!!!STOP PRESS!!!
Studio Faire featured in the local paper LADEPECHE today, thanks to the lovely journalist Laure Rollier for this nice wee article about us getting here and how we’re loving life in South West France!
Read the original article in French at www.ladepeche.fr
… or read a slightly dodgy translation below!
“Colin & Julia : Offering a place conducive to creativity.
It all starts with a beautiful story. Colin Usher and Julia Douglas, two artists from Haddington, Scotland, decided a few years ago that it was time for them to go on an adventure, to leave their country of origin to have new lifestyle and artistic experiences. Whenever they talked about the subject together, France always cropped up.
They fell in love at first sight with Nérac
“After a few visits to the South West to find the best location, we took a map and drew a circle with a radius of a hundred kilometers around Bordeaux, so as not to be too far from the airport!” says Colin with a big smile and a British accent. Through a friend settled in Calignac, they visit Nérac and it was love at first sight. One day, while they took a photograph on the bridge facing the castle, Colin asked Julia: “Do you want to live here?” It will be the beginning of an incredible adventure for the Scottish couple.
“We already had the project to create an artist’s residency space before leaving Scotland, we just needed the perfect place. We visited a lot of houses before falling in love with this one” says Colin, who at home worked as a photographer for festivals, music groups but also for cinema.
After much French administration, “The dream came true”, says Julia, eyes still sparkling. “It has been an emotional journey, the strongest and most beautiful experience of our lives. In just a few weeks, we left our house, our country, our work to settle in Nérac and finally realize our dream of opening this art center in France.”
Quickly, the couple transforms this huge charming and bucolic building into a place conducive to calm, creation and interdisciplinary exchange. “We want to organize events, workshops, conferences, all this by offering self-catering accommodation and adapted work spaces.”
Studio Faire has already received many artists in residence of all nationalities, such as the American dancer and choreographer Robin Gee, or the director Meredith Alloway.