THE CARAVAN GALLERY IN PORTOBELLO

© Alicia Bruce

While Nick and I were on Residency in Kitzbühel, Jan and Chris from the Caravan Gallery stayed with us as our first artists in residence cum house sitter exchange.

Here is what they wrote:

‘Great to immerse ourselves in Portobello and savour its unique sense of place. Gave us time and space to recalibrate and reflect on our practice and life in general. Especially valuable following a recent family bereavement. 

It was ideal to be there for Art Walk Porty festival and to extend our network by connecting with local creative community. Porty is such a vibrant and creative place. We found life on the promenade, the sea and sky and ever-changing colours and light compelling. 

The house is in a perfect location for exploring Portobello and surrounding coastline on foot and bicycle. We found the local bus services super convenient for trips into Edinburgh and made several trips further afield in our van.  

The house itself is a welcoming, homely and nurturing place and has everything required for a comfortable stay. It was a joy to be surrounded by art and craftwork and a wonderful array of books, maps and music. The garden and its produce are wonderful too, providing a private sanctuary in contrast to life on the public promenade accessed through the kingfisher blue door at the end of the garden. This is the perfect residency for artists who love the sea in all its moods as you're always conscious of its presence!

All in all, the house is an ideal base in a very special place, providing us with a much-needed opportunity to recharge our creative batteries and make new work. We invited several people for lunch in the fantastically equipped kitchen in the tradition of Deveron Projects and made plans for future creative projects.

We were also able to share some of our own connections with artists in Portobello resulting in new opportunities for them.

Although our work centres around photography and socially engaged practice we believe the Promenade Residency would be of value to artists working across various artforms including writing and music and collaborations between different disciplines. 

Favourite haunts include Portobello Books, Root Down, Portobello Tap and Mint - the curry place we went to. It was great to get to know Jay downstairs too and there could be future collaborations there. 

We enjoyed a thoroughly inspiring and creative month and have several thousand new photos to edit to produce a new exhibition. We're eager to return next year to do a project in Portobello, ideally with the exhibition in The Caravan Gallery. 

Thanks again for sharing your wonderful abode! 

Jan and Chris

© Caravan Gallery images