Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year!

A few updates to round off the year:

Exciting news!  I’ve been selected for a commission with SEED and First Bus.  I will be working with the community to co-create artworks to be installed on First Buses across Sedgemoor in 2021.   It will be something a bit different to my usual work, and will stretch me in new ways.   More details coming soon…

Our travelling group exhibition is getting more compelling as plans develop.  Inch by IN:CH is an artist-led project for ‘21, bringing contemporary art out of studios and galleries and into communal areas of our everyday lives.  Small-scale works in cases will be transported from place to place, migrating outwards in a spiral.  11 artists will engage with local communities through workshops, talks and performances.  We’re looking for match-funding for our ACE application, so if you can help in any way, financially or in-kind, do let me know!

My latest piece The Fall is almost at the point where I can call it ‘finished’ (see previous post for details).   A quote from The Overstory (Richard Powers) sums up my thinking: ‘Trees talk to one another... through the networked soil... Mats of mycorrhizal cabling link trees into gigantic, smart communities... there are no separable events. The bird and.. branch.. are a joint thing.. linked creatures..’  Human frailty, greed, the Icarus factor, is the sorrow.

The Fall in progress: steel, copper, found wood, wool, sisal, twine, rope, leaves, feathers, naturally dyed cotton, wax..

My work is on sale at the Artisan Christmas Market, ACE Arts, Somerton.  I will be invigilating there tomorrow (Saturday 19 Dec) - do come and say hello if you’re in the area, and maybe consider buying some hand-made Christmas gifts :-)

Small and Affordable (Frome) is Black Swan Arts’ fundraising exhibition with 100% going towards keeping the wonderful Black Swan Arts alive.  All works are under £300 and under 30cm sq. There are some great pieces for sale donated by artists, for a great cause.

My offering: New Beginnings, found and recycled paper, wax, steel, copper.

My next Online Sculpture Course runs 11 Jan-14 Feb.  If you’d like to learn new 3d skills using sustainable materials, or know someone who does, please visit this link. Places are filling up so book asap!  It could make a stimulating start to the New Year and/or a Christmas present for someone who wants to get more creative ;-)

Also, it’s your last chance to benefit from a 10% discount offer to friends and supporters in my online Shop  (ends Sat 19 Dec)! 

Red Line Art Works trophy. Photo by Jason Bryant

On a positive note, here are a few special moments from this year:

A bronze trophy arrived in the post for winning the Red Line Art Works global award!

Despite most of my exhibitions and commissions being cancelled, I took my work online, launched a sculpture course and made several films. I was lucky to receive ACE funding for Life in the Undergrowth.  

I showed at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition, curated by Robert and Nicky Wilson, Jupiter Artland. The pangolin mask I made out of cotton offcuts, dyed with avocado pits, all hand-sewn, has come in very handy.  I feel acutely sad for the plight of pangolins. I’ve scaled back my Christmas cards this year and instead donated to Flora and Fauna to help pangolins, who are being slaughtered en mass to the point of becoming endangered. 

Exhibition trips, seeing my son, other family and friends in between lockdowns, making art and being in the garden have kept me sane. I’ve learnt more about resilience, and the importance of being kind to nature, and each other.

Goodbye to an extraordinary year which has deeply affected us all.  Looking forward to turning the corner!  

Wishing you a very Happy Christmas and here’s to a better, healthier year in 2021!

Do keep in touch via my social media channels:

Instagram fionacampbellartist

Facebook Fiona Campbell Art

Twitter @fionasculpture

Best wishes and take care,

Fiona x

Life as a Recluse

Today is the first day of summer, so I’m celebrating with a blog focusing on nature.  I love spring - days get longer, warmer, new life unfurls and there is such beauty in blossom.  But my favourite season is summer.  I adore the sun.  It probably comes from my upbringing in Kenya.  We’ve been so lucky in UK with these blue skies, although watering the fruit and veggies has become a daily task and there is concern about the effects of drought. 

Like so many, I’ve become a recluse.  In my own home and garden I feel safe.  I am not alone, the birds and insects keep me company.  The garden, in particular, has become my world and route to wellbeing, providing me with a deep sense of peace and purpose. There’s so much to do - planting homegrown seedlings, weeding, tidying, creating a fully functioning veggie zone, and digging soil to prepare a space for an outdoor studio bay.   I’ve been selling my surplus rich topsoil to local residents (safe distancing) - a circular economy!  The veggies are coming on nicely. I don't want to use chemical pest control, so have put down copper rings around my raised tyre beds and planted marigolds to keep the aphids off my beans!  The other day I spent hours watching a baby tit in the garden. At one point I thought the neighbour's cat had got it, long story but after an emotional blub, I was overjoyed to find it safe.

Creativity must happen too.  My garden feeds my art and art feeds my garden.  This has formed my self-directed project Life in the Undergrowth.  I’ve been particularly inspired by upturned turf, roots, worms and shoots.  I’ve made drawing tools from natural materials, and a series of maquettes and larger sculptural works are developing.  I was very fortunate to receive Arts Council England Emergency funding so am looking forward to purchasing a micro lens among other useful technical aids to document my discoveries.  I’m allowing the project to evolve organically.

I have appreciated my studio at home.   I’m doing some digital training to broaden the scope of my work.  I’ve started to embed video documentation in my practice, one of the outcomes of lockdown.  Videos attract more traffic on social media, improving audience and networks, though they usually take longer to create.

This covid19 period has made me realise that much of my travel is unnecessary, costly, polluting, stressful and time-consuming.  I will enjoy visiting exhibitions in the future, but make a greater effort to utilise travel and only make journeys that are necessary. Covid19 has catalysed an urgent need to adapt to the growing requirement for online creative provision and engagement.   I completed my online teaching course and will soon be launching my own online course.  Please pass on my details to anyone you think would be interested and suggest they subscribe to my website to hear more. I will be offering a free giveaway as part of the launch!  I think online courses will become more popular in the future.  Advantages of convenience, flexibility, extended reach, instant access, no travel means digital engagement is a sustainable way forward.

I’ve shared my free video resources on BBC’s Get Creative at Home and taken part in the following online art initiatives this past month: shareyoursky - Pound Arts; #artistsupportpledge (sold Mini Dung Beetle and Ball!); RSS Sculptors at Home; RSS #10gramchallenge; 44AD Gallery’s online exhibition A-Z - Between & Enveloped; Anna Souter’s Vegetate; SAW’s Somerset Reacquainted.

Root-inspired piece for 10 gram challenge. This will be cast in bronze at the Milwyn Foundry.

I was interviewed by Art Tour International.  Here’s a link to .the recorded Facebook Live interview with Viviana Puello, based in New York.

Safe distance walks and meet-ups will become more frequent, but I hope the new normal won’t be like it was and that we heed nature’s big message.  

A massive thank you to all of you who have given me and my work so much support! Here’s to nature, summer and happy times ahead!