Lubaina Himid's Tate St Ives Residency and Plan B Exhibition in 2000

Lubaina Himid undertook a residency at Tate St Ives in Cornwall during November 1998 and March 1999, working from a converted lifeguard's hut on Porthmeor Beach. The artist described the spartan 8x15 foot concrete space as extremely cold yet brilliantly lit, overlooking expansive sea and sky views. Throughout her residency, Himid painted daily, mixing colors and creating works on paper while observing changing coastal conditions. These paper paintings combined with drawings and paintings made in her dark blue studio in Preston, Lancashire to form ten canvas works titled Plan B. The exhibition opened at Tate St Ives in early 2000, two years after initial planning correspondence. During her residency, Himid listened to Radio 2, read books by Virginia Woolf, Bridget Riley, Frances Hodgkins, and Barbara Hepworth, and collected beach glass. She worked through challenging weather conditions, wearing multiple layers without gloves while maintaining her painting practice. The artist purchased art supplies from Jacksons in Liverpool and used Liquitex paints with her existing brushes. Himid's diary entries from the residency were published in the March 2000 issue of ArtReview magazine.