Boisbuchet ‘22
At the end of September, I spent a week at Domaine de Boisbuchet for an artist residency. I applied with the intention of reconnecting with my practice and dedicating focused time to developing my voice as an artist. The residency offered a valuable opportunity to slow down, observe my surroundings, and explore new ways of working.
My goal was to create collage compositions inspired by forms and arrangements found in nature. I began by making small observational drawings of the landscape, focusing on elements that caught my attention; particularly the shadows cast by trees and fallen branches. Rather than collecting physical objects, I chose to photograph these elements to preserve their context and integrity. These images, along with my sketches, became the basis for a series of collages that remained within my sketchbook. The resulting body of work took on the feeling of a visual diary; intimate, reflective, and rooted in quiet interaction with the landscape.
I limited myself to a colour palette of five shades, predominantly blues, which were selected before arriving at Boisbuchet. This intentional restriction allowed me to focus on mood and emotion. Colour in my work is always intuitive and emotionally driven; it forms the backbone of how I translate feeling into visual form.
While my initial plan focused solely on collage, the discovery of broken tiles in the workshop shifted my direction. I was drawn to their tactile quality and began using them to create a three-dimensional collage. I liked the idea that, because the tiles are movable, the work could be reassembled anywhere; introducing a sense of play and impermanence. I photographed the tile arrangements against various backgrounds, including natural shadows, to connect them back to the earlier two-dimensional work and deepen the dialogue between material, place, and light.
This residency became a quiet but transformative experience. One that helped me reconnect with the essence of my practice and allowed me to expand the way I think about space, surface, and storytelling.