Eva M.V. Hewitt is an award-winning Fine Artist based in Glasgow, Scotland. Following her recent artist residency in Madrid, having been nominated for the 2024 Richard Ford Award, she has chosen to allow the public a glimpse into her sketchbooks and the drawings she produced during this intensive period of travel.

The Richard Ford Award is a London-based award which allows figurative artists the opportunity to travel to Spain for a month to work directly from the collection of paintings in the Nacional Museo del Prado, Madrid. Upon her return, Hewitt presented her final outcomes to the highly accomplished team of panellists and artists, going on to win the Richard Ford Award in November 2024.

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The plethora of prints on display are taken directly from the sketchbook drawings compiled by Hewitt and visually reveal the aspects of the Prado collection that captivated her most significantly. ‘A Spanish Odyssey’ celebrates and indeed juxtaposes the intimacy of working in a sketchbook, whilst being among the busyness of one of the finest national galleries in the world. In fact, it is new territory for the artist as this exhibition marks her first exhibition of strictly drawings. There is a raw authenticity and honesty in the act of displaying works from a travel sketchbook, as some drawings may naturally possess a sense of urgency, roughness or incompleteness. However, they allow for an extremely valuable and rare insight into the mind of the artist, when plunged into an entirely fresh environment, culture and way of life.

Hewitt’s drawn outcomes range from studies inspired by the wondrous El Greco and Michelangelo Caravaggio to the influence of Peter Paul Rubens, introducing and embracing qualities of the Mannerist art movement such as elongation, asymmetry and dramaticism.

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The artist invites you to bask in the beauty of Spain, Glasgow-style. Please enjoy the show.