In the cold of January 2020, I went to Penryn Cornwall and spent time on the beaches, hiking, recording and experiencing the landscapes whilst frequently being caught in storms. In December 2021, I returned for another residency, in Coverack Cornwall where I explored the nights sky, as well as the geology and the connection between stone circles and the movement of the planets and the stars. From this location, with the naked eye you can see the milky way and with a telescope the crescent shape of Venus.

The landscape of Cornwall is wild and dark in the winter and feels isolated out of season. The sky is magical and on my visits I found myself staying up to look at the sky and how it reflected on the sea, and sit in the peacefulness of the solitude. I would get up early to watch the sky turn from night to day and see the lighted fishing boats leaving the harbour for their morning catch. I also enjoyed finding my way back indoors after being out in the cold, where I could get warm, especially my feet which were often wet. I would look at what I had captured while out, photographs, sound recordings, drawings and sometimes objects, some strangely shaped seaweeds or small stones.

The work produced from this visit was mainly black and while film photography, ceramic works and painting. I am submitting work that was based on night beach walking in Cornwall, in the cold in the winter months.

I live in the city and I travel to the sea, everyday. I wish I was the sea, moving in a perfect state of rhythm. Often I bask in the simplicity of the sound and movement of the waves. ​ City life is similar, the traffic moves in rhythms, the hum of human voices in the busy streets is like birds on the rocks and things corrode the same way. Nature is everything. ​ Electricity moves through our phones, computers, eyes and minds, supercharging our landscapes with a connected heartbeat and pulse. ​ I use what is around me; the ever changing and moving cityscape of Bristol, as well as the natural landscapes of Somerset. I submerge myself in them thoughtfully and connect their rhythms. As the flow takes me over, ideas wash up on the shores of my own mind and come through me into the materials I use in a way that is intuitive, and somatic. ​ I explore the body within the landscape, what the container of the skin feels like, as well as the existential experience of being. Body parts come up in my work sometimes overt and sometimes in abstract forms. ​​​ Creating, for me, is a way of understanding the world, abstracting elements from environments, tacitly exploring and figuring things out. The connection of inner and outer landscapes meets when I feel symbiotic with my material of choice. I am influenced by weather, landscapes both natural and man made as well as the body, giffs and repetition. My practice has evolved into drawings, ceramics, sculpture mainly but not exclusively. Working as an art psychotherapist impacts my own creative process. I engage in the subtle conflict and emotional subterfuge of self-exploration with others and myself, I find that making artwork is essential for expelling unconscious and emotional material that I carry.

Website: https://lsbradley.com

Instagram: @neonbradley