Joya: AiR / Aileen Harvey / UK

‘Being at Joya: AiR exceeded any attempt I had made to imagine the landscape. The almond trees were coming into bloom as I arrived (from grey London rain), pink and white against the bluest sky. To wake up early with the sun rising over the ridge, birds outside my window, felt like a gift. It was not only the beauty but the time, away from everyday responsibilities and distractions. Each day at the cortijada held only what it needed to: quiet, good company, sunshine, and a sweet slow pace with room to dream, explore, and absorb. At Joya, Simon and Donna have created a place that nourishes creative work, artistic community and a thoughtful integration with the environment.

I fell into a rhythm that alternated time outside and studio making. Focused work in solitude was interwoven with, and sustained by, many conversations. The other residents were a delight that I hadn't counted on, but those exchanges – of support, ideas, jokes – became constitutive of the residency, of work as well as relaxation afterwards: watching the sun set, Donna's delicious dinners, chatting by the fire.

For the first few days it made sense for me to be receptive rather than productive. I drew outside at a spot above the dry riverbed, I took photographs, and I filled my studio shelves with a pale spectrum of earth colours, plant matter for ink, and strange or weathered objects. After a while I began to make work with the inks and pigments, branching from familiar methods into new contexts and techniques, changing scales. A giant process-led drawing was followed by small, exploratory paintings on old wood; both approaches were experiments, with materials and in how I develop imagery. They generated an unexpected redirection towards the human figure: albeit humans mingled with landscape, as memories, stories and hybrids, layered in.

It feels as if being at Joya: AiR has brought about something hard to measure but significant within my practice: a set of small shifts, connections and openings, the effects of which will continue to unfold.

¡Muchas gracías, Donna and Simon, for this place that is so difficult to leave!

Aileen Harvey

Aileen studied philosophy at Edinburgh (MA 1998) and Cambridge (MPhil 2000), and worked in academic book publishing (Routledge 2002–2016). Later she studied sculpture at Wimbledon College of Art (BA 2008), taught on a foundation (LMU 2011) and was a studio assistant (Susan Collis 2007–2013).

Solo exhibitions include: Blind Alley Projects, USA (2022); One to Ten Gallery, Hastings (2022); and An Lanntair, Stornoway (2011). Group exhibitions include: Bruton Museum, Somerset (2021); La Ruine, Geneva (2020); Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield (2018); Standpoint Gallery, London (2016); Leach Pottery, St Ives (2015); Airspace Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent (2014); Customs House Gallery, Sunderland (2013); Karussell, Zürich (2013); and The Photographers' Gallery, London (2009).

Aileen presents her research at academic conferences, and her essays on photography, drawing and walking have been included in books (Northern Light 2018; Proximity and Distance 2020; Disturbed Ecologies, 2023) and a journal (NANO 2014). She published a photobook: An Absent Portrait: Emmanuel Cooper (2013). Her artwork has been written about by Bridget Sheridan in Walking and the Aesthetics of Modernity (2016) and Laura Davidson in Doggerland (2016).