My Art Residency at Spring Harvest, Minehead

At Easter I spent a week as the artist in residence at the Christian conference Spring Harvest #SH2019, Minehead (wk 1) and thought I'd share with you what I got up to. The theme this year was Prayer UNLIMITED: Unlimited – Access, Unlimited – Connection, Unlimited – Potential; Unlimited – Hope.
There were three main parts to my role. 1. to provide all age activities for the morning programme called the BIG START. 2. to lead an art workshop for the guests one afternoon and 3. to paint live in the evening celebration. I also had the opportunity of selling my art and merchandise in the bookshop.

BIG START

The morning sessions were based around the theme of a School of Prayer “No rules, no limits!” The creative team leading this programme had to dress in school uniform – hence the pigtails! I based my activities around the idea of a graffiti wall and each morning added a new word. I'd learnt from the previous year to keep things super simple as there would be a large number of kids, about 10 minutes to do things and it was too loud to give any explanations alongside the songs, games and drama also happening. We used chalks, did handprints, created collage and sketched.

ART WORKSHOP

Being the only artist and only art workshop on offer that week, it's not that surprising that 142 people turned up on the afternoon of my class! So the first thing we did, as people queued to get in and to collect their materials, was to cut everything in half! It was like the feeding of the 5000!
I took people through a few loosening up exercises before leading them step by step through some of the techniques and layers that I use in my abstract art. I shared with them how I partner with the Holy Spirit in my creativity and we invited God to use our imaginations to inspire our art work. It was lots of fun and I got some wonderful feedback as people queued at the end to show me what they'd made.

LIVE ART

Each evening, next to the stage, I got to paint HUGE pictures, during the worship, the talk and the ministry time. Working so big and with limited time lent itself nicely to expressive, messy work. I barely used a brush or palette, I just threw the paint on the canvas roll and manipulated it with a shower squeegee and sponges.
There was a camera over my shoulder a lot of the time with a live feed to the large screens either side of the venue, with images of me painting interspersed with footage of the 3000+ audience and the band. I was having so much fun that I was mostly able to block this out of my mind and just get on with what I was doing.
I used the theme of each day as inspiration for what I painted and invited the Holy Spirit to partner with me as I worked – I felt that, as well as the pieces having a prophetic nature in their concept, there was also moments of prophetic action/movement that I felt God prompting me to do. For example I was led to paint with a feather at a point where people were responding to God (he whispered to me that he was meeting them with a particular gentleness in that space, and the feather represented this).
One of the evenings I felt God tell me he wanted my painting as an interactive/responsive piece, so I dialogued with the preacher and host about how to incorporate this into the programme. People were invited to put a thumbprint on my picture to represent their sons and daughters who they were interceding for. It was so moving to see 100+ queuing to engage with God through my art.

Each evening I left my paintings to dry over night, then in the morning I hung them on the bleachers. The images are available for guests (and anyone else) to purchase as poster prints in my Etsy shop. Click each picture below for the links to read the explanations for each piece.

TELL ME

MEET ME HALFWAY

TOGETHER

A FRIEND IN HIGH PLACES

HOPE

The original pieces were taken home, and will be stretched and exhibited in my Open Studio event in July, apart from one which has already sold and is about to travel to it's new home in Cornwall.
I love being able to share my art, which has been created in a worship environment, with those who don't have a faith. Displaying biblical truth and God's heart through colours seems to gently draw people into conversation and interest in what I'm seeking to express or celebrate, and viewers have commented on an atmosphere of joy and peace that makes them want to know more or to take my art home.

It was a full on, tiring week that I thoroughly enjoyed and was a huge privilege to be a part of!