Catherine Lovett and Bonnie Radcliffe, 6 – 20 January, 2024
To have two weeks to explore the area, its geology, history and to be immersed in it really gave us so much inspiration and material to take into further work. This was our second residency collaborating together and it felt like we were really getting the balance right. We came to the residency planning on creating tales inspired by local folklore, but we realised that our tales may be inspired by a wide variety of legends, but they are rooted in the land itself.
Daily walks, swims and sketches of the land fed into the tales directly and we were able to create things that surprised us, that took us in different directions, and which felt much more original than simply retold folk tales. We both also found a good balance between our collaborative work and our own personal projects, both of which developed with the time and space to focus fully on creativity. We learned about our individual work patterns and what we need to inspire us, but being there together also helped draw us away from any destructive tendencies – such as forcing ourselves to stay for hours at a desk, instead, because there were two of us, we were able to encourage each other to step away when needed and seek inspiration in the beautiful land around us. We drafted three original short stories and worked on sketches of them.
Cat painted the view from the windows every day in different lights, made mono prints and did lino carving, as well as daily drawing. Bonnie also did daily drawing and experimented with paint pouring, as well as completing the first full redraft of her novel.
We are aiming to create a collection of short stories and tales inspired by coastal areas and histories around the UK. The stories we began to create at Brisons will be added to those created in Wales whilst on residency there and future locations around the country. Our aim is to publish this work once we have gathered further stories from around the land. Cat has an exhibition in Cornwall in June where her prints will be displayed and Bonnie – after a few more redrafts – will publish her novel. We will continue to collaborate on this, and many more projects going forward.
