The Pump House Residency is Artiq's first live-in artist residency and took place the first week of November 2023. Aimed at artists in the early stages of their careers, the residency offered a one-week stay in The Pump House Art Studio in Misterton, rural Nottinghamshire. A holiday let and fully equipped art studio, it's the ideal location for a creative retreat.

The partnership between The Pump House and Artiq came naturally. Its owners, Nicholas Pryke and Claire Elliott, have backgrounds in the creative industries and are passionate about art and giving back to upcoming artists.

Designed for artists to freely explore their creativity without the pressure of delivering a product at the end of it, the residency is an example of the many ways in which Artiq seeks to support its cohort of artists - with paid opportunities, support and guidance, and in this case, time and space to be creative.

Following an open call amongst our artist network, artist Charlotte Aiken secured the residency with a dynamic proposal that included creating natural pigments on-site. This is precisely what she did - making watercolour paint pigments from The Pump House red brick dust and foraged flowers, roots and berries from the surrounding area.

During the week-long stay, Charlotte pushed her creativity in many new directions: developing pigment based on what was around her led to a distinct and somewhat accidental colour palette; the Victorian letter press available in the studio pushed her to explore lino printing. A copper plate weathered outside while Charlotte worked on her prints, and fallen leaves and rain resulted in serendipitous markings.