It was a pleasure to speak with British artist Fiona Whyte, who is the founder of the Collective. Based in Serra da Estrela, Fiona told The Portugal News, “Our Collective has been in existence for just over four years, it was towards the end of Covid that OtherWorlds was formed. With restrictions, it was limited to how many people were together at a time and I suppose there were many of us seeking human connection.”

Fiona kindly explained “I had been working on my own for two years without having much contact with people and I had really struggled finding artistic outlets where I live so I thought there must be other people who, like me. are seeking this, so I posted an advert on social media and got a group of people together. One of the things we do is to arrange exhibitions and show our work to a greater community and also encourage other artists or conversations about art.”


Garden Party Exhibition

This diverse group are holding a Garden Party Exhibition for the public, which will take place on the 28 September from 11am to 6pm at Lugar da Pedra Alta, Melo Village in Gouveia.

Enjoy an enjoyable and relaxing afternoon at this beautiful old manor house which boasts 12 acres of ground and enjoy seeing the various artistic mediums from ceramics to felt and photography to fine art, where you will find both realistic and abstract work in response to the theme of gardens. There will be music, food and drinks and some brilliant workshops from the artists, promising a delightful day for all. For those interested in attending please let The OtherWorlds Collective know via their website or social media.


The key nine artists who will be exhibiting are Andy Manson, Camille Rosso, Debbie Manson, Deborah Osberg, Fiona Whyte, Jan Hannah and Linda Herrygers as well as two guest photographer artists, Mālā Gibson and Julien Dumont who will each be bringing something unique to the Garden Party Exhibition.

For some background, Andy Manson has been designing and building stringed musical instruments for over fifty years, Camille Rosso creates intuitive paintings and mobile arts, Debbie Manson creates beautiful pottery, Deborah Osberg is a self-taught artist who creates abstract pieces, Scottish-born Jan Hannah studied illustration and painting in Aberdeen, Linda studied photography and Fiona Whyte is a professional felt maker.


Founder of OtherWorlds Collective

Fiona has been living in the central region of Portugal for the past 14 years but 9 years ago, fate led her to an abandoned wool factory near Gouveia.

“I trained as an artist in Brighton, UK, specialising in ceramics and sculpture, and since coming to Portugal, I haven’t had the time or the opportunity to do sculpting as such. I am also a writer and I had the opportunity a few years ago, to research the textile industry in Portugal and I went to an old disused wool factory, the mountains are unfortunately littered with them and I just saw all these wool fibres floating around and it touched something in me”, Fiona recalled.


Adding, “I started making scarves from these fibres and then I realised that felt could be manipulated in a similar way to clay under the right conditions with soap and water and a lot of elbow grease and sometimes a sander as well. You can make some tremendous three-dimensional forms and that’s how I got interested in it and I am just always fascinated to see what is possible with a few bits of sheep fleece really.”

Fiona currently does not sell any of her work in Portugal but hopes to be able to sell her work in the near future. However, she does sell some of her work in the UK, such as scarves and houseware as she shared “I work for a group where there is often a theme but I twist it to suit what I want to do. I did some travelling in the year, where I went to Iceland so the textures from there are coming through my work at the moment. I am interested in texture, landscape and the human form.”


Serra da Estrela Art Scene

We spoke about the Serra da Estrela Art Scene, with Fiona expressing that it is a more of rural community than the Algarve, explaining that there is not as much as she expected of the art scene.

“There are strong artistic communities in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra but it has been really difficult to find places to show our work in Serra da Estrela. “Individually we found the art scene impenetrable, (perhaps hindered by being immigrants) together we are stronger and we create opportunities to show our work.”

Concluding, “However, I must say there is an arts organisation in Seia and the number of exhibitions has increased over the years. I would like to think that our input has helped, we have introduced some quite edgy work and different mediums.”

For more information, please visit https://otherworldscollective.weebly.com/ or find them on Instagram @other.worlds.artistscollective or on Facebook: These Hands Made It | Facebook

Author

Following undertaking her university degree in English with American Literature in the UK, Cristina da Costa Brookes moved back to Portugal to pursue a career in Journalism, where she has worked at The Portugal News for 3 years. Cristina’s passion lies with Arts & Culture as well as sharing all important community-related news.

Cristina da Costa Brookes