October 30th
Letchworth Open Bursary
Exciting news! Honoured (and delighted) to be one of three artists awarded a Letchworth Open Bursary which will include an exhibition of new work at the Broadway Gallery in early 2025. Here’s the little painting that I submitted for the exhibition:
It’s a painting inspired by the Grimm Brothers’ fairytale, ‘Little Brother and Little Sister’.
For the exhibition in February next year I plan to show more work inspired by this story which I have transported to England in the 1700s, with landscape borrowed from the Hertfordshire countryside and characters based on my immediate family and ancestors. It’s very much in process and includes animations, words, paintings, drawings and music. I have always been intrigued by fairytales and this one is a favourite with themes of sibling loyalty, care, transformation and of course a happy ending. Will share some of the work in progress here over the next few months and then at the exhibition in February – details will follow.
The other bursary recipients are: Guy Morris @the-guy-morris-project and Paul Stuart @paulstuartstudio
And there were prizes in seven other categories.
The Letchworth Open 2024 continues at the Broadway Gallery, Letchworth until Saturday November 9th. Highly recommend seeing if you haven’t yet. A wonderful celebration of Letchworth’s rich cultural seam. Thanks so much to everybody @broadway_studio_gallery who made this inclusive show possible and everybody else who submitted work and came along to have a look.
Coming soon:
Dance Re-Ignite Festival
Have loved working as one of the artists with Beee Creative on the Dance Re:Ignite project this year. Here’s a paragraph from their website that explains the thinking behind the project:
‘The Dance Re:Ignite project is a framework of participatory and training activities and celebrations designed to enhance and develop dance practice and infrastructure of provision for 55+ year olds in Hertfordshire. There have been three iterations of the project so far, all of which demonstrated the positive impact shared collaborative dance engagement has on peoples’ lives and that contributing to an artistic product increases confidence, self-esteem and pride.To support the project’s overall aim, it encompassed eight strands of work: commissioned work, tour and workshops, annual dance festival, film, practitioner training, practitioner network and internships.’
To find out more and sign up to come along to the Dance Re-Ignite Festival on 6th November please look here.
Walk, Talk, Do, Care – Nature Notebooks
Working with Matipo Arts and Roots to Wellbeing again – this time making tiny books inspired by a walk around Parndon Mill. More information about the session and how to book for this and sessions with other guest artists please look here:
August 20th
Really enjoying spending more time making paintings, drawings and animations this year. I’ve been completely engrossed for the past twelve years in my time based work, examining passing time by repeated daily tasks. This has been part of my work for as long as I can remember and it completely took over my practice following my MA. I have forced myself to stop (perhaps just for a year – haven’t decided yet) as I found it impossible to give time to my story and illustration projects which have been simmering away for the past few years. It is wonderful to feel able to apply myself every day to whatever I feel like doing. The daily practice was partly a way of establishing some time and space to work given my family and work responsibilities but I am delighted that I no longer need to force myself to work every day – it has just become part of the fabric of me. So it feels funny but wonderful and liberating to be playful and various.
If you’d like to know more about the work please see the gallery:
Time based work and the twelve year project is here.
Most of my drawing, illustration and animations work is currently exploring two related themes: first a memoir about our eldest daughter and her continuing influence on our lives here and my own version of a Grimm story exploring sibling relationships here.
Tiny books workshop, St Albans, Sunday 8th September 2024
Delighted to be running a session for all, creating miniature hand sewn and bound books at St Albans Museum and Gallery, on the last day of the wonderful Ladybird Book exhibition.
Participants will create their own pocket sized book to fill with pictures, writing, lists or sketches or whatever else feels right for the book.
It’ll run from 2.00 – 4.30 with a short break in the middle on Sunday 8th September.
Full instruction and equipment will be provided. No experience necessary. Everybody will leave with a beautiful hand sewn and bound book and the skills and knowledge to make more at home.
book here
Open Art Box, Autumn 2023
Great to be working with Open Art Box for a few weeks. We’ll be inspired by plants and flowers to explore many different media and ideas. This week we arranged plants and flowers and made paintings inspired by the shapes and colours.
Our Community, Our Environment, Harlow, Summer 2023:
Delighted to be part of this project and exhibition. Over 20 schools and community organisations worked with 14 artists and cultural organisations over the summer term 2023. I worked with St Lukes and St Albans Catholic Academies responding to shapes and colours we found in the school grounds, working together to create large and small circles using wax resist techniques. Other artists helped children work with a huge range of inspirations and skills including: collage, modelling, pin-hole cameras, poetry and performance and there were workshops for families in the gallery, including paper boat making with the wonderful Suman Gujral. All the work was brought together in the form of an exhibition beautifully curated by Elaine Tribley at the Gibberd Gallery (until Saturday 15th July).
Walk Talk Do: Parndon Mill, Harlow, May 2023:
Was wonderful to work with Matipo Arts on this gentle exploration of the beautiful surroundings of Parndon Mill through walking, chatting and creating. The walk was led by wonderful Tara from Roots to Wellbeing and she also shared her knowledge about local plants and wildlife including hawthorn. First time I’ve ever had hawthorn tea made from the leaves and flowers – but been drinking it at home ever since and have a cup next to me as I type. Really enjoyed meeting so many new creative people. We explored local leaves through wax rubbings and then made collages of imaginary plants and creatures.
Photographs below by Tara Whittle
April Beautiful Creatures, 2023
Here are some pictures of some of the beautiful work from our April session in Datchworth. Thanks so much to everybody who came – hope you enjoyed it as much as me!
Sunday 26th March 2023: Make and Draw on Zoom:
Loved this session – we met on zoom to create and draw imaginary insects from leaves and flowers. Participants from France, London and Herts explored flowers and foliage from their own gardens.
24th Feb 2023: Art with Natural Materials
We met in the beautiful All Saints Church Hall in Datchworth on Friday 24th February to play with February plants and flowers: cutting, sewing and pressing to create new patterns.
This is the second one-off session this year, sharing my fascination for the daily changes in the colours and shapes that I find outside as the year goes by. Thanks so much to those that were able to join us.
Photographs below by Lise Bosher
12th Feb 2023: dance/art workshop:
This dance workshop, with Beee Creative, was led by dancer Maga Judd and artists Elizabeth Murton and myself. The sessions include visual art activities and improvised movement. The venue was YMC Woodlands Community Hub, Abbots Langley WD5 OGU. Funded by TNL Community Fund.
18th Feb: Changing Circles at All About Us, 2023:
All About Us exhibition at St Albans Museum and Gallery celebrated the creativity and resilience of the learning disabled community in St Albans. All About Us is an Arts Council of England funded project run by Trestle Theatre Company. Delighted to run some art sessions for this wonderful project, including a session open to all at St Albans Museum and Gallery on the 18th February.
Art with Natural Materials:
In 2023 I’ll be working on a year long project using found materials, including things that I find growing outside. Will be making daily work along with running some sessions for other people who’d like to have a go at playing with what we find. Very much enjoyed my first session at Parndon Mill. We explored winter leaf colour combinations and juxtapositions using materials gathered outside on a rainy day. I find sewing comforting and love the way it slows me down enough to become completely immersed in what I’m doing – it’s especially pleasurable working with other people and seems to create the perfect atmosphere for conversation. For more about my time based sewing project, ‘New Arrangements 2023’ please look here. And if you’d like to join me for the next leaf and flower sewing session (taking place in various venues throughout the year) please watch this space or email me and I’ll put you on the mailing list. (jane@janeglynn.co.uk)
