After seeing her portrait work on Axis, Tracey Whitehead from Darton High School invited Vivienne Owen to undertake a three month residency with students.
Overview
It is always exciting to get a positive response to my paintings - especially if it comes in the form of a project! I received an email from Tracey Whitehead, Head of Art at Darton High School. She liked my work after searching on Axis for a painter working with portraits. Arrangements were made, and I started the residency in February.
Artists brief
The brief was to provide ideas, inspiration and set an example to students working on a painting project with a theme chosen from the options of Portrait, Movement or Emotions. It was an amazing experience to enter a classroom and find that I was a researched artist, with the students producing a worksheet about me!
Demonstration work
|  Vivienne Owen, 2007 | |  Vivienne Owen, 2007 |
The Residency
The residency took the form of a series of regular visits to the school, and my developing work at my studio in between the visits. This gave me chance to expand on my ideas, and produce examples for various techniques that the groups would be using. It was a very exciting process; getting to know the students, seeing the progression from idea to idea, introducing the students to unfamiliar processes, (such as using Photoshop as a sketch book), and following the process myself to produce my own painting.
Students' demonstration work
|  Jack Turner 2007 | |  Sam Moore, 2007 | |  Danielle Sanders, 2007 |
| Myself, the staff and the students were all very pleased with the finished work. There is an archive of the project work on my website showcasing my demonstration works, student work in progress and the development of my painting. The school will be holding a presentation and display in July 2007 to celebrate the project achievements. The painting I produced 'Self-ish' is amongst my three paintings currently being exhibited at Cartwright Hall in the Bradford Open exhibition.  Vivienne Owen, 2007 | |  Viv Owen, Self-ish, 2007 |
More information on Vivienne Owen
More information on the residency
