Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions 2017

I will be taking part in the following exhibitions this year: Bath Spa University MA Open Studios, Dartmouth Ave, 25-27 January

Walcot Chapel MA Fine Art Residency. 13-20 Feb. Open Eve Mon 20 Feb, 6-8pm, Walcot Chapel, Walcot Gate, Bath BA1 5UG

'The Future Can't Wait', MA Show, Long Gallery, Black Swan Arts Centre, 2 Bridge St, Frome, Somerset BA11 1BB, 18 March - 5 April. Preview Fri 17 March 6-8pm

Wylye Valley Art Trail, 26 May - 4 June

Fresh Air '17, Quenington Old Rectory, Quenington, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 5BN, 11 June - 2 July, open daily 10am-5pm, £5 Adults, children free

Bradford-on-Avon Sculpture Garden, 'Lynchetts', 15, Woolley Street, Bradford-on-Avon, 24 June - 2 July, 11am-6.30pm, closed Mon

Fifty BEES: The Interconnectedness of All Things, ACEarts, Somerton, 1-22 July, open Tues - Sat, 10am-5pm

Summer Sculptures, Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset, BA6 9EL, 1 July - 1 October (normal admission applies)

Evolver Prize '17, Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Honiton, 8 July - 26 August

NGS Open Garden, Benter, Somerset, 23 July, 10am-5pm

'Form and Fascination', Courts Garden National Trust, Holt, Nr Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, BA14 6RR, 9 September - 15 October (closed Wednesdays).  Last entry to garden 5pm.  My work will be shown alongside Ian Turnock's.  Private View Fri 8 Sept 6-8pm

Somerset Art Weeks Festival 'Prospect'.  I will be taking part in 2 exhibitions with Angela Morley, spanning East and West Somerset.  'Ephemeral and Eternal', Round Tower Gallery, Black Swan Arts, 2 Bridge St, Frome, Somerset BA11 1BB, 16 September - 7 October, 10am–4pm, Mon to Sat, (open Sun 1 Oct); Preview Fri 22 Sept 6-8pm and Clayhill Arts, Clayhill Farm, Charlynch Lane, Bridgwater TA5 2PH, 23 September - 8 October, 11am-6pm, Wed-Sun

As part of Somerset Art Weeks Festival we will be running workshops: Black Swan Arts: ‘Organic Forms’: Wed 4 Oct, 1-3pm (Angela Morley); Sat 7 Oct, 10-12 or 1-3pm (Fiona Campbell); book via www.eventbrite.co.uk; Clayhill Arts: ‘Organic Forms Found Materials’ Sun 8 Oct, half day or full day (Fiona Campbell); or ‘Organic Forms Willow Weaving Sun 8 Oct, half day or full day (Angela Morley), or combination of each: book via www.eventbrite.co.uk

MA Degree Show, Bath School of Art & Design, Sion Hill, Bath, BA1 5SF, 23 - 27 Sept, 10am-5pm.   This will be an interim show for me, being my first year of two, part-time

Black Swan Arts Open, 2 Bridge St, Frome BA11 1BB, 2-29 Nov, 10am-4pm, Mon to Sat

More details to follow on these and other exhibitions.

Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions 2016

I will be involved in the following exhibitions this year: The Viking Cruises Garden, RHS Chelsea Flower Show , Royal Hospital, Chelsea, London SW3 4SL; 24-28 May '16.  I am creating a large woven canopy as a focal piece for Sarah Eberle's garden, inspired by Cambodia’s floating gardens and artisanal fishing techniques in the Mekong River region

The Hidden Garden Art Show, Maureen Michaelson Gallery, Hampstead, London; 4 - 12 June.  On Sunday 12 June this Gallery is also hosting a day as part of Chelsea Fringe Festival, where I will be demonstrating my sculpting techniques from 11am - 5pm, with a talk at 3pm. www.maureenmichaelson.com or www.chelseafringe.com

1000 Postcards, Black Swan Arts Centre, Frome; 18-28 June (Preview Evening Fri 17 June, 6-8pm).  Sale of 1000 Postcards (original artworks), many by famous artists and celebrities at an affordable £30. Exhibited anonymously (signatures on back), with list of contributors displayed. Funds will refurbish the historic Round Tower

Secret Swans, Frome (trail as part of Black Swan's 30th anniversary celebrations and Frome Festival); 1-10 July.  Trail of 30 related artworks in various media/scale displayed at indoor and outdoor public venues around Frome. Information sheets/list of artists/venues available at Black Swan.  Secret auction at each venue

Devon Recycled Sculpture Trail, Teignmouth seafront; 23 July - 4 Sept.  My new piece 'Resurrection' will be on show alongside a range of other artworks

'step in stone', Salisbury Art Centre; 18 Aug-24 Sept, open Tues-Sat, 10am-3pm. Private View Fri 19 Aug 6-8pm.  The artscapes-in-quarries project I ran last year goes on tour.  This exhibition tells the story of a unique event held in the summer and autumn of 2015.  14 local/international artists created site-specific artworks in response to the nature of quarries and their place in the environmental, cultural and industrial heritage of the region

Somerset Open Studios 2016, Laundry Cottage, 13 Cooks Lane, West Cranmore, Somerset BA4 4RH; 17 Sept–2 Oct.  Showing with Nick Weaver.  I will be running a Taster Wire Workshop, Sun 25 Sept, 11.30-12.30.  £6 pp. To book contact: fionacampbell-art@sky.com

Quartz Festival 2016, ‘Outside In’, Queens College, Trull Road, Taunton TA1 4QS; 15-22 Dec.  Collection of work based on the natural world from over 40 artists and makers from South West UK

Launch of 'step in stone'

Time for reflection has been very thin over the past few months.  It has been the busiest ever period of my working life (possibly not to be repeated)!Installing work at GROW London for Maureen Michaelson's Gallery stand in June proved successful, with some great feedback and an offer of a Chelsea Flower Show commission next year.  Happily, I sold a couple of Nest and Cocoon pieces at The Hidden Garden Art Show (also with Maureen Michaelson Gallery, Hampstead - part of Chelsea Fringe).

I ran a couple of 2-day workshops at Kings Hall School and Farmors School, resulting in a great dragon and large insects with Yr 7 students.  A fortnight ago I set up my Giant Nest in Black Swan Arts Centre, Frome.  This will remain on show there for a couple of months.

However, most of my time continues to be absorbed by my project ‘step in stone‘.  Co-ordinating, curating and making are quite a challenging combination, but so far things are going well and last week was the big opening of 'Step 1', after months preparing and publicising with stands, presentations, interviews, leaflets and other forms of PR.  Installing artwork, arranging signage, running a school workshop, leading a guided walk, making a sculpture in a day, holding a press launch and organising the official opening at Somerset Earth Science Centre has been a whirlwind of activity! Thanks to the massive support of Nick Weaver and other members of the team, I've survived.4 of us spent 2 days setting up artwork inside and around the grounds of SESC.  My artwork for the project includes both new work inspired by features of the quarries (for Steps 2 & 3) and pre-existing work (for Step 1) that reflect how the quarries resonate with my interest in life forms.  The installation of my floating pieces involved adventures in a boat.   2 helpers were enlisted from Moons Hill quarry to assist with this.  Slightly perturbed by the strangeness of it all to start with, they were soon singing rowing songs – delighted by the novelty once they'd relaxed into their new roles and we floated the first ‘Diatom’ in the water.   My other installations meant climbing up tall ladders, and wrapping ‘Lichen’ round a tree with helper Nigel.  Duncan Elliott dragged his heavy stone pieces up the road on a trolley, and built huge scaffolding frames to hoist up his ‘Age of Stone’ – a back-aching job, but worth the effort – it is magnificent!  I met Tessa Farmer from the train laden with her intriguing boxes of insects, miniature evil fairies, worm casts and bell jar – the intricate work taking her hours to install – and Christina White set up her beautiful multi-exposure photographs in the Centre against limestone walls.

Some of this process was documented by Duncan Simey (see ‘wild-landscapes’ photos below) and filmmaker Jack Offord, for our final documentary film.

'step in stone' opened on Wednesday 8th July, and we've already had a wide range of visitors of all ages engaging with our work, including 2 school groups through Somerset Art Works’ inspirED programme and some guided walkers through our collaboration with Somerset Wildlife Trust.  My half day workshop was with Yr 7 pupil premium students from Selwood School.  In small groups they created wire pieces based on silver birch seeds.  Suzie Gutteridge’s workshop the next day resulted in felted balls using locally sourced wool.  Both sets of work will be exhibited as part of the Trail at Halecombe Quarry from Step 2 (15th Aug) onwards.

Our first week culminated on Saturday with us making Charlotte McKeown’s sculpture with her in just one day.  This was her award for winning the ‘Under 20’s Sculpture Design Competition’.  A bit like scrapheap challenge, our small, dedicated team worked hard to create the Kinetic Structure in a day.  Despite having prepared materials and got some parts together in advance, it was still a little daunting.  Our team included Charlotte, Lucja Korczak, who won the under 13 year-old design competition prize, Duncan Cameron (step in stone artist and Strode College tutor to Charlotte), Nick Weaver (step in stone Partner) and me.  Perhaps the best thing about the day was how everyone worked together so well to make it happen and with such aplomb!    A slight rush to finish before the arrival of press and guests for our official opening at 5pm, the sculpture was installed near the Centre entrance.  Sarah Jackson from Mendip Hills AONB kindly did the honours to ‘open’ the event, and we all celebrated the start of an exciting few months ahead!

Do please come and visit Somerset Earth Science Centre (SESC)  – open to public Weds 9am-4pm & special events.  Artists exhibiting at SESC for Step 1 are: Duncan Elliott, Tessa Farmer, Christina White, Charlotte McKeown (young sculpture design competition winner) and me.  Step 2 follows on 15th August.

Fundraising success!

I was elated when news came through in January that my grant application to Arts Council England/National Lottery (via Grants for Arts) for step in stone was successful!  This is the icing on the cake after several hard-going months fundraising and a few other succcesses including our crowd funding on IdeasTap.   It's really not my thing, so I feel a huge sense of achievement and relief!  I owe thanks to several people who helped and supported me, particularly Nick Weaver, for his patient editing. Since then, work's got even busier!  In between organising our step in stone Artist Research Trip (image below), doing step in stone PR and some art teaching, I have a commission I'm working on.  Once complete, I will post images.  It's a new departure for me and I'm sworn to secrecy about it at the moment.

I was also delighted to be invited to join the Black Swan Arts Centre team as a trustee.  It's a great honour, and I'm looking forward to getting more involved with the Centre.