One of the ultimate pleasures of the Open to Draw programme at Drawing Projects UK is the privilege of watching an artist’s or maker’s project develop over a specific period of time. Nestled in one of the ground floor studios, or in the project space, their work flexes and adapts as their purpose and enquiry grows in muscle, nerve and ambition, sharpened by their own framework, timescale and objective to see and develop their work anew.

Supported by a Grant for the Arts from Arts Council England, Sandra Porter RWA came to Drawing Projects UK for a six-month residency and, with further support from The Iona Foundation in Amsterdam, she has created a new and powerful body of drawings, paintings, and prints for her exhibition at Stroud Museum in the Park from 10 March to 15 April 2018. 

Inspired by architectural structures, Sandra Porter has consistently sought out those that correlate to her enduring aesthetic. The initial starting point for this project, corrugated iron dwellings found on the Isle of Skye, fulfilled her pictorial fascination with flat planes, shallow form, linear rhythm, lapped edges, layered surfaces, apertures. Exploring playful visual connections and the formal properties of these points of reference, the sheer enjoyment of Sandra Porter’s work in piecing together a constructed world - layered, lapped, abutted, conjoined - is apparent. The ebb and flow of her creative process is perceptible, from experimental drawings to the construction of the extended landscape format prints and large paintings. Made resolutely in panels, sections and segments, this act of conjoining and piecing together the parts would seem not just a literal, but metaphoric, act of making a new whole; a measured and purposeful restoration of equilibrium and balance. Their bold contrast and nuanced shift and change in colour, light, mark, shape, form and surface all serve to form a palimpsest of histories, inscribed through ink, crayon and paint.   

Sandra Porter has exhibited widely in the UK, in Europe, the USA and, most recently, in Brazil; and her work is held in numerous private and public collections, including the Government Art Collection, University of Bath, University of Pelotas, the Tate and V&A Libraries.  

Published by Drawing Projects UK, Sandra Porter, an illustrated publication with a foreword by Anita Taylor and an essay by Michael Tooby will be available for sale from 10 March 2018 (ISBN 978-1-9999936-0-3), RRP £10.