Trees at Speed (pair)

A artist’s life is nothing if not varied. Since I last posted here  I’ve painted a surfboard for charity; I’ve submitted a design for a Raymond-Briggs-inspired Snowdog for Martlets (Snowdogs by the Sea).

I’ve been doing a commission: a Night Sky painting for a very special person and date.  I’ve also finished Night Sky October 14th 1066, so there’s been a lot of silver leaf about (and even a touch of gold for Halley’s Comet in the latter).

Preparing to use silver leaf

Unfortunately I often have unwanted help with this very tricky job.

The cat gets in on the act

I’ve entered a couple of  Open Art competitions. I do hesitate about these; they cost time and money and are a total lottery.  A painting that doesn’t get selected for one might get a prize in another.   However in the south-east where I now live  there are thousands of artists and not so many galleries so it’s probably a gamble worth taking. Here’s a spring-like piece painted, for once, on board.

Field Far Away

I’ve been painting; a few entirely new pieces, but mainly I’ve been trying to resolve and finish started work that has been put on one side through interruptions or lack of inspiration.  The thing just won’t work!  Or it’s somehow not ready to progress.   I shy away from getting to grips with these ‘preloved’ pieces but it’s a must.  It’s so easy just to chuck stuff out.  Sometimes you have to.  But experience shows that if you give up too easily, some of your best work would never see the light of day.  There has to be some benefit to growing older!

At the top of this post are a pair of pieces that I’ve finally finished and put on Artfinder.  (Currently it’s the only way to buy my work online though I intend to change this .)

Here are the links:

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<iframe src=“http://www.artfinder.com/marketing/artwork/trees-at-speed-2/?scheme=dark&user_id=386705&size=large” width=”450px” height=”549px”></iframe>

This pair of  mixed media paintings are all about speed – what do you see when you look at trees from a car as they flash past?  So it’s ironic that through interruptions I lost momentum (and  confidence) while painting them.  I had to put them on one side for a couple of months.  Then suddenly one day I could see that they were ‘right’ after all and managed to finish them quite fast.  I often think it’s a matter of how much sleep I’ve had!

I’ve  been to the Affordable Art Fair, though as usual feedback re sales is slow.  I’ve put out a Wolf at the Door newsletter – and, help. it’s nearly time for the next one,  Here’s the link if you’d like to know more about what’s been going on in the Jill/Wolf studio: Wolf newsletter

What has taken up lots of time behind the scenes is the slow build-up to Brighton and Hove  Artists’ Open House which, this year, runs for five weekends from the end of April.   Getting the artists together (major last-minute changes this year), briefing them,  preparing and proofing entries for the printed brochure and also  Hove Arts. The house has had a lick of paint. The garden has been given a spring-time tidy.

Putting up the exhibition panels.

And now the real work starts.  Finishing, framing and labelling my own work.  Tidying the house.  Particularly my studio! Putting up the exhibition panels (above).  Preparing publicity and  sorting dates.  Organising, organising…not my favourite.  More soon.

Well, my studio is still a shambles.  So what’s new?  Nothing, but I sort of feel I can’t work in there till I’ve tidied it up.  (Though as soon as it’s tidy I’ll create another mess.)  So I keep removing work and doing it elsewhere.  The kitchen, for the light and space.  The garden, where I can spatter the paving-stones without major drama.  Anywhere, really.  It’s not just painting; it’s finishing, maybe spraying with fixative, framing….

I’ve been on two courses about the business/practical side of art since my last post.  Mind you, I haven’t done much of the homework yet, but at least I know what it  ought to be.  I’ll write about these in a themed blog soon.

I have also been painting.  Two strands.  One is the frustrating one of trying to make some unfinished pieces work, ones which have been abandoned for a while.  Mostly they were on one side because I wasn’t sure how to resolve them; sometimes it’s just because I’ve been interrupted for too long and lost the thread.  Just life, in fact.  They lose momentum, I lose confidence.

But I have finished some work.  Here are one or two pieces, rather blue; some hot colours in my next post:

I Am the Shaper

Cold colours (Gale Warning, Murmuration)

The other strand, much more exciting, is tackling a trio of large canvases.   All night skies on different dates.   One is a commission, one is a dry run, and one is destined for the 1066 anniversary celebrations later this year.  950 years since the Battle of Hastings!  As I was a medievalist before I was an artist this is really fascinating to me. So, to follow last year’s  painting of the night sky when Magna Carta was sealed, 800 years ago, I thought I’d have a go at October 14th, 1066.

Night Skies

People must always have looked up into the night sky, wondered what portents it held for them, and felt their own insignificance.   I  was also inspiredby the wondrous Bayeux Tapestry (woven soon after the Conquest), with its seamless narrative of ships and horses and archers and knights and dragons and banquets and buildings and mutilated limbs,  It has a running visual and written commentary.  In the border one section shows Halley’s Comet as it appeared in April of that year.  People wondered at it – what it could portend for the country and for them?  They feared the worst.  As people do.

First sketches for the border

Putting gold leaf on Halley’s Comet

All this in a canvas nearly as tall as me – and (thankfull) much wider. The sky, with the correct(-ish) alignment of planets and stars, and  sumptuous cobalt and ultramarine and Prussian blues – plus touches of silver leaf –  and cartoon-like borders inspired by the Tapestry. I’ve never done anything like this before.

During my exhibition in Battle last year I secured support for the project from the director of the Battle Festival, which takes place in October and is always good,  but this year will be fantastic (Battle Festival).  My painting will be part of an astronomy exhibition.

Hastings has its own festival in September and that too is going to be a very special event : I’m still looking for the right display place(s) there for my painting . Root 1066 International Festival of Contemporary Arts.

                                   Battle Abbey

                              Sunset over Hastings

People have been very helpful and I hope it will  be on show during both events.  More in due course.  It’s been a good excuse to visit those two towns, each lovely in a different way.  Battle has its wonderful Abbey, and Hastings the most spectacular views.

We also chanced on Vanessa Marr’s latest duster show, in the window of the enticing Made in Hastings shop.  Her Women and Domesticity project is off next to the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill – well done, Vanessa!: duster project.  You might recognise my  own Ironing is Pants and Judith Berrill’s It’s So Much Fun with a Feather Duster!  I have also decorated a surfboard for a charity auction….

Dusters in Hastings

Finally, here’s the link to my latest Wolf at the Door newsletter:  More here: The Wolf sniffs some spring air.

At this time of year I get caught in a conflict.  There’s the urge to hibernate.  Bio-rhythms are low; I want to relax and switch off and consolidate.  That’s probably the primitive brain at work.  And there’s been so much rain… .

Rainy Wolf at the Door

Then there’s the contrary impulse: to get on and plan and think of future ploys and schemes. Otherwise, when the future arrives there’ll be nothing much of interest in sight.  (That’s the rational brain.)  A fine day helps.  We’ve had some beautiful skies lately.

Sunrise at Wolf at the Door

Moonlight at the Wolf at the Door

So an internal war rages… I  try to avoid making worthy New Year resolutions, a source of shame and guilt within a week or two.

But recently I’ve set myself a general theme for each year.  Last year, when I was still at the worst point of my insomnia, my theme was serendipity.  It  meant that, on good days, if I felt like doing something,  making something or collaborating with someone,  I just did it.  Random things emerged, I met new people, chanced on new ideas.  I even had a joint exhibition called Sense and Serendipity. The time wasn’t altogether wasted.

The key seems to be to vary the pace.  it’s ok to lie fallow at times, as in traditional farm husbandry, then start again with new vigour.  So: this year is my Year of Collaboration.  Very little firmly in the diary, but lots of irons in the fire, ideas and projects in the making.  What have I actually been doing?  Tidying the studio, which was a shambles.

Post-Christmas shambles in the studio.

Preparing the line-up for our Artists’ Open House.  Not till May, but the print deadline is insanely early. Going on courses: a splendid one with Julian Beatson-Sutherland at the Towner Gallery, Eastbourne (where I did a five-minute pecha-kucha presentation before Christmas). One coming up this weekend in London with Kathryn Roberts, former doyenne of the Cork St Open Exhibition.

And I’ve been ordering materials, preparing and making new work.  Pictures on here soon.  I have one particularly exciting  project in view.   I’ve also been painting a reclaimed surfboard for a project called ‘Untangled’ for the World Cetacean Alliance.

Most of all, I’ve been hungering for colour and creating it in my own life where I can.  I’m an obsessive cook and love making colourful food, just as I love growing brightly-coloured plants

pink and orange posy

Rice with turmeric, beetroot and pomegranate

Beach-huts in the snow (sold, Affordable Art Fair): mixed media on reclaimed cedar block)

A quick post before I sign off for Christmas.  Such a build-up, always, and a big risk of anti-climax. That’s why I’m all for a full observance of the Twelve Days of Christmas.  You can have some quiet days in between – even some creative ones – but you can have lots of guilt-free pleasure, relaxation and celebration over the shortest days of the year.

Snowy Bandstand (sold, Mayor’s Parlour Gallery): mixed media on reclaimed cedar block

Every year since student days I’ve made my own Christmas cards.  Through thick and thin.  Amateur, then getting maybe a bit better; always hand done (I only once resorted to a printed copy) and always a bit slapdash because despite best intentions they’re always done in a hurry.  Most of these I’ve never photographed so I don’t have a record of them, though tucked away I have a few rejects which remind me what the theme of the year was…

Snowy Pavilion (sold):  one-off print, originally devised as a Christmas card

But like everyone else I’ve moved with the times.  I simply couldn’t send a physical card to all the friends and nice people I’ve met over the years.  So for my e-card I usually send an image of a few suitably wintry scenes.  I hope they’re not too naff; I paint them because at the time I’m gripped by the colours and textures and atmosphere of the scene.

West Pier, Snow: sold to private buyer. Mixed media on handmade paper

So, unlike the last post with its hot hot Christmas-cheer colour, here are some images with cold, wintry colours and themes.  (Some are long sold, some I still have.)  And, sunshine or rain, snow or fog, ice or hail – all so beautiful in their own way, if sometimes a nuisance – a very lovely Christmas and a good 2016.

Sea Mist (near Pevensey ): mixed media on handmade paper.  Brand new piece, unsold!

Beach huts 1: sold to private buyer.  Mixed media on handmade cotton paper with driftwood frame.

A detail from ‘Waste Not’, recently completed

This seems like a suitable image for Christmas!  a) the colours are festive, b) it’s just been bought from me as a Christmas present, and c) this is the time of the year when we all  create the most enormous amount of waste with our discarded packaging.

Medieval people  carved patterns on their church pillars, the Victorians had their cast-iron manholes – while our major contribution to adorning everyday items is, in my view, the plastic meat or veg tray!

Enough of that.   I am indeed obsessed with patterns.  Recently I was asked to do a pecha-kucha ( timed talk,  lasts five minutes precisely and includes fifteen slides or images)  – quite a challenge.  It all happened at the Towner Gallery, Eastbourne, for the wonderful Blue Monkey Artists’ network.  Five minutes flat  to say what your work is about. (I’m not even sure what art is!)  But  when it comes to it, I think my work is all about patterns.  So is life, science, the universe…but that’s for another time.   This piece was full of patterns, and it can be hung in any direction as a result.

‘Waste Not’, recently completed

Although the lighting here is patchy it does show the 3-D effect of the cast shapes.  I made another piece on these lines (sold a while back) which deliberately  gave the impression of being made of metal. A sort of joke.

As it happens, both of these paintings were bought by people I’ve become very fond of, and that leads me to say that people don’t always realise how pleased artists are when people like and buy their work.  Not just for the money either, but because we all need to move work on and clear our minds (and our houses) for new work and new ideas.   If we sell through a gallery we don’t usually know who our purchasers are.

Our youngest visitor.

But our buyers feel like family – so thank you, everyone who’s bought work from me in the past, and a very Happy Christmas.  And the same to everyone who visited and visits us and looks carefully and courteously at our work, even if they never buy anything!

Warm colours, abstract patterns

Our brief Wolf at the Door pop-up has come and gone. One weekend of gales and driving rain through which a good number of friends, neighbours and past visitors and buyers came to support us and buy Christmas presents.

Our jeweller friends Campoli&Nelson were there, together with artists Judith Berrill, Claire Fearon and Ian Williams.  There were also books, felt jewellery, ceramics and the most sensational cakes and chocolate panforte from Siobhan of Brighton Table.

And my own work of course.  I hung it differently from usual, in groups according to colour and theme.  I had one whole section on the stairs devoted to  cosmology and the night sky.

Night Skies on the stairs

It’s easier for the eye to see pictures properly if they are a coherent group or have common elements. I know from my own experience that, however exciting unexpected juxtapositions may be, I quickly tire when I go to exhibitions which rely on this buzz.

I had a green section too…

Green Landscapes

…and a winter corner.

Winter is here

Winter is here

I really enjoyed this way of doing things and it told me something about my own work – something to do about focus – I still need to work  out exactly what!

Sussex after the Conquest

Last weekend the Battle of Hastings, 1066, was re-enacted in the lovely small town of Battle.  At the same time the Battle Festival (click on the link ) is  on – with some wonderful events including classical music concerts, film,  poetry, food and of course lots of art.

My current solo exhibition is part of these events; here are the details:

Telling Tales : Abbey Hotel, Battle

01/10/2015 to 31/10/2015, 11.00am – 11.00pm

Each painting has its story … a story of time, place and the moment. Specially for the Battle Festival, Jill has provided a brief commentary on each painting to give an insight into how it came about.

Jill’s work is mainly abstract or semi-abstract.  She mostly uses water-based paints, inks, dyes and pure pigments to build up intense and glowing colours, often on her own handmade cotton paper which has a unique character.  She experiments a good deal, combining costly, high-quality materials with found or throwaway elements.

The Abbey seen from the Abbey Hotel

Thirty paintings or so are on show in this new venue overlooking the Abbey.  The Abbey is in turn within an archer’s shot of the battlefield. Extra exciting for a medievalist like me!  English Heritage have done a splendid job with the displays and you can really picture the battle  as it unfolded nearly 950 years ago. Great for both  adults and children.

This coming weekend has a spotlight on culinary events, and if you should visit my show this weekend there are some treats in store (even I don’t know what they are yet!).

Coastal glimpses and Night Sky

Origins series by jill

three paintings by Jill

The spaces and lighting are a bit tricky, but the pieces have been expertly hung.

I’ve prepared a special explanation-cum-‘story’ for each piece to mark the fact that this is both a literary and art festival – and I’ve always viewed my work as being rooted in both genres.

Three more paintings by Jill

Three more paintings by Jill

More on my Facebook page, www.facebook.com/JillTattersallartist

Brighton Gin prize:
The World is upside down.

One of these ‘calls for art’ that hit the spot!  Hizze Fletcher at Brush in Brighton, hair salon and art gallery,  had the idea of organising an exhibition involving the new and seductive Brighton Gin.  (Link: Brighton Gin Prize)  As well as being an interesting blend of ‘botanicals’, as they say, it also comes in a very pretty bottle with a pale green label.

I was just about to go away so plunged in, collected an (alas empty) bottle, and did my stuff.  My version involves a ‘Brighton Tea-Gown’, the sort of dress I’d like to be wearing as I sip Brighton Gin on a sun-soaked terrace.

Brighton Tea-Gown, full-sized original version

There’s also a nod to Brighton itself.   The pair of red-striped legs kicking in the air is both an expression of uninhibited joy, and a reference to  the iconic Legs adorning the Duke of York’s theatre, the oldest continuouslyused cinema in Britain.

Brighton Tea-Gown – reverse side

Finally, a more serious side.  The news has been full of the miseries of the refugee/immigration crisis, to which there can be  no simple answer.  A sharp counterpoint to the frivolity of tea-gowns and gin.  The world does indeed seem upside down.

Civil War poster

I visited the lovely town of Battle recently to deliver paintings for my exhibition there.  Details of this to follow shortly.   Among the 1066 -related  exhibits on show at the Abbey – a fantastic place to visit –  I came across a Civil War poster depicting the then turbulent times.   ‘The World Turn’d Upside Down’ – with a pair of kicking legs in the air!  That was it.  The composition was clear.

Label, Brighton Tea-Gown

Label, Brighton Tea-Gown

Making paper in the sunI

I’ve just found a piece I wrote for my Open Studio  explaining how I go about making my work.  I realised that although I post images of new work on here, and exhibitions I’m involved in, I don’t often explain much about the materials and techniques I use.

So I’ll try to do a series of posts showing some of the processes involved.  And after that, maybe ,  some posts on how ideas are generated – a much more complicated thing to explain.

First of all, papermaking.  Why bother to make paper at all when you can buy beautiful heavy paper from any art supplier?  It’s time-consuming , quite tiring too, and is best done outside because of all the water involved .   But woe betide you if your new sheet  gets rained on – it reverts to a shapeless slurry and you have to start all over again.  Also, till it’s dry, whenever  the cat runs over it or sits down on it (which she’s determined to do) you’re left with  embedded pawprints and groomings.

The cat is never far away

It gets harder

The advantages.  One, the paper takes on the surface of whatever it’s cast on.  So it can be smooth or textured, or even three-dimensional.  Secondly, it presents an enticingly unpredictable surface to work on.  I love the element of chance; it’s so easy to go stale if you always encounter the same technical challenges and know exactly how to solve them.

Cat at ease

Cat-prints in the damp paper

I know and sometimes envy people who paint like angels and are prolific and fluent.  But for me it’s always a question of finding a way  for and towards each painting .  Working with this special surface forces me into being flexible and resourceful .

So comfortable.