Placeworks

The new painting year began on Thursday with a convivial session by the river. Indoors, luckily, as it's smelling cold again. In December I had been suffering from a cold and found the idea of ink drawing more appealing than painting. I liked the results, quite noir-ish, put me in mind of a graphic novel, or perhaps an illustrated novel, which I am now mulling over at the back of my mind, and I decided to continue with ink this month.
Much as I hate those drawing exercises that involve charcoal tied to a long stick and accepting a lack of control, and despite finding a new drawing pen and two nibs at the bottom of my Christmas stocking, I perversely decided to try out a technique of drawing with a match dipped in ink. It worked well - an acceptable degree of randomness, with a nice straight edge. Just need to work on that narrative now...

In future I plan to bring my art and urban communication practices together more directly.
Through my work in Bankside and London Bridge I have built up some knowledge of an historic city centre quarter in transition. Communicating that change through words and photographs, online or in print, is an effective way to reach a lot of people fast. But it is often a means to an end - to convey information that can be seen and then, because it is ubiquitous, forgotten. Exploring this process through oil painting invites a more deliberative engagement with the city, inviting, I hope, deeper thought about what is happening around us and bringing a new perspective to the way our surroundings evolve as new structures emerge. And like oil painting it is not just building up but also scraping back: the process of development brings the chance to explore beneath the surface, as the archaeologist's trowel digs into the hidden city to expose a rediscovered past.

Issue 10 of dbrief Quarterly, edited by Sarah, has just been published. In this issue we make connections across Bankside and London Bridge – from the new entrance to Blackfriars station on Bankside bringing new transport connections to the area, to connections with the past via the exciting discovery of a Roman bath house at Borough High Street. The construction of the complex spire at the Shard has required some innovative physical connections – with prefabricated modules being assembled in North Yorkshire before arriving onsite at SE1, and cultural connections are progressing apace at The Tate Modern Project.
In the 'Meet the People' interview Sarah talks to Chris Watson, Project Manager at Gardiner Theobald – the man responsible for making the connections work between the various professionals working on The Tate Modern Project.
You can read the current and past issues of dbrief online at www.betterbankside.co.uk/news/dbriefs

London's Bankside and London Bridge are being transformed. The Tate Modern Project, NEO Bankside, Blackfriars Bridge, Borough Viaduct, the Shard and the rest of the London Bridge Quarter are just some of the impressive development projects underway in this historic quarter of London. To help ameliorate any negative impacts of all that work going on at once, Bankside Logistics Group has been set up to encourage partnership working between the many public, private and voluntary sectors involved in and affected by this work.
Sarah is editor of the group's dbrief publications - you can find current and back issues online at: www.betterbankside.co.uk/news/dbriefs

New work from Sarah's latest projects responding to a recent journey around Scotland can be seen in the Places Gallery. More to come soon.