Deborah Westmancoat

Text from my current solo exhibition at Ace Arts, Somerton......

Weather Report – Deborah Westmancoat.
20 April – 19 May 2018.

Deborah Westmancoat is based in Somerset and is currently undertaking an MA in Fine Art with Bath Spa University, aiming to commence PhD study later this year. Her work is exhibited frequently throughout the UK and internationally. She was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2014 and became an RWA Artist Network member in 2015.

For the past six years she has been engaged in a long-term project researching the four stages of classical metaphysical alchemy in relation to the natural environment; considering how each stage might help us to understand the cyclical process of how landscape moves and forms. Recent paintings have included collected floodwater, moonlit stream water, icicles, hoar frost and hailstones. Organic materials gathered from each site, particularly oak galls, often contribute to pigments used in the process.

The work in this exhibition has been made using water collected from weather events and locations around Somerset, Dartmoor, Cornwall, the base of a Swiss glacier, the wilds of the Scottish Highlands and the Neolithic landscapes of Ireland. They draw focus to the simple beauty, poetry and mystery to be found in the everyday – in falling rain, puddles reflecting the bluest of skies and ground frost silvering silent country lanes, churchyards and wooded hollows. Every painting began in a quiet place where one of these moments became apparent and is an attempt to tell that story.

Image: Solar Horses (2017) ... See more

I'm installing a solo show of recent work at Ace Arts Gallery next week. Exhibition launch 6-8pm on Friday 20 April. All welcome. Do come and say hi if you are in the area. Show then runs until 19 May 2018.

Ace Arts, Market Place, Somerton, Somerset TA11 7NB. Tel: 01458 273008. Open Tues - Sat 10 - 5. ... See more

SOLD today, Ocellus (2017), from my current exhibition with C R Brownridge at the wonderful Green Hill Arts Gallery in Moretonhampstead, Dartmoor. Just a few days left to see it now - show runs until 4pm Saturday 14 April. Thanks to gallery team Georgie, Carol and Andrea for such a fantastic experience. I've loved working with you.
Green Hill Arts, Fore St, Moretonhampstead, Newton Abbot, Devon TQ13 8LL. T: 01647 440775. Open 10am - 4pm. ... See more

Received a wonderful letter from the panel at the Royal West of England Academy yesterday to let me know I have been successful in the first stage of selection as candidate for RWA Academician. I will be showing four works in the Academicians' Gallery during the Annual Open exhibition along with the other candidates in October. The current Academicians will vote and I will find out next year if I am accepted. There's no saying I will get in, but it's great to have the opportunity and I'm over the moon....... ... See more

Looking forward to this evening and being part of the panel discussion with Jem Southam and Katy McLeod at Green Hill Arts from 6.30 - 8pm. Amongst other subjects we'll be considering the idea of landscape 'in extremis', looking at our relationship with nature and extreme conditions and how art methods might open up our understanding of nature in a way that science and the written word can not. All welcome. Tickets available from Green Hill Arts, Moretonhampstead, Dartmoor. ... See more

More on the July/August 2018 residency I have been selected for with the International Academy for Chinese Thought and Culture - a collaboration between staff at Beijing Foreign Studies University, Peking University and Bath Spa University through the Global Academy of Liberal Arts network (GALA).

Overview: "You'll learn about Chinese thought, culture, history and arts, from some of the leading world scholars in China and the USA. You'll receive an introduction to the main school of thought in China, as well as learning about how Chinese ideas have informed the development of Chinese culture and Chinese arts. Part of the trip will involve studying in Qufu, the birthplace of Confucious, with staff from Beijing Foreign Studies University. You'll then return to Beijing to visit various historic sites and learn more about traditional and contemporary art in China from Professors at Peking University. The course will also have a practical focus and students on the trip will have the opportunity to learn about and try out various Chinese traditional practices inc Tai Chi, meditation, traditional Chinese medicine, calligraphy and the tea ceremony. The Beijing trip will also involve the opportunity to meet with some of the top curators and artists in contemporary China." ... See more

The In Extremis private view at Green Hill Arts on Friday evening was heaving! Just brilliant to see so many familiar faces and have some good catch ups. This work sold to a lovely man who was really interested in the processes involved in making the piece. Show runs until 14 April 2018.

Remember Me (2018)
Handmade oak gall ink, writing ink and rainwater shaken from hedgerow plants in St Andrews churchyard, Moretonhampstead, Dartmoor, on board. Box framed in white wood and non reflective glazing. 35 X 35 X 4.5 cm.

In Extremis: Images of Landscape, two person show with C R Brownridge, Green Hill Arts, Moretonhampstead, Devon (2 February – 14 April 2018) ... See more

In Extremis Images of Landscape
C.R. Brownridge and Deborah Westmancoat

Extreme weather events have always been part of the natural world, now we are living through a time of unprecedented environmental change. This exhibition is concerned with understanding landscape and our place within it.

C. R. Brownridge always loved just being in the landscape. He studied maps; he knew bird calls; he could tell the exact time of day without a watch; he had an unerring sense of when weather would change and how. He loved a wide sweep of landscape and open space. He was also conscious of land husbandry and land fencing and the demarcation of different spaces for different agricultural activities. He was not interested in livestock though. It was just the abstract traces of farming which compelled his attention: the line of a fence, a dyke, a ploughed field, a line of pollarded trees, a farm gate, these were his subjects. It was a question-as he put it-of how man altered the natural landscape, how land spaces were marked out and lent detail, most specifically on the flatter landscapes he loved.

His work holds endless distant views and still horizons but this is only half the story because this stillness was so often about capturing a moment before some fleeting change, perhaps before or after a storm. ("An Enduring Sensibility C R Brownridge A Landscape Photographer”)

Deborah Westmancoat exhibits throughout the UK and internationally. For the past six years she has been engaged in a project researching the four stages of classical alchemy in relation to the natural environment; considering how each stage might help us to understand landscape and our place within it.

Informed by local flooding, previous works were repeatedly immersed in black writing ink and local flood waters in an attempt to understand how the movement of water can alter the ‘known’ over time and how our psyche is affected by the temporary loss of the familiar in our environment. Recent paintings have included samples of moonlit stream water, icicles, hoar frost and hailstorms. Organic materials collected from each site, particularly oak galls, often contributed to pigments used in the process.

The work in this exhibition has been made using water collected from weather events and locations around Dartmoor, particularly the town of Moretonhampstead. They draw focus to the simple beauty, poetry and mystery to be found in the everyday – in falling rain, puddles reflecting the bluest of skies and ground frost silvering silent country lanes, churchyards and wooded hollows. Every painting began in a quiet place where one of these moments became apparent and is an attempt to tell that story.

Saturday 3 February 2018 – Saturday 14 April 2018. PV 2 February 6.30pm.
Green Hill Arts, Moretonhampstead, Dartmoor.

Image: Dusk In The Hills (2018), Deborah Westmancoat ... See more

Another new work, one of eleven paintings currently being hung in Green Hill Arts, Dartmoor, for the upcoming IN EXTREMIS show opening 6.30pm on Friday 2 Feb.

Frost Hollow (2018)
Handmade oak gall ink, writing ink and ground frost collected in the lanes surrounding Sparkwell, Dartmoor, on board. Box framed in white wood and non reflective glazing. 79 x 59.5 x 4.5 cm. ... See more

New work, one of eleven paintings currently being hung in Green Hill Arts, Dartmoor, for the upcoming IN EXTREMIS show opening 6.30pm on Friday 2 Feb.

The Floor of Heaven (2018)
Handmade oak gall ink, writing ink and puddle water reflecting blue sky collected in the lanes surrounding Moretonhampstead, Dartmoor, on heavyweight paper. Box framed in white wood and non reflective glazing. 52 x 52 x 4.5 cm. ... See more