Teaching Artists 2025

This summer I have had the privilege of taking part in an artist residency at Glyndebourne, developing a project centred on cyanotypes. The medium felt closely aligned with opera itself: both are processes deeply rooted in time, where the longer the experience, the stronger and more permanent the impression becomes. For this project, I worked with plants and flowers from Glyndebourne’s gardens, creating intricate cyanotype impressions. Alongside them, dispersed seed fragments were guided across the paper by soundwaves generated from archival opera recordings, leaving delicate visual traces of music. The resulting works merge the natural environment with Glyndebourne’s musical heritage, offering a way to represent both the grounds and the sound that resonates within them.

My background lies in photography, spanning commercial and documentary practices, with a focus on carefully curated projects that connect people, communities, and the wider world. Cyanotype offered me a new way to extend this approach—still rooted in photography’s sensitivity to light, but allowing for a process that is tactile, experimental, and grounded in a specific place.

Before this residency, I had never seen an opera. Experiencing Glyndebourne from the inside was extraordinary, particularly the chance to meet the many departments who contribute to its productions. From costume and set design to lighting and sound to gardeners and dye makers, every individual I encountered was a master of their craft, each contribution vital to what unfolds on stage. As part of the residency, I was invited to attend dress rehearsals and school performances, which gave me a unique perspective. I was not only absorbing the productions themselves but also witnessing the responses of young people seeing opera for the first time. Their sense of awe, their curiosity, and the discussions that followed highlighted just how transformative the arts can be when presented in ways that spark participation and discovery.

A lasting outcome of this residency has been reflecting on how these ideas can be carried into the classroom. Together, we explored how young people might curate their own work—presenting it thoughtfully, sharing it with peers, and building confidence through the act of display. Encouraging students to value their work in this way is something all artists can connect with, and it feels like a fitting legacy of my time at Glyndebourne.

I am a painter working predominantly in oils, with a practice that often explores identity through costume, performance, and role play: from impersonators to alter egos, un-lived lives and the characters we would temporarily wish to become. The models within the works wear costumes and props that become part of the still image.

For my final pieces, I have created three portraits inspired by the 1975 production of The Cunning Little Vixen. Using Guy Gravett’s photographs as references, I painted three children from the production, using pigment, oil paint, and silver leaf. During the residency, I have been fascinated by the craftsmanship of the teams that visually transform the performers into a diverse range of characters. The current Oliver Messel exhibition presents Messel’s sketches of costume and prop designs. His gestural marks and delicate use of silver influenced how I approached my final pieces and preliminary sketches. As a teaching artist, I chose to focus on children as the subjects of the final works; I wanted to celebrate their place at Glyndebourne.

Before this residency, my experience with opera was limited. I had attended a performance in Bologna as an Erasmus student in 2016. More recently, as part of my PGCE, I attended a workshop at Glyndebourne. We devised and performed a miniature opera. An exercise in confidence that proved invaluable before beginning our teaching placements.

Some of the most memorable moments of the residency include observing the wig and make-up department, where I watched specialists construct grand wigs hair by hair; I had the opportunity to sketch in a dressing room whilst a character transformation took place; and exploring the ‘costume bibles’ in the archive, containing original drawings from Glyndebourne’s expansive history. I also learned about the dye garden and the natural processes used to colour costumes. I had an insight into the deep integration of art, tradition, and sustainability at Glyndebourne.

I had the opportunity to attend a diverse range of operas. I enjoyed the wit of Falstaff and admired the lavish costumes and sets. Whilst I was moved by the symbolism and tragedy of Káťa Kabanová. This summer has been a truly special experience, surpassing all expectations. The generosity of the Glyndebourne team, who shared both time and knowledge, has enriched my own practice and provided resources I can bring into my teaching career. For example, I look forward to introducing students to the wider creative industries of set design, costume, and make-up, hair and wigs, as well as using the Glyndebourne exhibition blueprint to support student- led exhibitions within schools.

Come September, I will continue my studio practice alongside teaching, with the aspiration of working as a SEND Art and Design teacher within a specialist school. This residency has reinforced both my commitment to painting and my dedication to fostering creativity and cultural engagement in younger generations.

I love to collaborate the viewer and artwork in my pieces by making my works interactive. This started during my Graphic design and Illustration BA where I focused my styles on educational children’s pop-up books. I am passionate about making learning fun by engaging the viewer with the work itself. This style of practice has stayed with me since and I now bring this into my teaching, mixing mechanics and engineering with the properties of art.

Throughout my residency with Glyndebourne, I experienced the joyous moments that the theatre has to offer. I grew up in a theatre household so I am no stranger to being backstage or getting to know the cast and team but something that I find truly special about Glyndebourne is the encompassing magic that surrounds the whole space. Being there is like being transported into a different time, a different world and acts as a whole experience. Being able to sit backstage to watch Saul, watching the final dress rehearsals, exploring the Oliver Messel exhibition and seeing all the different departments and how they work are moments that are particularly noteworthy. As someone who very much enjoys nature and the peace that it brings, spending time on the grounds by the lake and encountering the wildlife that lives there was a part that I enjoyed immensely. I experimented with a range of media during my residency, including printmaking, painting and sketching with my final piece being inspired by the nature on the grounds.

My final piece, The Dance of Lilies captures the serenity and peace that I feel while being in the garden. I have spent several hours sitting next to the lake, sketching, painting or even reading a book. The Dance of Lilies combines the elements of 3D sculpture, painting and mechanics. This piece is made from wood, with the first version made from scrap wood donated by the prop department, ceramics and paper sculpture as well as multiple bottles of glue and paint. I was drawn to the lake and lilypads the moment I first went to Glyndebourne and wanted to create a piece that synthesizes the opera and the garden. With the movement in the lilypads, it represents the departments that work together as a team to make Glyndebourne flow and flourish.

This residency has highlighted to me the importance of engaging young minds in the world of opera, especially within the world of visual art. Watching Saul and Il barbiere di Siviglia during my residency and Il Turco in Italia with my PGCE at the University of Brighton showed me how visually exciting and enriching the world of opera is. Throughout these performances, I was captivated, not only by the cast and orchestra but by the set and the costumes also. The collaborative process that goes into every show is inspiring.

Image credits: photos by Jonathan Browning