photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Rachel Clancy / MA Painting / Manchester School of Art Postgraduate Residency

The Joya: AiR residency gave me the opportunity to step back and reflect on my usual painting practice and experiment with other mediums and techniques. Being immersed in the peaceful, picturesque landscape allowed me space and time to develop my drawing technique and allow new subject matter to inspire my future paintings.

Whilst I came with an open mind of what I wanted to create, the freedom and long sunny days allowed time for exploring, drawing and collaboration with other students. Currently exploring interiors in my painting practice, I found myself particularly drawn to the intricate architecture and design of the Joya building itself. The residency has opened my eyes to different ways of working and was the perfect opportunity to break my every day routine and reflect.

Thank you to Donna and Simon for being so helpful throughout the trip and welcoming us into their wonderful space!

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Kimberley Beesley / MA Painting / Manchester School of Art Postgraduate Residency

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Georgina Hustler / MA Painting / Manchester School of Art Postgraduate Residency

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Eleanor Cunningham / MA Painting / Manchester School of Art Postgraduate Residency

‘My time at Joya: AiR came as a welcome opportunity to step back from my painting practice and focus on drawing. The meditative process of thinking through drawing, in tandem with my experience of the landscape, has driven me into a new phase of working, giving my practice new life.

Aside from drawing, I spent my time walking in the surrounding mountains, exploring the land, quietly reflecting and writing, and having stimulating conversations with other artists. Spending time in the vast natural landscape was a relief from the speed of day to day life in the city. I relished the feeling of slowing down, and found the week at Joya to be a deeply peaceful experience.

Thanks to Donna and Simon for sharing such an incredible space with us and being such wonderful and welcoming hosts’.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Brianna Beckford / MFA Painting / Manchester School of Art Postgraduate Residency

‘What initially attracted me to doing a residency at Joya: AiR was the freedom of being away from digital mediums I learned to have a crutch on. Recently, I've appreciated exploring new modes of making, and that's what I intended to continue doing here.

In Joya, I found a place that resembled a home I was used to, while still existing in a completely different environment. Joya: AiR and Velez-Blanco as a whole are incredibly enriching and made me think about how to mesh the new and the old, how to bring old crafts and workflows back into the present day. There's an amazing confluence of presences at Joya that make it a ghost site sprung anew, especially considering its ecology and history.

Although I didn't come with a set plan, my intention was to create and have fun. Plant weaving, 3D modeling, and alternative photography became the prime areas I navigated. Donna and Simon were incredible in giving me insight that informed my work and research. An absolutely amazing experience and place’!

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Bethany Jones / MA Fine Art / Manchester School of Art Postgraduate Residency

‘Visiting Joya: AiR has been a wonderful experience, it’s given me the chance to realise perspective and importance within my painting and drawing practices but also my day to day life.

It’s given me the spring in my step to tackle the next phase of work and it feels great to be excited to get back to the studio, even if the weather won’t be coming with me!

A big thank you to our hosts Donna and Simon for being so wonderful and creating such a welcoming creative space’.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Anne Rowland / MA Painting / Manchester School of Art Postgraduate Residency

‘I was amazed by the colours of the landscape on the journey between Murcia Airport and Joya: AiR - the pink of the stone and the incredible light really stood out. We were in for a fabulous week.

I’ve focused on the landscape, different views in every direction, my paintings becoming more abstract as the week went on. Sunrise, terraced landscape, zoomed-in cropped buildings, even the colours of the concrete mixer and adjacent tarpaulin - there’s so much here to inspire. The long days in this serene environment give lots of time for painting, walking, contemplating, collaborating and cameraderie. I’ve made lots of work, one painting leading onto another idea, and have a full sketchbook which will provide inspiration for lots of future work. I’ve tried unexpected new things including cynotype, whittling and meditation! Donna and Simon are wonderful hosts’.

www.annerowland.co.uk

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Ruth Morrissey / MA Painting / Manchester School of Art Postgraduate Residency

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Isobel Panatti-Reeve / MA Painting / Manchester School of Art Postgraduate Residency

‘I came to Joya: AiR with no plan of what I wanted to create, other than to expand my artistic practice by experimenting in a landscape completely new to me.

With walking being a huge part of my existing practice, I spent much of my time exploring the rugged landscape close to the house, making close friends with a cat named Nippy and immersing myself in a living environment I had never experienced before.

After an early morning walk to the top of one of the surrounding mountains, I became inspired to cyanotype print onto rocks, roofing tiles, wood and stray bits of pottery around the hills. My main practice involves a lot of analogue photography experimentation, and delving back into cyanotypes was a refreshing experience especially on new surfaces. 

After realising I couldn't bring the larger pieces back with me I decided to put them back into the landscape, in the dried out river beds and rock falls surrounding me, giving my work back to the landscape I had taken it from.

My time at Joya: AiR has been refreshing, invigorating and eye opening, it is certainly a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience both a different type of living and a different way of creating’.

Isobel Panatti-Reeve

@izzypanarty - instagram

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / group residency / Manchester School of Art / Manchester Metropolitan University / ENG

Joya: AiR is once again delighted to host Manchester School of Art / Manchester Metropolitan University after a few years break (thanks to the pandemic). This time led by Dr Dave Griffiths (Senior Lecturer and Section Head, Art Postgraduate) and teaching assistant Anna Clough, as Brigitte Jurack (Reader and Head of Sculpture/Time Based Arts), who has traditionally brought student to us is exhibiting in HOME Manchester. Her exhibition ‘Fieldnotes’ and I quote…

A series of diaristic drawings of rocks with compressed fauna or marine life, and fungi, are shown together with photographs of collaborative happenings with Manchester School of Art students, on land that has been degraded through intensive monoculture and water shortage or excess. Whilst the drawings depict geological time, the photographs document moments of re-imagining, being in the land(scape). Produced in two vastly different European climates, Dovestones in Greater Manchester and one of the most arid, Joya: arte + ecología / AiR in southern Spain, they function as an homage to water, an increasingly scarce natural resource.

The students, as always, are eclectic and super enthusiastic investigating every mountain and valley experimenting with land based installation, moulding clay, weaving dry grass, experimenting with alternative photography techniques, embroidery, stone carving and much more.

It has been great to bring this collective force of nature into the natural habitat of the high sierras of Almería.

We look forward to next year…

And in their absence they have left their sound… Spotify Manchester School of Art at Joya: AiR 22 playlist