STUDIO 8 was set up in 1999. Ten artists are now based there, working – and often crossing between – different media. Margaret Hodges, Julie Parker, Jane Cannon and Steve Sommerville work in mixed media, Shirley Eccles in glass, Flora Gare in sculpture and Sally Haynes in drawing, alongside painters Cipriano Martinez, Jackie Cross and Helen Peake.
I was able to talk to three of the artists – Margaret Hodges, Flora Gare and Cipriano Martinez – on the day I visited. Since all the Studio 8 artists have very different lifestyles, several have ‘day jobs’ (often teaching) to support their creative work, and two are also currently doing fine art degrees, it’s virtually impossible to find all of them in the studios at any one time.
Although the artists work in close proximity, there is little formal relationship between their differing practices. Like all artists they and their work are very individualistic, “though it’s a very open atmosphere,” says Flora Gare.
“There’s a sharing of information, and we obviously talk, but it’s often about how to do something rather than about ideas, though some people see connections between our work.”
Of the current artists, only Margaret Hodges and Sally Haynes have worked at Studio 8 since the beginning. “We have been very fortunate in the artists who have had studios here,” says Margaret Hodges, “and it’s healthy to have new people working here. It’s good to have adrenalin and energy around.”
The artists have a monthly meeting to discuss any studio business, and, as a group, are setting up a more formalised collective project called Works on Paper.
“The idea is to establish a dialogue between the artists working here. It’s a dialogue with images about work in progress,” says Cipriano Martinez.
All the artists show work in various spaces, but one of the advantages of working from New Greenham Arts is that the centre itself has an excellent gallery hosting on-going exhibitions. “We see other artists’ work regularly on site, and get the chance to discuss exhibited work with them. Often we are invited to a discussion with them. We also have the gallery on site for our own annual show in September,” says Margaret Hodges.
This year’s Studio 8 show will be entitled ‘Crunch’. “It showcases our work, and gives us a chance to curate and get involved in all aspects of organising an exhibition,” Flora Gare says.
Venezuelan-born painter Cipriano Martinez joined Studio 8 six months ago, and has found it easy to slot in. He originally trained as a civil engineer in Venezuela, then took a fine art degree there, and did his MA at Chelsea College of Arts and Design in London.
His latest body of work, Pixelations, will be shown at the Sala Mendoza gallery in his home city of Caracas in August; the gallery regularly shows his work. The paintings are strongly structured, with hundreds of abutting squares and rectangles painted in vivid primary pigments, which put me in mind of Gerhard Richter’s recent Serpentine show.
“I’m interested in how cities grow,” he says, “about scale, boundaries and development, about chaos and rational order imposed upon it by urban planners, and the conflict between the two. My work is like that. Up close you see no structure, but as you stand back, structure emerges. How to organise chaos is part of the work; the work makes sense of chaos. The beginning of the project was representative, now it’s moved to abstraction. The work also refers to the modern period, from the 1940s, when Caracas and South America itself grew so fast, in 60 years after the first oil boom.”
In Flora Gare’s current work, which ponders on memory, she continues to experiment with embedding digital images of old family photographs printed on acetate within cast-resin blocks. “I’m working with liquid resin and adding coloured pigments, playing with liquidity, hardness, scale and light. You can change the surface quality of the resin by the mould lining – for example, you can get a frosted surface – and I also like the random nature of the casting. You can’t completely control it. Sometimes it cracks, and the cracks are interesting. It adds something to the image and makes it harder to see.”
“I’m also experimenting with some mini-landscapes in resin, using small toy figures and animals: the childlike element is playful, but it can be sinister.”
Margaret Hodges will be showing work at two Open Studios satellite exhibitions: drawings and a hanging at Arlington Arts, and a hanging at West Berkshire Community Hospital. The hangings were originally made in hessian and paper, with metallic paints; she is now experimenting with tracing paper, heavy-duty foil and muslin. “The hangings began with work about environmental changes in the locality over a long period,” she says, “especially changes in water distribution. They’re about mapping, flux and change.”
“I continue to be interested principally in the idea, but also the process, the best way to investigate the idea. I’ve always worked with the concept. Everything has a source. I’m also interested in the interaction between the personal and the public.”
The Studio 8 artists will be having an open evening on Thursday, May 14 (6pm–9pm) as part of Open Studios. Come and meet them, enjoy food and drink, and take part in a silent auction, for which each artist is contributing three pieces of work.
Although the studios are not normally open to the public, the Studio 8 artists are very happy for people to look around and talk to them by arrangement. Past visitors have included school and college students.