Tag: Cove Park

Caitlin at Cove

New Maker Residency at Cove Park

Established in Spring 2019, our first ever resident Caitlin Hegney shares her experience, insights and reflections on this opportunity. All words artists own.

“I have been overwhelmed by the response to my Graduate Collection from June 2018. After a few months it was evident that I should begin to progress my work. I was finding it difficult to balance my creative practice with part-time work. I could not find time to think or draw to drive and inspire new work. Making an application for the New Maker Residency at Cove Park, my intention was to be able to clear my mind of deadlines and business aspects of my work, to focus on research and collating inspiration.

My proposal set out to reflect on the rhythmical patterns that imbue my work; pinpointing my affinity to the patterns than my work explores. I suggested to do this by experimenting with tools that could draw across mediums, from paper to metal to wood; looking at the way that they mark, dent or carve a surface. I was fascinated with the expressive nature of drawing with an unlimited material palette. I thought that this concept had potential to grow, so was hoping to consider how this idea could become a workshop to engage the community with ancient crafts. Ultimately, I applied for the New Maker Residency at Cove Park to enrich my practice; allowing me time to think, reflect but also focus on moving forward.

I think it is impossible to feel creatively content when reflecting on your own work, but generally I felt that I achieved what I set out to do. Being immersed in such a serene environment made distancing myself from business aspects of a creative practice particularly easy. Living for a week in a less cluttered environment, allowed me to mentally rest in the early mornings and evenings. I also found that I was much more focused, being limited to the materials and tools that I brought with me.

The first part of my week was spent collating research. I tend to collect articles, photographs, objects and notes knowing they are significant but rarely initially understanding why. Having grown used to the parameters of my workbench, I found it invaluable to use the wall space to organise my thoughts. Connections in my research started to emerge more clearly which I was not expecting. It became evident to me that the visual rhythms that appear in my work relate to a summation of thoughts and observations of ancient culture.

The second part of my week, I was creating a portfolio of drawings in response to my research. The outputs began closing the gap between my 2D drawing and 3D making processes. I partnered precious and non-precious materials together; playing with their perceived value. I did this through embossing paper using 3D metal jewellery samples, applying the dust of precious material to paper like a paint and dying paper with the same medium I saturate the wood.

These drawings helped me consider the qualities and values of the materials. Working with gold, you make a mistake, it forgives you as you melt it down and start again. On the other hand, working with wood, it is more sensitive. If you carve into it with a little too much pressure, it will split. That piece of wood is changed forever, it cannot be healed like gold. The wood prevails its unique value over the gold. I feel like this progress was only beginning to explore my notion of creating a workshop exploring the expressiveness and value of materials.

My time at Cove Park made me realise the importance of slow moments in my creative practice; taking the time to read, to gather, to reflect. I found it creatively enrichening increasing mental productivity as opposed to always focusing on the tangible productivity. This opportunity could not have been more perfectly timed. I was feeling saturated in my own work from the the past year. The New Maker Residency allowed me to stop, and take stock for the first time since Graduating. I think that this will help me recognise and channel the direction of my practice for the future.

This kind of support has been invaluable. I was lucky enough to cross paths with visual and audio artists working for the sensory festival Cryptic, as well as a percussionist and a poet at Cove Park. It was fascinating to share processes and inspirations, finding parallels and differences, especially working in such different mediums. Being at such an early stage in my career, it also gave me the opportunity to talk about pragmatic elements such as sustaining a creative practice as a career.

The experience enlightened me on the purpose of an Artist Residency; how it is used to make space to forward creative practice away from the constraints of the everyday. It felt like a microcosmic Art School experience, allowing creative freedom and time which I have found impossible to sustain since graduating. The support has encouraged me to make space, even just once a month to be less regimented about my processes and time. Experiencing the benefits of an Artist Residency has also helped me feel more confident to applying to other opportunities in the future.

Cove Park was an idyllic setting. Tranquil and far enough from civilisation to totally forget about normal routines and commitments. The scenery and ambience permeated with sounds of wildlife was so inspiring and serene. The studio was illuminated with natural light, meaning I was content working until natural dusk. The site was so architecturally balanced, with communal spaces encouraging you to connect with other artists in but also allowing you a quiet nook to bask in solitude. I was made to feel so welcome by the staff and other artists working there. I am so grateful to Fife Contemporary for their generous support for making this opportunity possible.”

Announcing Our New Sponsored Residency at Cove Park

As part of our New Maker support we are delighted to announce that we will be supporting an artist to participate in a residency at Cove Park in March of this year. Cove Park creates residencies in all the art forms for national and international artists, collaborative groups and organisations. It is located on 50 acres of unspoilt hillside overlooking Loch Long on Scotland’s west coast.

This is part of our programming aimed at new makers and was launched in 2017. Identifying a need to support makers at the beginning of their careers, whether it be starting up their business after further or higher education or self-taught entrepreneurs, it’s definitely an area within craft and design practice that will have consistent growth.

Our New Makers’ support started with a pilot online exhibition in 2017 (Materialise) which featured 9 outstanding makers that were selected from degree shows throughout Scotland. The exhibition can still be viewed here. We also held a successful New Makers’ CPD session, Opportunities to Connect, which introduced makers to arts organisations that offer support at this stage in their career such as Applied Arts Scotland, Craft Scotland, Creative Scotland and many more. These introductions were recorded and will be available on our website soon. Look out for an extremely inspiring key note from Kirsty Thomas of Tom Pigeon. In addition, sessions were run throughout the day to give the participants time to interact with each other, build networks and informally ask these organisations what they really wanted to know.

This year we are currently working on the next online exhibition which will be ready early spring this year. We are working with web design agency Pooka to create an engaging and exciting new platform to showcase the work of a group of specially selected makers that graduated in 2018.

From this cohort of artists, a panel of staff and board members at Fife Contemporary selected a maker to award the Cove Park residency to Caitlin Hegney, a graduate from Glasgow School of Art. She will use the opportunity to focus on and research a new body of work. On return from her residency Caitlin will share her experience and progress which we will then share with our audiences. All makers nominated were of an extremely high standard and we can’t wait to share all of their work very soon via the next online exhibition and through our social media; so keep your eyes peeled!

Now that we are into our second year of New Makers’ support we are looking at developing ways to reach and include opportunities to a wider scope of new makers, such as college graduates, self-taught artists, and artists returning to their practice after a break. We would like to include them in future online exhibitions and residencies.

If you know or are a new maker or have come to your practice from an alternative route we would love to hear how and what kind of support you would be interested in. Please email me with any suggestions at stefanie.cheong@fcac.co.uk