Claude Jones: Artist Residency at The Vermont Studio Centre

Claude Jones is currently completing an artist residency at the The Vermont Studio Centre in America. The below excerpt taken from Claude's blog provides an insight into daily life in the studio...

"So here I am in week two of my four week residency at The Vermont Studio Centre in America. The centre makes up a large portion of the small town of Johnson where it is situated - about 2 hours south of Montreal. They have a high turn over here of around 50 visiting artists and writers a month and the system has been in place now for many years. The studios are ample and spread out over various buildings about town but all within easy walking distance of one another-it really is a tiny town! Wednesday nights they have slide viewings where artists have an opportunity to introduce others to their work. The writers have regular reading nights. there is a yoga school, a meditation building and lots of healthy food to choose from..thats if you can make it to meal times on time..7am breakie and midday lunch. The heating here seems to make me feel especially dopey and I have been sleeping excessively and missing all breakfasts and almost missing lunch! My body clock is certainly taking time to re-adjust.

For me this residency is about taking time out from my usual routine to focus on the development of new work for 2011. I plan to explore working with acrylic and collage on board, and most importantly to prepare a series of large drawings to be translated into large mixed media works upon my return. So far i must admit that i haven't made much progress to this end. I have realised that i have come here a little ill prepared and without my collage materials and other inspirational texts and images i am feeling a bit stifled. So I have ordered books through amazon that have yet to arrive and have been researching on the internet. Tonight i will begin work on a series of small drawings. Sometimes when i fell stumped for inspiration it is best simply to start off doing something that comes easily so thats the plan.

I hope to post some images of my progress and the beautiful vermont surroundings in the next week or two."

To read more entries from Claude Jones' blog click here.