Gratitude

A creative career is a fragile thing, and it only thrives because of the community supporting it. I’m filled with gratitude for the artists, curators, and audiences who keep making this way of life feel worth the effort. Special thanks to the photographers who capture my work so beautifully, and to my neighbour Roger Spear for his invaluable behind-the-scenes help.

FAULT: studies in survival at The Old Waiting Room, Peckham Rye Station (3–6 Sept), was a total joy. The exhibition was short but "incredibly juicy!" Huge thanks to Jo Martin and Mandy Leonard for their brilliant curation, and to Gail Corrie for her hard work on the install. Seeing the work and meeting fellow artists and visitors in that historic, transient Victorian waiting room was special.

FAULT, The Old Waiting Room, Peckham Rye Station, London

Photos above by Lucid Plane

Current - you might like to visit:

Beyond Horizons, Stoberry Park Gardens, Wells, Somerset BA5 3LD. Now until 4th October, Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun: 10:30am-4pm, Thurs: 1pm-7pm, closed Mon.

Flags of the Forest has been installed at Stoberry, with magnificent views across to Wells Cathedral and Glastonbury Tor. It’s an evolving installation, which celebrates biodiversity in precarious times. Made from salvaged, and botanically dyed materials, the title nods to Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Word for World Is Forest. I’ve been moved by people’s' responses — some staying with it for a while, and picking up on the themes of grief, care, and repair that are embedded in my practice.

Photos by Russell Sach

• I’ll be running a Mini Textiles Hanging Workshop on Sunday 4 Oct, 10:30am–12:30pm, £12pp. Book on Eventbrite

Guila Tofana, The Chapel, Brompton Cemetery, London SW10 9UQ, Sat 19 & Sun 20 Sept at 4.30pm

Delighted to have the opportunity to install my work Of Bones in Brompton Chapel for Guila Tofana, a performance produced by Ushara Dilrukson in collaboration with Anousha Payne.

Photos by Andy Stagg. art Installations by Anousha Payne and myself

This week I installed some earlier work at Hazelmere Sculpture Trail, Hazelmere, Hillcommon, TA4 1DU, 19 Sept-4 Oct, part of Somerset Art Weeks Festival (Venue 11). All work is for sale.

Where are we now? , No.6 Bruton, 6 High Street, Bruton BA10 0AA, Fri–Sun, 25–27 Sept & 2–4 Oct, 10am–5pm

Following our touring project IN:CH by Inch in ‘21, and our show last month at 44AD, Bath, our artist collective is coming together with new work in this intimate, Grade II listed former tailor shop, Part of Somerset Art Weeks Festival (Venue 56). I’m showing 2 of my Stilt Structures. These creature-like sculptural assemblages of hard and soft salvaged materials explore precarious living, climate instability. and resilience.

Riot, 44AD Artspace, Bath

Stilt Structure IV, 44AD Artspace, Bath

44AD Artspace, Bath

Meet the Artist: I will be invigilating at the gallery on Friday 2nd October—please come by and say hello!

The Gleaning on Tour, St Cuthbert’s Centre, Lindisfarne TD15 2RZ, 27–29 September 2026

We are taking The Gleaning north to the Holy Island Arts Festival in Northumberland! Ten of our original panels will hang in the windows of St Cuthbert's Centre. The final panel is a brand-new, collaborative piece stitched in a Korean bojagi style. The public is invited to drop in, paint on the fine muslin with colored inks, and help us create a stunning stained-glass effect.

• Bookable Workshop: Sketch, Stitch, Scribe with Gill Sakakini, Polly Hall, Rosalind Teesdale-Ives, and myself, 29th Sept, 10am–1pm. Book Workshop

Upcoming Courses

Laat chance to book!

Creative Sketchbooking from 21 Sept. Monday 10am-12noon, & 7-9pm

Eco Sculpture from 22 Sept 2026. Tuesday 10am-12noon

Makers’ Yard, 37 Lower Keyford, Frome BA11 4AR, £75

View full details of my current and forthcoming projects

Hope to see you at one of these spaces soon.

After this busy season, I’m looking forward to retreating back into the studio to cultivate some new work!

Collaboration and Community

I’ve been juggling several projects recently, so progress on my own art practice has been slow. A commission, along with various home improvements and repairs, has taken up much of my time for the past month or so.

Squeezing in hours to develop a series of small-scale Stilt Structures. These fragile assemblages stand somewhere between creature and scaffold, speaking of vulnerability and repair.

Stilt Structure V

Studio shot

Stilt Structure IV, Collaged recycled paper and plant debris

UPCOMING PROJECTS & EXHIBITIONS

Collaboration and community have been key lately. It’s been a pleasure to work on a commissioned project Communities in the Landscape for Winscombe Festival, 12 July. I am co-creating a largescale sculptural installation with Tomasin Cuthbert (Soap Soup Arts) alongside students at Banwell & Sandford primary schools, and Churchill Academy (where I taught Tomasin 30 years ago!). Tomasin has worked incredibly hard organising the Festival, which brings community together, and my part is funded by Somerset Community Foundation. Do please support the Festival Crowdfunder: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/winscombe-festival-2026

Tomasin working on our collaborative installation

Installation in progress

Delighted that Clad (below) has been selected for Black Swan Arts Open, 8 Aug - 27 Sept.

Clad, 41 x 31 x 36 cm, recycled materials: fabric, sponge, polyester stuffing, wool, thread, wire, steel, 2026

Following our collaborative travelling project 'Inch by IN:CH’ that took art to the people in community spaces across South West UK in 2021, our IN:CH collective is curating a show 'Where are we now?’ in 44AD, Bath touring to No 6 Bruton for Somerset Art Weeks Festival.

44AD, 4 Abbey St. Bath, BA1 1NN, 25–30 Aug, 11am–5pm daily (closing 4pm Sun 30/08). PV: 24 Aug, 5–8pm. Events: Artists in Conversation: Wed 26 Aug, 6pm 44AD,. Free, no booking needed. Workshop: Sketch & Sculpt, Sun 30 Aug, 11am–1pm. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Led by Fiona Campbell and Shirley Sharp. Book Eventbrite £12pp.

No 6 Bruton, High Street, Bruton, Somerset BA10 0AA, 25 Sept-4 Oct (open Fri, Sat, Sun).

I’ll be exhibiting in FAULT: studies in survival, The Old Waiting Room: Peckham Rye Station, London. 3–6 Sept. The exhibition considers forms of endurance.

Excited to be collaborating with Ushara Dilrukshan & Anousha Payne in an installation & performance at The Chapel, Brompton Cemetery, London SW10 9UQ for London design week. We will be premiering Guila Tofana with open studio rehearsals from 14th and performances on 20 Sept (times tbc). Giulia Tofana was a woman famed for unleashing poison on unsuspecting husbands of 17thC Palermo and Rome. This released women trapped in abusive or unhappy marriages who lacked any legal means to divorce.

Beyond Horizons, Stoberry Park Gardens, Wells, Somerset BA5 3LD, 5 Sept-4 Oct (closed Mon), part of Somerset Art Weeks Festival. I’ll be leading a textiles workshop on Sunday 4th Oct. Get in touch if interested.

The Gleaning (origin 2021) is touring to St Cuthbert’s Centre, Prior Lane, Holy Island TD15 2RX, 27-29 Sept, 10-4 (Mon-Fri), 10-1 (Tues). Free Exhibition & events: Sun 27 - all day drop in Workshop creating textile pieces; Mon 28 - 10-12 Artists’ Tour & Talk, Tues 29 - 10-1 Workshop: Sketch, Scribe, Stitch, £15pp inc tea & cake. Book: https://shorturl.at/zssj0

Enjoyed being on the selection panel of judges for Ilminster Arts Centre Open, runs until 31 July.

I’ll be curating the Summer Youth Open Exhibition, Trowbridge Town Hall Gallery 8-19 yr olds. Last chance to get your young people to enter (free!) - deadline for submissions 5 July: https://www.tothtrowbridge.com/events/youth-open-exhibition-call-for-entries/

I’m mentoring some of SAW’s Micro Commissioned artists, and learning as I go.

My Autumn term Courses via Frome Community Education will be available to book from Monday 13th July.

Featured in Somerset Life Magazine - June issue!

Enjoy the summer and hope to see you at some of these events!

Sack

Sack; found, discarded & recycled materials (mostly from Barreiro post-industrial wasteland and Lisbon): jute, fabric (some botanically hand-dyed), twine, plastic, nylon, polystyrene, rope, wood, wire, thread; 2024. Photo by Celso Rose, PADA Gallery, Barreiro, Portugal

Sack (iteration V). I envisaged my final piece being installed in the site that inspired the work - an abandoned post-industrial wasteland of plastic, concrete and steel debris. Image created by Ellie Foreman-Peck. a virtual rendition of my idea, as it wasn’t possible to install due to logistical and time constraints.

Me with Sack. Photo by Ticiano Rottenstein

PADA Residency Exhibition, Barreiro, Portugal. Photo by Celso Rose

Sack (iteration IV), sited on river Tagus beach. I returned dismantled parts of my stilt structure to where they were found here. Photo by Celso Rose

Sack (iteration II)

Sack stitched together, with stilt structure

Me with stilt structure

Sack (iteration I). Sited as a hanging in the post-industrial wasteland, Barriero, Portugal - the site that inspired the work. Photos above & below by Celso Rose

Sack; mixed media relief collage: discarded objects/materials & graphite rubbings

Sack is a site-responsive artwork, created during my PADA art residency in Barreiro, near Lisbon, Portugal in February. The work evolved in stages, as a response to PADA’s history as a jute warehouse, and the nearby post-industrial toxic wasteland. The bodily form, a container of waste, is made from a hand-stitched patchwork of discarded materials/offcuts I collected in the locality, especially jute sacks. The warp and weft of the weavings reflect grids in urban surrounds. Colours reflect yellow wild flowers and lichen growing on concrete; and reds/oranges of iron and sulphur..

In Ursula Le Guin’s The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, she describes the sack as ‘belly of the universe.. a ‘womb.. tomb…. unending story.’ It follows Elizabeth Fisher’s The Carrier Bag Theory of Human Evolution:. She suggests ’the first cultural device was probably a recipient’ (rather than a spear/stick). Symbol of a softer story. It matters what stories you tell (Donna Harraway).

I loved the residency. It was an intensive month working in a spacious studio alongside other residency artists, exploring the area, and utilising waste materials. My work was documented/filmed in sites relevant to its development, thanks to Celso Rose, and exhibited in our final residency exhibition. Days were long, many hours spent collecting found materials in the industrial park and along river Tagus beach to use in the work; back and forth with trolley loads.. I made a short film of this process (below). The tall stilt structure was made from found wood and rope from the beach. A new process for me was weaving found/to-hand materials into artworks, which became part of the larger piece, hand-stitched together to form the giant sack. They were laborious processes, and at times I wasn’t sure it would all pull together.

Our exhibition Private View event was a great success. It was lovely to see an old schoolfriend, Sonia there, and I’m grateful for the feedback I received from visitors. At the end of the residency, after de-installation, I placed the raft section of my stilt structure on the wall at PADA studios (pic 13 in grid below). I’m extremely grateful to Tim Ralston for hosting and for his technical support, all the artists involved for their comradeship and help, and Tania Geiroto Marcelino for curating the show. Sack is a living sculpture that will adapt, perhaps grow, according to future sites.

Current and upcoming exhibitions and projects:

Casting Shadows ACEarts Somerton, Somerset TA11 7NB;  2 March - 6 April (Tues-Sat), with Royal Society of Sculptors members.

Stilt Structure I; found, recycled & waste materials: wood, bark, coir, copper wire, leaves, pod, grass stems, charred feathers, fabric, plastic netting, polyester stuffing, jute, tennis ball, sisal, khadi paper, wool, thread, coffee beans, cardamom seeds, nutmeg pods, rice, nylon tights, oil; 2024

Sustainable Art Open, Atkinson Gallery, Somerset BA16 0YD. Book a free slot here to visit. Open 9:30am-5pm, 21 Feb - 21 March (Closed Sun - Tues). Tel: 01458 444322.

A giant collage installation with text spanned the galleries of the Baptist Chapel during the Shepton Mallet Snowdrops Festival in February.  Themed ‘Nature Unbound’, the work was created in a workshop with me, Polly Hall, and community, installed by Georgia Freely. Photos below: 1-4,6,8 Andy Ladhams; 5,7 Kirsten Madeira-Ravell

Excited about an upcoming collaboration with dance artist Vanessa Grasse. We will be working together in a residency over a 5 day period to create sustainable wearable sculptures for Vanessa to perform with as part of her choreographic project Elysia.

I’m co-curating an art project As Old as the Hills with Jan Ollis. Residencies will lead to an immersive exhibition with 10 artists + events in the Zig Zag building, Glastonbury for Somerset Art Weeks Festival ’24.

Back to teaching at Bath College. If you’re interested (or know someone who is), do sign up to my next Love 2 Learn Sculpture, Painting, Drawing or Life Drawing courses.

Please follow me on Instagram for more regular updates and images.

Have a wonderful Easter!

Film: Kenyan Art Research Trip

I’ve made a film about my Kenyan Art Research trip. 

I immersed myself in Kenyan culture, met some inspiring contemporary artists and curators, visited galleries, museums, markets, other places of interest, and had wonderful adventures. In the final week I went to Nanyuki, on the edge of Ol Pejeta game reserve which overlooks Mount Kenya, for more wildlife, sketching, a bit of relaxation and family time.

I learnt so much and made many new connections.

Threads of ideas are brewing for new work.  I brought back various materials/found objects, sketchbook of notes/drawings, photos/footage/sound recordings (used in this film), and bark rubbings, now made into a small handmade book.

I’m very grateful to Arts Council England for supporting the trip via my DYCP award, and to those who hosted/supported me in Kenya including Untethered Magic, Ian & Andrew Campbell. And thanks to all artists, curators and galleries who gave their time.

The Gleaning

Over the Summer, I worked with various people on textiles artworks in my garden and locally for an exhibition The Gleaning launching this month.

Earthlings in progress, created by me with community involvement. Test hang in St Peter & Paul’s church

The Gleaning is an inclusive arts project co-curated by Gill Sakakini and me, working closely with writer Polly Hall. For over 5 months, we’ve been working on several large-scale textiles panels concurrently. Each panel has a theme, including Earthlings, War, Peace, Gratitude, Ruth’s Story, Place, Care and Repair, Journeys, Generosity. Stories reflect different styles and cultures using found and recycled materials, all created with involvement of local community. People from all walks of life around Shepton Mallet have joined together in making elements for our collaborative exhibition. Translucent textile and paper artworks will be suspended in front of 11 clear glass windows in Shepton Mallet’s beautiful 12th century church, as part of Somerset Art Weeks’ Festival, supported by events. They combine a range of found objects gleaned from our locality, incorporated into mini artworks, hand-stitched together. Parts have been printed in workshops on fabric dyed with rust, indigo, buddleia, onion skins, tea, and other home-made botanical inks, which I’ve enjoyed developing. Other processes include drawing, collage, tie-dye, batik, appliqué and patchwork on recycled fabric, paper and plastic. Sustainability has been key.

The exhibition launches Thursday 22 September, 6-8pm, open from 23 September-9 October, Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 12-5pm. Hope you can visit!

See our instagram page @thegleaning_shepton and do follow!

It was an immense privilege to be part of Together We Rise at Chichester Cathedral, an exhibition by members of Royal Society of Sculptors, curated by Jacquiline Creswell. Delighted that London Art Critic Tabish Khan selected it for his Top 5 summer exhibitions! I took down my installation Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand this week. The work related to the plight of pangolins - most trafficked mammal, care and repair. It was sad to leave that wonderful space.

Time playing with ideas in my studio has been precious. I’ve been making small scale 3d sketches with found objects, revisiting the concept of taking a line for a walk and line as life, energy.  Entangled Life (Merlin Sheldrake) - a great book about fungi - describes the way mycelium infiltrates roots and other life forms - fascinating and vital. Mycelial ‘highways’ interact across boundaries/species, and can be environmental remediators.

I’m gradually discovering new plant dye colours (iris bulbs produce an intriguing pale lilac grey) and experimenting with bundle-dyeing, a multi-staged process of gathering flowers/leaves, mordanting/fixing, creating the bundle (sandwiched flowers etc in fabric, wrapped round stick), steaming and untying to reveal the imprints.. it’s addictive!

Work in progress inspired by roots and algae hanging into the water at Vobster Quay where I’ve started swimming.

Play is an important element in the process.  There’s a synergy between consciousness and chance, allowing intuitive, tacit responses.  I’m allowing myself to explore various paths, not necessarily leading to conclusions. Hoping to spend longer hours developing new work over the coming months.  Check out my instagram page @fiona_campbell_dycp dedicated to my Arts Council England funded ‘Developing Your Creative Practice’ work.

Deeply saddened by the passing of our Queen, I am so grateful for her support of Arts Council England, and the arts and culture sector in general over so many years, from which I have benefitted along with so many others.