100 YEARS BOLD IN ALL WEATHERS THE KLPA CENTENARY ART EXHIBITION
In 2026 the KLPA is celebrating the centenary of the Ladies’ Pond as a place reserved for women and girls to swim. To mark this milestone, from 27 August – 21 September 2026 we will present in an exhibition at Lauderdale House and on this website the work of twelve members chosen from an open call in 2025 to be ‘Artists in Residence’ at the Pond during its 100th year. You will find an example of the work of each artist below, with links to their web and social media presence where relevant.
I work predominantly in acrylics, pastels and oils, but also in many other media including collage and monoprints. My work is best described as painterly and atmospheric, with a figurative style which often borders on the abstract.
Relishing the physical qualities of my materials, I use sponges and rags to move paint around freely when working on larger pieces, making use of the accidental with a lightness of touch when building up delicate layers of watercolour or pencil. Resulting artworks can be recognisable depictions of my chosen motif or may lean towards a more personal response in which composition, colour and texture take precedence.
My inspiration comes from natural forms and landscapes, whether urban or rural, and particularly from the transformative effect of light. My process is rooted in observation; my skill as a draftsman and eye for detail lends everyday subjects an unexpected weight, inviting the viewer to slow down and share the world as I see it.
The residency has allowed me to observe the changing seasons and visitors at the Pond, and to immerse myself in its rhythms. Over the months my work settled into three distinct groups: atmospheric drawings and paintings of the pond and its setting; charcoal and acrylic sketches of the swimmers and lifeguards; and abstract compositions on fabric, which grew out of studying light on the surface of the water.
The more I visit the Pond more inspiration I find, and some of my ideas have yet to evolve into finished pieces. I intend to continue developing them alongside other upcoming projects.
My brothers taught me to swim when I was seven. That was the summer I used an indelible green marker for a mural on my bedroom wall. It did not receive universal acclaim. I was invited to bleach the wall, which I did, before redrawing, rebleaching, redrawing, rebleaching . . . The resultant layers and traces were deeply satisfying, at least to me. I realised I was now an artist as well as a swimmer.
I have been an artist and swimmer, working with layers and traces, ever since, so this centenary residency has been especially meaningful to me. The pond is a year-round place of meditation, of grounding, beauty, and of connection; a place of immersion in so many senses for which I feel profound gratitude.
The source of the ponds are natural springs. I collected yellow pigment from the feed chalybeate (iron-rich) waters which I have used in my watercolours. Each work contains a small amount of this source pigment as a nod to the waters of the pond and to the iron that flows through our veins. The images explore transformation and movement of water, birds, swimmers, insects, time, and light . . .
This residency has been a collaboration with printmaker Emily Johns. The images produced, after being shown here, will form part of our ‘Conversation Piece’ series.
There’s nothing better than being outdoors in a beautiful spot sketching. The Ladies’ Pond on the Heath has been an emerald jewel in my heart for many years. The KLPA residency has been a continuation of my habit of sketching the beauty of Hampstead Heath.
I began to make animated films as a student at Harvard University in 1968. My animated storytelling films are renowned for their emotional content and graphic style, closely tied to the innovative direct animation techniques I have developed. My first film, ‘Sand or Peter and the Wolf’, was made with a bucket of local beach sand poured out onto a lightbox and lit from below to create a world of moving shadowy figures. My subsequent films are refinements and extensions of this straight ahead under-the-camera technique.
In 1972 I moved to Montreal at the invitation of the National Film Board of Canada, a publicly funded Canadian production centre. There I worked as a staff animator/director until 1991. My major animated films from these years are: ‘The Owl Who Married a Goose’, ‘The Street’, ‘The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa’, ‘Interview’ and ‘Two Sisters’.
My film awards include Academy Award Nomination for ‘The Street’, Grand Prix at the Ottawa International Animation Festival for ‘The Street’, Grand Prix at the International Festival of Short Films Krakow, Poland for ‘The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa’, Grand Prix at Melbourne for ‘Interview’ and Grand Prix at the 4th Los Angeles International Animation Celebration for ‘Two Sisters’, which also won the Grand Prix at Ottawa International Animation Festival. In 2017 I received an Annie life achievement award in Hollywood and in 2019 I received the Dragon of Dragon award from the Krakow Animation Festival.
Today I live in London, where I maintain a studio and work as a fine arts painter in oils, watercolour and mixed media.
I’m a spoken word poet from North London. My poetry moves with me as I journey through life. It’s not boxed into one category or another; instead, it offers a quiet space for me to process and gain perspective on what’s going on. I’ve been writing poetry since I was a little girl, scribbling away in my bedroom when I probably should have been asleep.
Over the years, I’ve discovered the performance element of my craft, and how I’m able to use my body to lift my words off the page and send them travelling. I use my hands, my eyes, and my voice to give my poetry another dimension.
Spending this year as one of the KLPA Centenary artists has been a freeing experience. Swimming in the ponds is something that, along with my writing practice, keeps me grounded and provides me with a space to be present. I’m grateful to be able to bring these two aspects of my life together and share my love for the ponds through poetry.
Amanda Lebus and I decided to use our time at the Pond to develop the ‘Conversation Piece’ where we have been exploring the thematic intersections of our work over the last thirty years. Many of those themes of myth, nature, community, womanhood and life cycles link to the Pond. We are both painters and printmakers and interestingly this year has evolved towards me mostly block cutting and Amanda mostly painting. The joy has been sharing lines and thoughts with a fellow artist, having time to talk and digest and analyse. We have sat next to each other on a bench or a log and looked intently at the swimmers, at how the water ripples, how the geese preen and said “look, do you notice…?”
We are both artists who root our work in looking and then allow the outer world to permeate inner worlds. I have also been gathering stories that I hear on the banks of the pond, there are many tales of transgressions, humour, mischief. I have also observed and drawn the serious moments of AGMs and the functioning of a community.
My research-based practice explores the relationships between humans, technology and nature. I work across interactive installation, walks, video, audio and performance, often collaboratively, combining organic materials with real-time data computation, robotics and responsive systems.
For the Centenary Residency I explore the Ladies’ Pond as a place of transformation and sublimation: transformation each time a woman steps down the ladder, or dives into the silky water; transformation as the surrounding flora synthesise their rich structures, colours and hidden molecules, potent with medicinal and symbolic properties.
My inspiration came from a set of ancient French texts describing how to extract coloured inks from plants. I revelled in the feeling of channelling the sorceress Circe, exploring my ‘island Pond’ to discover what was to hand, what properties I could use. I played, experimented with pulps, extracts, metal ions and pH shifts. I investigated the molecular-electronic nature of colour, awed by the quantum behaviour of electrons resonating to create the spectacular visible colours all around.
What has gradually emerged is a narrative from the natural plants in their Pond environment, to a lab of transformation, to botanical portraits using only the plant’s own extracts, and offerings of potions, charms and micro-gins. The residency has brought together and reawakened many wide-ranging passions: plants, botanical drawing, chemistry, colour – all in the magical context of the Pond itself.
Meanwhile the bacteria in the mud are quietly generating electricity… There’s so much more to explore!
As an actress, voice teacher and regular swimmer in the Ladies’ Pond, I’m always struck by the sensations felt not only by the water on my skin but by the sounds of women’s voices in the pond.
From the shivers of first timers to the murmur of dab old hands. The chatter, laughter, sharing of news, shouldering of problems, sounds of sympathy and shrieks of joy. I am fascinated by this community who share the vibrations of lives well lived.
I love hearing the gasps of disbelief when someone overcomes their dread of deep, dark water and the sighs of release as their hot bodies de-fizz in the cool waters. I relish our shared humanity as we collectively pass on word to protect newly hatched ducklings.
In summer I soak up sounds of serene murmurings; the screams of excited be-thonged teenagers; daring tourists confidentially sharing their London. As I swim I absorb the nurturing encouragements, ageing wisdoms and simple expansive breaths of the solitary focused swimmer.
In winter I drink in the sounds of solidarity, shivers and congratulations – deep outbreaths and shaky chatter. I swim amongst old and young, calm and chaotic – there is no future or past, just the present which exists along with our bodies and our unique, beautiful and natural voices.
Through the KLPA I am celebrating 100 years of women’s voices through capturing their sounds and investigating whether it’s possible to recreate the same sense of unrestrained vocality. Follow the link below and go to ‘More About Me’ to hear what I hear . . . I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
I am a Japanese multidisciplinary artist based in London. After completing an MA in Textiles at the Royal College of Art, I developed a site-responsive practice exploring the relationships between people, materials and place through installation and found objects. My work is informed by Japanese aesthetics and an interest in ecology, impermanence and interconnectedness.
Being selected as a KLPA Centenary Artist has transformed the way I observe the relationship between humans and the natural world. Spending time at Kenwood Ladies’ Pond throughout the seasons has led me to recognise that we are not separate from nature, but already part of its living ecology. My installation, ‘Yura-Yura: Fragile Balance’, reflects on the ever-changing relationships within this shared ecosystem. Using pond water sealed in glass alongside natural materials gathered around the pond, the work responds to air, light and the presence of people, remaining in constant transition.
Balance is not a fixed state. It is a continuous act of shifting. Living systems are sustained through this continual movement, where stillness and motion, sound and silence, equilibrium and imbalance coexist. Rather than observing nature from a distance, the installation invites viewers to experience themselves as participants in a living ecology, where every presence—seen and unseen—contributes to an ever-renewing balance.
The residency has provided me with the dedicated, expansive time that reflects the creative bounty my swims at the Ladies’ Pond have given me over the years. In 2025, during a trip to Nova Scotia that featured a glorious amount of swimming, my friend Ariel and I began keeping swimming logs in notebooks that we bound ourselves. When I returned to London, I kept up the practice and soon the entries grew in length and breadth. My notes on the day’s swim were accompanied by little illustrations of the flora and fauna painted in watercolours, which the lifeguards Jane, Kim and Tania saw and encouraged me to submit to the Artists’ Residency.
I didn’t go to art school, or even do GCSE art, and even though I have kept a diary since I was seven, I have always struggled to share my writing. The lifeguards’ and the KLPA’s vote of confidence is at the heart of these swimming journals as they are at the heart of the Ladies’ Pond. Throughout this glorious year of making, I have so often been reminded of the vitality of community and how central it is to my creative practice.
RUTH CORNEY and many KLPA members who joined her to work on this project!
Photo by Ruth CorneyPhoto by Ruth Corney
It was while swimming at the Lido on the Heath that this project came about!
I was chatting in the pool with Catherin Peake about the strip of photos that is on the lido wall, pool side. These photos document the people and the place from 1996 to now.
Catherin suggested doing something similar at the Kenwood Ladies Pond to celebrate its 100th birthday. We felt that the banner would come to life if swimmers who use the Ladies’ Pond make embroidery badges to embellish the piece. In December we went to the pond and handed out bags with threads, needles, hoops and fabric and asked people to go off and create. We also left a case tucked behind the shed so that people could leave their works of art or pick up more threads and bits. On 8 March people came and showed their embroidery. The response was amazing! It was also lovely to hear about people’s inspirations for the piece.
Over the next couple of months we held sewing sessions so that people could come and sew on badges and embellish the photos.
It was a lovely moment on 21 June when, while looking for the right colour thread, I looked round and watched a group of women of all ages sitting around on blankets and benches sewing and chatting.
Thank you so much to everyone for making this banner – it is so lively, interesting, joyful and full of love and affection.
Where I ended up is far from where I started with this project. Initially, I wanted to explore the idea of ‘barely there’; a swimmer’s stroke, a ripple, the movement of water, the empty pond. But none of that worked for me. What felt more successful and authentic turned the idea around. It became about how the Pond imprints itself so powerfully and the work became stronger and more direct.
I am a potter making large, functional, sculptural plates. I use the surface of the clay for abstract painting and monoprinting, making each piece one-off. I use a limited palette of colours and tend to use bold brushstrokes and designs. My work explores the beauty of usefulness.
I am currently a studio member of Rochester Square, a collective of forty artists working in clay. I am a co-founder of a new London collective called Ceramicspace. We are a group that brings together contemporary ceramics and interesting architectural spaces. We organise exhibitions, bringing in both established and emerging potters to create a new and exciting feel to ceramics shows.
I was so happy to make a selection of work to celebrate the Pond. I liked the idea of large platters reflecting the generosity of the Pond itself and the sharing nature of KLPA events like the breakfasts. Ceramics to be used by a community but also to look at when empty.
Great Mother Pond envelops us in her watery embrace, and we feel free to just ‘be’. Be it: joyful, playful, miserable or anything else in between. I hope my work reflects that.
