Yes, it’s true: renowned Sussex artist Heather Bowring enables those of us with little or no sight to understand her art through highly skilful use of texture. She’s already been exhibited by the Tate Gallery, has several pieces at Moorfields Eye Hospital and many private collectors – sighted or not.
Heather and I spent several joyful hours together in her eclectic studio as she helped me explore her pieces, understand her inspiration and much better appreciate how art (in various forms) can “speak” to those of us who can’t see.
Adding tactile touch to some of her paintings, she carefully sifts sand through a tea-strainer, mixes it with PVA glue and applies layers to particular areas of her design before protection with varnish. Plaster is another great medium. Repeated layers are meticulously applied between string edges until the build-up creates its own solid sensation before, string removed, it is finely sanded to a silkily smooth finish. The plaster even has its own subtly different temperature: slightly warmer and close to skin-feel!
Most of us will have read Jane Austen who inspired Heather to create a resin-cast bust from the only portrait of the celebrated novelist. I could touch her cheeks and chin, explore the lace and net wrapping her hair and recoil, just a little, from her eyes. It seems that sculptural tradition requires blue eyes to have small holes for their pupils whereas brown ones, like hers, are larger!
Better still were Heather’s creation of Austen’s writing slope: that classic wooden shape topped with feminine textures, tiny leather-bound tomes within plus a little inkwell, quill pen and pince-nez. It was an intimate interpretation of another hugely talented woman, all those centuries ago but conveying her dedication and even a sense of seclusion.
Whether you are sighted or not, Heather Bowring is an artist worth seeking out and you can find out more about her at https://heatherbowring.co.uk/
