About your hosts: Mark Richards was director of Metal (Peterborough) for 10 years and covered the role of CEO for the final year before moving to Portugal to establish Studio459 with his Portuguese husband Joao. Before that, he worked for 10 years as Senior Relationship Manager at Arts Council England. He's also worked for several local authorities in arts development and teaching positions. He has a BA in Fine Art and MA in European Cultural Planning. He specialises in artist and project development, production, and funding.
Joao Gravanita is originally from Carvoeiro in southern Portugal but moved to UK to work in TV production. He is a historian with a vast knowledge of Portuguese history and culture, as well as coming from a long family line of bakers and chefs, so is an excellent cook. At Studio459, Joao is responsible for hospitality and will be your cook, tour guide, interpreter, and general fixer to ensure your stay is perfect.
#artistresidency
#artistretreatportugal
*** Art residency @studio459tomar ***
As a part of my ‘time out of time’- a period of time that I’ve created and crafted over a couple of years to restore and nourish my creative practice in the face of burn out- I was honoured to be accepted onto the residency programme at Studio 459 in Portugal, cared for and fed in aaall the ways by Mark and Joao (with even more love supplied by Poppy dog).
As I transform, so does my art work, and this stop along the way is giving me space for the deeply needed reflection and the re-centring of my visual arts practice, within my life.
A huge part of what I do is ‘socially engaged’: it involves care, the creation of community and empowering people through collective creativity and joy.
That work is wonderful, it is demanding- it is also essential (more than ever in these times).
What Mark and João specialise in is ‘holding those that hold’- and I am eternally grateful for their nurture.
The domestic context that they have created is key to the subtle cross pollination and idea sharing that happens.
I’ve been making work that speaks of vessels, journeying, the sacred, navigation and metamorphosis. All very ‘on brand’ for this rich and challenging time in my life.
Having this residency, unobstructed by the usual demands and expectations of life, is an incredible privilege and it is feeding me in so many ways I could not have foreseen.
Along with two other wonderful UK based creatives- the Tomar Massive @clairebeerjeraz and @marcy_rick ,we have visited the Biennale @anozerocoimbra in the beautiful city of Coimbra which blew me away (the art work, the site AND the curation).
We have been taken to markets and into the landscape..we sit and eat together throughout the day, we rest and dream, we make artwork with no attachment to an outcome with the resulting conversations being often rich, often funny, often informative and always inspiring in some way.
It is a generous space that enables and fosters the true exercising of imagination and the act of truly trusting the process.
This is the edit of the story so far.. more to come xxxx
Brilliant first week with new residency artists Claire @clairebeerjeraz , Marcy @marcy_rick , and Faye @fayedobinsonprojects with trips to Tomar, Fatima, and Coimbra to see the fantastic biennale. So inspiring.
I had a very enriching time during my residency @studio459tomar ! Time to look back at my practice. Time to reflect on where I wanna go. Time to have insightful conversations with the other artists in residence @tania_hershman_writes and @rachaellhouse and our hosts Mark and Joao. Time to write an application. Time to start exploring something new. Time to relax. Mark and Joao have created a space that nurtures the mind, the soul and the body!
Once again, a sublime week at @studio459tomar ! For me, a writing/art retreat is as much about rest, nourishment (in all ways), conversations and connections as it is about writing /work - and Mark, Joao and Poppy provide all the above and more, in an atmosphere of exquisite care, thought and attention. From the house, garden and pool, and conversations around the dinner table, to visits to art galleries and other local wonders, always with stops for cake, of course. And the Hammock of Inspiration did its magic again for my almost -finished novel 🪄.
Thank you to my wonderful fellow residents @rachaellhouse and @orlandomyxx_art , with whom I found so many overlapping areas of fascination (from Star Trek, cooking tv shows and cats to alternative relationships, introversion and gender transcendence) as well as being introduced to so much that was new to me and that has my curiosity extremely piqued! Truly a week of queer joy, thank you to you all.
#writingretreat #artistsresidency #writing #art #queerjoy
Having a great time with Tania, Rachael and Orlando. Such a pleasure when previous residency artists return. Fab conversations about queer families, soft masculinities, pandemics, memory, time and football!
Great to visit Coimbra Biennale too. Some inspiring work.
@tania_hershman_writes@rachaellhouse@orlandomyxx_art
So lovely to be back at the heavenly @studio459tomar artists' retreat / residency. I might finish my novel - anything is possible! The Hammock of Inspiration is calling...
I've just come back from @studio459tomar artist residency in Portugal feeling genuinely nourished, inspired, rested, and motivated.
An artist residency works when everything converges: the conversations, the stillness, the new stimulation, the beauty of a place. This one had all of it, a studio space filled with light, shelves of books, beautiful surroundings, sunshine. But above all, the people. So warm, so generous, so knowledgeable. Every practical need taken care of so your mind could stop worrying and start wandering.
That's the gift of it: permission. Permission to rest without guilt, to think without an agenda, to create without pressure. All of it is fruitful even when it doesn't look like it. Thinking is working. Resting is nourishing. And from that space, the urge to respond and make something new becomes irresistible.
This is how artists bring something into the world. Not by grinding harder, but by being given the conditions to be fully themselves.
Deeply grateful. Thank you @studio459tomar@ajaeg@contraststructurebrightness@studiodanicamaier
The first image was created by @kallinak using a pinhole camera with a 2 minute exposure time. In a world of digital immediacy, this act of slowing down set the tone for this special low_res residency, convened by Elle Reynolds, foregrounding rest, reflection, conversation and play as acts of resistance and recovery.
Thank you @ajaeg , @kallinak , @studiodanicamaier and @contraststructurebrightness
Until next time dear friends
#artistresidencies #artistretreatportugal
I have had the pleasure to be welcomed to the Low Residency space @studio459tomar hosted by Mark, Goao and Poppy and made possible by the brilliant Host_Guest_Host @contraststructurebrightness . We walked on Portuguese land, faced the aftermath of hurricane Christen, indulged in the culinary delights of artisan chef @joaogravanita25 , laughed, rested, conversed in much needed peer support and gave ourselves and another permission to feel our ways in making and creating in the aftermath of hurricane PHDoing with many wounds healing and intellectual burdens to be shed. It’s been a thrill and then some.
