Plas BrondanwSusan Williams-Ellis
Foundation (SWEF)

post@susanwilliamsellis.org

01766 770590

Residencies

We are not able to offer traditional residencies, since there is no accommodation available at Plas Brondanw, however we do welcome artists who wish to spend time here in order to take inspiration from the archive, the house and the collection. There are places within the building and grounds that artists can use as studio space if they are willing to be flexible. If you are interested in undertaking a period of research here, or would like to make work at Plas Brondanw, please contact Seran Dolma, experiences curator.

Rose Fulbright

Rose Fulbright

5-12 April – The Dome, Portmeirion

Rose Fulbright will be Artist in Residence at The Dome in Portmeirion Village this Easter, and she will be offering a decorative art workshop here at Plas Brondanw on the 7th of April. For more information about the workshop, click here:

Rose Fulbright, visual artist and designer, was named by British Vogue as ‘The Girl Born to Design’. She is the granddaughter of Susan Williams-Ellis. Raised in a particularly artistic family with a designer mother and anthropologist father, Rose grew up surrounded by the ceramics industry of the Potteries, as well as the natural beauty of Portmeirion and North Wales, and has a deep connection with form, colour and pattern.

Rose has been designer, creative and art director of her eponymous product-based designer brand Rose Fulbright since 2013. During that time she lived and worked in Beijing for four years, followed by Brussels for five years. She now lives in London and has focussed more thoroughly on her fine art practice since 2022, creating large, themed collections of paintings, painted antique furniture and fabrics.

A serial painter of fabrics, canvas and vintage furniture, during the residency, she will be refurbishing and re-imagining carefully selected vintage furniture no longer needed in the Village cottages. Giving these items a ‘second life’ out of storage, she will be painting pieces with motifs inspired by her grandmother Susan’s paintings of pantomime as well as whimsical and mystical architectural elements used by Clough around the Village.

Pieces created during this residency will be exhibited in The Dome as a bridge to the exhibitions and events responding to the theme of ‘Transformation’ at Plas Brondanw as well as a solo showcase of Rose’s work at the London Decorative Fair in Battersea, London in May.

This residency is supported by Annie Sloan, the British chalk paint brand, who have provided paints, brushes and finishes to be used by Rose.

Rose Fulbright, visual artist and designer

Rose Fulbright

Steph Renshaw

Steph Renshaw

April and August 2024 - Plas Brondanw

Steph Renshaw is a Bristol based printmaker. She uses traditional, intaglio and relief printing methods to create intriguing and tactile art work inspired by wildlife and interaction with the natural world. Steph’s work strikes a balance between realism and the constraints or unexpected outcomes of the print process.

In her collagraphs she exploits the versatility and experimental nature of the medium which she combines with drypoint to make intriguing and tactile prints full of depth and texture. Her linocuts combine realism with inventive mark making to create striking images offering snapshots of the natural world.

Steph has been visiting Snowdonia since childhood, forging close emotional ties with the landscape and wildlife there. She has a fascination and love of natural history, having completed a degree in Environmental Biology from the University of Aberystwyth. She is drawn to the underwater art that Susan Williams-Ellis made. Therefore the basis of Steph’s work during her residency will be inspired by the beautiful, natural surroundings with a particular focus on water in the environment. Steph hopes to follow Susans’s example and fully immerse herself in these environments where possible. She will document in print, the natural forms and colours found there. Steph seeks to include her own human experience in her art work, expressing a sense of place in, and connection with, the natural world.

Steph Renshaw