Arts & Culture
SETTING THE SCENE Kit Glaisyer
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ridport’s art scene continues to grow and evolve over the years, as each generation shares their unique influence while new faces bring fresh energy and ever-surprising variety and talent. The greatest concentration of artists is found on the St Michael’s Trading Estate where recent additions include abstract painters Rob Morgan and Peggy Cozzi, figurative painter and sculptor Russ Snedker, and imaginative painter Vanessa Cooper. stmichaelsartists.com Meanwhile, a new generation of artists continues to spring forth from within the community, often the children of local artists. Many of these younger artists feel compelled to seek experience in the wider world, leaving to study at college or university. One thing Bridport currently lacks is its own Art College. There was one for a few years in the 1980s in Symondsbury but nowadays the local options are Weymouth and Yeovil – where PJ Harvey studied art before focusing on her music. Bournemouth has an excellent university (where I did my Foundation Studies) but many artists take the opportunity to train further afield in Bath, London, Falmouth, Glasgow or Edinburgh. Young, emerging artists include Bridport-based painter Ellie Preston, who grew up in London and is a graduate of Chelsea College of Art, and also winner of the Brenda Landon Portrait Prize 2013 and the Clyde & Co Community Art Project Award 2014. ellieprestonstudio.com Then there’s musician and painter Ella Squirrell who grew up in Symondsbury and is now in her final year at Falmouth College of Art. ellasquirrell.tumblr.com Chideock-based artist Marina Renee-Cemmick is just starting her final year at Glasgow School of Art and has already exhibited in London. Growing up in a family of artists, Marina had the opportunity to explore her creativity from a young age. She quickly took to sketching every day, and also joined Bridport Youth Dance under the tutelage of Nikki Northover. At school she won the Eric Morris Award for Outstanding Artist, 2012 and Prep HE Best in Show, 2014. She also performed in music, theatre and dance across the South West and London from 2011-13. She then did her 12 | Bridport Times | February 2018
Foundation Studies at Bournemouth University in 2014 before starting a Fine Art Degree in Glasgow. In early 2017 Marina spent six months on an exchange programme in Japan, finding inspiration in the dance form Butoh. More recently, she travelled to Barcelona to study under the young Polish sculptor Grzegorz Gwiazda who, she says, “…taught me a great deal about how to look… When viewing his pieces, I find myself suspended between hope and despair.” Having trained in dance from a young age, Marina’s body remains a central focus to her work. Now working across drawing, painting, sculpture and performance, she says “When I am working on a large scale, I am forced to use my body in a very physical way, it creates a record of my action and energy, almost closer to dance.” cargocollective.com/marinareneecemmick There are also many artists who once lived in Bridport and have moved on to great accomplishments elsewhere. At the Oakhayes Residency I met several brilliant artists including figurative painter James Ursell who moved to Herefordshire, thekeepmagazine.com/james-ursell/, sculptor Dan Bendel who lives in Bristol, danbendel.com, and photographer Damian Bird who runs a Photographic Magazine in Teignmouth, lifeforcemagazine.com. Glaswegian artist Douglas McDougall was at the Oakhayes Residency from 1998-99 and then moved to London, showing at East West Gallery in Notting Hill before joining the Hans Alf Gallery in Copenhagen. Examples of his work are now in the collection of the Cantor Arts Centre, California. Douglas then spent a year in Beijing, another in Bristol, and now lives and works back in Glasgow. He currently shows with the Knightwebb Gallery in Brixton, run by Rufus Knightwebb, another artist with strong connections to Bridport. Rufus studied Fine Art at Winchester School of Art, then ran the Foundation Studies course at Symondsbury Art College from 1987-88 before moving to London. I actually shared studios with Rufus in London in the mid-90s before I made the move to Bridport. knightwebb.net Whilst in Beijing, Douglas met Ai Weiwei, >