Kate Boucher: Residency Reflections
Kate Boucher became our first resident artist at Fen Ditton Gallery in June this year, creating a productive studio in a matter of days, running a workshop on charcoal drawing and displaying some of her works in progress.
Kate Boucher converted the gallery into a studio and got to work!
During her 10-day residency, shorter than planned due to a family bereavement, Kate took daily walks along the River Cam, exploring and absorbing the local landscape - one that couldn’t be more different to her own surroundings in Wales!
On her return to Wales, she continued the Fen Ditton residency, remotely, for a few weeks at her own studio; packing away other projects and with just the tools and books originally brought to Fen Ditton, she focussed on completing a body of Fenland work.
The charcoal drawings that emerged are now on show as part of Art and Rivers, here at the gallery in the place where they were, in all senses, made. Her brilliant, fluid use of charcoal captures with great skill the particular and ever-shifting atmosphere of water and light that is Ditton Meadows, just a stone’s throw from the gallery.
First responses on paper to Kate’s new surroundings
Getting to work - Kate took daily walks along the River Cam to capture her starting material
Kate Boucher’s Fenland series. No 23.2022 exhibited at Fen Ditton Gallery as part of Art and Rivers exhibition
We were introduced to Kate Boucher and her astonishing work through photographer Graham Murrell (also exhibiting in Art and Rivers). The two had met whilst teaching at West Dean College. Kate had published her book ‘Drawing with Charcoal’ in 2021 and Graham felt sure that Kate would be the right person to take up the gallery’s inaugural residency with its emphasis on artists’ responses to the natural world.
Kate has held a number of residencies across the UK and internationally and her experience proved to be invaluable in helping shape our first residency.
Kate comments;
“Big skies, dense horizons and a sense of space; It was a surprise to me that the flat expanse of the Fens unsettled me at first, having lived on the South Downs for eight years, and now living in the Snowdonia National Park. A part of each day was spent walking the Fen Ditton meadows, taking photographs and making sketchbook drawings and notes- bringing these seeds back to the gallery studio to work from. Using the gallery as a studio space was very special - so much space and light. The source imagery gathered led to over 40 drawings and the series is still ongoing since returning to my studio in Wales.”
A collection of works from the Fenland series are currently exhibited at Fen Ditton Gallery until Sunday 13th November. All works are for sale. Contact info@fendittongallery.com for enquiries.
