A Portrait of Wales.
A Portrait of Wales
In August 2007 I applied to the Arts Council of Wales for a grant for just enough to help me progress with my work, my career and development as an Artist. I wrote a proposal that was based on the qualities that I felt were missing or weak in my usual practice with the intention of confronting these problem areas head on and tackling them.
I couldn't put into words the way I felt when I heard that the Arts Council felt that my proposal had merit enough for their help with funding. My project was eligible to start in February 2008.
Below is a simplified extract from my proposal to the Arts Council of Wales, specifically about the intended project itself. I have included it to give a basic outline to the project and some of the areas that I wanted to consider as it developed.
The full proposal explains more about my background, the areas of my practice that I feel are weak and more in-depth specifics of the project but my main intentions were and still are to learn and to progress as an Artist in all aspects of the profession including my technical ability and thought process as well as how to develop a successful career as an Artist.
The Project Brief.
The working title of this project is to be 'A Portrait of Wales`. I intend to create a piece of work that has relevance to the social and cultural elements of a typically Welsh scene. I like the idea of subtly incorporating the Welsh language into the piece, be it through shop fronts, newspapers, signposts, the emergency services etc, reaffirming the Welsh roots.
I aim to continue in a figure based direction but expanding on the communication between characters and their relationship to one another. I want to depict a scenario common to a specifically Welsh way of life. I will be looking at small communities for inspiration and how maybe a single form of labour acts as a focus point for a community to come together. In the past an obvious example would have been coal mining, but now I am looking for similar bonds that unite a community, weather it be a market town based on farm produce or a coastal region where fishing and boat building may be the sole concern. Although in a similar way, tourism can become this focus point of a town. This is not really what I want to embrace, however it doesn't mean that the original attraction to an area should be discounted, it would just mean focusing on the traditional rather than the commercial elements.
To gather this information I intend to spend time travelling around deeper Wales and the costal regions to see at first hand the areas that have kept the aforementioned qualities. I will document what I see and find with the aid of photography and with sketch books. I would spend approximately two weeks travelling and camping my way along the Cardigan Coast, exploring as I go, looking at places such as Denbigh, Anglesey, Abersoch, Aberystwyth, and Haverfordwest on the way down then travelling though the more central towns such as Carmarthen, Brecon on the way back up. I intend on staying at least one day in each town but I will obviously spend longer in the regions that hold the elements that I intend on incorporating into my work.
I would also use this time to visit Cardiff and focus on Artists, Galleries and exhibitions. The Kooywood, Albany and Friary Galleries are of particular interest to me. As well as visiting Cardiff for education and enlightenment on some prominent Welsh artists.
I would also spend time in London to see the larger galleries, the National, the Tate, and especially the British Portrait Gallery, but also to see what is being exhibited in the independent Galleries such as the Portland and the Flying Colours, both of whom have prominent figurative artists. It is really important for me to see what my contemporaries are doing and how my work differs from theirs in both content and standard. I want to see current figurative work up close to learn from it and to take lessons home with me to incorporate into my technique. As I travel I would not only be looking to open my eyes to new concepts but I would also be looking to make new contacts and for new places to exhibit my work from this project as well as regularly exhibit in the future.
