I’m missing the room you let me use in Denmark Road and all the people who I meet when they visit you. I’m making the best of a small room at home. Having the box easel has been really useful, it’s like a studio that folds out of a suitcase.

I’m also missing life drawing and working with a model. Instead I’ve fallen back on subjects close to hand. I’ve done a couple of paintings of shoes and a self portrait. I don’t know why I hadn’t discovered this before but I’ve been propping my palette upright on the easel, this has the advantage of being able to see the colours more easily. Of course it only works if the paint isn’t runny.

As you know I collected the little screw press from the studio and I’ve been doing some printmaking. I don’t attach much importance to this work but it I really enjoy it. I’m printing cards and bookmarks.

We’re lucky we’re able to carry on working during this crisis but I look forward to getting back to the studio and the company around your kitchen table.

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Hello, in response to Veronica’s e-mail I am writing a little about myself and also my connection to Studio 36. I was first introduced to Veronica by our good friends Mary and Steve Bramble. I remember very clearly meeting Veronica and entering Studio 36 for the first time. I was stopped in my tracks by the energy, vibrancy, colour and fun and felt the excitement of a child when you need to explore.

I am not an artistic person but have always related to colour both visually and internally. I am a yogi and I first experienced yoga in the 1960’s as the west began to embrace it. As a Liverpool lass and huge fan of the Beatles, who raised the profile of meditation and eastern philosophy, I became curious to find out more. I have studied with many yoga teachers over the years, even in India. I finally trained as a Sivananda Yoga teacher in the Austrian mountains later in life. I went on to enjoy teaching yoga in a variety of settings. including residential care homes and supporting NHS carers.

Perhaps I need to View Studio 36 with a different perspective as a Yogi, standing on my head!

Carol (Satya) Fentimen

Next > Steven Bramble

It was very kind of you to let me play the piano when I last visited Studio 36, but I guess in the light of the current situation, I may have to simply stand two metres from the door and attempt to sing the tune of Mozart’s Alla Turca, while dressed as a brent goose. It was most enjoyable to walk around the studio during Art Week Exeter and provided an interesting and compelling window into the visions of the various contributors. If there’s anything you need, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. I’m now off to buy all the toilet rolls in the city, so that I can make a ten foot papier mache sculpture of Zeus.

Music has always been an intermittent part of my life, whether it be songwriting or creating instrumental compositions. I don’t consider myself much of an expert, but sometimes on a day off, I’ll record a few tracks and then listen to them in the evening with a glass of Shiraz. I think the current science fiction influenced global situation is an ideal time to create one’s own works as historically it has been the role of culture to provide a mirror or response to external circumstances, such as was the case with the emergence of Dadaism during the First World War.

Next > Carol Fentimen

Who am I?

Writer, mother, wife, daughter, step-daughter, sister, half-sister, step-sister, aunt, cousin, niece, great-niece, granddaughter, adult, child, walker, naturalist, singer, gardener, reader, rider, sailor, surfer, anxious, introvert, extrovert, loud, quiet, obsessive, music, poetry, art, animals, wild, domestic, trees, woods, moorland, beaches, hills… I need space and quiet to breathe. 

Vanessa de Haan

About Vanessa de Haan

I’m a historical fiction author as well as a freelance journalist, proofreader and editor. My first novel (The Restless Sea, HarperCollins) is about the Arctic convoys, and was inspired by family stories, as well as interviews with second world war veterans around Devon and beyond. I’m currently working on my second novel, set on the borders of Devon and Somerset after the first world war. When I write, I see the events unfolding in my mind, a bit like watching a film, so art, photography and moving pictures are very much involved in my writing process.

You can find me on Facebook and Twitter (@vzdehaan) and Instagram @vanessadehaanauthor

Next > Paul Carter

I liked your gallery because of its playful, (can I say?) almost anarchic, style. I found it very encouraging to pick up the message that art/making doesn’t have to be perfect; art belongs to everyone. I’m not suggesting that your work is badly made only that pursuit of technical perfection isn’t allowed to kill off the creative spark.

Denis MacDermot

Next > Vanessa de Haan

My thoughts are travelling down Memory Lane.
This time last year my daughter and I travelled to America to visit friends in California.

Our departure would have been 14 April. 

We arrived in Las Vegas and drove to Twentynine Palms, the Mojave Desert.

It’s the time of year when spring flowers bloom all over the world, but I never imagined in the desert where the sand is white, the air warm, and the ground dry.

Their elegance, beauty and bright colours stretch over the white California desert sand and draws you near to stand and stare.

The sun beats down relentlessly from sunrise to sunset
 
And in all their glory they look up and smile

I only had a small notebook and biro and couldn’t resist a little sketch.

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Next > Denis Macdermot