of inspiration. We tend to think of an
artist’s muse as being model, lover, an
emotional involvement and a fascination
to the artist; often an obsession. This
is particularly the association from the
mid-nineteenth century onwards with the
rise of non-commissioned art and groups
of artists such as the Impressionists and
pre-Raphaelites with shared ideals and
styles … oh and shared muses too!
The muses of the 19th century came from
a variety of backgrounds and several
were well educated, surprisingly liberated
women who were also artists.
One such was Camille Claudel who was
Rodin’s muse for several years in the late
19th century. I was surprised to find that
coming from an ordinary middle class
family she was encouraged in her artistic
talent as a sculptor by her father and was
allowed to study at a women’s art academy
where she was tutored by the sculptor
Alfred Boucher. When he left to work in
Italy, she was introduced to Rodin who
took her as an assistant along with her
fellow student and friend Jessie
Lipscomb.
Her own work, of a neo-classical style, was initially
intimate portraits of family and friends.
She acquired the skills of modelling the human
form which became very useful to Rodin in his
studio. Although Claudel exhibited her sculptures
in the Salon de Paris over the 20 years she
was associated with Rodin, they were always
overshadowed by his monumental creations.
Rodin was was captivated by this beautiful,
precocious nineteen year old who had a passion
for art that equaled his own. She modelled for
him, became his lover and muse but more importantly
became his most prominent assistant
as she helped to compose the huge sculpture
‘The Gates of Hell’ and it is also thought that
she sculpted the hands and feet of the ‘Burghers
of Calais’.
There was mutual inspiration between Claudel
and Rodin during this period and whilst it might
be assumed that the young Claudel would learn
from Rodin as she worked in his studio, there is
evidence that he took ideas from her work also.
Her sculpture of the Girl with the Sheaf is one
example, closely emulated by Rodin’s stone
carving of the same figure.
This relationship combining the professional
and emotional was not smooth and while
Claudel appeared to accept Rodin’s womanising
under the guise of frequently requiring
fresh models for his work, she was more
disturbed by his long term relationship with
Rose Beuret with whom he had a son. Rodin
refused to give up this relationship as Claudel
asked him to constantly and he eventually
married Beuret in 1917, the year they both
died.
Claudel found this love triangle increasingly
difficult to live with and it gradually ate
away at her creativity and sanity. She began
to work obsessively often creating sculptures
that reflected her personal circumstances and
then destroy what she had done. The studio
she eventually rented close to Rodin’s was
her haven and she became more and more of
a recluse living in poverty. She became increasingly
dishevelled, filthy and unpredictable.
her neighbours gave her a wide berth
and warned their children about her. Eventually,
her family realised that she could no
longer care for herself and her brother had
her interned in a mental asylum in 1913 at
the age of 39. That was the end of her career
as a sculptor.
Diagnosed with a persecution complex and
with a paranoia about Rodin, she remained
there until her death in1943. It is a sad story
and I have found a variety of contradictions
while researching her life but most constant
is the description of destruction wrought by
emotional entanglement and perceived betrayal.
It is easy to reflect and wonder why
Claudel let herself be seduced by Rodin,
knowing that he already had a long term partner
and a string of models and mistresses. It
was almost certainly very difficult to live independently
as a female artist at that time,
financially of course, as it still is for any artist,
but also because of social restraints for
women at that time. It is surprising that her
middle class parents allowed her to become
a sculptor at all rather than insisting on the
conventional course of marriage and family
life. Perhaps they thought Rodin would marry
her but that is conjecture.
25 26

27
Her story makes for great cinematography
and there are two films about
her, a french biography ‘Camille
Claudel’ released in 1988 which was
nominated for two Oscars and a more
recent one released in 2013, ‘Camille
Claudel 1915’ starring Juliette Binoche.
If you have a chance to visit the
Rodin Museum in Paris, you will find
examples of her work and acknowledgement
of her influence on Rodin
there. Meanwhile, beware becoming
a muse in the 19th century way, especially
if you have aspirations to being
creative yourself, unless you are able
to rise above the emotional subservience
such a role often requires.
On-line acknowledgements
“Camille Claudel” www.musee-rodin.fr
Artist Profile: Camille Claudel,” www.nmwa.org
“How Rodin’s Tragic Lover Shaped the history of
sculpture” www.independent.co.uk
Michael Hemmings
“My main goal with a piece of work is to provoke
an emotional reaction from the viewer. “

When you look back on your
life there are always regrets.
One of mine is that I left it until
I was in my forties to try
and earn a living as an artist.
I’ve always loved art, it was my joint
favourite subject at school along with
woodwork but when I left school life took
me in a different direction. About seven
years ago circumstances meant that I had
to find another job. I’ve always worked
with my hands so naturally I wanted to
do something creative, I started collecting
driftwood and making mirror frames.
This led to making other items from driftwood.
I started painting on driftwood,
then wood panels, then canvas.
I currently favour working on panels as I
like a solid surface to withstand vigorous
brush and knife work.
I’m classed as self taught but who can really
claim to have taught themself? With the
abundance of source material around nowadays
you can study any artist’s methods
and processes learning as you research and
experiment along the way. I much prefer
trying to work things out myself by studying
other artist’s work than being shown
how to do things from a series of instructions.
I feel that finding your own way helps
you to develop a greater understanding of
methods and principles. It doesn’t work for
everyone but it suits me fine. In a way I’m
being taught by the best teachers there have
ever been.
A common question is “which artist is
your favourite?” This is a difficult one as
I like and appreciate many artists, but if
I had to name three, at the moment they
would be Van Gogh, Picasso & Turner.
Turner’s skies are just something else.
The atmosphere he captured in his work
virtually jumps off the wall at you and
grabs your attention. Van Gogh’s energy
and determination to succeed were
remarkable and this comes through in
his wonderful work. It’s such a shame
he was never appreciated to the full extent
when he was alive. His paintings
certainly thrive today with the life that
was so prematurely snuffed out in such
a sad way. Picasso was a natural artist
who developed art in an unusual and
unique way pushing the boundaries of
his art at the time. I suppose these are the
marks I aim for and it’s this inspiration
that drives me on .
My main goal with a piece of work is to
provoke an emotional reaction from the
viewer. I think skies can do this well because
a sky can so easily reflect human
feelings like peace, excitement, foreboding
and darkness and people can relate
to these. With a foreboding sky I will
often provide the viewer with a glimpse
of blue or bright sky giving a feeling of
hope beyond the despair.
Over the last six months or so I’ve worked
from a limited palette. I find that this really
unifies my work and makes
me think more about how to achieve a certain
hue without reaching for a tube of ready made
pigment. It’s really interesting what colours
you produce along the way when you mix
your own. The only trouble is remembering
to note down how you did it, otherwise forget
trying to repeat it exactly!
When it comes to subject matter, landscapes
are my chosen area of concentration along
with seascapes and occasionally some urbanscapes.
Getting outside into the elements is
important to me and I like to record the feel
of a place with sketches and reference photos
to work from when I’m back in the studio. I
recently saw an artists sketches which were
shown alongside his finished paintings and on
these sketches he noted down all of his sensory
observations such as sounds, smells, feel
of the air, brightness etc, in fact anything that
would aid him in his accurate portrayal of
the scene. It brought home to me that all
these things are necessary because they
are the vital ingredients that make up the
finished work and breathe life into a painting,
there’s more to it than just projecting
an image, it’s about projecting a whole experience.
With recent work finished for a summer
exhibition I’m now thinking ahead to my
next series of paintings. I have some ideas
which I’m working on. That’s what I love
about producing art, you’re always aiming
for your next goal and looking for some
new angle or perspective. There’s always
something new to strive for on the horizon,
and that’s the good thing about the
horizon, you can never reach it but it’s always
in sight.
29 30

Stephen
P o u l t o n
speaks to us
about his
Exposing
for the Light
series.
Earth’s Atmoshere © Stephen Poulton
Exposing for the light series
has been a slow progression, It is,
in what I cannot see into, that fascinates
me, so much beauty goes
by in one long eternal moment, it is
us that have split the moment into
segments of seconds, so I study and
wait until the magic in the universe
taps me inside.
And of course because the last thing I am
is selfish, I have to share with the world, to
help make a better world, to give others the
opportunity I was given in that moment, it
was lovely inspiration.
Exposing for the light is very rewarding,
so much beauty remains hidden when we
look away from the light. These Images
are for me to show others just how beautiful
life is, and yet normally we would have
to look away.
Photography can give so much in so many
ways if we have the inspiration to discover
its possibilities, this is what I hope
exposing for the light series does for people.
I have included Two Images from my
Skylife series, I hope you will like them.
you can maybe use this one for another
article in the future if you like, as I know
the Gravity Image is the one that’s most
intriguing to you.
When I took the Image Galaxy in the
clouds, I had no Idea it was there for a
while, in a folder on my desktop, waiting
for me to find time to open it.
When I processed the Image I pushed the
colour to bring out what I was seeing,
and as I looked at it I saw a Galaxy in the
clouds, I love gazing into our universe, It is
one magical melting pot of Inspiration, it’s
purpose so scintillatingly beautiful, and
unfathomable at the same time, If we are
all prepared to listen to our Nature within
us, she will guide us gently through the
maze of questions, well this is how it feels
to me, my connection with Nature, I love
her dearly.
When I look upon this Galaxy in the clouds,
I see our Galaxy the Milky Way there instead,
Then for me the Image takes on a
whole new life of its own. I put forward
that our Galaxy and all others, exist not on
a space time imagined surface, not like sitting
on the surface tension of water. We are
floating as a cloud does according to something
I have still yet to discover, Gravity I
believe to be a kind of magnetism.
Each Atom has density, and like smoking
takes its toll on our longs over time, so the
Atoms cumulative effect by pulling together
over time builds a planet with a lot
of cumulative Magnetism, Gravity isn’t a
constant, it varies according to how many
atoms it consists of, after all, what tells an
atom that it needs to be a part of a tree, an
eye.
We seek to control our world, yet our
answers only become visible when control
is what we let go of.
Nature reflects through all her elements,
whispers to us all, I see her also in the
Flames
Creation Image also gave me lovely
Inspiration on our universe when I processed
it. It is 100% a candle flame, I
just agitated the flame and then just
changed the colour temperature.
For me Creation is just that, Light and
heat bring life, and for me has shown itself
in the Flames also, It’s been a great
ride and I hope it continues to be, as life
is precious.
What we see as heavy has a lot of gravity,
It;s the cumulative effect of magnetism
that causes gravity, And our
Galaxy floats in its more understandable
place, just like this Galaxy in the
clouds
Well maybe.
Creation © Stephen Poulton
Exposing for the Light © Stephen Poulton
31 Galaxy in the Clouds © Stephen Poulton
32

Small Signs
Small signs light my way
Enveloped in your mist
All life ends today
The object of our tryst
Heartbeats pull me forward
Your desire tells me so
Steel love holds me tightly
Inner screaming rises, no.
You smile, you grasp me tightly
You press it to my hand
I hear you say ‘I love you’
My heart, it turns to sand
Cold heat against my temple
I hold my promise against yours
I know you’ll hold our bargain
We’re on a different course
Arena Theatre return in July and August with this intriguing and completely unique
musical which explores the five year relationship between rising novelist, Jamie, and
struggling actress, Cathy. What makes this musical so special is that Cathy’s story is
told in reverse chronological order and Jamie’s is told in chronological order. With a
heady mix of musical styles, from pop and jazz through to Latin, Folk and The Blues,
this riveting modern musical masterpiece will appeal to all.
Presently we will be playing at Forest Arts Centre, New Milton / The Shelley Theatre,
Bournemouth / The Mowlem Theatre, Swanage.
If you know of any venue in Weymouth / Dorchester who would take us then we would
love to know.
I feel your muscles stiffen
Time slows, death takes my hand
But I leave you, unforgiven
I fall, alone, you stand.
© ScottScott
Many thanks
Paul Nelson
34

i used to be afraid of shadows
I used to be afraid of shadows. Now
I watch you from them. Enveloped
in guilt I see each sigh, each gasp
for breath, your shoulders shake
with grief. I see. I have no choice.
We knew it couldn’t continue, such
passion, fire and need, hollowing
us, leaving us bereft of future. You
knew, you decided, you told me. At
first I laughed, we would find a way,
a plateau, where we would be saved.
We grasped each other. Kissed.
Felt our world ending and beginning.
I think I might have pitied
you then.
In our embrace of life and death,
we brought the cold metal to each
other’s temples and kissed again.
We would rescue each other from
this life.
Now.
You insisted, you persuaded, you
wanted us to be together forever,
to end forever. I gave in, but doubt
gnawed at me as you prepared.
Guns you said. Together. One shot
each. Together forever.
I don’t know where you got them
from. A friend you said. Tonight
you said. Tonight we say goodbye
and live forever. I knew I couldn’t. I
knew you were wrong, but you were
so strong I agreed.
Yes. Together. Forever.
Small signs marked our path, memories
of times before. We arrived,
the clearing dark in the moonlight.
You gave me my gun. You didn’t
notice the change in me.
One shot, one lifeless falling eternity.
It was the only way I could tell
you, to stop you. I thought it
would end it. I was wrong.
I looked at my lifeless body from
the shadows. I saw your scream
of grief and guilt and despair. My
gun never fired, yours did.
You killed me. I let you live. And
now I watch you, dying with your
guilt from the shadows.
Together
For ever
by ScottScott
Flamingo © Gekko Art
35 36

Dorset Artist in Italy - Stephen Yates
I recently asked a friend, what they
would expect from a painting holiday
in Italy? This was her response…”I’m
not really sure. I’ve always been such
a sort of rogue artist, doing my own
thing, alone, that I think it would be a
very new and interesting experience to
do art with other people.
“I’ve always been proud of being self taught too. I
paid attention to other artists and used common sense
and instinct to figure out techniques. I learned how
to work with power tools and could joint wood and
make furniture in woods, smelt, heat, twist and turn
metals by the age of fourteen. I learned to sculpt by
sculpting wood. I learned to paint a mural by painting
a mural. I learned to throw pots and hand build in
ceramics, by doing just that: doing. Call me a handson
learner. I’ve bought a few books. Booklets really.
The rest was trial and error. It was at times, a lonely
education.
But really, what I wouldn’t have given back then to be
taken under the wing of an aged master artist (traditional
and digital, if you’ve got one) willing to teach
me all he has gleaned before he departs this mortal
coil, my very own Guru. I could place an ad in the
newspaper: ‘Humble fast-learning disciple seeks austere
but patient old master willing to share his or her
genius. Fee negotiable. Have supplies. Available immediately.
Maggie Hampton via the website link for
Must tolerate cats and classic artistic neurosis. Please
Traditionally in Renaissance Italy, Leonardo da Vinci’s
father, after seeing his son’s talent, apprenticed
him to Andrea del Verrocchio. Verrocchio had studied
under the great artist Donatello. Michelangelo was
apprenticed to the most fashionable painter in Florence
at the time, Domenico Ghirlandaio. They lived
with their masters, under constant instruction, honing
their skills. And just as it is in any area of study, be it
science or psychology, the torch was passed and the
flame more refined. My intension is to offer a structure
for artists to be able to develop their painting with
a balance of instruction and demonstration and given
real time to develop.
Arriving on a late flight to Pescara, Italy, in May
this year, there was a sudden glimpse of this beautiful
ancient hilltop Town of Capestrano. The hilltop
fort is illuminated and a striking image against the
warm night sky. The Villa Casa Dei Papaveri is situated
right opposite the beautiful hilltop Town. For
me, there was immediately an overwhelming sense of
peacefulness and tranquility in this ancient location
and the very next morning wondering onto the terrace,
my vision was complete, some absolutely stunning
views of Capestrano, with its Medieval Castle
and Churches.
The plan is to create a ‘hands on’ Painting Holiday
in September 2016 and May 2017 from this beautiful
location. If you and your friends are interested in actual
dates and would like to book then please contact
Maggie Hampton via the website link for an enquiry.
Or contact the tutor Stephen Yates 07720892944 to
ask specific questions about the painting course in
both Watercolours, and Acrylics.
Capestrano Painting holidays – Where you stay and what
it costs.
You stay in bright, well-decorated bedrooms in a beautiful
hillside Villa. Casa Dei Papaceri. We’ve put in new, comfy
mattresses and original artwork on the walls.
There is a large communal sitting room and a kitchen/
dining room for leisurely breakfasts and mouth-watering
evening meals. There are facilities at the Villa for personal
tea-/coffee-making.
EVERYTHING is included in the cost of your holiday:
• all tuition fees and accommodation
• local transportation (including transfers to and
from Pescara or Rome airport; including our mid week excursion
to local restaurants and riverside painting venues.
• all meals including breakfast, gourmet picnics
on location, pre-dinner aperitifs, dinner at the mill or at
small and friendly local restaurants with regional Italian
dishes and wines. A BBQ in a remote location in the
mountains...
All you have to do is to get to Pescara or Rome airports,
and we do the rest! What it costs
Our policy is not to discriminate against people coming
on their own by charging a vast supplement for single
rooms. So, if you are coming on your own you can have
your own individual bedroom. We would, however, like
friends (and married couples) to share if it is at all possible
and there will be a saving if you do so. And if you share
with a non-participating partner he or she will enjoy a generous
discount of £200 for the painting holiday. The Villa
is arranged as four self-contained bedrooms three en suite,
and one shared, but, during a painting course, we all come
together and we use the big reception room in
our principal apartment as our communal meeting place, or
the wonderful terrace outside.
Because The Villa is a building of historic importance and
listed by the Italian government, we cannot make major
alterations, so some guests will have to share a bathroom
with either one or two other people. BUT we do have three
bedrooms, each with en suite shower rooms for those who
want their own bathrooms. The cost is £895 All prices include
the painting courses.
* Single: £955 single occupancy
Deposit and balance
A deposit of £250 per person is required to confirm your
booking. The balance for your holiday is due eight weeks
before arrival. Please note our cancellation conditions set
out below. (We recommend that you take out normal holiday
insurance, including cancellation insurance.)
How to make your payment
We ask you to make your payment by direct bank transfer
and we will give you our bank details for you to make this
transaction.
Cancellations: A handling charge of £75 per person per
course will be levied on all cancellations. In addition, if
you have to cancel four to eight weeks before departure, a
charge of 40%of the total price is payable; at two to four
weeks, 60%; at one to two weeks, 80%; at less than one
week, 90%. Once the course has started, 100% is payable.
We reserve the right to cancel any course at two months’
notice and, where possible, provide you with an alternative
course.
37 call today.’…”
38
Getting there
For our UK guests:
You can book your own flights (there are good connections
from Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, East Midlands,

Birmingham, Leeds/Bradford, Manchester and Bristol
and an increasing number of other UK airports).
We pick you up at Pescara or Rome airport on the first
day given your flight details. Our departure times from
Capestrano on the last Monday are after breakfast, usually
between 7.30 am and 9.30 am. (It takes between
an hour-and-a-quarter and an hour-and-a-half to get to
Pescara airport.) Rome is two hours.
If you arrive or leave outside these times we can arrange
transportation for you but you will have to pay for it.
You may decide to come by car. You can park at the
Villa and we’ll give you full instructions on how to get
there.
Typical painting holiday’s itinerary September 2016.
The following is a typical painting course itinerary but
it will all depend on the weather and other unpredictable
factors. According to the weather, we’ll pick the
best locations for each day’s painting excursion.
Itinerary
Monday
* Pick-up at Pescara or Rome airport
* Light lunch/afternoon snack.
* Settling in at Villa; exploring the nearby town.
* Facilities for making tea and coffee at the Villa.
* Aperitifs at the Villa.
* Dinner at local restaurant including wine.
Tuesday
* Breakfast at the Villa
* Painting around the Villa, with individual tuition.
* Light buffet lunch at the Villa
* Painting around the Villa, with individual tuition.
* Facilities for making tea and coffee at the Villa
* Aperitifs and dinner at the Villa, including wine.
Wednesday
* Breakfast at the Villa
* Short walk uphill to Capestrano: impressive castle with village
nestling around it.
* Painting at Capestrano, with individual tuition.
* Packed Lunch in Capestrano
* Painting at Capestrano, with individual tuition.
* Walk back downhill to the Villa
* Facilities for making tea and coffee at the mill.
* Aperitifs and dinner at local restaurant.
Thursday
* Breakfast at the Mill.
* Transport to riverside
* Painting in and around Riverside with individual tuition.
* Panino, ice cream and coffee at the Ricci gelateria in Popoli.
* Painting in and around riverside with individual tuition.
* Pick up late afternoon.
* Facilities for making tea and coffee at the mill.
* Aperitifs and dinner at the mill.
Friday - (No formal tuition this day)
* Breakfast at the Mill.
* Excursion: to Roccacasale (at breakfast time we’ll provide
materials for your own picnic lunch or, if you prefer, you can
buy a snack or a more formal lunch when you are out -
* Sightseeing and Individual sketching around Roccacasale
* Packed lunch or buy yourself lunch or a snack
* Early afternoon travel back
* Facilities for making tea and coffee at the Villa.
* Aperitifs at Villa. Then a Pizza at a local restaurant.
39 40
Saturday
* Breakfast at the Mill.
* Transport to local sustainable farm with animals...sheep,
goats, pigs, free-range chickens and children!
* Picnic lunch at the farm
* Painting at the farm with stunning landscape views across
the mountains and Capestrano in the distance, with individual
tuition.
* BBQ and wine at the farm provided by hosts Ralph and Ninka.
Sunday
* Breakfast at the Villa
* Transport to local beauty spot.
* Painting in the locality, with individual tuition: ancient houses
and church, spectacular mountain views, valleys, hill-top
villages, olive groves, etc.
* Special lunch at the local gourmet restaurant (local specialities),
including wines.
* Painting with individual tuition.
* Pick up late afternoon.
* Facilities for making tea and coffee at the Villa.
* Aperitifs and farewell dinner at the Villa.
Monday
* Breakfast at the Villa.
* Transport to Pisa airport between 8.30am and 9.30am.
* Those with late flights may leave their bags at the airport
and take a (very short) taxi ride to Pescara or Rome for sightseeing.
What you need to bring
Your tutor will be in touch well before the course with a suggested
list of materials, but we are generally very relaxed and
there’s no obligation to bring anything specific. To save you
being overloaded on your flight we can provide:
* portable chairs
* drawing boards
* water bottle
* rags
* easels
As for clothing the days are usually warm to hot, but it can
rain, sometimes for a day or two at a time. So we recommend
a lightweight waterproof coat and perhaps an umbrella to protect
your work. The evenings might be a little cooler, so warm
pullovers or tops are a good idea. Sensible shoes for walking
are also recommended.
You may wish to contact the tutor Stephen Yates 07720892944
to ask specific questions about the painting course in both Watercolours,
Acrylics and Oils.

Coffee & Cake with
Caro SaintVire
Dorset Goes to Sussex
41 42

Caro SaintVire grew up
in a family of artists. Her
mother is a portrait painter
with clients all around
the globe, her grandfather
was a painter and
sculptor. Caro is an artist
in her own right.
I caught up with Caro to
find out a little more about
the lady behind the paintings...and
of course a slice
of cake!
Sarah: You come from a family
of artists, what was it like growing
up surrounded by art?
Caro: Well, of course, I thought it was
perfectly normal to grow up in a studio
with a mother painting at her easel,
stretching canvases and having
portrait clients in for sittings. I was
dressed up often, holding flowers,
cuddling kittens, looking a bit wistful,
to model for the prints and cards
that she did as well as her portrait
career … the other day I came across
some of those old photographs - all
shot in black and white… so 1970’s!
One of our favourite outings was to
go to the National Gallery where my
44

would take me around the grand rooms
full of enormous paintings by Gainsborough,
Van Dyke, Constable and Turner…
She knew all the stories behind the work,
some of them a bit scandalous - so that
was my introduction to art history… My
father’s favourite outing with my brother
and I was up over Hampstead Heath and
often we went into Kenwood House where
I was awestruck by Stubbs’ life-size painting
of the famous 18th century racehorse
“Whistlejacket” - now in the National Gallery
- I thought it was the most beautiful
and exciting painting I’d ever seen!
We used to visit my mother’s old tutor and
mentor, Rowland Hilder, who was a really
well-known and successful landscape
painter at that time and I loved his paintings,
mostly incredible watercolours of the
English countryside and estuaries… my
mother wouldn’t paint landscapes because
she said they just looked green to her - but
I saw all the colours of the world in the sky
and the sea.
My grandfather was an artist too but
passed away the year I was born. As well
as his paintings, he left us lovely plaster
casts of his hand and foot that he did in art
school. Rather disrespectfully, we used
Grandpa’s foot as a door stop for a time, but
now it’s up in proper pride of place on the
bookshelves, a very elegant foot it is too.
Sarah: This must have influenced you to
become an artist in your own right?
Caro: I studied art and design at college
but also took business courses as I was
really running my mother’s studio by the
time I was 18. She spent a lot of time in
America and had galleries representing
her over there, particularly New Orleans
where we later bought a house and split
our time between here and there. I was
her “gallery liaison” and took care of all
the design and admin for the business
side - all artists could do with someone to
do that couldn’t they!?! But as her career
slowed down a little bit (though she’s still
painting everyday at her easel!), I found
the time to finish my fine art degree and
start painting everyday too…so that was
about 6 years ago and I have really surprised
myself with how I’ve taken to being
in the studio creating art everyday and
learning so much about that creative process
and what I want to do with paint.
Sarah: Did you know straight away that
skies and seas were going to be your
theme?
Caro: No, not at all! I started off working
very big and very abstract on the floor of
an old converted barn in the countryside
nearby - throwing paint around and dribbling
it about like Jackson Pollock - a lot of
pieces I worked on from conception right
through to destruction - I think it was a
kind of cathartic process where it was
necessary to create and destroy, create
and destroy, to find my direction, or maybe
just to loosen up. But then one day after
about a year of this, making some pieces I
liked and a lot I didn’t, I found myself up
off the floor and working on an easel and
this particular piece which I was creating
with masses of paint and medium
46

follow, inspiration returns and the magic
starts again. At the end of the process, a
lot of the time the painting is nothing like
what I thought it would be when I started…!
Sarah: What inspires you?
Caro: Oh, I’m inspired every day by the
process of creating and by the natural
world around us, which is awesome in the
original sense of the word. I love to watch
the sea, in all its moods, from tranquil,
misty mornings as the tide breathes gently
in and out on the shore, to dramatic
stormy seas and crashing waves with all
their incredible power… I watch the sky
and the clouds and the sunrises and sunsets
and drink it all in. My little dog and
constant companion, Zuki, watches it all
with me too on our daily walks.
Sarah: Do you find the artist’s life an isolated
one? You must spend hours alone in
your studio and that can be an issue for
some artists…
Caro: Actually I love that aspect of my life
- it’s like “me” time when I’m in the studio
- I become very focused and get into a
state of flow which can be energising and
peaceful all at the same time. I’m not really
alone as Zuki is patiently flopped out
on his cushion waiting for more walkies,
and we recently rescued a Birman cat who
graces me with her presence in the studio
when she’s not presiding over the garden…
I have music on in the background,
or radio 6 which does some great interviews
with musicians and I am amazed
at how what they say about their process
is so exactly what I’m going through - it’s
like having a support group in the room!
When I’m not painting I also mentor other
creative businesses and meet fascinating
people through that - I find marketing and
business strategy deeply creative too!
Sarah: How do you overcome Artist’s
Block in times of “drought”? If indeed you
do ever suffer from this!
Caro: Block? No - just the opposite! I could start
a new painting every day! In fact I often do - it’s
just the finishing of them that’s the problem! I
love a bare canvas and that feeling when you’re
just about to mix up paint - I find that really exciting
- the opportunity to explore the new ideas that
have been going on in my head whilst I developed
a theme in the last paintings - it’s a new start with
47
and layer after layer of colour, just started
to look like a sky - and I found I liked that - I
was surprised, maybe even quite shocked
- it affected me, and people I showed it to
really liked it and responded to it too - so I
started painting with that intention… and
that year of pure experiment with texture
and abstract techniques became a basis for
more realist and considered oil paintings.
Sarah: So how would you describe your
style?
Caro: Well I think my style is constantly
evolving - maybe it always will be - and
maybe it should because then it’s this fascinating
learning, growing process…I mean,
sometimes I feel that I’ve done some work
that’s really classical in style with wet-inwet
techniques, glazing and scumbling,
and then I’ll add in areas that are really
quite impressionist or more abstract - I
use brushes, palette knives, my hands,
bits of old cloth and I’m really most comfortable
with oil paint and a variety of different
mediums depending on the viscosity
I want. I find that I have to work in
quite a free and spontaneous way to create
with authenticity - though often I look
at what I’ve done and change it almost entirely
in the next layer or right there and
then. I do know when I begin to see the direction
a painting should take but sometimes
paintings are stubborn and won’t
reveal themselves for a long time! And
sometimes you can miss the moment of
magic when the painting becomes what it
should be and then it’s ruined. But when
a painting shows me where I’m going and
I see it and follow, inspiration returns and

with new possibilities every time. The
danger is I have so many ideas and take so
many inspiring photos when I’m out, just
on my iphone, that I may never be able to
tackle them all - and I have to keep track
of what I wanted to start next and what
fits in with my overall vision of my work.
Maybe having so many paintings on the go
all the time means that if I’m not inspired
by one at that moment there’s always another
I can pick up and put on the easel
and start to get inspired again…
Sarah: Is there anything that being an
artist has helped you learn about yourself?
Caro: Many things! Some of the most important
I call the 4P’s - Patience, Persistence, Positivity
and Performance - I had no idea how much patience
I would have to learn to accept, and daily
persistence with my work. You have to believe
in yourself and learn not to beat yourself up and
put yourself down - that’s the positivity, and as for
performance - well, that’s the moment you suck in
your breath and put brush to canvas isn’t it? You
are performing, it’s just that the audience isn’t
there at that moment.
Sarah: If you weren’t an artist, what would you be?
Caro: A musician - music has a direct highway to
the soul…
Sarah: How would your friends and family describe
you in 3 adjectives?
Caro: Outgoing, optimistic, responsible.
Sarah: If you were stuck on an island and could
only have one item what would it be?
Caro: Can I take my paddle board?
Sarah: Is there anything you’d like to add for our
Dorset Artists’ Readers?
Caro: Just how lovely Dorset is with it’s breathtaking
countryside and coastline - I’ve visited many
times and love the West Country. And thank you
for letting a Sussex girl into the pages of your excellent
magazine!
All images © Caro SaintVire
49 50

Short Story by Michael Bailey
Three steps from the top he saw her
and almost tripped. It would have been
better if he had. Fallen then and broken
his bloody neck. It would have saved a
lot of pain. For him at least. She was
already numb to pain, since she was a
little girl. He didn’t know that then but
the way she drew his eyes to her should
have warned him. It was like when you
pass a window and out of the corner
of your eye you imagine you see something
you shouldn’t. Someone getting
dressed or undressed. You hesitate
and then give in to the urge to look and
by the time you do they have covered
up. All you get is embarrassed.
With her, it was in her eyes that instant
before the glaze came over them and all
you could see was yourself. In that split
second you felt were looking into a pit
of misery. Then you just thought you
imagined it. Her face was so striking,
so alive, full of tease and laughter. How
could you think that when she looks
so serious and challenging? What does
she look like? You have one impression
and the next moment something opposite.
Only the glaze that reflects your
own face is constant.
All eyes were on him but he could only
see her. He finished his climb to the
deck floor stepping clear of the circular
stair that had carried his feet up.
She had half risen from her seat then
sat back down, her glass of Pernod in
front of her. Still her eyes held his and
he found himself sitting at her table.
She told him her name and that she
was his new student. He said he never
takes students and that he was leaving
for Biarritz the next day. “So am I”, she
had replied.
Click. “Damn, I’m sorry, something
ran over my foot and startled me”. The
bright light in the darkroom went out
again. A roll of negatives that had been
exposed to the flash of light in mid development
was plunged into the hypo
fixative. When they looked at the images
of a woman’s nude body, black from
the light flash seeped right to the edge
of the body creating a stark outline.
“Look at that. Quick, expose another
of the rolls of film waiting to be developed”,
he said. In the next hours
they experimented until they ran out
of exposed film. He was so excited he
couldn’t sleep that night and didn’t let
her sleep either, pulling at her body
in his urgency. In the morning he was
up and out getting more film and she
finally had the chance to escape with
her tumbled body into sleep. Not for
long because he immediately wanted
her to pose, naked and sleepy, her skin
marked by the wrinkles of the sheets.
Unable to leave her alone, he touched
her, he kissed her, he made love to her
day and night. He photographed her as
she walked around naked, standing at
the window with the shadow of the net
curtain making a mesh on the skin of
her breasts, bending forward with her
back and buttocks naked and anonymous
like a lush fruit. It was nothing
new. Her own father had photographed
her naked for as long as she could remember.
But this was different, she
could match him shot for shot, fuck for
fuck, idea for idea. It drove him mad,
made him beg, made him angry.
Her own photographs were getting noticed,
her name repeated and recognised
around Paris and beyond. Her
photographs were admired and bought
as she matched his surreal visions and
outrageous experiments and made advances
of her own. Her face, her image
was recognised from magazine covers
and gallery exhibitions. Her work
matched and eclipsed her persona as a
model. With him she shook off the role
of the model and took the mantle of the
artist.
When she looked in the studio bin she
saw a negative amongst the screwed
up paper. She pulled it out and held it
up to the light. It was a photograph of
her, discarded because it did not meet
his exacting standard. “I can make
something of this, use it for a picture”
she thought as she put the negative in
her purse.
He went ape shit, totally demented. He
screamed and ranted, shouting “Who
is the real artist? Me, not you. You are
my assistant, you help me. You are
nothing without me. Now you steal my
picture to put it in your trivial reproduction
of my ideas. You think you’re
so clever but really you are just a fuck
who is smarter than most, but just a
fuck nonetheless”. She threw the picture
she had been holding. It smashed
on the wall behind his head. “Fuck you”,
she spat, “I do your work, take your
photographs so you can paint and let
you pass them off as your own and you
get on your fucking high horse about
a negative you threw away”. “Out”, he
bellowed. The studio door slammed
and she was gone.
He couldn’t bear the silence, the absence,
the empty bed.
Who knew who she was fucking now?
Nothing would calm the raging headaches
that overcame him. He raged like
a bull in a tight arena, maddened by a
hundred cuts. Her throat arched white
and exposed. He slashed at it with a
razor and splashed red ink across the
cuts. The gore was pinned to the wall
like a crime scene photograph when
she came back days later.
They rowed and made up, worked in
tandem, fucked each other and other
lovers as their fame and the demand
for their work grew. She adored him
but did not love him, followed where
her sexual desires led her until inevitably
she lost her heart as well as her
head. The love affair that cost her lover’s
first wife her life burned so bright
she married the Egyptian and was
gone from him.
The man on the crest of the surrealist
wave foundered and went under.
Drowning, he bought a gun and threatened
her, her lover, himself in turn.
He made a picture of himself with the
pistol and a hangman’s rope strung
around his neck, made art of suicide.
Nothing could bring her back. He cut
her eye from a photograph and pasted
it onto the swinging pendulum of
a metronome. It swung left and right,
observing a world that lurched drunkenly.
Unable to distinguish between grief and
art he called his creation the object of
destruction. Instructions on a picture
he made of his mechanical sculpture
advised regulating the weight on the
pendulum to the tempo desired so the
pulse of grief could be captured until
the limit of endurance was reached.
52

Thereafter a hammer should be
used to destroy the whole mechanism
with a single blow.
Nothing could replace her, not
fame, not suicide, not art. Beyond
their shared bed and shared studio
their lives swam into the core
of the history of their age. His repute
rose strong and enduring as
an erection. Hers recorded the
depredation of the human spirit,
fouled by the torrents of evil
that spewed out of the middle of
the century.
They had joked in bed, fought in
the studio, taunted each other in
their spirit of sexual freedom. Reality
was more outrageous than
surrealism. World War more of
an adventure than fashion. Her
stark black and white images of
SS suicides and concentration
camp inmates both dead and
alive are more shocking than
the staged absurdities of Dada.
She found escape from Dachau
promised but never delivered
however much she drank. In the
long post war English years she
never stopped seeking that unattainable
peace.
53 54

Stephen: When did you
first realize you were
Artistic Holly?
Stephen Yates catches
up with emerging artist
Holly Norris in her
studio.
I possibly do that alongside
being a Doctor!” As I thought
about it the more peaceful I
became, so I enrolled with the
Open College of the Arts and
I did begin to study and only
after five years of study did I
feel that I was in a position to
begin to show my work at an
exhibition, and get over the
‘imposter syndrome!’ of not
being a ‘proper’ Artist!
Stephen: Which Artists had
a profound influence on your
development?
Holly: Growing up surrounded
by designers, the influence
of the Bauhaus, pared back industrial
design and Emin and
other contemporary artists. I
am a massive fan of Grayson
Perry and his social, political
commentary, expressed in a
variety of media. I like construction
when doing my textiles
and have done a great
deal of research into designers
like Alexander McQueen, and
Zandra Rhodes.
Stephen: Where do you now
find your inspiration for these
amazing pieces of work?
Holly: I use first hand experience
and use the world
around me, and things that I
have seen. I tend to respond
directly to things and work directly
onto paper, then distil it.
That may be something that is
quite immediate. It might be
capturing a moment, which is
particularly poignant for me
to create a sense of place. At
the moment we are preparing
for an exhibition called
‘unknown Island’ which is
Portland based and I am influenced
by just being in the
environment, in my studio by
Portland Bill. My marks and
colour are helped by the slowness
of the process; in most
of my work there is evidence
of the time taken to develop
my art. Even in my prints it’s
about the burnishing and the
marks made by the hand and
really feeling and portraying
in that way.
Holly: I grew up in an artistic
family, and it wasn’t
something I was particularly
interested in, as I
wanted to be a Doctor as
long as I can remember.
It was only as an adult
working in an increasingly
stressful job, that I started
making and initially used
this to bring some balance
into my life. Increasingly
the balance tipped towards
making and expressing
myself. I realised that life
is too short and I decided
to take a leap and my
Mum picked up a leaflet to
go to University to study
Art, and I discounted it
and said, “It was a ridicu-
55 lous idea and how could
56

Stephen: Are there any exhibitions
that you are currently preparing
for?
Holly: First off there is my DAW
Open Studios, which is the first
time that I will be publically showing
at Portland Bill Venue 115,
which is very exciting and also
nerve racking. Perhaps more exciting
is my first gallery exhibition
in a hugely intimidating space at
Upton Country Park in ‘the gallery
upstairs’ from 6th-12th July 2016.
10:00-17:00 each day.
57 58

Juggling
by
Sharon
James
Before I was a gallery owner I
was a lecturer in Art and Design.
That was fifteen years of
my life dedicated to teaching
often unruly but uniquely gifted
teenagers to septuagenarians.
From Level 1 to Degree.
A job I loved with bureaucracy
that I hated.
When redundancy was offered I
grabbed it with both hands and ran
laughing into the sunset.
Enter a horribly run down bike
shop. This was an absolute horror
of a building. Crumbling walls and
every single surface had a thick
layer of grease on it. A dark tunnel
with zero personality. Four months
of very hard work later the gallery
opened for business.
Obviously I had a good background
in art as I have been in the art world
since 16 when I entered art college.
Graduated from Camberwell School
of Art with an MA in Printmaking.
(People seem to always want
to know that) I literally have been
hanging exhibitions ever since.
I put on my first exhibition relying
heavily on the work of all my fantastically
talented friends. It was a
success. The first year flew by with
exhibitions of work of all my friends
adorning the walls. It was this that
got the gallery under the noses of
local artists. Then the bookings
started to come in and the gallery
was getting booked up a year in advance.
It hasn’t been all plain sailing
though. I faced some interesting discrimination
when I opened. People
questioned my background and often
asked where I trained in a condescending
way. It was annoying and
it often transpired that I was more
qualified than they were. I think the
crazy hair and maybe my quirky
dress sense threw people as I am not
a ‘typical’ gallery owner.
The bonus of having the gallery was
that I built my studio behind it. This
allowed me to get back to making
art. Something I had severely neglected
during my time as a lecturer.
I fell back in love with drawing and
consequently had my first major exhibition
in several years. Now I’m
the artist in residence at the gallery.
This was a big step as I hadn’t necessarily
wanted to put myself under
the spotlight. It has confirmed
everything that I already knew. Art
is a great mental leveller. I am considerably
happier when I am making
art than when I am not.
Work life = happiness so then it was
time to think about having a family.
Fast forward a couple of years and
my partner and I had a little boy after
several false starts. Now I’m a
gallery owner, an artist, and a mother.
This has meant that I spend a bit
more time with the family, which is
why I endlessly ask people to contact
me first before heading to see
me at the gallery. This is the tricky
bit though as I still need to nurture
the gallery. The constant push for
publicity and ensuring that the exhibitions
are doing their thing. There’s
no day that I don’t think about the
gallery or do some aspect of work
connected to it. Much to my partners
consternation. The truth is I
work hard as I know many of you
do. I am as keen for exhibitions to
be a success as the artists I show.
It’s good for business.
An art gallery in a recession has
been an uphill battle. No matter
how fantastic the work is people
aren’t spending in the same way.
I have always been someone who
loves a challenge and we didn’t
want our son to be an only child
so we decided to expand our family.
What we didn’t factor in was
twins. We are now parents to 3
children under 2 years old. Can I
just mention here that I have three
furry babies too. Puss Puss, Merlin
and Barney.
I’m writing this when any sensible
parent of 3 under 2 would be
asleep. I hate to let people down
so here it is.
Finally, it would be remiss of me
not to mention Shirley my gallery
assistant. Everyone should have
a Shirley. She makes my constant
juggling of life and work
and vice versa possible.
59 60

Bridget
Townsend
-
Hurt but
Healing
I am not an Art Therapist,
but I do believe that art (in my case
painting and printing) is a kind of
therapy. The idea of using visuals to
think and have a conversation about
something…that has to be a therapy
doesn’t it? Even if the conversation
is just in your head or throughout
your sketchbook. I have always tried
to create work that has a meaning or
creates an interesting dialogue; otherwise
what’s the point? The idea that
we can all create an emotion in the
viewer just by showing a mix of colours
or by the way we mark make. To
me that’s really interesting.
I have looked at interesting subjects before;
feminism in the Muslim faith, portraiture
using objects, but my hardest
subject and possibly my most therapeutic
was reliving and painting a series of
work about my own sexual abuse. What
I wanted to do was express something
which was accurate, true and real, but do
it in such a way that it had a narrative as
I perceived it. When I started I wanted to
build a tension, but paint in as free and
expressive way as naturally possible –
This meant I could ‘go with the flow’ of
my emotions as I felt them. The idea that
you can see ‘something’, but it’s not obvious;
just ‘unsettling’ made the work very
interesting.
I looked at a few artists as inspiration:
Francis Bacon and Adrian Ghenie’s
work has a tension that I wanted to emulate.
Often their work is confrontational
and thought provoking. Francis Bacon’s
‘Study for a Portrait, 1952’ has a pain that
I wanted to generate within my series of
paintings, the pain I had felt for the past
30 or so years has been so deep, it has
never really been gouged out and examined.
I honestly just feel that I have hovered
over the surface of it and picked at
the scab because it is such a big ‘thing’ to
get out and examine. The idea of getting
that whole big black rock out and chipping
away at it was very intimidating.
The point was I had time to indulge and
heal the feelings I had linked to this; I
also wanted to add ‘healing’ to my composition.
I hoped that by examining the
facts and painting down my feelings that
I would be able to examine ways to help
myself recover from the deep hurt. Adrian
Ghenie’s ‘Pie Studies’ have a confrontational
feel and without knowing the
subject matter I was originally really saddened
by the faceless ‘drones’.
Both Bacon and Ghenie’s work have dark
backgrounds and anonymous rooms in
many of their paintings, which add to the
air of mystery, where is the pain coming
from? What I am lead to believe is that it
has come from inside the artist; that each
artist perceives a degree of pain in everyone,
because they feel it in some part in
themselves. Of all of Ghenie’s work I
found the ‘Pie Fight Study 2’ most hopeful.
In this work the figure has been battered,
but has not been beaten.
The hands are wiping the face. this act of
wiping the face is one of resistance and
rebellion.
Throughout my series of sketches, paintings
self-examinations I strived to find
a way of painting a figure that was also
battered, but not beaten. Adding white
to my portraits added ‘healing’, a way of
covering the sadness, but also enclosing
the persona, trapping it and stopping commuication
with speech.
Covering parts of the body, creates distortion
and a ‘sinister’ air was achieved
by Gerhard Richter in his over painted
family photographs. His choice of coverage
is also unsettling and ominous, like a
menacing force has overtaken his family.
This ‘poltergeist’ expression of painting
is something I struggled to create personally,
but working over some of my own
photographs was something I found quite
upsetting. The act of thinking about that
time and how I felt has once again meant
a ‘facing the horror and self loathing. By
adding paint to a photograph I am creating
a narrative of my feelings. Covering
my face in some pictures is my way of
expressing my feelings of impotence. A
photograph is a ‘truth’ a moment in time
and by adding paint to that truth & that moment I
am expressing my perceptions and feelings from that
time; feelings of oppression and ensnarement.
Bacon, Ghenie and Richter (in his over painted photographs)
paint with self-belief, but also rely to a degree
on ‘accidents’ with paint. These ‘accidents’ are
created by mark-making with an artist’s expressive
instinct, but none the less are ‘accidents’.
In my paintings I tried the same over painting (in
white) many times, trying to create the perfect feeling
of ‘hurt-but-healing’. My hurt and gut-wrenching
sadness from abuse in my past sits like a black
rock inside me. I tried to paint this black ‘rock’ and
then over painting (using photographs as a resource)
on top of the thick black marks. I found myself
compromising the brush strokes and this lead to an
unsuccessful ‘mash’ of a painting. By over painting
photographs and sketching some compositions in
canvas I created something that discusses
where I am now and where I was when I was a nine
year old girl, a history of myself in one piece of expressive
work. Bacon worked from images in photographs.
A photograph records a moment. In the
process of painting, Bacon seeks the accident that
will ‘turn that moment into all moments’, likewise, I
seek to turn that child into my today-self and narrate
the history of what happened and who I am. What
I really wanted to do is show my strength now and
the fight I have. The anger I have had throughout
my entire life dissipated substantially while I painted
over the course of 2-3months. What I mostly felt
was sadness and by the end I felt powerful. The scale
of my work (some pieces were 150cm square) and
the emotional investment created some of the most
interesting work I had ever done. I felt wrung out,
but I also felt very proud that I had faced a very old
demon and I had finally shook it and brought it out
in the open.
61 62

Connections
Project
I take photographs all the
time. It’s kind of an obsession;
I’ll capture some moss
on a concrete post, the sunlight
through leaves or my
children laughing. I will stop, get
my phone out and take a couple of clicks,
pop my phone away and we’ll all resume
our lives. What am I doing?
As an artist, I think I observe the world
slightly differently than say, my ‘engineer’
husband. I want to remember, preserve
and review that moment, that light,
that emotion. This passion for ‘looking
back’ is my reason for sharing my story
with you today.
My mother’s parents died when she was
just 17. They had very little as a family,
what they did have was a few photographs.
My mother held this collection in
an old suitcase under the stairs and added
to it as my brother and I grew up. She
would rarely be in the pictures. She wanted
to remember us as little people who
wiggled when a song came on the radio
or played in the mud in the garden...
those un-momentous moments of everyday
joy. Her collection would be revisited
whenever a relative would come and
visit for a cuppa. She’d get the suitcase
out and I remember sitting on the floor
running my fingers through the black and
white pictures. I knew the stories behind
most of the pictures by the time I was
eight, but I still loved to sit and listen to
my family reminisce using the photographs
as prompts.
Stories from the past have ever since
been interesting to me. I love to hear how
ordinary people have beaten every day
challenges. How did they live, overcome
those struggles and what did they do that
was different or extraordinary?
I work with a group of elderly people in a
care home in Dorchester, Dorset. We’ve
worked together for over two years now.
When I first started I naively expected I
would enable them to express their inner
self straight away. It was at a time when
there were a lot of stories about abuse in
63
residential care homes (Bristol) and I
thought I could help to change that. What
actually happened was that I had to take
stock and re-plan. I needed to lower my expectations
and go with their flow. So I did
and it worked. I piloted an idea I had after
meeting Jenna Edwards (15 days in clay)
in Holton Lee. She works with adults with
learning difficulties helping them to create
a piece of (theme based) work for an exhibition
at the end of their term (which was
initially one day per week for 15 weeks).
The artists she worked with found many
health and social benefits from the weekly
group sessions and the exhibition created
a sense of purpose & self-confidence (particularly
once they sold some work).
My older group has done three themed art
exhibitions so far. Each exhibition has a
catalogue and all work is mounted and
framed. The artists enjoy the exhibitions as
much as making the work, their relatives
and friends all attend which gives them a
new intelligent stimulation and allows for
more interesting engagement.... and it’s a
fun party!
The new theme for the exhibition they’re
currently working towards is ‘Connections’.
The artists are connecting with their
PAST (using photographs, film, painting
and creative writing), the PRESENT (by
making new connections, with schools,
community members, members of the public
& local businesses and groups) and their
FUTURE (talking about their hopes and
dreams for their families and the world at
large).
Another part of the connecting with the
PRESENT is encouraging people to write
to them and share their stories or something
about themselves, share a ‘selfie’ and send
their hand shapes.
Throughout the project and working with
the artists I have learnt the value of photographs
for other people; particularly as
a trigger for memories and to start discussions.
One member of the group doesn’t
have any photographs. We have no idea
where they are. She has early dementia and
can’t remember. I can’t imagine that and
I feel incredibly strongly that what we record
and discover throughout her story is
recorded and shared. The stories we have
already learnt through our sessions have
been interesting, funny and heart-warming.
The group have lived through wars, poverty
and many family ups and downs. Their
everyday challenges are frustrating, but
through this Art Exhibition I hope that you
will learn to see past those challenges.
Story telling helps us all to feel more connected,
we hope that by sharing the artists
stories using different creative media people
will try and understand their challenges,
take a moment to engage with an older
person and see the value in engaging with
the over 70s.
There is something to be learnt from the elder’s
past & the way they tell stories. Their
pace gives time for energies to settle & for
more thought; possibly a stronger connection.
By connecting with other groups, both the
artists and the visitors can share a new energy.
We had a group of school children come
to the care home during one session; both
groups talked about their artwork, played
and read stories. The spirit and atmosphere
in the care home & within the artists themselves
was lifted long after the children had
gone. When I saw the children a week later
they were still excited and stimulated by
meeting the older artists and listening to
their stories.
It’s interesting that the children have been
the most open to all aspects of connecting
with the artists in the care home. They
came into the home and didn’t stand back,
but poured into the room ready to share
themselves.
The Connections project has a social media
presence which I hope will continue
after the exhibition in September. I really
want to tour the exhibition and continue
with the momentum we have worked hard
to build. The messages in this whole project
are about spending time with the older
generation, raising awareness of the common
problems they face every day (with
the hope that if awareness is raised we can
all work together for the betterment of the
‘moment’ and to find an eventual cure).
If you are interested in connecting, participating
in a session, sending a picture or
you’d simply like to come to the exhibition
please connect through our Facebook page
or email me (Bridget) bongley@gmail.com
Bridget
Townsend.

DORSET
SUMMER
2016
ARTISTS