Orkney. Collaboration.

Earlier this year artist Karen Maxted and myself were awarded the Jerwood Arts 1:1 Fund. It’s given to provide the support needed to facilitate collaboration between artists. To provide the space to exchange ideas, skill-share and research together. So in February we set off in our matching hats to catch the ferry to Orkney.

We spent our time exploring and sketching Mainland Orkney’s sea, land, history and archeology. It was brilliant to get such a intense period of time to work together (we live over four hours drive from each other) and to be in an environment that inspires us both.

Swimming in February was nippy. It took days of waiting to be on the right side of the island, at the right tide, wind speed and wave height, but we eventually managed and we were delighted.

I was delighted to get to see the work of my New Art School tutor Sara Barker’s work at Pier’s Art Centre.

We managed to spot some seals in St Margaret’s Hope. We had based our trip on the book swimming with Seals by Victoria Whitworth, so along with swimming, seeing the seals was a big tick on our to do list.

We are currently working on securing a space to show our work together and planning how our pieces will react to each other when exhibited.