Surrey Artist Open Studio - join us on the Hindhead Art Trail!

I am doing Surrey Open Studio for the first time this June. It is celebration of having a new studio space and hope it will be a great opportunity to meet artists, locals and collectors and share and sell my work. I will be sharing my colourful paintings and monochrome prints inspired by maps locally and beyond. There will be some new work - small paintings that are maps of Churt, Frensham, Tilford and other villages around Farnham.

It will also be the first time I am sharing my new wooden block sculptures. They are a bit of an experiment - using wood offcuts to display my prints differently and I am intrigued to see what people think. I will be open on the 1st, 2nd, 7th, 8th, 9th, 21st, 22nd & 23rd June and on the 7, 8 & 9 June offering one hour drop in sessions where you can create your own small colourful block sculpture. Find more details here.

For Open Studios, I have joined nine other artist on the Hindhead Art Trail. You will find luscious ceramics, dramatic abstract landscapes, perfect wildlife portraits, and much more. The trail is a perfect way to spend a morning or afternoon.

Start in Churt with Fiona Millais’s evocative semi-abstract landscapes that respond to the local area and the coast. Across Churt village, Georgina Rey is exhibiting loose oil sketches done on site capturing the feeling of local places, alongside larger, colourful abstracts. Just up the road, come and see my paintings at Bargate Cottage, Churt Road - colourful paintings and monochrome prints inspired by maps locally and beyond.

Turning South through Whitmore Vale, find Alison Hunt’s textural, abstract landscapes in wonderful tones. They sit alongside Nicola Martin’s stoneware pottery, including her signature ‘Earth bowls’ that evoke the strata between land and sea. Both artists are inspired by the colours, shapes and textures of the natural world which they interpret in their pieces. 

On the road into Grayshott, visit Alison Orchard’s working studio at Applegarth Farm. Enjoy a collection of expressive sea and landscape paintings, alongside gutsy abstracts and a range of limited-edition prints. The gallery also showcases a selection of hand-thrown ceramics by respected artists. There is a lot to tempt and inspire!

This might be a moment to stop for a coffee or lunch at Applegarth Farm restaurant and deli, with locally sourced and home-grown food.

Next stop Annie Child’s fused and stained glass, in her lovely oak framed garden studio on the edge of Grayshott village. Annie’s range of glass art draws on her love of colour and the beauty of the natural world around her.

In Grayshott village, the Punchbowl Gallery hosts Angie Wallace and Nicky Chubb. Angie creates amazingly realistic artworks of wildlife, packed full of intricate detail in coloured pencils and pastels. Nicky paints expressionistic, stylised sparkling trees in mixed media, and creates multicoloured and textured collaged nudes from life.

Finish the trail in Beacon Hill with Emma Godden’s fantastically observed, tactile garden ornaments inspired by seed pods and flowers. You can make three of your own at her workshop on 21 June.

There is no right way to experience the Hindhead Art Trail, start and finish where you like. Trail maps are available in each studio and details of opening times and workshops are here and instagram @Hindheadarttrail

Open studios are a great way for artists and art lovers meet new people, get and give feedback and find new art. It would be lovely to see you at Bargate Cottage.

The Map Room and what Followed

The map room

In June 2021, I created ‘the map room’ as part of the Pandemonium show at the PZ Gallery, Penzance. It was an intimate space where people could come in, sit and explore my map paintings - telling stories of the impact that we have on each other and the environment.  

The work was described in the publication from the show: “[She] has turned this sense of cartography into a philosophical position whereby she makes a stand in her bond with the planet---seen at a distance as a shoreline in Alaska or great rift in Ethiopia; or up close as in the bird’s eye view of her local park.

These map-makings are fragments only, often beautifully coloured; but like jigsaw pieces they hint at a bigger picture and they too ask the ecological and existential question, ‘What is our relationship with the world?’ A question never more prescient than now.”

The ‘Map Room’ at PZ Gallery, June 2021

What sort of maps would people like for them?

Through my art I am exploring the irrefutable bonds we have with our planet, but also want to engage people. With that in mind, I asked visitors to the map room to write on a postcard ‘what issue, story or emotion would you want a map to portray?’ and ‘what place anchors it?’  I had nearly 40 responses - every one generous and honest - providing a rich seam of content and insight for my next project.

The responses broke down into three types. The first were very personal reflections on where people were in their lives and what they were currently experiencing. From acceptance of ageing to a lack of outlet for ambitions. It was humbling to see how open people were - one asked for a map of their child’s brain with a specific profile of their autism, another shared a feeling of straddling two worlds and emotions.

The second were also personal, but about positive memories. They tended to start with the place where the person had achieved something or a holiday perhaps. I love the tiny glimpses these give of a life, like this one: “my family lived on this beautiful wild hill, in a grand house, and walked a few miles to worship on a Sunday at the local Methodist chapel”.  

Together these personal postcards made up the majority of the responses. 

The third set of responses were about issues. People asking for maps to reflect the Uyghur detention camps in China; plastics in the oceans; or homelessness in Penzance. Global and local issues were equally represented. These sort of issues are at the heart of my current work. So it is interesting to see that there were fewer ‘issue postcards’ than personal ones, even though paintings reflecting climate change, the last white rhino, the crises in Ethiopia, surrounded people as they wrote their responses. Does that mean that people didn’t connect to what the paintings were about? Or that they naturally wanted a more personal response? I am so curious to learn more. Thank you to everyone who contributed - I so appreciate you.

Map Room 2.0: the next body of work

Beyond the analysis, the answers people gave have been a wonderful source of inspiration. This is something that is really important after a show.  It helps with the anticlimax, but perhaps more critically, it provides a continuity to my art practice that i really want to cultivate - a connection between paintings and people who have seen my work.  

I am now building a new collection of paintings in response to the postcards, that I am calling Map Room 2.0.  I am trying to ensure they span global issues and personal reflections to see how my painting responds to each.  Here are two examples:

‘Rainforest deforestation’  

captures a postcard that asked for a map portraying climate change and our impact on the environment, suggesting rainforest deforestation in South America as a place to anchor  it. This is a map of Manaus in Brazil in dark pink, bright green and orange.

‘Climbing Pulpit Rock’

responds to a request for a place where something personal was achieved. Pulpit Rock is in Norway so the painting draws on the arctic environment, but also the sense of achievement in the pink and orange underneath the white.

These are work in progress. They work as maps and paintings, but do they capture the emotions or issues? I want to continue the conversation with them and perhaps even the people who wrote the postcards. My next blog will explore each in a bit more detail and I will be sharing the stories on instagram and in my email newsletter.

Whatever happens it will be enriching and I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Emotions of lockdown: a record of strange times

As we approach new restrictions due to the pandemic, it is a potent moment to remember how we fared during the initial lockdown. During that time I captured the emotions of my friends and turned them in to a series of paintings.

Each week from March 23rd to the end of June, I took the feelings that people shared and translated them into paintings. I did four or five small boards each week and shared them on social media so friends and followers could vote for their favourites. I kept the top ones and painted over the rest. The larger ones that made the cut are captured in a new book ‘words and colours - a record from lockdown’.

The paintings evoke particular moments and how things evolved in those first months. Early weeks capture the loss and disruption we all experienced with ‘Discombobulated’ and ‘Anxiety’. ‘Sensitive Boredom’ and ‘Fragile and Listless’ reflect the middle weeks when the initial fear had worn off., but everyone was stuck at home. We are reminded how nature and spring sunshine carried us through in ‘hope building’ and ‘thankful for nature’.

It was clear that events shaped the words that people shared, along with whatever was happening with the work and families. The book also records what was happening more widely - from coronavirus statistics, to the actions of Dominic Cummings and the murder of George Floyd.

It wasn’t just the painting. It was the connection and engagement. I am interested in creating shared pieces of art that lots of people contribute to. This project was a way to do that during lockdown. But more importantly, It was an essential way to stay connected and check everyone was doing OK.

It is so exciting to be able to bring this snapshot of a strange time together into a book. It’s like a little piece of history in real-time. It is also a way to raise some money for charities that have been hit so hard by the pandemic. You can buy the book directly here, or get in touch via the contact form. The individual paintings are also available on this website or via Instagram @stephaniedraperartist.

For the love of maps - map commissions

My intrigue and inspiration from maps has intensified this year. When i am in my shed creating my maps - particularly the prints, I go into a world of exploration. Looking at the patterns and connections in the land that I couldn’t have appreciated while on the ground. I feel like I am starting to understand a place in a different way. This is quite a personal process, so it is hard to know how others will respond.

That makes it all the more inspiring to know that others are finding something to inspire them in the maps too. Its been the print maps that have been most successful - there is something about them that seems to appeal to people. Perhaps it is the simplicity, or the aesthetic of black lines and gold, or the representation of a place and an experience in a different way, or that I love doing them and that comes through!

This has been particularly pertinent in my commissions work. A number of people have asked me for maps that are meaningful to them. I take the area that they are interested in and explore the maps. In my own work I do maps of places that are meaningful to me. So it is really inspiring to hear people’s stories and create their maps. I also get to learn details of coastlines and regions that are less familiar.

The maps are drypoint etches where you make marks on a special board, apply ink and put it through a press.  These are black or indigo.  I then use metallic paint to highlight the places or journeys that people want to focus on.  These might be birth places, places where people have met or an amazing journey or experience.

The map shown here is a map of the Slovenian/ Croatian/ Bosnian coastline. It was commissioned for a wedding anniversary.  The gold marks represent the places where the couple were born - one in Slovenia and one in Bosnia and there is a gold line that connects the two cities. It is a drypoint etching in indigo (dark blue) ink on somerset paper (27 x 33cm). I loved exploring the number of islands along the Croatian coast as I did it and the distances that the couple had conducted their early romance over. It’s also wonderful to hear what a unique gift it is and see it being enjoyed on people’s walls.

So 2018 was definitely the year of the map and I think that 2019 will be too. I am in the process of doing some new work that pulls together all the maps I have done of the Alaskan wildernesses to conclude that series. I am also doing new maps of more urban areas that are meaningful to me, and who knows where the commissions might take me.

If you have your own map that inspires you and want to find out more about my map commissions check out the brochure (under collections): https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a428fa029f187de5f713331/t/5c600f7e71c10be188efe911/1549799618386/Map+commissions+brochure_stephaniedraper_2019.pdf

Introducing 'Mapping the Change'

In my day to day work I design big change projects aimed at getting us to a more sustainable future.  For my next art project ‘mapping the change’ I am exploring the patterns and relationships needed to achieve social change which I hope will improve my understanding of how change happens, communicate challenges in new ways through art and inspire a great collection of paintings and prints.  

So I am currently bringing together a collection of successful social change projects - some that I have worked on personally, but most from a wider network.  I am looking for projects that are anchored in a place and are focused on addressing a particular social challenge.  I want to cover a range of different issues - from urban regeneration to drug addiction, from climate change to food and nutrition - all taking us towards a future where all humans flourish and we live within environmental limits.  At the moment I want the projects to be global in reach, but this may change as I understand more about what’s practical and what boundaries I need to set.  

I am particularly interested in understanding more about five key areas that my experience suggests are critical for big change: the networks, power and relationships needed to facilitate change and how people experience them; how a combination of activities can add up to create new actions and patterns; the level of impact that is being achieved and how we understand that visually; how ‘place’ can offer appropriate boundaries for successful social change projects and what that tells us about the size, structure and location of future projects; and what enabling conditions are needed to accelerate change - including the role of technology in all of these activities.  

I'm currently testing the idea.  I'm getting a long list of amazing social change projects together.  At the same time I am going to focus on one or two change programmes to see how I can translates them into paintings and insights.  I want to meet the people involved, work with them to understand the significant change that has happened and explore maps and paintings from this experience.  I hope that through painting and printing I can portray the experiences of participants in a new and different way and also learn new things.  

From there I will refine my research questions and short list the projects to explore in more depth - learning more about my key questions and access new approaches to accelerate my own work as a system change designer.  This will form the basis of my next art collection and possibly a book to share learning and hopefully beauty with change agents across the world.  

But I can’t really do this on my own.  I need help finding the best social change projects and introductions to the people involved.  I’ll need brains to help me priorities.  I’ll need feedback on whether the paintings are coming together and working...and lots more besides.  So if you have suggestions of change projects or people to talk to then please let me know - or if you want to get involved in another way.  It’s going to be quite a journey!