Fruition

Summer is upon us!  Blasts of hot air and sunshine, after too many cold damp days in UK.  With lockdown restrictions gradually easing and hugs resuming, there also seems a to be a new energy (among humans anyway). Many of us have learnt important lessons about care.

In between projects, I’ve taken a few short courses and continue to connect with membership groups: RSS, SAW, BSA and IN:CH.  Care is an overwhelming mantra - not just caring for others, but also self-care. Through Mind the Gap with Fiona Winning (open honest sharing to find our inner resources), RSS meet-ups where we discuss fighting our inner demons while reaching for our North Star, it’s clear how necessary it is to have downtime.  I’m trying… :-)

All The Colours

The work I’ve been doing for All The Colours, part of Art First with Seed and Buses of Somerset, is soon to launch. The printed artworks are almost ready for the buses.

The design process has been complex, involving several stages, some completely new to me! Initially I created 3 chameleon paintings in different colour schemes, plus a background. After compiling all the community’s image submissions, I used software to import them into the chameleons as photo mosaics, ready for lenticular printing. Thanks to Neil Lumby (Seed designer) for his part in the process.

Lenticular prints are holographic, making images almost cinematic. As the bus moves, or viewers move past the image, the chameleon will change colour, and the eyes will rotate.

We will be launching the art on buses in early June, when you’ll be able to see the work featured in and on 30 buses across Sedgemoor, Somerset.

Thanks to all who contributed. I’m excited to see the final results! To find out more about the project visit Art First  and head to my All The Colours page.

Round Lemon Talk, Interview and Publication

Following Round Lemon’s selected ONE exhibition and winning first prize, an Interview about my work has been published on Round Lemon’s ZEST platform, and you can catch my online artist talk on their YouTube channel.  A Round Lemon ONE Exhibition publication is also available to buy.

Hope of a Tree, Inch by IN:CH

Inch by IN:CH

The tour begins! We launched Inch by IN:CH in Bath over the bank holiday weekend, and with it, a range of drawing sessions. It was a lovely way to engage visitors, while providing stimulus and more reason to linger and chat.  Drawing from Cases is an ongoing event, daily when we are open. Shirley Sharp and I also facilitated an experimental shadow drawing session, using ink, charcoal and graphite to draw shadows cast by the lit work. We’ll be running this session again at Backwell Playhouse on 7 August.

My truck conked out last week, so I am eternally grateful to Philippa Edwards for kindly coming to the rescue and transporting me and my work on installation day. With help from Jez Truelove and the amazing IN:CH team we cleared two garages and set up a coherent exhibition! My piece Hope of a Tree will be adapted for different venues. It’s a relief when work comes to fruition successfully.. 

This 1min film about the work was prompted by a short film-making course I did recently with Chris Kemp (Suited and Booted Studios) via Creativity Works.

If you haven’t yet, do try to visit our Bath venue before 13 June (The Garages, Bath Artist Studios, The Old Malthouse, Comfortable Place, Bath BA1 3AJ; open Fri, Sat, Sun, 11-5).  Take a look at our website and instagram @inchbyinch for details of all our venues, dates and events.  At our next venue (Frome Festival) I will be there each day (3-11 July), showing my work in the spiral staircase museum entrance, and running taster drop in workshops. Join me!

I’m looking forward to running a series of workshops - online and in-person.  I’ll be working with Eastover School, Bridgwater later this month via SPAEDA creating a giant octopus. And via SAW’s InspirED programme, I’m creating resources/materials for Primary School Teachers, with a focus on creative approaches to engage with Climate Change. There’s still time to book!.

I will be showing some of my earlier work: drawings, a nest and dung beetle sculptures in the Trowbridge Windows on Nature Trail, 51 Fore Street, BA14 8ES in time for World Environment Day (5 June). All work is for sale. If you’re an art/nature lover, pop along if you can!

For a list of current and forthcoming exhibitions please visit this link

Happy chilling!

Welcome Spring

What a joy to have spring sunshine and bulbs growing, after such miserable cold months in confinement.  New beginnings bring hope! 

It’s surprising what can be achieved under difficult circumstances. Time in lockdown has gone fairly quickly, as I’ve been working on several projects and finding alternative work solutions, although often computer bound.

In between, I’ve been developing new work in the studio, exploring ideas through collages, maquettes, sketches, and gathering materials.  In contrast to my last piece The Fall (see previous posts), my next feels hopeful.  Ideas are developing of ascending lines expanding beyond grid-like constrictions into lightness and recovery, though precarious.  Yellow is my new colour depicting hope and optimism.  I’ve been naturally dying and hand-stitching recycled textiles, rubber, latex, and plastic as patchworks of repair.  Branching umbrella frames may become supporting skeletal structures. 

A lot of the found and recycled materials I’m using have been sourced locally or donated by friends - thanks to those who’ve helped.

Short Film

A short film about my sculptural practice using textiles has been commissioned by Art UK, working in partnership with Culture Street and Royal Society of Sculptors.  Due to covid and lockdown, it was delayed for a year.  In the end, the artist interview was conducted over Zoom and I supplied footage.  Aimed at schools, it’s one of 10 new film commissions about sculptors and their different processes, as part of a major initiative to put online UK’s sculpture collection. I’m honoured to be included in the series!

All The Colours

I’m one of the commissioned artists leading a community art project via Seed, called Art First.  We are engaging the public in Sedgemoor, especially those who travel on buses.

‘Artists Fiona Campbell, Karl Bevis, Jem Dick and Sharon Jacksties are working on three projects, which will produce artworks co-created with Buses of Somerset passengers and staff and other members of the community. The finished works will be displayed on 30 buses across Sedgemoor.  Covering multiple art forms from poetry through photography to collage, our artists will guide you through the process, giving you tips to find inspiration in your everyday lives to create something magical. All creations can be submitted and your submissions will then be combined into artworks to be exhibited on the buses and online.’

In my project All The Colours I’m inviting people to create a collage in one dominant colour, reflecting on their responses to a bus journey, the past year, a particular experience, mood, feeling, moment, personal or global memory. The images will be part of a co-created artwork which will be transformed into a hologram chameleon. This will change colours at different viewpoints and will be featured on 30 buses for passengers and community to enjoy.

I’ll be running FREE workshops, there’ll be prizes and an online exhibition.  Below is a slideshow I made to offer examples of collages in a dominant colour.

For further info and to participate please visit my page All The Colours.  If you’re based in Sedgemoor, and/or have travelled on buses in the area, please get involved and spread the word!  

Inch by IN:CH

I’m part of an artist-led travelling project Inch by IN:CH, bringing contemporary art out of galleries and into community areas across South West UK. Between May-October ’21, 11 artists will each present mixed media works including painting, light projections, assemblage and sculptural installations, transported in cases from one place to the next.  At each location artists will engage the public through activities (covid protocol in place).

The locations we’ve chosen are unexpected venues for art. One of our venues, East Somerset Railway, is in my village.  Our finale venue will be at the Gauge Museum, Bishops Lydeard Station, West Somerset Railway, the longest heritage railway in England. We will show our work in the newly restored museum, in one of two remaining Victorian Sleeper cars, and spilling out onto the platform. These popular venues for families and train enthusiasts are evocative, meaningful settings for art about transportation of ideas.

We’re so grateful to sponsors including The Arts Society, Somerset Art Works, The Gane Trust,  individuals and supportive venues: East and West Somerset Railways, Fringe Arts Bath and Found Outdoors. We’ve submitted our Arts Council funding application, so fingers crossed we receive this crucial support to bring free programming and events to mixed audiences.

Online Sculpture Course

I recently finished running my second online Sculpture Course. The focus is on nature, using recycled and found materials. Participants produced some awesome work, sourcing their own found materials, and finding so many ways to use them creatively. 

Images: Jinny Jehu; Gwynne Penny;  Barbara Griffin; Magdalena Musanovi

To see more please visit Instagram: #onlinesculpturecourse2021
Let me know if you’re interested in my next course (dates TBC).

Inspiration 

Online meetings and talks have been convenient, with the benefit of international reach. Through zoom I’ve loved connecting with fellow artists. Royal Society of Sculptors meet-ups and new weekly sculptors drawing sessions have been helpful to focus and free the mind.  We are currently working on an exciting group exhibition.

The Overstory, a book by Richard Powers, has inspired new work: There are no separable events. The bird and.. branch.. are.. linked creatures..; ‘reiterated trunks .. shooting up parallel like the fingers of a Buddha’s upraised hand.. tufted spires… swirled in the gauze of a Chinese landscape… fungi and lichen everywhere, like splatters of paint from a heavenly can’

Other relevant resources:

Tim Ingold: Facing the Anthropocene: Life is always creating itself.. Lines are animate... I’ve started Tim’s book Life of Lines, and also The Mushroom at the End of the World (Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing)

James Aldridge: Queer Rivers Art Earth: Where does a river stop? Everything is fluid, interconnecting….

Phyllida Barlow: Small works made with the minimum of ambition... Sculpture is a restless art form…

Artists inspiring me: above left to right: Giulia Cenci; Daiga Grantina; Monika Sosnowska; Janet Echelman

Other News

I’m part of the Solargraphic Society of Somerset (Mendip area) organised by Janette Kerr. I put up my pin-hole can camera with light sensitive paper in my garden and look forward to the results in 2 months.

My Bulrushes are now installed in their new home in the midlands (left: pic in snow)

Delighted that my Blackbird sculpture (commissioned by Shepton Mallet Town Council for a Bird Trail last autumn) has been selected as a permanent feature above The Art Bank entrance in the town centre.

Forthcoming Events

Inch by IN:CH a travelling project considering transition, interchange and the transportation of ideas. Various venues, South West UK, 28 May - 3 Oct 

Royal Society of Sculptors 10 gram Challenge exhibition: 28 June – 18 Sept

I’ll be giving an online talk via Red Line Art Works on 25 March, 7pm (GMT). If you’d like to join the talk, please register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApcuiurzkvHtFe6fjc4ZqzB2doWh5SiyNu

In support of the Arts, please visit the Art Is Essential campaign, aimed at raising awareness about the importance of the Arts to a healthy society.

This past year has been a huge jolt to us, and despite the sad and tragic happenings, I’m hopeful that we have come out of it stronger and better.