Taking four years to develop, the China project came together during 2023 with two placements, both very different. The Sixth Tao Hua Tan International Painting Residency Xuancheng town, Jungian County, Anhui Province making the first part. In October 2023, I flew to Shanghai and joined the group via coach to the residency, the first for four years due to lockdown. The residency project is led by internationally renowned artist printmaker Gordon Novak, who has established the Novak Print Centre and Artist Village at Tao Hua Tan. The residency lasts for three weeks.
The artist village is a ten minute walk from the resort of Tao Hua Tan and is a constructed purpose built range of individual studios, a repurposed greenhouse and a main printmaking studio, the latter two are very large spaces. 2023 saw 61 artists and there was plenty of room; choose from open plan space or individual studio with key. It suited me to use the individual studio and work in the large courtyard outside. In October the weather was very warm throughput the three week duration. Accommodation is in the resort with comfortable en suite double and twin rooms, close to main reception restaurant and floating breakfast place.
Tao Hua Tan is a village set in beautiful countryside with river, mountains, historic village tourist attraction, ferry and numerous small artisan shops across the main bridge in the village. The landscape is subject in itself, almost familiar and close to preconceived ideas of Chinese landscape painting.
Tao Hua Tan Resort on the river Qingyi Jiang
Participating artists had agreed works to be made in advance and I planned two larger canvas at 1.25cm square and two smaller canvas plus studies on paper. Assimilating place and location in the relatively short time is challenging and to resolve work in time for exhibition at the conclusion at Hefei (capital of Anhui Province) that has meaning in this context means focused working. I used the available Chinese acrylic paint for faster drying and the consistency and quality was good. There is an industrial feel to the paint (primarily a brand called Memory) that is rich in pigment, very fast drying with good mixing capability across hue and compatible with western mediums.
Detail of Tao Hua Tan 1 (top post photo)
Detail of Tao Hua Tan 1
Earlier stages with open studio door and useful table for paper studies
Tao Hua Tan 4 acrylic on canvas 35 x 55 cm
Tao Hua Tan 3 acrylic on canvas 35 x 55 cm
Art materials , acrylic and oil, canvas, brushes, some papers, inks and other materials are supplied and to good artist quality. Of course, it pays to bring specialist materials and equipment and I bought Golden and Liquitex fluorescent paint: golds, silver and iridescent copper and gloss pouring and fluid mediums for this residency and the subsequent. My brushes included wide flat varnish brushes and the very long sign writing round brushes sourced for this tour. There is no art store nearby. Some rice papers are available in the village.
Tao Hua Tan 2 acrylic on canvas 125 x 125 cm
Details of Tao Hua Tan 2 (above)
Kurame Art Gallery, Hefei exhibition installation November 2023
The organisation at Tao Hua Tan is excellent. The team are friends immediately, and always on hand to answer questions and sort issues. This makes the process of making in the relatively short time very much easier, resulting in the working method and approach by artists better for it. Peer group is a healthy mix of new, mid career and senior artists. Without exception, all were keen to learn, share and enrich the residency. Notable was the reason for attending, some wanting to make finished completed works others taking time to experiment but overall, there was definite sense of practical working and strong creative vibe.
The residency is underpinned with artist talks by participants and from visiting artists, curators and academics. Dr Yang Shu, independentcritic and curator, Beijing, gave a lecture on the development of contemporary art in the years following the opening up of China, focusing on Beijing East Village in the 1980s.
My artist talk, one of the first evening presentations
Red Star Paper Factory: fortunate to see the large scale paper production: a rare occurrence
On organised trips, we visited world heritage site Huangshan mountains, the artisan village of Chi Tan, plus tea ceremony and the Red Star Paper factory, a highlight of the residency. In a new purpose built architectural gem, paper making at Red Star was experienced first hand on a very large scale and the shop, a great opportunity to buy paper from one of China’s most famous paper manufacturers.
Ameln 2023 acrylic paint and mediums on canvas 100 x 100 cm
Made for the exhibition at Storiel Bangor July to September, this series of works followed the Dar Slimane Residency and builds on the observation of the light of Morroco. My previous post describes the places visited in the country but of particular reference here was the revisit to the Anti Atlas, and Tafraoute, nestled in Ameln Valley. It is surrounded by red granite mountains that present a daily light and colour experience .. soft ambers, yellows against purple blues, a moving kaleidoscope of colour and light: the desert light.
Early stages of Rabat (left) and Valletta (right)
Early stages of Madersa Salé (right)
Starting the beginning of March, this new series of work was specifically for exhibition at Storiel Bangor in Cysylltiad Liw + Colour Connections, the joint collaboration project that carries a dedicated blog here. My successful grant application to the Arts Council of Wales meant that the discourse with John Hedley over the making time could be recorded and new collaborative work made in Crete would be developed and be part of the exhibition.
Early stages of the Essaouira series
New acrylic paints were sourced for this series using primarily Golden and some Liquitex and using a wide range of mediums and varnish. In this series I wanted the paint to be fluid in application with clearly demarked layers without sinking, resolved with a semi gloss to gloss finish. Supports except for the large Gueliz painting were manufactured products and included several 1m square canvases, three 1m x 1.5 metre canvas, 20 small canvas at 23 x 28 cm and 15 canvas at 37 x 43 cm.
Ameln early stage
Essaouira No.5 2023 acrylic paint and mediums on canvas 33 x 43 cm
Essaouira No.3 2023 acrylic paint and mediums on canvas 33 x 43 cm
Essaouira No.7 2023 acrylic paint and mediums on canvas 33 x 43 cm
Valletta 2023 acrylic paint and mediums on canvas 100 x 100 cm
Tafraoute 2023 acrylic paint and mediums on canvas 100 x 100 cm
Chwitter 2023 acrylic paint and mediums on canvas 100 x 150 cm
Rabat 2023 acrylic paint and mediums on canvas 100 x 100 cm
Early stages of Rabat
Gueliz 2023 acrylic paint and mediums on canvas 164 x 182 cm
Early stages of Gueliz
Early stages of Gueliz
Gueliz detail including silver and gold components
Series nearing completion June 2023
Exhibition Statement for Colour Connections
Andrew has recently returned from a residency in Morocco, where the immersive experience identified facets of culture and natural light that permeates this current work. International placements have been a key feature of Andrew’s recent practice. He defines working on location and subsequent reflective work, as creating ‘scapes’ (involving multiple facets of a subject) evolved through both exploratory studies and in the production of a definitive project portfolio for exhibition.
Taking as a point of reference the idea of non-place, his painting has evolved through a parallel questioning of objectivity, exploring memory and experience. He uses diffused imagery to interrogate reality, a dense clustering of line, shape and colour, intersections, gestures and directions. Through a desire for a more flexible and less structured image, his painting has developed to a more expressive idiom with gesture and the dynamic application of paint to the fore.
Painting is a recording of the mind in motion, the movement of hand, instinctive; a suspension of consciousness and an absence of conclusion. Fragmentation is also a recent characteristic with areas of colour brought together as if by accident, colours are relating through juxtaposition rather than by design. As ever, the image is made only by a colour process that has no defined outcome.Rhythm, repetition and spontaneity are indicative of current work, combining both the rational and emotional state of making.Colour itself is both the subject and the image.
