Jill Tattersall Mixed Media Art

…this is the title of the exhibition that has just opened at the Carre Gallery, Sleaford, with work from John Lincoln, Steve Leaning and me (on till 20 June). It could have been called ‘water under the bridge’ judging by the time elapsed since my last post.

In that time I’ve opened my studio for the last time here in Lincolnshire - two weekends in April - sold some pictures, started and completed a commission, prepared for the forthcoming exhibition - and (all being well) - sold and bought a house. There’s many a slip…. But if all goes well my next studio opening will be Open Houses in Brighton/Hove.

I’ll also have a last fling at a two-week Art on the Map show at Stamford Art Centre in July, during which time we are set to up sticks and move. It has been an impossibly busy time and it’ll seem a miracle if everything works out ok!

Last October, as I posted an image of my first version of the text of the late-night shipping forecast, I had a strong sense of timeliness. The storm was clearly gathering. I hope it doesn’t now seem like a tasteless joke, but that text continues to haunt me and it seems ever more appropriate to the spirit of the age. So here’s my second attempt.

My next exhibition, to be shared with two other artists, is called ‘Seeds of Change’. So I keep hopefully waiting for green shoots to start appearing in the pieces I am working on. As I reported a propos of my last year’s solo ‘Chance or Design’ show, those pieces have a mind of their own and often depart from their (or my) intended direction because of some unconscious prompting.

This is a farewell to my homage to Darwin, a piece I did last year without realising consciously that the 200th anniversary of his birth was about to be celebrated.

I’ve long found Darwin a most interesting and sympathetic figure, but having to translate a learned address into French for my anthropologist brother rekindled my curiosity and I started collecting ideas, images and thoughts. It’s that strange (often long) process which eventually leads to a finished art piece.

This piece has gone to a friend and fellow-artist, but I’m not finished with Darwin yet…so much more to explore.

The long gap between posts is entirely due to the above. I was invited to arrange an exhibition for Art on the Map, the Lincolnshire Open Studios network, at Grantham Museum.

This was a first for me: while I’ve had many solo exhibitions, and contributed to innumerable group shows, I haven’t before organised a 15-person effort - with glass, felt, ceramics and metalwork as well as paintings. As we had an advantageous deal with the Museum all the work fell to us - and mainly to me as I’d been offered the show in the first place.

Totally shattering! But I think it looks great, and despite the dire economic climate work has been selling well. Pieces bought for Christmas presents are being collected tomorrow and new work added.

Come and see it if you’re in the region : ‘Vaut le Voyage’, as the French say! On till the last day of January, Mon-Sat 10-4.

I didn’t know how prophetic this piece was when I completed it a few weeks ago. The text is from that well-known litany which as a child I found at once baffling and soothing, the Shipping Forecast. ‘There are warnings of gales in Viking, Forth, Cromarty … North Utsire, South Utsire….’ A sort of incantation.

The piece had been gestating in my mind for a while alongside the increasing turbulence in the economy, the two closely linked in my mind. Here is a detail:

It must be right for the times: no sooner made than sold. It was done for the annual Open Exhibition at the Pierrepont Gallery, Thoresby, in Nottinghamshire. Now I wish I had taken better photos of it as I won’t see it again. I am slightly nervous about my next piece: will it turn out to be upbeat or pessimistic? My family say I’m a witch….

I have been invited to hang some of my pictures in this gorgeous restaurant right on the beach in Brighton. Trouble is, the view is so endlessly interesting that I’m not sure anyone would want to look at anything else. Due South prides itself on its sustainability as well as its utterly delicious food, so it feels a doubly appropriate location for me. Though I don’t suppose for a moment they use recycled materials - at least in the dishes.

Since childhood I’ve been obsessed with food and cooking, and drive my family mad by wanting to photograph our meals when we’re about to eat. Time I started work on some long-planned ‘food’ pictures. The two pieces you can see here are not remotely food-related: An Habitation of Dragons, with its intense blue washes of cobalt, and my homage to Charles Darwin, ‘I Think’ - Darwin’s Tree.

The Lincolnshire artists’ Open Studios scheme, Art on the Map, has undergone a transformation this year. It’s been triumphantly adapting to funding problems by raising its game, staging a series of exhibitions and events all over the county - Louth, Fotherby, Lincoln, Hackthorn, Grantham….lots in the pipeline.

All this in addition to the usual Open Studios which are now being organised in cluster groups, to allow more people to visit more studios - and artists to visit each other. The new, beautifully produced brochure will be out any minute! Look out for it in the usual places, including libraries and tourist offices. There will be autumn, Christmas and spring events.

So here’s a picture of two of my ‘recycled’ pieces, taken by fellow-artist John Lincoln at a recent weekend event at the new Spout Yard Gallery, Louth:

A month or two back I wrote about Andy Pepper’s project, One Million Points of Light, which is about to achieve its millionth hit from all over the world. Is it art or networking, people ask? Not sure, but it has led me to all sorts of fascinating and sometimes eccentric art and art-related websites from all over the world.

Andy is an artist based in Nottingham specialising in light sculpture and holography. Wonderful trance-inducing work; the sort of thing I would love to do if I only knew how. See his work at:

http://www.apepper.com/

This month, out of the blue, I have been selected as artist of the month for OMPOL, and the website carries a feature on my work:

http://www.onemillionpointsoflight.com/feature.php

Though the last few months have been ones I would rather forget, interesting art-related events have nevertheless cropped up which I’ve not had time to mention here.

In June I did an online interview for a lively arts website, FirstAngel, which I found great fun. It included lots of pictures and the questions made me think hard and realise I don’t ask myself enough of them.

I love the atmosphere of this sunlit picture, included in the FirstAngel interview, which was taken at my recent exhibition at the Spotlight Gallery in Newark.

Coming up this week is the unexpected opportunity to have some work in the July exhibition - on mixed media art - in the gallery’s Eye to Eye section.

As life has been ultra busy in other respects, it’s fun occasionally to do something at short notice and with little fuss.

An Habitation of Dragons, which incorporates some evocative poetic text from Isaiah, is probably the bluest piece I have ever undertaken. The colour was built up with many washes of acrylic paint plus pure pigment. The support is a piece of specially cast cotton paper which contributes to the luminous effect of the colour.