Spring News

Flags of the Forest, Seed Pop Up, Angel Place, Bridgwater. Photos 1-5 (above & below) by Kate Pearce

Flags of the Forest was re-created as a site-responsive installation in an empty shop space in Angel Place, Bridgwater last month, commissioned by Seed Sedgemoor. I so enjoyed spending time with the installations, welcoming and speaking to visitors, hearing their perspectives and watching their interactions. I had many stimulating conversations about art, trees, animals, recycling and ‘rubbish’ we can creatively transform. Thanks to those who visited.

I’d created a few additional elements and adaptations since its first placement in ‘23 was outdoors at Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens. Being in the space all week gave me more time to consider the work and receive thoughtful feedback. I’m galvanised to add more to this installation in the future.

The commission was focussed on actively engaging people in the creative arts. I was present daily and ran a drop-in workshop. I’m hugely grateful to Seed for the commission, and for their support. It was a fantastic opportunity to recreate my 2 installations (the other in February) in the space and see them hang in a different setting/light. Each install felt a bit like a residency.

Considering Art Podcast

It was a real pleasure talking to Bob Chaundy recently about my work for his Podcast series Considering Art. We had a conversation about my background and inspiration, and how environmental issues are at the heart of my work, materials and processes. I’m grateful to Bob for inviting me. You can listen here:

Check out other artist interviews here

The Arts Society Wessex Area

Delighted to have been granted some funds by The Arts Society Wessex Area towards delivering a workshop (date TBC) for One Island - Many Visions, plus towards costs for the exhibition catalogue & symposium. I’m currently developing work for this show in Portland (6 Sept - 31 Oct). The exhibition is a collaboration with Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust and fellow members of the Royal Society of Sculptors. I’m also working behind the scenes in the Steering Group.

My piece Riot is inspired by Maritime Sunburst Lichen (Xanthoria Parietina) growing on the rocks at Tout Quarry, their colour, folds, and radial growth. Ancient life forms of fungi, algae, and cyanobacteria in symbiosis. Created from recycled materials including beach waste, Riot is a reflection on ‘troubled beauty’, Arts Precario. Labour-intensive processes of weaving, wrapping and hand stitching refer to line as energy, tentacularity, thread as the universal component of the cosmos. A site-responsive intervention at Tout Quarry, Riot is also wearable sculpture, There will be a performance in which the human body activates the work during the exhibition.

Riot, being trialled at Tout Quarry. Photo by Russell Sach

I’m now working on the second part to it.

Spring Clean

Feeling cleansed after a big studio clear up (see below: last 2 images of the mess before..)! For a while I’ve been working anywhere but my studio, which had become a dumping ground for stuff as projects mounted up. Although I have a studio outbuilding - historically the laundry building for my village - I prefer working out in the garden especially when it’s sunny. I use a separate shed for metal/woodwork, and grateful to a neighbour Roger Spear who lets me use his large workshop for occasional jobs. Roger passed on to me an old catering tray/trolley, which I transformed into a storage shelving unit with plywood offcuts, and used some repurposed marquee poles and wood blocks to make a folder rack.

FAB

An image of ‘Sack’ has been selected for Insert There, curated by Roger Clarke, part of Fringe Arts Bath Festival ‘25. It will be displayed on a wall in 'The Street' at Bath Spa University's Locksbrook Campus, BA1 3EL. FAB runs 23 May to 7 June.

Sack 2024. Placed via AI in the industrial wasteland of Barreiro, Portugal, where the work was once destined to be sited during my PADA residency last year. AI by Ellie Forman-Peck

Workshops and Courses

I worked with approximately 90 children from St Joseph and St Teresa's Catholic Primary School creating small creatures and plant forms for a permanent artwork at their school. Looking forward to seeing it in situ soon - here are a few pics of work in progress.

My next Eco Sculpture Course with Frome Community Education starts on Wednesday 4 June, 2-4pm and runs for 5 weeks at Makers’ Yard, 37 Lower Keyford, Frome BA11 4AR. £60 + £5 materials. Book here

If you’re further afield and want to do a self-directed course along similar lines, I have an Online Sculpture Course you might like to book.

Both great value!

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Enjoy the best of Spring!

New Projects

January is my least favourite month. I deal with it by cracking on and trying new avenues of research, opportunities and making. I have a few projects on the go: commissioned installations at a popup in Bridgwater (coming soon in February), working on a large-scale textiles piece for Tout Quarry later this year, as part of One Island - Many Visions, and teaching new courses.

Seed Pop Up

I’ll be recreating two art installations in a popup space at Angel Place, Bridgwater, commissioned by Seed Sedgemoor. The first - Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand - relates to the tragic plight of pangolins, the world’s most trafficked mammal. Made from recycled and found materials, it invites visitors to get immersed and consider environmental and conservation issues. This installation, together with a gentle film Life in the Undergrowth, revealing small hidden worlds in my garden during lockdown ‘20, can be experienced at the Seed Creative Popup (Shop 8), Angel Place Shopping Centre TA6 3TQ from 18-23 February, 10.30-4pm. This will be followed in April 8-13th by Flags of the Forest, which explores the beauty and resilience of nature.

Alongside the installations, I’ll be running free drop-in Eco Sculpture Workshops from Tuesday 18 to Saturday 22 February, 11am-2pm at the Popup. Open to all aged 6+ (children accompanied by an adult). No need to book.

I’ll be there daily - come and visit!

Seed’s primary aim is to enable more people in Sedgemoor to actively engage in the creative arts, particularly those who don’t usually do so. This activity is supported with funding from Arts Council England via the Creative People and Places programme.

New Work

‘Riot’ (working title - above) is developing steadily, planned for an installation in Tout Quarry, Portland, part of One Island - Many Visions exhibition with fellow Royal Society of Sculptors members (Sept/Oct). I started early as things can get busy as the year progresses. Hoping the final work will be used in a performance as part of the show. It’s going to be a fantastic event with symposium, exciting speakers and more.

This work is inspired by Lichen (Xanthoria Parietina) found on rocks at Tout Quarry, their colour, form, and radial growth. It has been created from waste and recycled materials including textiles (some home-dyed with natural pigments including turmeric), wire, beach litter & debris rescued from the sea. These have been hand-stitched, woven, wrapped and bound together to form a layered mass of line, texture and colour.

Among the oldest living and slowest growing organisms on Earth, and first to colonise new land, Lichen absorb large quantities of carbon dioxide. The rocks are made up of skeletal micro organisms such as diatoms built up over millennia, and the ancient life forms now growing on them - lichen - are a symbiotic relationship of algae, fungi and cyanobacteria.

My labour-intensive processes relate to care and repair. Reflecting on ‘troubled beauty’ in our unstable world, symbiosis and vascular threads as universal rules of nature. Detritus, the fabric of earth, in collaboration, weaving together to make new worlds.

Now to stitch it all together! If I have time I’ll make another smaller piece. Hoping to try it out soon as a wearable artwork.

Grateful to Chris Black for letting me use the space at Zig Zag building, Glastonbury.

New Courses

I‘ve been enjoying running courses in person and online. My Creative Sketchboooking course offers a variety of processes covering drawing (indoors & out), painting, and collage. It’s been good fun! My next series start in a month - if interested please book soon as places are filling up!

(Images below include participants’ work by Sarah Bayly, Alice Irving, Ingrid Sosrin & Sanita Gourley)

Other News

Two of my drawings are currently on show at Drawing on Dorset, The Sherborne, Drawing Room, Dorset, DT9 3JG, daily from 23 November - 23 March, an exhibition which has toured venues in the South West.
The venue has been spectacularly refurbished, thanks to the late Michael Cannon’s enormous generosity.

My drawings represent the overlooked - often small organisms - which fascinate me. These forms recur in my work in different guises including sculptural and textiles work.

Christmas Wishes

Winding down into winter, I’ve been enjoying some quiet solitary making. Working slowly towards an exhibition One Island - Many Visions for next year, with fellow Royal Society of Sculptors members, in collaboration with Portland Sculpture Quarry Trust. I’m interested in Lichen (Xanthoria Parietina) found on rocks at Tout Quarry, their colour, form, and radial growth. Among the oldest living and slowest growing organisms on Earth, the first to colonise new land, Lichen absorb large quantities of carbon dioxide. It seems fitting that my making is a slow, meditative process. I’ve been gathering materials, dyeing recycled fabric with turmeric, onion skins and avocado pits, wrapping and hand-stitching. Looking forward to another trip to Portland this weekend to collect beach litter for the work. Thanks to those who have donated remnants. If you have any spare orange or yellow waste textiles please get in touch!

Drawing on Dorset

Two of my charcoal drawings are currently on exhibition at The Sherborne, Dorset, DT9 3JG, part of Dorset Visual Arts Drawing on Dorset, which has toured venues in the South West. The show is in the Drawing Room and runs daily from 23 November - 23 March.

Sprouting Potato, charcoal on Arches paper

Dandelion Roots, charcoal on Somerset paper

If you’d like to purchase a drawing, please get in touch!

I have 3 pieces on show created from discarded piano parts in The Piano Shop Bath, 1&2 Canton Place BA1 6AA, created for Played and Remade. Available for sale and online.

A few images of my work from Elemental, an exhibition at Sou Sou West Gallery, Bridport, Dorset last month. I showed with Jan Alison Edwards and Ally Matthews.

Maquette I, Above and Below; recycled and found materials

Foreground: work by Jan Alison Edwards; Background: my Stilt Structure II

Nymph; found, discarded, recycled materials: fabric dyed with botanical inks, jute, teabags, paper, oil, rhubarb leaves, wood, wire, wood & other natural debris, hair, shoe inner sole, copper, wax, thread, sisal

Nymph (collage); recycled materials: paper, plant debris, fabric, teabags, cardboard

Foreground: Maquette I, Above and Below; on wall: work by Ally Matthews; Background: Stilt Structure II

My work on show at Elemental, Sou Sou West Gallery

Alongside the exhibition, I ran a weekend Eco Sculpture Workshop with Jan Alison Edwards. Below are pics of some of the wonderful experimentation by participants.

Stilt Structure I (detail); found & recycled materials

Seed Commission

Thrilled to have been commissioned by Seed Sedgemoor to create installations for a popup in Angel Place Shopping Centre, Bridgwater TA6 3QT from February ’25. Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand & Life in the Undergrowth will be showing 18-23 Feb. Flags of the Forest will open 8–13 April.  I’ll be at the Seed Creative Popup, Angel Place 18-22 Feb, and running Eco Sculpture Workshops daily, 11am-2pm. Free, fun, and open to everyone aged 6+ (children with an adult). Do drop in!

Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand (detail), Together We Rise, Chichester Cathedral. Photo by Anne Purkiss

Flags of the Forest, Wander_Land, Tremenhere Sculpture Gardens

Seed’s primary aim is to enable more people in Sedgemoor to actively engage in the creative arts. This activity is supported by Arts Council England via the Creative People and Places programme.

New Courses

To kick off the New Year I’ll be running a series of 5 week Sketchbooking and Eco Sculpture Courses from January onwards via Frome Community Education, day and eves.  Please visit this link to see them all, for further info, and to book.

Also: Mon eve 7-9pm, 24/2, 10/3, 17/3, 24/3, 31/3

Also: Mon morning 10am-12noon, 13/1, 20/1, 27/1, 3/2, 10/2

I’ll also be running my Online Sculpture Course from 13 January - 9 February ’25. Visit this link for further details or email me fionacampbell-art@sky.com. Alternatively, I have an ongoing self-directed Online Sculpture Course available at half the price.

See my shop for hand-made gifts and artworks. And do follow my instagram for regular updates.

If you missed As Old as the Hills, please visit my previous blog.

Looking forward to some time off over the festive break. Wishing you the same, and a very Happy Christmas! X

Winter News

A few more images of my installation Dust of Stars, made from scrap, reused and found materials, some from older work. It questions what is waste, dead, no longer of value. We throw away so much… Looking at the bigger picture, all of life is made from stars made billions of years ago: ‘The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff.’ (Carl Sagan). Matter keeps on going… Loved watching the way visitors interacted with the installation. See my instagram page for video clips of the work. We had some great feedback: ‘one of the most exciting art exhibitions I have seen in a while’ (Jan Ollis, SAW Co-Chair). I gave a talk about Dust of Stars as part of the Hatch exhibition, which will soon be published online via their website.

Photo by Rod Higginson

I’m enjoying the speed and convenience of working at a small scale, trying out different versions of a general idea about precarious structures on stilt legs. The sculptural maquettes are made from repurposed and to-hand materials, treating the assemblages as 3d sketches. These and other sketchbook ideas are leading to upcoming projects, including one I’m co-curating with Jan Ollis (‘As Old as the Hills - working title) for next year’s Somerset Art Weeks Festival. We have some great artists on board and will be taking over the top floor of the Zig Zag building, Glastonbury. The project is rooted in local heritage and environment, linking community with social engagement activities highlighting issues of conservation and sustainability. Culture is an indispensable pillar of climate action. Currently fundraising for the project. More on this soon..

Maquettes: Found & recycled materials: (top left) grass stems, willow, pine, peacock feather, copper wire, wool, roots, steel; (top right) steel, copper wire; (mid left) steel, copper, aluminium; (mid right) sticks, grass stem, khadi paper, leaves; (above left) roots, cardboard, plywood; (right) wood, cardboard packaging, khadi paper

Collage

For many instability is the norm. Dwellings exist on the edges of safety raised high on make-do scaffolding to avoid floods and other threats. In ‘Planet of Slums’ Mike Davis highlights our increasingly unstable urban world. Nomadic Somali tribes carry their homes on camels. Shepherds in France used to herd on stilt legs in boggy ground. I’ve been thinking about resilience, making do. In order to adapt, change the narrative of consumerism and economic growth, imagination is key.

Teaching:

I’ve been running 6 courses at Bath College (3 sculpture, painting, drawing and life drawing). Loved getting to know and working with students on their work - see pics below of students’ work.. ↓ (from top to bottom: Maureen, Mandy, Nick, Cath, Juliette, Sarah, Lynette, Sarah, Martin, Sally, Cath, Fran, Cathy, Pat, Juliette, Jenny, Suzanne, Sally, Judy, Jenni).

Squeezing in my own studio time has taken a concerted effort, and I have been treasuring that.

My next online sculpture course starts in January ‘24. If you’re interested please get in touch, or buy the course direct from my shop. I have other goodies you can purchase too, if considering arty Christmas gifts!

Upcoming events:

My work will be showing in Casting Shadows, Royal Society of Sculptors group exhibition at ACEarts, Somerton, 2 March - 6 April ‘24.

As part of the Snowdrop Festival (February ‘24), I’ll be running a free workshop with writer Polly Hall to create a long scroll-like collage with text, on 20 Jan, 10am-4pm, at Create@#8, Shepton Mallet. The artwork will be installed in the Baptist church for the festival. Get in touch if you’d like to join us.

Really enjoying reading The Golden Mole and other Vanishing Treasure by Katherine Rundell, sent to me by Faber books. As part of the book launch, I was commissioned to make a small Pangolin sculpture, now on display at Hunting Raven Books, Frome. If you haven’t yet, do read the book! Each chapter tugs at your heart with enthralling details about wonderful but endangered creatures.

I’ve been selected for a PADA residency, Portugal in February, and am fundraising for this great opportunity. If you can support me (for travel and accommodation costs), I’d really appreciate a donation via the link below.

Donate

My next blog may be post-Christmas, so here’s wishing you a wonderful festive time wherever you are!

Dust of Stars

Work in progress: Dust of Stars, for Hatch. Found, discarded and recycled materials: wood, metal, wire, rope, twine, glass, plastic, rubber, miscellaneous debris and objects.

I’ve created an installation in a disused barn for an exhibition Death & Microwaves, Hatch, Somerset. Enjoyed the freedom to be experimental in a large space, play with shadow, and take a line for a walk, working with my collection of salvaged materials and objects. Regarding the value we give to different materials, I’ve re-used old work and things which often end up in waste piles, what I already have.

Anselm Keifer speaks of the detritus he collected as ‘an incessant metabolism, the beginning of a rebirth.’ The creative cycle,  the ‘ceaseless shuttling back and forth between nothing and something, a constant going from one state to the other’, is synonymous with life and death. Each merges into the other with no real defining point, a cyclical persistence. Considering this and the magnitude of our universe, what is living and what is dead?  As matter is ongoing, is this stuff alive?  Life comes from the dust of stars, and we return to dust. According to Carl Sagan: ‘The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff.’

Death & Microwaves, Hatch, Langport, Somerset, Oct 27 - 12 Nov. ‘Like the Dadaists, whose name came by stabbing a knife into a French-German dictionary pointing to the word dada (hobby-horse), the title for our upcoming exhibition arose from two spontaneous and juxtaposing conversations around a dinner table.’ Book to visit. Exhibition late opening 3 & 10 Nov, from 4.30pm. Tea & cake 5.30pm. Artist Talks 6pm. Come to my talk on 10 November! Georgina Towler and I will each be discussing our work on show. See here for more.

Somerset Open Studios ‘23

A few more pics from my Open Studio event, which ended at the beginning of this month. Some days were magical, with visitors, sunshine, and butterflies galore. Other days wind and rain lashed at the outdoor work, activating the flags. Great to have sold a few pieces and receive quality feedback. Loved welcoming people - thanks to all who visited!

Resurrection., on show in my garden. Photo credit Andy Ladhams; thumbnail pics above: 1-5 Rich Cassidy; 6 Andy Ladhams

I have a small sculpture Roots in ACEarts Open Exhibition. The Meet the Artists event was a great start to the show. Lovely to catch up with so many artists, and see the wide selection of artworks. Runs 14 Oct-11 Nov, 10-5, Tues-Sat, Somerton, Somerset.

My work is currently on show at Stone Lane Gardens Sculpture Exhibition 2023, Chagford, Devon until 31 Oct..

Loved making a small Pangolin sculpture for Faber Books. As part of a campaign to launch the paperback ‘The Golden Mole and Other Vanishing Treasure’ by Katherine Rundell, Faber Books is working with independent, sustainable artists on bespoke pieces inspired by animals in the book. My obvious choice was a pangolin, most trafficked mammal in the world. I have a particular passion for their plight. Many people aren’t aware of what they are and how endangered they’re becoming. They are such docile, shy creatures, and it’s a tragedy that they are slaughtered for their only protection - their scales.

Pangolin, found and recycled materials: copper and steel off-cuts, wire, aluminium & plastic bottle tops, buttons, beads, wood, twine, shells.

I’ve been leading workshops with young people via YMCA/SAW. I’m also teaching art at Bath College: sculpture, drawing & painting, and life drawing courses. It’s been a busy initiation, with heavy admin, training and prep involved. Finding the juggling quite exhausting, but it helps pay the bills and support my art practice.

Looking forward to a PADA residency in February, and seeking help to fund this great opportunity. If you can support in any way, please click on the link below.

Donate