Sara Dudman RWA English, b. 1964

Works
Overview
'Herring Gulls (Helford River) 2 ' 2020
Sara Dudman in her studio
NEW COLLECTION OF  CORNISH EARTH PIGMENT PAINTINGS NOW AVAILABLE

I am a contemporary hunter-gatherer, seeking not only the raw materials with which I make paints and pastels, but searching out the stories, histories and promises which every footstep reveals.

 

A short residency in West Penwith in May 2021 was spent walking and foraging for earth pigments, developing an embodied understanding of this mineral-rich land. Deep reds, terracotta and magenta pigments have been extracted from the spoil heaps of the old Levant tin and copper mines, with pure black from the nearby Botallack mine. The Leswidden China Clay pits offered a rich source of kaolin, from which the creamy whites have been procured. Extending my travels to Gunwalloe, on the edge of the Lizard, I collected yellow ochre from the egg yolk-yellow rocks, extending the palette of colours which have been used to express and interpret this unique environment.

 

Each paint has not only its own individual colour, but also a unique texture, opacity, and character, each of which brings its own voice to the paintings. The physicality of the surface of these paintings suggests the surfaces of the land itself and at times the sea-washed and corroded metal hulls of ships and shoreline rocks. The lines, painted using seagull feather quills trace the movement lines of birds, fishing lines and the continual movement and rebalancing of the dynamic equilibrium of the marine environment.

 

Walking across tors, along coastal footpaths and moors, the presence of past inhabitants, all of whom have shaped this land, is felt. The standing stones which populate and characterise this landscape emerge and recede within the paintings, playfully recalling Barbara Hepworth’s Garden sculptures and the views through the garden and beyond. The glimpsed fragments of land, sea, and sky which we experience while walking along the coastal footpath are woven together into an enticing, intangible emotional response within these works.

 

These paintings have a pulse. They breathe. At times evocative of the flow of water, suggestions of distant horizons, meteorological or cave-like, the paintings echo the layers of sedimentary rock as repositories of previous generations of organic life and the future of life to come. The rock recurs as a motif and metaphor for permanence and impermanence simultaneously. Thin, transparent veils of earth pigments simultaneously reveal and conceal the layers of rocks and time within the paintings, paying tribute to the work of the C20th St Ives group of painters.

 

The laborious process of creating these paintings which are simultaneously carefully crafted, yet also unpredictable and fluid, reflect the human relationship with coast and land. I work in the studio: part-artist, part-scientist, part-geologist, part-cook, soaking, grinding, sieving, drying, mixing, pouring, making. My work stems from the urgent need to better understand and review our relationship with each other, the world, and its myriad of inhabitants with their interwoven relationships.

Sara lives and works in Somerset and has been regularly exhibiting in Cornwall at the Porthminster Gallery for four years.

View full artist CV (PDF, opens in a new tab.)
Biography
Sara Dudman in her studio
Sara Dudman in her studio

Sara Dudman RWA biography

 

Education:

De Montfort University, Leicester, Master of Arts, 1997

Loughborough College of Art and Design, Bachelor of Arts, 1987

Braintree College of Arts and Technology, Foundation Course in Art and Design, 1984

 

Selected Exhibitions:

2011 – 2017

ARTROOMS 2017, represented by National Open Art Competition, London

‘The Natural Eye’ Society of Wildlife Artists Exhibition 2016’, Mall Gallery, London

‘New Territories’, The Brewhouse Theatre and Arts Centre, Taunton 2016

164th RWA Open, Bristol 2016

‘Momentum and Walking’, Stroud Museum in the Park, Gloucestershire 2016

‘RWA@The Atkinson’, The Atkinson Gallery, Millfield 2016

Thelma Hulbert Open 2016, Honiton

Bath Society of Artists 111th Open Exhibition, Victoria Art Gallery, Bath 2016

Black Swan Open 2015, Frome

Affordable Art Fair Battersea 2015 + 2016, represented by One Church Street

Contemporary Watercolour Competition 2015 + 2016, RWS, Bankside Gallery, London

Academician Candidates 2015 Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol 2015

Quartz Festival 2012-2015, Taunton

SPAEDA Associates’, Great Bow Wharf, Langport 2015

H.I.V.E. 2015, Harrogate, represented by National Open Art Exhibition

'Selected Gallery Artists' Summer Exhibition 2015, One Church Street Gallery

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2015

Drawn 2015, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol

Painting Now 2014, One Church Street Gallery

National Open Art Exhibition 2014, Somerset House, London + Pallant House Gallery, Chichester

The Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014, London, National Tour until June 2015

Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2014, London, Guildford

The Evolver Prize 2014, Atkinson Gallery

ArtWorks Open 2014, Barbican Arts Group Trust, London

The Open West 2013, Newark Park and Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum

Artwave West Summer Exhibition 2013, Dorset

In Bloom 2013, Red Earth Gallery, Bickleigh

Fringe Arts Bath Open 2013, Bath

Drawn 2013, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol

Resolutions 2013, The Musgrove Gallery, Taunton

Reigning Cats and Dogs 2013, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol

Drawing Breath 2012, Langport

Skills Unearthed 2012, Blackdown Hills, Devon

Lutyens Gallery 2012, Hestercombe, Somerset

Inna Space 2011, The Brewhouse Theatre and Arts Centre

Crescent Contemporary 2011, Taunton

South West Academy Open 2011, Exeter

Fading Light 2011, Somerset

158 Autumn Open Exhibition 2011, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol

 

Selected Collaborative Exhibitions with artist Debbie Locke RWA

164th RWA Open, Bristol 2016

Evolver 2015, Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Devon

Mostyn Open 19, 2015 Llandudno, Wales

Black Swan Open 2014 + 2015, Frome

Painting Now 2014, One Church Street Gallery

RWA Open 2014, Bristol

Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2014, 2013, London, Guildford

A2 Gallery 2014, Wells

Thelma Hulbert Open 2014 + 2016 Honiton

Millfield Summer Show 2014, 2013 The Atkinson Gallery

John Singer Sargent Open 2014 + 2016, Broadway Arts Festival

ArtGemini Prize 2013, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London

Slice 2013, Hanmi Gallery, London

 

Awards / Residencies / Solo Exhibitions

Sara Dudman and Debbie Locke: Collaborative Works’ 2016, Black Swan Arts, Frome

Sara Dudman and Debbie Locke: Collaborative Works’ 2016, RWA, Bristol

Flock Together 2015, Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Devon, solo exhibition of collaborative works by Sara Dudman and Debbie Locke RWA

Allenheads Contemporary Arts artist residency May 2015

Flock Together 2015, A2 Gallery, Wells, solo exhibition of collaborative works by Sara Dudman and Debbie Locke RWA

Black Swan Open 2014, Frome (solo show 2016 prize-winner in collaboration with Debbie Locke RWA)

REAL SOMERSET, A2 Gallery 2014, Wells (First Prize-winner in collaboration with Debbie Locke RWA)

Thelma Hulbert Open 2014, Honiton (First Prize-Winner in collaboration with Debbie Locke RWA )

Millfield Summer Show 2013, The Atkinson Gallery (prize-winner in collaboration with Debbie Locke RWA)

Brisons Veor artist Residency 2014, Cape Cornwall

John Singer Sargent Open 2014, Broadway Arts Festival (Main Prize-winner in collaboration with Debbie Locke RWA)

Drawn Collaborative artists residency (with Debbie Locke RWA) 2013 + 2015, RWA, Bristol

The Open West 2013 Workshops, Newark Park, August 2013 (in collaboration with Debbie Locke RWA)

Welcome Sight, Solo exhibition, Regal Theatre, Minehead, Somerset 2012

Walking Meditation, The Bomb Shelter, Beer, Devon, 2010

                         

Memberships

Academician, Royal West of England Academy

Blackdown Hills Artist and Makers (BHAAM) Secretary

National Society for Education in Art and Design

 

Education and Curatorial Practice

2015 – present:

Art education trainer and consultant, SPAEDA, Somerset

2013 – present:

Associate Lecturer in Art and Design Education, Creative Education

2013 – present:

Access Art 40 Artist Educators (selected artist educator)

2011 – 2013:

Visiting Lecturer, Exeter University and UWE, Bristol

2012 – 2015:

Curator, Musgrove Park Hospital and Quartz Arts Festival, Taunton

2010 – present:

Exhibitions interpretation and education specialist, including

- Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter 2011–15

- Anthony Gormley's 'Field for the British Isles' at Barrington Court, Somerset 2012

2010 – present:

Arts Award Advisor for Gold, Silver and Bronze

2009 – present:

Artist in Residence working with schools and teachers across the South West of England

2000 – 2009:

Full time Head of Art at secondary schools in the South West of England

1997 – 2000:

Subject Leader: PGCE Art and Design (secondary), UWE, Bristol

                         

Publications:

Making Art 16+, 2012, Devon and Cornwall County Councils

View full artist CV (PDF, opens in a new tab.)
Exhibitions
Video