Anoushka Havinden

I’m delighted to have been appointed a Satellite Associate for the Society of Scottish Artists.

These new roles have been created to help strengthen the SSA’s outreach across Scotland. I aim to forge links between Argyll & Bute and the rest of Scotland, increasing engagement and sharings news from the area.

If you have arts/crafts exhibitions, events, workshops, opportunities, etc within Argyll & Bute and you’d like to spread the word, please get in touch via the contact form, and I’ll pass the information on.

If you’re interested in joining the SSA, you can read more about this artist-run society here.

I really look forward to seeing what we can do to help strengthen the arts community within Argyll & Bute and across Scotland.

New Satellite Associates

Image: Jamie McAteer, altered from series A Farewell Shaped Land

I’m thoroughly delighted to be starting 2020 with the prospect of working with the Scottish Book Trust as a recipient of their Ignite Fellowship.

I’ll be working on a collection of poems provisionally titled ‘The Water Cure’, investigating the waters of the west coast of Scotland, their histories, geographies, myths and peoples.

More soon!

What the sky demands

 
the wind insists on.
How much light can one body bear?

See what we become when our gnarled,
knotted needs are swept aside.
 
A landscape stripped to the horizon
to rockform, flint flaked with hesitant gleam.
 
Gorse-root fingered, peat block feet
tread paths perpendicular to the weather.
 
Whin-haired, heather sweetened,
a huddle of willow bickers

behind you, a flock of starlings
weave their old prayers into the cloud.

I’m off to do a week’s residency in Cove Park, shortly. Gathering books, materials, thought strands, screwing courage to the sticking place. I’m planning to introduce my poetry to my visual art and see what happens. The residency will be followed in August by a group exhibition in Dunoon Burgh Hall. Watch this space for more info.

Upcoming show in the Lillie Gallery, Milngavie.

All very welcome!

(The days at the turn of the year)

a process of sinking – a following of form, a stripping away, a pursuit into the unknown.

Last year, in these turning days, I made large, shadowy ink paintings on paper.

Red indian skirt, grandmother’s shawl, grandmother’s easel, grandmother’s onionskin paper, sandals in December, the wrong feet, a child’s brush, the sludge from the bottom of last week’s painting jar, pastel scraps; the size of two overlapping pieces of roughly A3 paper.

gesso, ink, acrylic and pastel on board, 30 cm x 30 cm

I have two works up for auction at this year’s Art on a Postcard, with proceeds going to The Hepatitis C Trust.

Of course I can’t post an image, as it’s a secret auction – but you can see all the lots up for sale here!

A worthy cause, and some fabulous artwork.