Number 3
The Cold Moon: Full Moon in Gemini
December and the dark days are upon us. A time for candles, old films, Darkness to Light in Salisbury cathedral and general hibernation vibes along with being pulled over by the dog into deep muddy puddles in front of other walkers and having to laugh it off, dark wet drives on motorways you don’t know, punctures from potholes on dark wet motorways etc etc.. Luckily compensatory cake is compulsory in December so at this rate I’ll be as plump as plum pudding by January!
Salisbury Cathedral lit up for the ever awe-inspiring good for your soul Darkness to Light.
However magic occurred on the 10th of November with the birth of my beautiful Grandson. Luckily I can cuddle him every day as long as I do the washing up..a small price to pay! Like all Grannys do I want to write him a thousand stories and I’ve nearly written one already… a love letter to the tiny child and a love letter to the New Forest. Now for the drawings…might take a while cos of the cuddle thing!
Exquisite ear
The gorgeous Lucky Dip exhibition came to an end on Sunday and my Maidens Garland is now squeezed under the bed till its next outing. Meanwhile we are in the midst of our Jane Austen embroidery workshops taking place in libraries and community halls and theatres and art centres from Salisbury to Ringwood to Christchurch to Gosport. Here we gather people to embroider pieces which will eventually be stitched together to form the backdrop of a play that is going on tour in the New Year. So keep a lookout for The Jane Austen Fan Club!
One of the works in progress from the Jane Austen embroidery workshops we are running this November and December. Jane Austen is a Badass!
The Village Hall Draw Friday morning art workshops at Sherfield English Village Hall are running as ever and often quite full but if you are interested in joining this one do message me as we can spill over into the big hall if we need to!
This lovely embroidery is by Sue who comes to the Village Hall Draw art classes at Sherfield English Village Hall on Friday mornings. We do all sorts in these workshops ..such a wonderfully creative community!
In the New Year the Godshill Village Hall Draw art classes in the New Forest near Fordingbridge will change format slightly and will begin with a six week block of sessions that will run on Tuesday afternoons 2-4.30 beginning on the 6th January.
I haven’t finalised my plans (and they may very well go off piste!) but they will run something like this…
Week 1: Mark Making
Portraits and sketchbooks
As an introduction we will begin by drawing each other with the wrong hand with different materials.. pastel, charcoal, biro, sharpie etc then continue by rubbing large sheets of paper with charcoal (immediately removing fear of the white paper syndrome spilling coffee on it has the same effect) and drawing into that as well as beginning working in our sketchbooks ( supplied by me) Of course if you are drawing with the wrong hand you are very unlikely to be ably to make a ‘perfect’ drawing but you are very likely to draw something fun and lively which probably captures the essence of a person/thing more than something laboured over for longer can do.
Week 2 : Foliage and charcoal
Furthering our ventures into the world of charcoal this week we will draw a big jug of foliage by grating and rubbing charcoal into our paper, initially drawing with our wrong hands and then working into it for the rest of the session alongside studies in our sketchbooks.
Week 3: Introducing colour
Now we will build on what we know about charcoal and begin adding coloured soft pastel to our drawings working in our sketchbooks along the way.
Week 4: Still Life
This week we will set up our own tiny still life using a cardboard box painted black on the inside with a small hole in the side where the light source will shine (torch/phone torch) You will bring in some tiny treasures that you wish to draw and we will spend the session making studies in and out of the sketchbook with pencil, pen and watercolour.
Week 5: Outside/ inside
Depending on the weather and our supply of umbrella hats we will make the most of our position here at Godshill by wandering out on the Forest and drawing en plein air. When we return to the hall we will collate our materials and decide how we want to use them.
Week 6: Freestyle
This week you will be free to draw what you wish to draw! So you may want to finish something you have started in a previous session or start something new using the techniques we have learned so far..your choice.!
These classes are £120 for the six which works out at £20 each payable in advance with all materials and coffee (cafetiere!) tea and biscuits supplied by me.
I hope some of you will join us. We are very friendly!!
Meanwhile back in the studio here’s a glimpse of Pelt being strung up..It has taken me since February to push 7 kilos of pins into this cloth to make a pelt to fit me for when I go a roaming out on the heath at night! Inspired by Angela Carter’s, The Tiger’s Bride, her version of Beauty and the Beast where, rather than the Beast becoming a Prince, the woman becomes a Beast when he licks the skin from her to reveal her gleaming fur. I love that! However in my version her beautiful pelt has been removed from her as a prize by a huntsman. where it is no longer gleaming. I love that less…
May the darkness be a comfort.
Warm wishes and many mince pies to you,
Tracy
Yesterday morning from a garden in Whiteparish.
Number 2
No.2 November 2025
SUPER MOON: FULL MOON IN TAURUS
Here we are in November where the nights are longer and the trees still brightly robed. Today is a super full moon and I patiently (I fib) await the birth of my first Grandchild.
Moon Belly November 4th 2025
Meanwhile the Lucky Dip exhibition opened in October and runs until the 30th of November. My work, You took my joy and I want it back: A Maidens Garland, is hanging within the 800 year old God’s House Tower in Southampton in excellent company with the other artists lucky enough to receive the funding and support from the brilliant aspace arts organisation. I highly recommend a visit.. of course I do!
Me chatting about the Maiden’s Garland at Gods House Tower on the opening night of the Lucky Dip exhibition and telling something of the stories of the survivors of FGM and of the tiny baby who died in August of this year when she didn’t survive the mutilation.
Photo by @Luke Shears
Also in October I started a new Village Hall Draw weekly workshop in the lovely Godshill Village Hall near Fordingbridge in the New Forest. We have plenty of spaces and you are most welcome to join at any time during the term. These classes are held on Tuesdays from 9.30-12 and £20 with all materials and chocolate biscuits supplied by me. The class is friendly and relaxed and I aim to help people overcome their fear of the blank page to become confident using different materials and ultimately finding their own artistic voice. We look at the work of other artists and explore a variety of projects and themes. An added bonus of this class is the possibility of wandering out on to the Forest and drawing en plein air. We had a queue of donkeys waiting to get in a couple of weeks ago and had great fun drawing them with our wrong hands as they posed accidentally for us!
A queue for The Village Hall Draw October 2025
I have just begun a project with Vic Briggs https://www.instagram.com/missvicbriggs/ celebrating the 250th birthday of Jane Austen which is Arts Council funded and involves me being the lead artist in an embroidery project alongside a theatrical production of The Jane Austen Fan Club. Very exciting! More on this to come….
May you winter well.
Warm wishes,
Tracy
www.instagram.com/tracydoveyartist/
tracydoveyartist.co.uk
New Forest
Hampshire
United Kingdom
Number 1
TRACY DOVEY ARTIST
No.1 September 2025
HARVEST MOON: FULL MOON IN PISCES
Hello!
I have just cottoned on to the fact that newsletters have actually replaced carrier pigeons and as my carrier pigeon Bob was last seen heading down the Bingo Hall circa Autumn 1977 I think I’ll give up hoping he may still turn up with fish and chips and a cheeky grin on his beak. So into the future I tentatively step…
My artists year began with The Coat of the Cruel Mother being selected for the Work and Play exhibition at the Winchester Gallery. It was displayed with a trigger warning as it is an encyclopeadic (not sure how to spell that?!) collection of around 300 methods of abortion .. chirpy reading but an indication of what can happen if women’s rights are further diminshed and medical abortion becomes more inaccessible.
For the first half of the year before I gave up my studio space at Coda I ran drop in drawing sessions and monthly life drawing workshops in the lovely gallery space there and then in March I was awarded the Lucky Dip bursary which helped me realise a project I’ve had in mind for several years. Inspired by the old funerary custom of Virgins Crowns and Maidens Garland I’m using these to start a conversation about the horrific practice of FGM. The exhibition showing the work of all 8 recipients opens at Gods House Tower in October and I’m really looking forward to it. As always a lovely, challenging yet nurturing, supportive and educational experience with the amazing team at aspace Southampton.
From March to June Maddison Collymore and I were employed by ST Wins church in Totton and Culture in Common to work with a group of young people on The Pillar Stories exploring mental health issues through art and culminating in a fabulous exhibition in the church.
At Midsummer I received my copy of the Earth Pathways Diary 2026 with Holding the Hare on page 90 something! The second time my work has been included in this publication as my painting of our Millie Harris (a young craftswoman to watch as her work is sublime and already causing a bit of a stir) and her friend wearing beautiful outfits they had created at a feast they had prepared was in the 2023 ( I think) diary.
In the heat of the summer Rockbourne Roman Villa had a Home Ed day with a handful of artists commissioned to run workshops for families and what a lovely gentle if sweaty day it was!
I had work in two more exhibitions over the summer with the Tender Gaze pinstuck spectacles going off to the House of Smalls in Edinburgh and the Lost Babes of Wailing Wood chosen for the Black Shuck Festival exhibition in Suffolk. I wish I could have gone as loads of my favourite folklorey talkers and writers and artists and performers were there…next year!
Earlier in the year my old animation tutor, now an Oscar nominated film maker, Joanna Quinn, put out a call for animators and artists to make a 30 second animation to piece together as a message of support to the people of Palestine. Around 300 people entered films! My little contribution is ‘If hope is a thing with feathers’ the title being inspired by the Emily Dickinson poem Hope is a thing with feathers. Here a feather floats down from the sky and the woman kisses it, wishing on it, praying on it. I sing one verse of an old folk song ,I wish my love she was a cherry, which expresses how, sometimes ,our desire to keep the thing we love/want very close to us destroys it..( I had to make my own soundtrack because of copyright issues ..fingers in yer ears!) The whole film, when edited together, will eventually be shown at film festivals. So look out for To Gaza With Love.
We had Hampshire Open Studios at Coda Music and Arts Centre in August showing the work of seven studio artists and chatting to some lovely people and selling some stuff was an added bonus!
Last week I was invited as one of several freelance artists amongst 250 other people from the sector to attend a conference at Winchester University to discuss a manifesto for the creative sector across Hampshire for when devolution occurs next year. It was a day full of possibilities and great chats with possible collaborations for exciting projects coming next year aided by delicious grub so Watch This Space! and if you’re ever invited to anything at Winchester University aim for the lemon tarts topped with raspberries!
Alongside these events of course I run my regular Friday morning Village Hall Draw drawing/painting/collaging/basic printmaking/stitcherypokery workshops at Sherfield English Village Hall which have been going for three years this month! What a gorgeous bunch of folk turn up regularly for these mornings of art stuff biscuits and chat (sometimes accompanied by grandchildren and home made shortbread!)
Coming soon to the gorgeous Godshill Village Hall ..Village Hall Draw art workshops on Tuesday mornings and also Lovely Life Drawing sessions kicking off in October with a fabulous Forest based circus performer and her amazing costumes! Look out for more details on my Instagram and Face Book as it would be very nice indeed to see some of you there.
Thankyou to all who have supported me ..you are so appreciated! ( I promise Newsletter No.2 will be very very small and I won’t send it for ages!!)
Love and Peace
Tracy
FREE PALESTINE!
Work and Play
Winchester Gallery
Spring 2025
The lucky Lucky Dip bursary recipients. Eight of us have been given £500 and much support from the brilliant aspace in Southampton to realise individual projects that will result in a group exhibition this Autumn at the stunning Gods House Tower.
The Pillar Stories project working for 8 weeks with young people at St Wins church in Totton exploring mental health culminated in this beautiful exhibition in May. Artist collaborator mate Maddison Collymore and I were very proud of them! Funded by Culture in Common and St Wins.
Sherfield English Community Project.
Over several weeks we gathered together the residents of the village to chat and share stories and produce illustrated (from felt tip pens to fine embroidery) tatters for the tatter jacket bollard cover that we entered in to Romsey’s annual Bollard cover event. It will soon be on permanent display in the village hall for all to engage with. A really sweet project funded by the local schools trust and parish council.
Sherfield English Community Project and my old Singer sewing machine that suddenly wouldn’t stop stitching even with my foot off the pedal!( The Very Strange Case of the Haunted Pedal) So hand stitched it was..mostly.
Life Drawing sessions coming soon!
Holding the Hare stitchery and charcoal , a picture made and sold last year, was chosen to grace the pages of the beloved Earth Pathways Diary for 2026. The second time my work has been chosen for this. V pleased!
Rockbourne Roman Villa Drawing Workshop. We made a big drawing on canvas with big hunks of charcoal made locally by Dave in his big charcoal burner deep in the woods.
The Tender gaze
Shown at The House of Smalls during Edinburgh Fringe this summer.
The Lost Babes
Complete with red dot at The Bell Gallery as part of the Black Shuck Festival Bungay August 2025..All folklore and folk tales including the very sad tale of the two tiny children murdered in the woods by their uncle for their inheritance. Here stitched for posterity in two vintage doiliesbound together forever with red thread and beautifully framed in an ancient oak frame by Heidi at The Rustic Picture Frame Company in Hampshire.
Hampshire Open Studios
August 2025
Coda Music and Arts Centre
A still from my 30 second animation If hope is a thing with feathers..a small part of a big project.. To Gaza With Love.
Coming Soooon…….
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tracydoveyartist.co.uk
New Forest
Hampshire
United Kingdom