Student Collaboration: We’ve All Got the Blues: Journeys in Indigo
- Sheena Fowkes
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
We’ve All Got the Blues is a travelling exhibition (2025-26) by ten OCA student artists spanning the UK, Sweden and Iceland.
Taking inspiration from the ancient colour of indigo, each artist explores its emotional and symbolic resonance through their own chosen medium.
These works reflect the many moods of indigo, revealing how one hue can embody many interpretations, shaped by each individual process, material, and vision.
We are a group of students who formed a WhatsApp group probably about 5 years ago. We are all taking a BA in Painting and support each other through each stage. Each of us are either at the end of 2.3 or working our way through 3.1.
Our group has students not only from the UK, but also Sweden and Iceland, and we try to collaborate most years to create an exhibition of some kind with a theme. This year we decided, after much discussion, to simply take the colour Indigo and explore what it means " to have the blues" in every sense of the phrase. Each artist created a 10" x 10" work using indigo paint ( in a medium of their choice) as a unifying thread.
We started working on this around May time 2025 giving everyone chance to finish projects, put in submissions etc with an end date of late August. During this time, we discussed what to do with these paintings, and agreed to make a book out of them.
I offered to undertake this task and then spent some weeks scouring YouTube and researching book binding techniques. To have it bound professionally was too expensive and we didn't want it to look " too finished" anyway. I applied for a grant to help with expenses via the Enterprise Enhancement Scheme and was offered £100 towards it.
Ten paintings in a variety of mediums duly arrived. Having trialled three different kinds of books over the previous weeks we agreed on a Japanese Bound Book, with a hardback front and back cover. Each artist's statement would be added to the page next to their painting and glassine paper put between each page to stop any smudging of medium.
The book was finished by the end of October and as per our discussion, it has been posted to each student for them to see it. Sarah Fletcher offered to set up an Instagram Page and Mary Galbraith offered to digitise it for anyone who wanted a copy in that form .
In late November it is being shown in a small Exhibition in Gloucestershire and in January it will go in as part of an online exhibition, " The Darwin Gallery and Studio" . We are also discussing other opportunities for it ,such as creating a website for our collaborations and own work.
The added value of working within a collaboration is huge. Getting to know other students, talking about their processes and techniques and seeing their work in reality has been so inspiring. Each student has taken the colour "indigo" and created their own story with it. We have had discussions over the months about the different hues of indigo there are, between different makes and mediums, which surprised us all. We have come together as a team, and it makes life so much easier with the support of other students who understand what you are trying to do.
Participants: Anne Stenbom, Asa L. Aradottir, Deborah Masters, Mary Galbraith, Janice Scott, Jennifer Berrisford, Sarah Fletcher, Sheena Fowkes, Sue Jones, Therese Livonne,
An inspiring and beautiful collection. Good to see that an artistic community can and has been built across the spaces between you, and your mutual support and cross fertilisation. Lovely work.
So happy to be part of this beautiful collaboration! I loved seeing how each of us approached the material in our own way and how our different voices came together so thoughtfully. And a big thank you to Sheena for bringing all the works together so beautifully in the artbook!
This was so much fun and my thanks to Sheena for all her hard work putting together the book and marshalling us all - sometimes like herding a carpet of frogs I'm sure :) Can't wait to get to hold it sometime next year ...