Journal
Sirens: Women and the Sea
By hw on June 30, 20240Read moreI have applied for an artist in residency at the Ferens Gallery Hull. My reference is the ‘Cosmic Sea Goddess’ series I made in 2021, see images below. I have wanted to develop this series of analogue/digitalised composite images into an artwork, this residency, immersed in all the mythology and symbolism of The Siren, would be the perfect opportunity
Dance for Parkinsons at The Royal Albert Hall
By hw on June 30, 2024Read moreI was invited by English National Ballet to facilitate another drawing and dance workshop for the Dance for Parkinsons project, following a wonderful couple of events last year. This year the workshop incorporated the repertoire of Swan Lake, the show ‘in the round’ at the Royal Albert Hall. Responding to the live piano and using paint pens on a
WOW festival at Factory International Manchester
By hw on June 30, 2024Read moreMay 2024 I was invited to design and facilitate a participatory drawing event at WOW (Women of the World) festival at the vast iconic new culture venue Factory International in Manchester. The festival took place over one weekend and attracted a diverse crowd of women, girls and non-binary people to engage in workshops, events, and talks to explore WOW’s
State of Her Artist Talk for International Women’s Day
By hw on March 2, 2024Read moreI’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
Totems of Hope on display in the heart of Soho
By hw on January 26, 2024Read moreThe 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
Lord of Misrule film released
By hw on January 11, 2024Read moreIn 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
‘The Dreaming’ at WIA gallery
By hw on December 1, 2023Read moreMy 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..
Chateau Sacy site specific work
By hw on September 8, 2023Read moreIn 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’
Dance for Parkinsons with English National Ballet
By hw on September 8, 2023Read moreI’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
PLAY at Stone Space
By hw on September 8, 2023Read moreMy 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…
Banners for Rite of Spring festival
By hw on May 5, 2023Read moreBanners for Rite of Spring festival May Day 2023
Totems of Hope banners on public display
By hw on March 31, 2023Read moreThe ‘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
What a Waste at the Koppel Project London
By hw on November 24, 2022Read moreOne 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
Her Discontents at Downstairs Brixton
By hw on October 21, 2022Read moreImages 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
DREAMHAUS shown at Focal Point Gallery
By hw on June 7, 2022Read moreDREAMHAUS 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
Women Making History Exhibition
By hw on May 23, 2021Read moreFinally, 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
Arts Council England award: Developing Artistic Practice
By hw on May 23, 2021Read moreFantastic 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
WOMEN MAKING HISTORY book publication
By hw on June 19, 2020Read moreThe 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.
‘Lockdown’ series featured on Curatorspace
By hw on June 19, 2020Read moreMy 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
‘Goldigger’ artwork for BBC
By hw on June 19, 2020Read moreArtwork 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.
Still Life in Mobile Homes
By hw on February 4, 2020Read moreThese 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
Royal Academy Course: ‘female invasion’
By hw on March 8, 2019Read moreI 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
Ghost Tide Exhibition Thameside Gallery
By hw on October 23, 2018Read moreI 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
‘Things’ project and exhibition
By hw on October 23, 2018Read moreWe 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
Procession 2018
By hw on August 8, 2018Read morehttps://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
This is what an Essex Girl looks like
By hw on March 2, 2018Read moreAll 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
Suffragette banners at the Women’s Library
By hw on March 2, 2018Read moreAs 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
Processions: Suffragette Banner project
By hw on March 2, 2018Read moreI’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
English National Ballet Live Drawing event on tour
By hw on October 30, 2017Read moreI’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
‘Shibari’ drawings: the modern performative body
By hw on October 30, 2017Read moreAlongside 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,
Turner Prize Drawing Workshop at The Ferens Gallery Hull
By hw on October 30, 2017Read moreOctober 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
‘Something Blue’ at Cultivate Gallery
By hw on September 6, 2017Read more‘Blue Movie’ drawings on show at Cultivate Gallery online
Leyden Gallery: Platform #15 group show
By hw on July 11, 2017Read more‘Strip-Frieze’ 2017 an installation of 16 monoprints on silvered paper
Artist Residency: 8 Drawings in 8 Days
By hw on June 1, 2017Read moreDrawings made on residency at METAL
‘Strip-Freeze’ Radical Life Drawing!
By hw on June 1, 2017Read moreFast sketches from life: East London Strippers Collective
House of Hackney: ‘Venus as a Boy’ live drawing experience!
By hw on February 8, 2017Read moreFebruary 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
‘Lines of Thought’ workshops at the University of Hull
By hw on February 8, 2017Read moreI 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
Lines of Thought
By hw on January 13, 2017Read morehttp://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,
Mind Control Tower goes live!
By hw on September 29, 2016Read moreMind 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
Estuary 2016 Artist Commission
By hw on May 16, 2016Read moreI 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
The Dance Within Us: Live Drawing Event at Tate Liverpool’s ‘An Imagined Museum’
By hw on November 21, 2015Read moreI 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
The anti-Fashionistas
By hw on July 6, 2015Read moreI’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
Artist Beach Huts for arts festival
By hw on July 4, 2015Read moreI’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
Firstsite drawing event
By hw on May 23, 2015Read moreI 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
‘Sheroes’ at WOW Festival Southbank Centre and Spotlight
By hw on May 22, 2015Read moreThe 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
‘Creative Journal’ workshops at Metal Southend
By hw on May 22, 2015Read moreI 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
Dynamic Drawing and Dance: English National Ballet and City Lit
By hw on May 22, 2015Read moreI 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
The Discerning Eye 2014: ‘Her Royal Subjects’
By hw on September 11, 2014Read more‘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.
The Society of Graphic Fine Art: Draw 14
By hw on August 18, 2014Read moreI 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…
Banner-making event Village Green
By hw on August 15, 2014Read moreIn 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…
Changing Room
By hw on August 15, 2014Read moreIn 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…
Drawing the Figure at Firstsite
By hw on January 17, 2014Read moreThis 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.
Firstsite: Doll Parts drawing event
By hw on November 28, 2013Read moreThe ‘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.
ENB on tour
By hw on November 28, 2013Read moreI 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.
New blog: Look the Doll in the Eye
By hw on August 13, 2013Read moreThis 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.
LifeCycle at Village Green July 2013
By hw on July 17, 2013Read moreAround 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.
Art Auction Brick Lane
By hw on July 17, 2013Read moreI’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
LifeCycle
By hw on June 10, 2013Read moreWe 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…
‘Look the Doll in the Eye’ forthcoming project through Essex Arts Award
By hw on April 29, 2013Read moreI 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…
On the Line schools/museum project
By hw on April 22, 2013Read moreI 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…
‘The Doll Said’: drawing installation at TAP gallery
By hw on April 15, 2013Read moreWork 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….
Ecstacy and Death: Live Drawing event with English National Ballet
By hw on March 23, 2013Read moreA 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.
Life Drawing at Chalkwell Hall
By hw on March 23, 2013Read moreAnother series of life drawing workshops have started in Chalkwell Hall
Switch Ideas Lab at The Pacitti Company
By hw on March 23, 2013Read moreMetal 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.
English National Ballet
By hw on November 14, 2012Read moreI 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…
The Unexpected Guest
By hw on September 25, 2012Read moreI 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…
Independent Free State: Inception
By hw on May 28, 2012Read moreThe ‘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…