Sonja Witts

Where are you based?

Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland.

What were you doing before joining the Online Drawing Development Year (ODDY)?

I'd moved from Edinburgh to the Isle of Lewis with my two kids.  In Edinburgh I'd worked at Edinburgh Printmakers, specialising in stone lithography and woodcut.  I've worked in various community arts roles.  The year before ODDY I'd had a mentor through the SSA (Society of Scottish Artists) who helped me focus my goals in my working practice, and doing the Online Drawing Development Year (ODDY) course has been the next invigorating step!

What appealed to you about the course? 

The artists that were coming out of and teaching at the RDS and the idea of a year’s intense focus on drawing.  I wasn't sure I'd be able to commit to it so intently for a whole year, but it has taken priority!

Which courses did you most enjoy or learn most from?

Drawing from The National Gallery - Antje Southern and Lindsay Sekulowicz have opened a great door for me. Antje talks about following the line's lead - not to instruct it, follow it, use it to lead the path. She is so enthusiastic about 'failed drawings', I love this - not thinking about a product or preconceived notion of an outcome, searching for what the artist was searching for, finding their solutions to problems. Without this active looking, studying the marks and the painting as a whole, inevitably translating the picture into our own way of seeing it within our own personal time and place and context, you'd never look into a work in such depth if you weren't drawing it.

I have also loved Abstract Qualities in Landscape, Gardens and Natural Forms, Drawing a Head, The Contemporary Portrait, Reimagining Ancient Myths: Lost and Future worlds

How has the ODDY impacted your practice?

I love the emphasis on drawing as a verb; a way of learning and exploring the many permutations of what drawing can be.

Is there anything that surprised you about the course?

I love the range of different perspectives from the many tutors and courses.  You inevitably get opposing and contradictory points of view - which is great and I think gives me more agency in my own choices.

What are the benefits of learning online?

I was sceptical about taking these classes on Zoom, but it has been a revelation and I love the flexibility of it, it very much works for me in my current circumstances.  I live in The Outer Hebrides, it's very remote and living in such a place so close to a wild, rugged landscape but also a small and close community has been a wondrous and essential step for my art practice.  The sharing of this year's journey with such a diverse and far-flung bunch of fellow students has given me another sense of camaraderie. I'm often humbled at the level of work and commitment from the other students; it's really useful to see what others are getting from the course and the different directions that are taken individually.

How has the School supported you?

All the staff are so generous and committed with their time and expertise. I'm loving being a student and being able to tap into this bank of knowledge and research.  I was awarded a bursary towards this course, I wouldn't have been able to do it without it, so what an opportunity!

What advice would you give to someone who is thinking about applying to the ODDY?

Trust in the process.  The first term I was happy to take each course, each new day as it came and be open to all suggestions and directions.  But it is vast and now, half way through the course I am beginning to steer the learning more. I worried that I might lose my path at one point, but I think it naturally occurs that you have to take more control as the year progresses and apply the courses and teaching to your own needs and developing practice.

Do you have any plans for after you've completed the course?

I'm would love to sink more into my practice. I know I'll miss the community and expertise of the ODDY but I'll take the structure from it and apply this to my own committed hours of studio time. I'm looking forward to travelling more and visiting exhibitions farther off this rock!  I'll continue to take courses with the RDS as well - but maybe just one in a week rather than three!

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Find out more about the Online Drawing Development Year