Breaking the Mould: Ryan Hewett at Dragon Hill

After a transformative experience at the Dragon Hill Artist & Writers Residency in the Côte d’Azur, we catch up with South African artist Ryan Hewett to preview the new series of work that he unexpectedly created there, and learn more about how his work is still surprising him in the lead up to his upcoming solo exhibition with the gallery in 2025.

 

Unit: It’s great to talk to you Ryan. How did you find your experience at Dragon Hill?

Ryan Hewett: Dragon Hill was the first artist residency I’ve ever done, so I truly didn’t know what to expect.

I was quite nervous about it, because I’m used to living and working in Mauritius where there’s not really an art scene, and I have complete solitude in my studio. It was nerve wracking for me to share a space with other artists, and with guests coming in and out watching me work. I got used to it after a couple of weeks, but it took me a while to get settled in. I did paint a lot at night though, which was calming, and I was there by myself at a stage in the middle for about two weeks when I had the whole studio space to myself. That’s where I really got into the work.

 

U: The artworks you produced there look markedly different to the style of portraiture people might recognise as yours – how did the residency affect you and your work?

RH: Every artist will have their own habits in the studio, but I think the beauty of Dragon Hill is how it forces you to break them. 

I went there without certain tools I would usually use, like palette knives for example, so it not only forced me to think differently but I had to physically work in a way I haven’t for a long time. It got me back into brushwork again, and I returned to finding my way through the marks on the canvas, pulling forms out of the chaos, staring at the work for hours and actually being led by the work which was exciting. Lots of ideas evolved from that.

 

U: Can you explain the differences in approach you took to your work during this time?

RH: I went in with absolutely no research. I didn’t know what I was going to do, and I spent a long time getting a feel for the place and meeting the other artists. But I knew I’d gone there because I wanted to achieve something.

Over the past few years, I felt my approach had become very structured – I would know the outcome of a painting before I’d even started; they had become so geometric I needed to think them through fully. My approach in France was completely different and much freer. I went back to my roots of throwing paint around, making a mess and moving away from portraits into more figurative works.

The whole process was more experimental, involving a lot more hours staring at the canvas to the point of panicking I wasn’t going to get any work done. I’d laid out three canvases, thinking that if I could just do one that would be great!

 

U: Taking the largest of the three works you created there, Why so shy, as an example, how did you evolve this approach in practice?

RH: It’s like daydreaming. Combing through the paint and getting lost in the marks. I started on this work, which is a large piece, and there were moments where I sat for a day or two staring at the canvas, not actually moving forward. Eventually a head emerged from the marks and then I found the sense of bodily movement to it. It evolved from there. I branched it off and found another figure, and that’s how all three pieces evolved truthfully. I experimented with the marks and allowed the painting to take me along for the journey.

 

U: It’s also interesting that this work is set in a landscape, which is unusual for you. I would suggest that Dragon Hill’s many panoramic vistas must have inspired you, but I can also imagine that Mauritius has no lack of stunning scenery, so what was it that led you to expand the background of this work?

RH: During the times when I wasn’t getting anything done, and the anxiety was building, I had an urge to fall back on old tricks so to speak – just to make a painting that I knew would work.

I’d made the layers of cloud you see there, but I had stencilled them out with masking tape, an old habit of mine. There was a massive clash between the looseness of the figures and their much longer marks to this harsh, sharp-edged contrast with the clouds, making them look as though they’d been stuck on. I had to force myself to destroy that side of the painting – which worked! 

It just gave me the confidence to paint. My paintings had become so structural that I couldn’t make a mistake. I had been playing with a lot of texture, building it up along straight lines and colour gradients, and continuing with that technique and concept for so long that I had begun to not be able to make mistakes. Even a slight mark over the edge of something would upset me, you know? That was how I was thinking all the time. But this process allowed me to rediscover that you can make a mess. You can destroy half of a painting, let it go, and go again. That’s painting. In that two-week period when I had no one coming into the studio and saying, “Oh, what have you done?”, it was just me going into the work and asking, “Can I find something here?”

The nice thing about the residency was having that time. I don’t know if a lot of people are able to sit in silence for two or three weeks by themselves. 

 

U: Aside from your two weeks of solitude, when other artists were with you at Dragon Hill what sort of conversations were you having with them and how was it to see them work? I can imagine it might be a strange, even competitive, sensation?

RH: It was very interesting to see other people’s processes, and how they think, because when I came into Dragon Hill the others had already been there for a couple of weeks and had settled into what they were doing. For example, Channatip [Chanvipava] works unbelievably quickly. He’d come in for two hours, walk away, and you could hear him saying “I think this is finished.” Wow, that’s quick! Such an immediate process, and I’ve never worked like that. And Connor [Marie Stankard] was quite shy about her work. I don’t know what her process was as she’d take her paintings to her room.

They must have thought I was quite mad too, because I would step out of the glass windows of the studio and stand way back from it. You could really move away from your painting and give it a lot of space, which helps to see certain things within the painting from that distance. I’d also spend days sitting on my stool, staring, and they must have thought this guy’s never going to produce anything! 

 

U: What are your main takeaways from Dragon Hill, and how will this help you work towards your upcoming solo show back at Unit next year?

RH: It’s great because I’ve gone back to my studio now and I’ve got a new direction. I learned a lot of other things in that time as well. So now it’s very exciting for the June show.

I don’t know exactly how or what the painting is going to be, but that’s more exciting to me now and it has given me confidence to free up on the canvas again. Before I was almost scared to paint, which I know is a weird thing. I want to concentrate on large works now and move away from faces, experimenting with the human form.

I don’t know exactly where that goes, but I’m looking forward to coming off the back of Dragon Hill and putting a good six months into the show. I want to capitalise on this experimental phase, not be scared in the studio, loosen up, throw paint, make a mess, and see where it goes, see what I come up with.

It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes you’re surprised by a painting. Something just works within it. You’re not even sure how you got there, but you gravitate towards it thinking how did I do that? Then in your next painting, if you want to find that spark again it’s just not there for whatever reason. It’s hard to not try to repeat it, but instead you have to ask what was my mindset going into it? Did I give myself time to let the painting breathe in between working on it?

Back in Mauritius now I have a couple of canvases up, and already I’m trying to get back into that flow – but then I remember that I didn’t have “that flow” for most of the time I was at Dragon Hill anyway. I just have to be loose, move the paint around and slowly bring things out of it that make sense. The three pieces I made there have all been born out of the same context. It’s not a theme, but a looseness of working where you can see they had their genesis in the same place.

 

U: Would you go back to Dragon Hill?

RH: I’d definitely like to do it again at some point. It was good to get out of the comfort zone and meet other artists, especially if you’re living in a place like Mauritius, which doesn’t have a huge artistic scene. I miss going to museums, other people’s show openings, showing face and things like that. More than anything just seeing great work.