Damon Kowarsky is a printmaker from Melbourne, Australia. He travels extensively, being inspired by the architecture and the colours of the places he visits. Damon recently completed a residency with Art for Guernsey for the next stage of our Finding Turner journey, having been invited to respond to the sketches made by J.M.W. Turner when he came to the Bailiwick c.1832. We spoke to Damon and his artist wife, Hyun Ju Kim, who accompanied Damon to give a series of workshops in the gallery and to make her own art whilst she was here.
This residency, the third of the Finding Turner project, came about through a lithographer who is a good friend of Damon, Kim and Art for Guernsey: Oleg Mikhailov from St Petersburg. “We first met in 2017 in China, and we saw him again there the following year. I went on to organise an exhibition of his lithographs in Melbourne – his work is just fantastic,”
said Damon.
Like Turner, Damon takes a sketchbook wherever he goes, taking his drawings back to his studio to make his finished works:
“As a printmaker I’m using copper, which is heavy, and when you’re working on a print it’s a fragile surface so it’s not really possible to travel and make prints at the same time. Sketchbooks are portable and light, which is really important when you’re on the road.”
In contrast with Turner, Damon’s sketches are intricately detailed, and works of art in themselves. “It’s really about time,” explained Damon. “When Turner drew the Casquets near Alderney it’s pretty clear he was sitting on a boat when he did it, because the lighthouses he drew are eight miles offshore and the island is in the background.” Damon and Kim also managed to visit Alderney and did their best to sketch from the deck of a boat, but the swell proved to be a huge challenge for them too!
It has been fascinating to see the drawings made by Kim as she sat next to Damon – although she also completes her artworks in her studio, the same views have inspired entirely different results. Whilst Damon is fascinated by landscapes and architecture, Kim told us: “I’ve had more freedom because I don’t need to consider what Turner was looking at, but I’m interested in wildflowers and plants rather than landscapes. I also like to put animals and dinosaurs in my artworks. We’ve exhibited together several times and people can’t believe that we went to the same places to make our works.”
Both Damon and Kim have been inspired by Guernsey. Damon said: “It’s an amazing place and what’s really special is the total variety. It’s such an interesting landscape and I can really see why Turner got so much out of it because it’s got everything that’s in his art – dramatic seas, incredible skies with cloudscapes and the pattern of the wind in the clouds, and then you’ve got the land and the landforms. And in addition to that, and this is where I have a really strong connection, you’ve got all the architecture. It’s a beautiful place but it’s also a strategically important place, and the passage of that political force has left an imprint here that’s still visible.”
Kim was entranced by the rocks. “I couldn’t get enough of drawing them – they’re spectacular, and I don’t think I’ve seen anything like them anywhere else I’ve travelled.” She also enjoyed leading a series of workshops at the gallery. “This is a very good place to be together,” she said. ‘There’s a really good community, with people making art and learning from each other.”
Damon and Kim were keen to acknowledge the wonderful hosts they had during their residency. “Susie and Andy have been absolutely outstanding in taking care of us,” expressed Damon. “Their hospitality has been a real highlight.”
