My Tower Gallery artist residency…
68 drawings
50 materials test pieces
79 sketchbook pages
42 prints
9 3D pieces including printing blocks
3 textile pieces
That was with three weeks to go of my three-month residency. Even by my standards, that’s creatively overproductive. But based in the projection room of a 1920s Byzantine revival church in East London, this has been an unusual opportunity. So I’ve wanted to make the most of it.
My project Reading the Building has been about the building itself, researching its design and crafts and exploring the building through drawing. I’ve wanted to make some big work, seeing if I can hold on to the lively line of my sketchbook drawings. And I’ve wanted there to be an element of giving back.
In my rabbit hole of research, I've found a lot more than I expected. I’ve seen the architectural and engineering drawings at the RIBA Collection, got mucky hands looking through the builder’s job books at Islington Archives and read press cuttings about the bells at Croydon Archives. I’ve picked brains on River Lea industrial history and letter cutting. I’ve sketch walked in search of factories. Discovering that architect William Hayne designed quite a lot of Frinton-on-Sea, I’ve been to the seaside to take a look. And working in and around the building I’ve been part of the community life that’s part of its design story.
I’ve shared my research with church historian Hilary Colston, who has given me social context in return. We have wanted to show the research more widely before it goes into the archives so in addition to my two drawing activities for the public-facing part of my residency, I’ve done a talk during Open House (full house; bonus cat) and a narrated slideshow for onward use as a resource.
What of the creative work?
Well, in that part of the project, I’ve been letting the building show me things as I draw – a very different process from my necessarily structured work of design and illustration. Drawing on and with materials related to building crafts, I’ve found myself painting with clay and iron, making paints from brick and stone, binding sketchbooks from wallpaper, drawing on sandpaper and veneer, tracing shadows, cutting letters, sketching an alphabet from the foundation stones around the building, making my first cyanotypes… and making the biggest drawing I’ve ever done, A Modest Detail, 1.5m square of interior brickwork keyed for plaster.
I’ve had mentoring, pushing me gently off the rails with suggestions of new approaches, new materials and new things to try. I’ve learned from taking part in an exhibition selection panel. There’s been bonus input: a number of artists are in residence at any one time and in the overlap between us, there has been sharing of practice and exchange of ideas.
Behind the scenes, I’ve done a lot of planning, to give the project the structure that makes room for improvisation, to cover the work I've wanted to do, to be ready for events and to keep the residency clear of my studio days for clients.
Two pieces have been on show in the Tower Gallery September Open. My sketchbooks and 1m high drawing of the East tower are going to the church archives. And there’ll be more work to see at the artists in residence group exhibition in January 2027.
Read my residency diary on the studio blog.
Contact me If you would like to watch the narrated slideshow of my research, or if you’re interested in buying a piece from the project (except for the banister drawing, which has sold).
Find out more about Tower Gallery here.
