Journal

Journal

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    State of Her Artist Talk for International Women’s Day

    By hw on March 2, 2024
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    I’m doing an artist talk about my current practice for International Women’s Day at City Lit Friday March 8th 1 – 2pm: International Women’s Day offers the perfect context: she has been developing a hybrid visual language of the female figure over many years, most recently in a 25 metre long canvas that functions as a wry commentary on contemporary

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    Totems of Hope on display in the heart of Soho

    By hw on January 26, 2024
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    The banner series have found a new home at 75 Dean St Soho, the former Warner Bros production studios where all the Harry Potter films were edited apparently – I like to think that a little bit of residual magic lingers in the 60’s stairwell. The building is in temporary occupation and is currently a busy creative hub named ‘All

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    Lord of Misrule film released

    By hw on January 11, 2024
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      In 2021 I made a number of artworks for a ‘folk pagan horror’ film, commissioned by production designer Alison Butler. The film has just been released on Amazon  – I was amazed to see how prominent my painted backdrop was throughout the film; quite often an artwork that’s taken days is only on screen for a few seconds, so

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    ‘The Dreaming’ at WIA gallery

    By hw on December 1, 2023
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      My recent painting ‘Golden Bird Hurting their Twisted Nerves’ was selected for the group winter show at WIA (Women in Art) gallery in Lewes. The show was pleasingly diverse and was well attended by all accounts. It’s always a pleasure to show in a small gallery crammed with stimulating small works that can pack quite a punch..    

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    Chateau Sacy site specific work

    By hw on September 8, 2023
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    In August 2023 I spent a week at Chateau Sacy near Paris where I explored the contents of the attic and made interventions around the house and grounds, developing a new piece of work titled ‘She’s Not There’  

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    Dance for Parkinsons with English National Ballet

    By hw on September 8, 2023
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    I’ve worked on a couple of lovely art events with ENB this summer, collaborating with a choreographer and musician to create a workshop for people living with Parkinsons disease. This is an established and successful project for ENB but it’s the first time they have combined different art forms in one event. I loved working with these dancers, their open-hearted

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    PLAY at Stone Space

    By hw on September 8, 2023
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    My painting ‘Play Safe’ was selected for the group show ‘PLAY’ at Stone Space gallery London July 2023. The image came out of a larger drawing made during Lockdown titled ‘New Normal’ with bodies struggling against hazard blocks and alien geometry. The shattered window was a result of vandalism that added a certain edge to the show…  

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    Banners for Rite of Spring festival

    By hw on May 5, 2023
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    Banners for Rite of Spring festival May Day 2023

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    Totems of Hope banners on public display

    By hw on March 31, 2023
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      The ‘Totems of Hope’ banners are now on public display, installed in the magnificent space of Prittlewell Priory Southend-on-Sea, in the ‘Prior’s Chamber’ and on the balcony which looks out over the main hall. They were up to mark International Women’s Day in March and will remain in situ until the summer. I always envisaged this work in heritage

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    What a Waste at the Koppel Project London

    By hw on November 24, 2022
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      One of my images from the ‘Broken Hearted’ series was included in an installation at The Koppel project from 19th – 25th November this week titled ‘What a Waste’. Curated by a Royal College of Art MA student, the works on paper were left to disintegrate on the outside of the windows, though I think he underestimated the resilience

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    Her Discontents at Downstairs Brixton

    By hw on October 21, 2022
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                        Images from recent group show I put together: ‘Four women artists with ‘disruptive tendencies’ who use their work to resist, provoke and protest…’ This was the first public showing of the Totems of Hope banner series and the large scale drawings on paper from the Lockdown series. I also showed

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    DREAMHAUS shown at Focal Point Gallery

    By hw on June 7, 2022
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    DREAMHAUS has been shown on Focal Point Gallery’s big outdoor screen everyday from 25th April – 5th June 2022. The soundtrack could be heard across the Essex University campus and the ‘world within a world’ images worked really well in the urban environment of central Southend. It was a brilliant opportunity to roll out the film to a big diverse

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    Women Making History Exhibition

    By hw on May 23, 2021
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    Finally, my Suffragette Banners commissioned by 14-18 Now are showing in London at the Scottish House Westminster from 2nd June – 11th July 2021: ‘Women Making History’ brings together more than 100 extraordinary textile banners made by artists and women’s groups across the UK for PROCESSIONS, a mass participation artwork which took place on 10 June 2018, featuring tens of thousands

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    Arts Council England award: Developing Artistic Practice

    By hw on May 23, 2021
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    Fantastic news: I’ve been awarded a substantial grant by the Arts Council which will fund my practice for 6 months. Title of the work: Totems of Hope. This is based on 2 series of images I made in early 2021 after the toughest winter. These collages absorbed me for a few weeks and were made in a frenzy of creative

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    WOMEN MAKING HISTORY book publication

    By hw on June 19, 2020
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    The two Sufragette banners I was commissioned to make for the Processions project funded by 14-18 Now in 2018 are featured in a beautiful bespoke book just published by Artichoke. It makes for a rich and vibrant archive of powerful statements by women artists and womens groups across the UK.

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  • ‘Lockdown’ series featured on Curatorspace

    By hw on June 19, 2020
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    My large scale drawing series ‘Lockdown’ made during the Covid pandemic has been featured this week on Curatorspace. The website ‘is a project management toolkit for curators, organisers, galleries, and artists’. I appreciate the exposure for my artwork on this site, I’ve made use of it myself on many occasions and have secured a number of opportunities for projects, exhibitions

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    ‘Goldigger’ artwork for BBC

    By hw on June 19, 2020
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    Artwork commission for ‘private members bar’ in ‘Goldigger’ BBC drama broadcast in early 2020 – 4 of my ‘Stripper’ and ‘Dummy’ drawings were blown up and printed as large artworks for the set.

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    Still Life in Mobile Homes

    By hw on February 4, 2020
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    These drawing series are from sketchbooks I have been working with over the last year. Due to a traumatic injury on my arm and extensive surgery, I was unable to work in the studio. I found myself off work and confined to home, so resorted to working in a small sketchbook format – I think of these drawings as my

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    Royal Academy Course: ‘female invasion’

    By hw on March 8, 2019
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    I was invited to lead a Figure in Movement class at the Royal Academy in the historic Life Room in June. As my approach to drawing the figure is a fast, loose and intuitive one, this is a particularly exciting opportunity to challenge the traditions of life drawing, to keep it ‘live’ and ‘part of the conversation’ around contemporary drawing

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    Ghost Tide Exhibition Thameside Gallery

    By hw on October 23, 2018
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    I represented my ‘Prayer Flags’ that commemorated all the ‘lost souls’ of the Thames at a riverside gallery located right by the Thames Barrier as part of a group show: Ghost Tide. The work was again installed outside, but this time on a modern industrial unit, filling the shutter doorway space outside the gallery. The work is being left there

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    ‘Things’ project and exhibition

    By hw on October 23, 2018
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    We hoard and surround ourselves with things to remind us of our past and to establish who we are. It’s as if the objects have got a magical power to stop time, keeping our memories alive. But when we are no longer here, forget, or dispose of the object, the web of stories disappears. And the object moves on, via a charity

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    Procession 2018

    By hw on August 8, 2018
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    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/gallery/2018/jun/02/womens-banners-to-celebrate-100-years-of-suffrage-in-pictures I was one of 100 artists commissioned by Artichoke and 14-18 Now, to conceive, design and make 100 Suffragette banners to mark the centenary of the first women and to get the vote in Britain. I worked with a diverse range of women including the ‘Essex Girls Liberation Front’ who actively challenge the negative ‘Essex Girl’ stereotype. The banners are

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    This is what an Essex Girl looks like

    By hw on March 2, 2018
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      All hail the new Tshirt I put together with ZenEssex Studio on behalf of The Essex Girls Liberation Front, to be launched at the Essex Book Festival at Firstsite this weekend 3/4 March. The campaign is to challenge the reductive ‘Essex Girl’ stereotype that follows us wherever we go..and echoes the Fawsett Society’s ‘This is what a Feminist Looks

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    Suffragette banners at the Women’s Library

    By hw on March 2, 2018
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    As part of my research for the Processions project I am leading this Spring, I had the fantastic opportunity to see some of the original Suffragette banners in the archive of the Womens Library in Holbourn. Seeing these extraordinary artworks up close was incredible, to see the variety of hand made processes, from fine needlework to appliqué, stencilling and handpainting

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    Processions: Suffragette Banner project

    By hw on March 2, 2018
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    I’m very excited to announce my next artist project: I have been selected to lead a project to create contemporary Suffragette banners for a national procession to take place in London in June. I’ll be working with three different groups of women to make their own banners, including modern slogans and images that echo the original Suffragette banners. Workshops will

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    English National Ballet Live Drawing event on tour

    By hw on October 30, 2017
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        I’m currently on tour with English Nationa Ballet, taking my Live Drawing event around UK theatres for the 6th consecutive year. I continue to draw the dancers regularly, warming-up in stage in the charged atmosphere of these empty theatres. It’s a fabulous experience to draw these world class dancers ‘in the raw’ with all the blood, sweat and

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    ‘Shibari’ drawings: the modern performative body

    By hw on October 30, 2017
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    Alongside the East London Stripper Collective and English National Ballet dancers in warm-up, I’ve been making further investigations into drawing dynamic figures from life that challenge traditional notions of ‘Life Drawing’. I’ve recently discovered the Japanese art of ‘Shibari’ elaborate rope tying…intense performances, both physically and psychologically and a complex drawing experience, on many levels. See a few examples here,

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    Turner Prize Drawing Workshop at The Ferens Gallery Hull

    By hw on October 30, 2017
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      October 2017, I was invited to design and lead a workshop at The Ferens Gallery in Hull, in response to the Turner Prize, currently on show there. My remit was to create a one day drawing workshop accessible to all, inspired by one of the Turner Prize artists and informed by my own practice. I selected the playful composite

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    ‘Something Blue’ at Cultivate Gallery

    By hw on September 6, 2017
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    ‘Blue Movie’ drawings on show at Cultivate Gallery online

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    Leyden Gallery: Platform #15 group show

    By hw on July 11, 2017
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            ‘Strip-Frieze’ 2017 an installation of 16 monoprints on silvered paper  

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    Artist Residency: 8 Drawings in 8 Days

    By hw on June 1, 2017
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    Drawings made on residency at METAL

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    ‘Strip-Freeze’ Radical Life Drawing!

    By hw on June 1, 2017
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    Fast sketches from life: East London Strippers Collective

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    House of Hackney: ‘Venus as a Boy’ live drawing experience!

    By hw on February 8, 2017
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      February 2017: A new venture and collaboration! I led a unique ‘live drawing’ event this week in the House of Hackney’s showroom on Shoreditch High St, inspired by the languid and romantic Pre-Raphaelites: ‘It was a reform and a dream. It was real and unreal…an escape from the age and a means of converting it. It was a circle

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    ‘Lines of Thought’ workshops at the University of Hull

    By hw on February 8, 2017
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      I was selected to deliver the artist engagement strand of the British Museum exhibition ‘Lines of Thought’ through workshops and the development of a downloadable education pack for art and design students. The remit was to create ‘inspirational’ workshops to engage students in drawing and to promote and encourage the use of drawing in their studies. My starting point was 2

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    Lines of Thought

    By hw on January 13, 2017
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    http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/tours_and_loans/uk_loans_and_tours/current_tours_and_loans/lines_of_thought.aspx I was selected on application to deliver talks and workshops to University of Hull students at this exhibition which presents 70 master drawings from the museum collection. This is one of the highlights of Hull City of Culture 2017 and I am privileged to be involved in such a high profile event. The exhibition has attracted record visitor numbers,

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    Mind Control Tower goes live!

    By hw on September 29, 2016
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      Mind Control Tower one day installation and live event at Coalhouse Fort Tilbury on 25th September 2016 as part of #estuary 2016. See film below and article in Vice magazine here: http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/en_uk/blog/englands-mind-control-tower-war-history                    

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    Estuary 2016 Artist Commission

    By hw on May 16, 2016
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      I have been selected for an artist’s commission by METAL for the inaugural ‘Estuary 2016’ arts festival…this is a fantastic opportunity to make new work in response to the powerful themes presented by the Thames Estuary. My intention is to make a site-specific installation at Coalhouse Fort – one of 3 spectacular locations for the festival which runs from

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    The Dance Within Us: Live Drawing Event at Tate Liverpool’s ‘An Imagined Museum’

    By hw on November 21, 2015
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      I am currently on tour around UK theatres with English National Ballet facilitating live drawing events where artists have access to dancers in Company Class, thereby breaking down the ‘Fourth Wall’ by getting up close to dancers and experiencing all the effort, sweat and musculature behind the scenes. The challenge is to make a fast intuitive response to the

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    The anti-Fashionistas

    By hw on July 6, 2015
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      I’ve had the use of a large empty building for a couple of weeks where I’ve been working on a major new piece of work titled ‘The anti-Fashionistas’. This will take the form of a series of 6 metres long banners for Village Green arts Festival. I’ve been reworking a 30 metres roll canvas I had left from a

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    Artist Beach Huts for arts festival

    By hw on July 4, 2015
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    I’ve just spent 4 weeks painting 6 bespoke artist designed beach huts for a new arts festival in Thurrock: ‘Village Beach’, curated by Metal. These huts will add colour to the Thameside location and will create spaces for a cinema, a museum, a childrens literature space, a busking stage and more. I’ve been working with a small crew in a

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    Firstsite drawing event

    By hw on May 23, 2015
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    I facilitated a drawing event at Firstsite gallery as a participatory event for the Learning team, other artists and young people. In a spirit of play, participants were invited to make their mark to transform my original drawings on a recycled large vinyl banner. The mannequin/dummy motif is central to my practice: it is used here as a metaphor for

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    ‘Sheroes’ at WOW Festival Southbank Centre and Spotlight

    By hw on May 22, 2015
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    The spirit of Boudicca and the mythical Amazons is alive and well, channeled through these battle-maidens and she-warriors ! My collaborative ‘Superstrumps’ with writer Syd Moore re-presented itself at WOW Festival at the Southbank Centre in March 2015, 4 years after its launch at the same venue via BBC Woman’s Hour – this time in the guise of ‘Sheroes’. This

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    ‘Creative Journal’ workshops at Metal Southend

    By hw on May 22, 2015
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    I have recently led two series of workshops to explore the endlessly creative format of the Artist’s Journal: ‘a Visual Dialogue with the Self’ at Chalkwell Hall, Metal. 30 students have completed journals and ‘altered book’ projects – (making interventions into found books) packed full of raw material, thoughts, observations and ideas. Each workshop is themed, with experimental practical tasks

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    Dynamic Drawing and Dance: English National Ballet and City Lit

    By hw on May 22, 2015
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    I have been building a new relationship between English National Ballet and The City Lit to run short courses both at the studio and at Sadlers Wells when the ballet company are in residence. These take the form of a lecture to contexualise the commonalities between dynamic drawnig and dance, practical strategies for drawing the figure in movement and a

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  • The Discerning Eye 2014: ‘Her Royal Subjects’

    By hw on September 11, 2014
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    ‘Her Royal Subjects’ has been selected for The Discerning Eye exhibition at the Mall Galleries in October – the ‘queens’ spoons’ finally goes out in public..just down the road from The Palace. One is amused. The piece was created from a found object: kitsch commemorative spoons, a tourist trinket.

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  • The Society of Graphic Fine Art: Draw 14

    By hw on August 18, 2014
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    I have been selected for DRAW 14, the 93rd Annual Open Exhibition of the Society of Graphic Fine Art (SGFA). The exhibition, which will run from October 6th to the 18th at the Menier Gallery in London, will be officially opened at a Private View on October 7th by Andrew Marr – journalist, broadcaster, drawing enthusiast and presenter of the BBC’s Andrew Marr…

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  • Banner-making event Village Green

    By hw on August 15, 2014
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    In July I created a banner-making event for Village Green – Next Generation. This involved around 350 school children working in small groups in quick turnaround half hour slots supported by artists. We used old vinyl banners that I’d pre-prepared with spray paints to abstract the type and encourage the children to see the visual potential in creatively interpreting the shapes and forms that…

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  • Changing Room

    By hw on August 15, 2014
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    In June I had the opportunity to occupy an empty shop premises in Leigh-on-Sea for a month – I showed a recent drawing series ‘Showgirls: Throwing Old Selves Off Like Underthings’, some small scale paintings based on shop mannequins and a much earlier series of mixed media drawings from 2004 that gave their title to the show: ‘Changing Room’ – these images suggest the…

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  • Drawing the Figure at Firstsite

    By hw on January 17, 2014
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    This 5 week course has just started – see some images here made with carbon copy paper in response to the earliest and tribal representations of the figure. The course will introduce some contemporary contexts for the figure through a variety of media including printmaking, collage, drawing and projections and to consider the fragmented figure, the composite figure and the body/object.

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  • Firstsite: Doll Parts drawing event

    By hw on November 28, 2013
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    The ‘Doll Parts’ drawing event took place on Saturday the 28th September in the fantastic purpose built learning studio at Firstsite Gallery Colchester. I set up a ‘tableau’ of dolls, mannequins and marionettes old and new.

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  • ENB on tour

    By hw on November 28, 2013
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    I have been ‘on tour’ leading live drawing events with English National Ballet throughout October and November including Milton Keynes, Southampton (twice) Oxford, Liverpool and Bristol. The tour ends with two dates at The Coliseum in London to support The Nutcracker and Le Corsaire in December and January respectively.

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  • New blog: Look the Doll in the Eye

    By hw on August 13, 2013
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    This new blog will document the Essex Arts funded project of the same name, making use of my recent research into the uncanny nature of drawing, specifically through its transformative potential of the doll/mannequin/marionette motif, a recurrent theme in my work.

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  • LifeCycle at Village Green July 2013

    By hw on July 17, 2013
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    Around 700 children took part in LifeCycle at Metal’s Village Green arts festival this year – this was a multi media live artwork that featured projection and bike spare parts and sculptures to produce dynamic, exciting large scale drawings that celebrated ‘bike culture’ – a film will be made to encompass the entire event.

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  • Art Auction Brick Lane

    By hw on July 17, 2013
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    I’ll have a piece in this auction alongside the likes of Vivienne Westwood, Gavin Turk, Andrew Logan etc etc on July 24th at Shoreditch Gallery – to raise funds for MS

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  • LifeCycle

    By hw on June 10, 2013
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    We have just confirmed a new drawing event ‘LifeCycle’ to take place at Metal’s Village Green festival on 12th/13th July. This is a collaboration between myself and film-maker Mike Eden and will present a 30 metre x 2m high circular drawing on canvas inside a circus tent. The drawing will be made live over 2 consecutive days by children and the public to celebrate…

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  • ‘Look the Doll in the Eye’ forthcoming project through Essex Arts Award

    By hw on April 29, 2013
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    I have just heard that I have been awarded an arts grant from Essex County Council for a project that reflects on women’s self-objectification. I will be making an artist newspaper titled ‘Look the Doll in the Eye’ which will present recent drawings, to be distributed throughout the Eastern region and facilitating a live drawing event at First Site in Colchester. The event will…

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  • On the Line schools/museum project

    By hw on April 22, 2013
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    I have been undertaking at Hassenbrook School in Stanford le Hope a project that will culminate in a 2 month public exhibition at Chalkwell Hall Southend-on-Sea over the summer. My project will take the form of 2 distinct but inter-related artworks: a display of found objects titled ‘Museum of the Ordinary’ which take imaginative leaps as to what historians of the future will make…

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  • ‘The Doll Said’: drawing installation at TAP gallery

    By hw on April 15, 2013
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    Work in progress at TAP Gallery – a temporary artwork. This will be filmed/photographed before it’s painted over and I’m collaborating on a soundtrack which will feature my spoken voice ‘in dialogue’ with the doll. The drawings manifest the research I’ve been engaging in over the last couple of years regarding the uncanny: the doll as transitional object and the transformative potential of drawing….

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  • Ecstacy and Death: Live Drawing event with English National Ballet

    By hw on March 23, 2013
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    A special opportunity to capture the moving body at the peak of physical excellence, facilitated by visual artist Heidi Wigmore. Consider the nature of drawing and the immediacy of the visual response to movement in a ‘warm up’ session led by Wigmore, followed by the chance to put your skills to work, drawing English National Ballet’s dancers in their morning class.

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  • Life Drawing at Chalkwell Hall

    By hw on March 23, 2013
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    Another series of life drawing workshops have started in Chalkwell Hall

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  • Switch Ideas Lab at The Pacitti Company

    By hw on March 23, 2013
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    Metal in collaboration with Pacitti Company in Ipswich developed a five-day ideas lab working with 6 artists based in the Eastern region. It took place from 28 January – 1 February 2013. I was one of these artists selected to take part.

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  • English National Ballet

    By hw on November 14, 2012
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    I have been working with the English National Ballet to develop a series of live drawing events to take place during rehearsals at the Coliseum. The events will be aimed at artists and art students to offer a unique opportunity to glimpse the ‘closed world’ of the dancers practising their choreography and the discipline of warming up the body at the bar. ENB hope…

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  • The Unexpected Guest

    By hw on September 25, 2012
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    I was invited to host a lunch at Edge Hill Station as part of the Liverpool Biennial – the theme this year being: ‘The Unexpected Guest’. Edge Hill’s the oldest working passenger station in the world and the venue actually sits between the two platforms, which kind of makes it invisible as people are unable to see that it’s inhabited – so it’s…

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    Independent Free State: Inception

    By hw on May 28, 2012
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    The ‘Independent Free State’ is a drawing based ‘Campaign for Imaginative Space’ created by Heidi Wigmore, supported by Metal Southend-on Sea and funded by The Arts Council. I’ll be presenting new work at Village Green, a free one day arts festival in Southend-on-Sea, now in its 4th year, which attracts audiences of around 27,000 people. The project will include drawing practice as ‘live’ event…

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