My DIY artists residency in Portugal

or was it a retreat? What's the difference anyway!

This post is long overdue, in my eyes anyway. It’s not overdue to you, because you weren’t expecting it anyway!

I wrote before about taking a mini-mini-break to Portugal, but to remind any of you who didn’t read I was going…

So it actually starts with a long-held wish of mine, to be able to take a winter break in the early months of the year, as I get affected by all the dark, cold weather. You could call it S.A.D.¹ Or just a love of lying in a field of waving grass with bees gently buzzing around you, and all the possibilities of summer ahead of you…

So I talk about it often to my husband Nick, in a I wish kind of way, and I’ve put it in vision exercises I’ve done before, but it never actually felt like a possibility. Since I left work, money is on the belt-tightening front, and it feels like it will be for a while yet (until I write my magnum opus, haha!).

Then in the early days of this year (or it was it late last year?) Nick told me he’d been invited to a seminar in Portugal. He’s an academic and gets invited to seminars and conferences on the reg. In 2022 he went to Brazil for two weeks, and at one point we were talking about me joining him for a bit, but we didn’t manage it in the end. So this time he said to me: why don’t you come along, for one of those winter breaks you keep wishing for? Accommodation (and Nick’s ticket) was already paid for by the conference organisers, so all we had to pay for was my ticket, which turned out to cost as much as a return train ride to Bristol! Now, I have to hand it to Nick, he’s very good at gently pushing me out of my comfort zone. I think we pick partners who provide that sort of contrast, don’t we? If it wasn’t for his gentle (and loving) encouragement, I might never have left work! 

Anyway, this is a long way to say, after much hemming and hawing, I thought: why not! I’ll make it a residency/retreat type thing! Another long-standing wish of mine is to do retreats and residencies. I’ve applied to do a few - I applied to do the Old School Gallery Winter Residency last year and unfortunately was unsuccessful (but I will definitely be applying again!). And this time I thought… I can create my own one!!

So fast forward to a few weeks ago…

I was racing to finish my latest book, the deadline just happened to be the 8th Feb, the same day I was due to fly out. I’d had a heavy teaching load for most of this year and the end of last year, and a book coming out in March that I have been organising various events for behind the scenes. So it had been an intense start to the year. I’ve described it before as when metaphorically, your cup is so full the water is brimming right to the top, and just being held on by that thin meniscus perilously wobbling at the top and threatening to spill over, but just…holding together. 

I was soooo ready for a break, but felt exhausted, like I was at the end of a marathon, and actually, I could quite happily lie in a heap for a few days. But that’s the good thing about a booked break, it makes you stop. It put a full stop on the book deadline, it stopped me faffing. If I had stayed at home, I would probably have worked anyway, doing all the “catching up” jobs I had been putting off.

So, reality vs fantasy was coming to the fore. In my romantic ideal, I would float off on a retreat, the sun would shine the whole time, and I would return rested and happy. The reality was that I was knackered before even leaving, and was getting tempted to just not go. And the weather was looking diabolical all week - black rain clouds the whole time!

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The packing

Nick and I decided he would carry the clothes in his carry-on suitcase, and I would carry anything else I wanted to bring (mainly art materials) in a rucksack as my carry-on bag. So I packed as minimum amount of stuff as I could manage.

I packed three sketchbooks, which in retrospect was one too many. I think one big and one small would have been plenty.

Nick and Dylan (our son) tease me because of my “just in case” personality, which means I always overpack, because, well, just in case… But I was pretty proud of how lightly I packed. This is a selection of what I took. I actually unpacked afterwards, so it’s not exactlt the same, but near enough.

Roughly, what I tend to bring/pack for location drawing and painting is:

• A selection of sketchbooks. In this case I brought

  • Royal Talens Art Creation in A5

  • Pith sketchbooks Kabosu and Pomelo

• some paint or ink for laying down colour quickly

  • I like to fill water brush pens* with watercolour ink* and to have a few filled with Quink for adding in tone

  • alternatively, I also like to bring a paint palette (like the one pictured, that I made myself with empty pans and an empty palette. I also really like this Caran D’ache gouache palette*, although it is pretty big for location painting.

Then things to add pops of colour and draw details with, so a mixture of

• graphite pencils - I really love the Blackwing Palomino* - they are expensive, but totally worth it in my opinion!

• coloured pencils - my favourite are Prismacolour pencils - I get mine from this online shop in the UK. I hear they are a budget art brand elsewhere, but I love them for their ability to layer on top of most things, even slidey acrylic paint.

• pops of colour - my favourite are these kids paint sticks and I also love Stabilo Woody* pencils and Posca pens. Oil pastels are also great for this.

As a rule of thumb, I think this is a good way to pack - think: wash, detail, pops of colour. I personally never worry about creating a colour palette before I go. I like to do that as I go.

Retreat/Residency

Writing this piece, I wondered what the difference was, and after some quick googling, I got to:

Wikipedia says: An artist residency is an opportunity…that enables a guest artist to work in a new environment, often away from the restrictions and pressures of their everyday lives.

Google says: Artist retreats are a way for artists to get out of the studio space or their day to day lives to reinvigorate their creative spark. This usually involves staying somewhere in nature at a retreat center or at an artist residency.

So, basically, it is slightly a difference of semantics, but whatever the difference, this was to be my very own artists retreat and residency. Time to make work in a new environment, to get away from everyday work and pressures, and to reinvigorate my creative spark! Oh yes, I was very up for this!

My plan was to draw and document as much as possible without putting any pressure on myself to produce anything in particular from it. I thought maybe there would be the possibility of creating a zine from it, or if not, maybe some prints. But I also just wanted to enjoy being away and being free to sketch on location, which is my very favourite thing to do. There’s something about it soothes my nervous system - it puts me into a lovely lulling state, I stop thinking about my everyday worries and it is just lovely and relaxing. I also find it is a great way to try out different techniques, play with materials, get more fluent, and it is always invigorating to my creative practice.

So, how did it go?

Well… the weather was TERRIBLE! So much for the winter sun! It was winter rain, plus! So that did mean that any fantasies of drawing outside were quashed.

But let me take you through what I did do.

Day One - the journey and arrival in Porto

I set the alarm for 4am, and was on the Stanstead Express by 5.18am, and did this quick sketch in my small Pith Kabosu sketchbook. I like having a miniature sketchbook to hand like this for super quick sketches. I just used a pencil and a fluorescent orange Posca pen. Side note: helpful to add the time here - even better to add the date! Something to remember for future residencies!

I arrived at the airport with hours to spare of course! So after a quick and efficient whizz through security I found myself in the big waiting area. I grabbed a bite to eat and a coffee and then sat and sketched in my medium-sized sketchbook. The Royal Talens Art Creation A5 sketchbook. I think the Royal Talens sketchbooks are so great. Like the Moldeskine sketchbooks, but half the price. Lovely smooth, creamy paper, that holds up to lots of water well! They are the sketchbooks I use the most regularly. I used one of the brush pens filled with diluted Quink layered with pencil and a few pops of fluoro Posca.

On arrival, it was tipping with rain, as evidenced by this video I took on the Metro (which doesn’t do justice to how wet it was).

So I headed straight to a vegetarian restaurant recommended to me by

Helen Hancocks

called Especie and had the most cosy and delicious lunch in an almost empty restaurant. The staff were soo lovely, and my waiter was fascinated by my drawing and took a photo. The great thing about a solo lunch was that although it was semi pricey, as it was just me, I think I paid just €25 for a delicious lunch.

I sat facing the window and painted the view whilst listening to gentle music that seemed to be especially for me - Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan, Radiohead and some 90/00s throwback songs I had forgotten about but enjoyed being reminded of and have forgotten again, but I do remember Macy Gray playing.

After I left the restaurant, I had a little wander in the nearby streets and had a look in a few local art shops, but I had chosen the wrong shoes - they seemed to be water absorbant, and I was squelching along after half an hour, so I headed back to the Hotel, where I met up with Nick that night and there was no more sketching that day.

Day Two - a day in Aviero

This was my one and only full day in Portugal without travelling (I told you it was a mini-mini break!).

My shoes were still wet from the day before, so I spent some of the morning on a cheap, but not a complete ecological waste pair of shoes. The idea being I might want to wear them again. I ended up getting these puppies. I went for a Back to the Future look - they were only €30 and boy was it a relief to have dry, warm feet. I felt about 150% restored.

It rained all day, in a sideways blustery kind of way. The kind that blows your umbrella inside out immediately. Thank goodness I had brought a raincoat with me!

So my first stop was to shelter in a cafe and paint the view. More guilty pleasure music, as they were playing Magic FM in the cafe, and I drew the view as I ate a pastel de nata and drank an overly sweet cappuccino.

details

This was done with watercolour inks and Quink in the waterbrush pens, with a mixture of pencils and pops of colour materials over the top. And you can see I added a bit of wax resist before I started, as I thought it might be good for capturing the soggy vibes. This was the first time I had that lovely lost-in-a-drawing feeling and I really enjoyed making it.

That afternoon was spent whizzing between buildings as quickly as possible, to avoid the rain. I went to The Art Nouveau museum, where they persuaded me to buy a ticket for the Aviero City Museum, which I thought was the Aviero Museum. It was a trick because the Aviero Museum is situated in the old Convent of Jesus of the female Dominican Order and has some beautiful art, carvings and an amazing golden Baroque chapel. The Aviero City Museum was a tourist museum which was not the vibe I was looking for. Not to be too rude about it, but it felt like the sort of museum you would go to on a school trip, with baffling installations like the one pictured, as well as photos of the streets I had just been walking down, and aerial photos of the city.

left: Art Nouveau Museum, Middle: Aviero City Museum,Right: Aviero Museum

The Aviero museum was great, when I got there, and after wandering around the Baroque chapel and the art and sculptures, I found a door that led onto a cloister (I think?) and I sat and drew there.

In retrospect, it wasn’t the most picturesque view, but I enjoyed doing it, which is most of the point, isn’t it? And I was quite proud of my not-tooo-wonky perspective, given I didn’t measure anything - I just eyeballed it! Can you spot the human…?

details

Before I left, as I whizzed past the sculptures of saints, I did a little sketch of each of my favourites. This was fun, as I always enjoy looking at paintings and sculptures in museums like this, and I have often wanted to capture them in some way.

I met up with Nick at the end of the day, after his day at the seminar, and we had a meal. I did a quick sketch in a bookshop cafe as I waited for him.

Day Three - heading home again, via Porto

And so it was the last day. Our flight was at 8pm, so we had nearly a whole day in Porto, and I decided to put the sketchbook away and be in the moment with Nick and just be tourists together. That typical thing happened, where Nick took me in a slightly different direction to where I had been on day one and we discovered all these gorgeous cobbled streets! On that first rainy day I spent there I had been thinking: why did everyone rave about Porto so much? Doesn’t seem that great! But a different turn of the corner and yes, a tiny bit of sun (we finally got some sunshine) and I was captured by Porto! We had a lovely day wandering around and had a lovely lunch at Bilha Nova, as recommended by

Tessa’s Substack

And then it was time to head off. I got some final sketching in as we waited to board, and actually as we boarded (see the little sketches on the left)!

Nick thinks the little trolleys with luggage on look like toy soldiers!

So that’s it! A total of 8 pages of sketches. Not enough to make a zine to add to my collection, but maybe some would make a nice print. What do you think? I also have sketches from out holiday in Croatia and Trieste that I want to make into prints, so maybe I’ll get round to adding some more prints to my shop soon!

So how did it work out as a DIY retreat? I am glad I went, despite the rain and the shortness of it. Next time I would make it longer, I think it being so short did make it less relaxing. Ideally, I would want to be able to get some R&R without feeling like time is against you. And I would bring waterproof shoes and an a strong umbrella!

Since leaving work in 2019, I’ve been working towards bringing as much creative energy into my life as possible, and I am glad that I moved a step closer to bringing my dream of a retreat to life with this trip.

Until next time!

Ella

1. Seasonal Affective Disorder - described by the NHS as “sometimes known as "winter depression"… often linked to reduced exposure to sunlight during the shorter autumn and winter days.