On residency with artist Rebecca Sammon

Artist Rebecca Sammon spent a week on residency at This House in February. We caught up with her on a windy Monday morning for a walk on the Common…

Winding our way up the hill, past the allotments and the village pub we chatted about the importance of spending time away from usual routines and connecting with nature as a way to find new inspiration.

Rebecca’s colourful drawings and paintings draw on mythology; whimsical characters dance and bend around abstract natural forms. Her distinctive style has been picked up on by some of the leading platforms in the art industry and as a result she has been very busy.

This residency offered the chance to slow down and reflect. As a new mother Rebecca was also relishing the opportunity to redefine the balance of work with life, and explore new ways in which one might influence the other since welcoming her new baby.

As we pick our way over the mossy grass she tells me that she has been enjoying exploring looser mediums during her stay. Her work is rooted in oil pastel and she is experimenting with relinquishing the control of the pastels by blending them with inks and watercolour.

The layering of watery pigment over drawn elements results in a softer expression of her style that seems to lend itself perfectly to her dreamlike characters. Colours become less set in stone and there is a sense of movement to the work which she is enjoying.

Walking over the common towards Minchinhampton we pass haggard winter trees. Clouds skitter in heavy undulating patterns overhead, carried gracefully past by the wind which is always so strong up here this time of year. I later recognise these shapes and forms in the paintings Rebecca has laid out in the snug room where she has been working this week. The layered pigment washes over her characters giving a sense of the wind and rain that will have undoubtably swirled across the landscape on her walks.

For more of Rebeccas work see HERE

Follow her @sammon_r_k

Rebecca