Tag Archives: artworks

Doug Patterson : travels in watercolour

Doug Patterson is a renowned archtitect & artist who, in his own words, says his feet have not touched the ground in the last six years!

However, he is also an artist very much with his feet on the ground – as his recent watercolour sketches demonstrate, revealing a unique insight into the locations, religious communities & styles of architecture that he has encountered on his extensive travels around the world.

Over the last six years Doug Patterson has been on a personal artistic crusade, retracing the journeys made by three 18th and 19th century travelling artists – Hercules Brabazon Brabazon, Vasileios Gregorovic Barsky & Samuel Davis – who between them recorded the three great world faiths – Islam, Buddhism and Orthodox Christianity.

Doug’s journeys in the footsteps of these three artists has included sketching and painting Islamic mosques and monuments in North Africa and India, Buddhist Dzongs in Bhutan and the Orthodox monasteries of Mount Athos and Meteora in Greece. This project, called Artists in Paradise, recently culminated in a well-received exhibition at the National Theatre, London in 2010.

The monastry of Hilandara, Mount Athos © Doug Patterson

Doug has visited Mount Athos in Greece twelve times, walking throughout the holy mountain and visiting all twenty Orthodox monasteries. Doug’s travels in Greece followed those of the artist and Russian monk, Vasileios Gregorovic Barsky, who in 1745 visited Mount Athos and recorded the life, landscape and architecture of the holy mountain. Doug Patterson’s Mount Athos portfolio consists of over 200 artworks, including sketches, water-colours and oil paintings. The Mount Athos series of works were recently exhibited in Saloniki in Greece, the exhibition then travels on to Athens and Istanbul, Turkey.

The Katholica, Hilandara, Mount Athos © Doug Patterson

Between 2005-2007 Doug travelled to Bhutan, the land of the Thunder Dragon, following the route of the artist, astronomer and director of the East India Company, Samuel Davis (1760-1819), who visited Bhutan in 1783. Doug’s Bhutan portfolio is a comprehensive contemporary collection of drawings and paintings of the landscape, life and architecture of all the 20 Dzongs (Buddhist monasteries) of Bhutan.

Jakor Dzong, Bhumthang, Bhutan © Doug Patterson

Buddhist Monks in Bhutan © Doug Patterson

Travelling through the region of northern India (of the Mughal Empire), Doug’s next series of paintings and drawings retraced the footsteps first taken by Hercules Brabazon Brabazon (1820-1904) who made numerous journeys recording the architecture of the Muslim and Christian world.

Jama Masjid mosque © Doug Patterson

Gurudwara Bagla Samib, Delhi © Doug Patterson

Doug Patterson is an artist who rarely stands still it seems! He has already begun a new travelling art project, called Sacred Places, in which over the next three years he hopes to visit twenty sacred locations worldwide. As Doug explains:

The first location in this project was the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India. The journey was by boat from Calcutta via the Hooghly and Ganges Rivers, first to New Farraka and then through the lock onto the River Ganges. We finally docked in Patna then went by road to Bodhgaya, finally to arrive at the most sacred Buddhist site, the Mahabodhi Temple, culminating in an intense spiritual experience. The various artworks illustrating this particular journey are now almost complete.

In November 2010 I then travelled to Albania to teach in the school of architecture and then I went on to Libya for Christmas and the New Year. This trip, first to Tripoli to visit Leptis Magna and Sabrata was astonishing, then on to Bengazi, and finally travelling 600km south through the Libyan desert to Gadhameson on the border of Algeria.

My next Sacred Place is an expedition for one month through the Canyons in Arizona, I will be travelling with an artist friend who lives in Flagstaff, we will walk and camp through Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon and Monument Valley – the latter is the sacred place, and the journey is the Canyons.

Later in the year I am planning another journey (depending on current political events) to Yemen and Saudi Arabia, travelling overland from Aden to Sana and then to Riyadh. This journey, which follows the ancient Frankincense trade route between Yeman and Saudi Arabia, will include initial studies in watercolors (and then later as oil paintings in my studio) of the traditional architecture and mosques. My route will take in Aden via Tarrin, Kawkaban, Sana and the Wadi Dhahr Valley in Yemen, then crossing over into Saudi Arabia via Najran, Abha, Jeddah, Medina and Riyadh.

Artworks wishes Doug yet another ‘bon voyage’ and we look forward to the seeing the new ‘Sacred Places’ series as it evolves. In the meantime you can listen to Doug Patterson talking about the ideas & inspiration of his earlier travels on BBC Radio 4’s travel programme, Excess Baggage.

Doug Patterson trained at the Royal College of Art, then studied Architecture at the Architectural Association, graduating in 1974. He established his own architectural design practice and has spent the last twenty five years working on a wide variety of projects, ranging from film sets to a 28-suite luxury yacht. You can view his comprehensive art portfolio on Doug Patterson‘s own website.

Penny Bhadresa linocuts featured in BBC Gardens Illustrated magazine

Exciting news! Penny Bhadresa was recently commissioned by the BBC’s Gardens Illustrated magazine to create a new series of linocuts to accompany Carol Klein’s forthcoming series of gardening articles in the magazine, ‘A Year at Glebe Cottage’.

Penny explains: In late December 2010 I received an email from the Art Editor of BBC Gardens Illustrated Magazine. They had looked at my website and asked if I would consider illustrating Carol Klein’s new series, ‘A Year at Glebe Cottage’. This was an opportunity both extremely exciting and deeply daunting as the brief was to create two linocut illustrations each month to accompany Carol’s text.

Penny was actually considering having a well-earned break after one of her busiest years ever, but this was an offer difficult to refuse as the subject had great appeal and it was a great challenge, so she readily agreed!

As Penny says: accepting this commission has given me a chance to work on subject matter I find inspiring anyway but the challenge of working to tight deadlines, I have realised, requires a highly disciplined approach because of the time constraints involved. A nail-biting deadline is always looming!

My first deadline for the February issue was already looming so I had to get my skates on, but I managed to get the two illos (as they call them in publishing circles) scanned and delivered in time. I thought my somewhat hurried first two linocuts looked quite nice in the February issue of the magazine, and now, looking forward each month and seeing my work published in this highly respected gardening magazine is the icing on the cake.

Penny explains the techniques in creating her original prints on her own website – here is a quick excerpt that aptly demonstrates the level of craftmanship that goes into each of her distinctive & vibrant linocuts:

Making limited edition linocut prints has become a central part of my creative work as an artist. I love linocut for the boldness and strength of image it produces. The process starts with drawing my idea for a composition, remembering that the image will be in reverse in the final print. I work straight from my imagination or combine this with visual references from photographs I have taken or sketches I have made. When I am happy with my design and composition I transfer it to lino using tracing and carbon papers.

Cutting out the design is done with different sized gouges and V-tools. Once the cutting is complete the lino is mounted on board to strengthen it and is then ready for inking. I prefer to ink up my lino blocks in one go, using different sized rollers and sometimes brushes for intricate areas for each separate colour. Sometimes a subject may be suited to the traditional reduction method of linoprinting which produces a more hard-edged quality in the final image.

I like to use linseed oil based relief printing inks which have great depth and luminosity of colour. For paper, I experiment with different types. I especially like some of the fine Japanese papers and find Imitation Japanese Vellum a superb all-round support for linocut prints. For most of my printing I use a small table-top relief printing press, although for larger work I sometimes use a Britannia press. I also like to hand burnish my prints to give greater depth of tone where appropriate.

The two linocuts shown here can be seen in the current April edition of Garden’s Illustrated magazine. This commissioned series of prints will appear as new illustrations each month in Gardens Illustrated and they will also be available to purchase as editioned original prints. You can see more of Penny Bhadresa’s linocuts on the Artworks website & on her own website.

Penny Bhadresa is a founding member of Artworks, its elected Chairperson since 2003 and she exhibits annually at the Artworks exhibition. Penny is also a member of Suffolk Craft Society & exhibits annually with Norfolk Arts, and she also participates in the very popular Christmas Craft Markets at Blackthorpe Barn. Her linocut prints are also available to buy at Smith’s Row Craft Shop, Cambridge Contemporary Art, Craftco, The Suffolk Craft Society – Gallery 2 and St Judes Gallery. In addition to her limited edition prints, Penny Bhadresa’s linocuts have also been reproduced as a series of greetings cards – you can view & purchase the cards online at One Brown Cow.

Welcome to the ARTWORKS blog!

What is Artworks?

Artworks is a dynamic group of thirty contemporary East Anglian professional artists. Each September we put on a special, annual showcase exhibition at the historic Blackthorpe Barn in Rougham, Suffolk, UK. Our artists come from across the East Anglian region, from North Norfolk down to Essex, from the East coast to the edge of the Fens.

Artworks was established in 2000 and the annual exhibition has proven to be an exciting and not-to-be-missed cultural event in the East Anglian art scene. All Artworks members are professional artists & well established in their creative fields. As a group Artworks is committed to promoting excellence and artistic diversity in the work of its members and delivering this unique asset of our group to the wider community.

You can read more about Artworks activities and view full profiles of all our exhibiting artists on the Artworks website – and do stay in touch with our brand new Artworks blog right here in the lead up to our next showcase exhibition in September 2011.

On the Artworks blog we aim to share a little more of what we do in the form of exhibition news & reviews, artist talks or workshops & other related events, more informal ‘take five’ style interviews with our artists, occasional stories from the artist studios and any other creative activities further afield! So please stay tuned & follow the new Artworks blog!

You can read more about Artworks history and view full profiles of all our exhibiting artists on the Artworks website.