“First Day; Morning” – Sean Scully favourite quotes – Redbubble.com -Advice to Art Collectors from an Artist: What to Collect? – Art Working and my Trauma Recovery – London Downpour – Lyrically Abstract Painting – Jenny Meehan – Kingston Artists’ Open Studios 2019

May 19, 2019

first day morning abstract art image licensable ©jenny meehan, circles, moon, sun,light,day,digital collage,emotive,spiritual art,geometric abstraction

jenny meehan art prints abstract digital collage First Day; Morning abstract art image licensable ©jenny meehan all rights reserved

First Day; Morning

Above:  First Day; Morning. Archival Quality Digital Print….

I’m just sorting out some digital prints ready for this years Kingston Artists’ Open Studios…And “First Day; Morning” is one of them.  I’ve become fascinated with the circle as a geometric shape and am using it increasingly in my art working.  Yet my ongoing interest in texture and surface persist.

In the run up to the Open Studios  most of my focus is on organisation at the moment, as well as reviewing work and deciding what to show.  It’s a busy time, but rewarding.  There’s the odd conflict between selecting work that I hope might sell and selecting work which I personally want to spent a couple of weekends looking at!  I do need to sell artwork…Money is needed.  And space is needed!  The great thing about being so productive, is I have a lot of choice in what I decide to show.  There’s only a tiny fraction of my work on the internet, and my archives are huge.  But with work which is actually printed or painted… It does take up space.  And space is limited!

I’m in the mood for writing now, so I’m going for it!  I’d like to write more in the future…More project based and focused…but for now the “meandering discourse” serves me best for it’s function, which isn’t  particularly focused (in an “overview” kind of way…with editing and honing and shaping, and all of that): It never was meant to be something which stood on it’s own two feet.  Rather a brook through my mind and thinking; sometimes feeling… meeting artwork here and there. Not showing in a conclusive way.  But something useful for me to look back on.  Indeed, I do.  And it serves it’s purpose. Works as a kind of gauge at times. Shows movement in other areas, even though it moves itself. Leaves an indentation, which is easier to see when looking backwards.

 

first day morning abstract art image licensable ©jenny meehan, circles, moon, sun,light,day,digital collage,emotive,spiritual art,geometric abstraction

jenny meehan art prints abstract digital collage ©jenny meehan all rights reserved  First Day; Evening

“First Day; Morning” and “First Day Evening” will be available for sale at this year’s Kingston Artists’ Open Studios!

 

Sean Scully

I enjoyed the recent programme on Sean Scully. Interesting quote:

He admits to being a bit surprised that his stature has not just endured but grown exponentially. “I think it’s a question of the way the cultural ocean moves,” he explains. “Painting has made a huge comeback. There’s a whole generation of curators out there who are young, but they’re sick and tired of conceptual art, they’re interested in things that are actually made. So all over, in South America, in China, there’s a return to a world of emotional materiality in painting. In a way I was waiting for this to happen for a long time, but no longer.”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/visual-art/artist-sean-scully-it-s-about-stacking-putting-things-in-order-1.3642099%3fmode=amp
Sat, Sep 29, 2018, 05:00. Article written by Aiden Dunne

Read the whole article.

http://seanscullystudio.com/

He certainly has plenty of room (and studios in the plural!) to paint in!

“A mysterious embodiment, it remains silent, yet potentially potent, whilst never entirely giving up its mystery.”  On painting, from Metaphor

On abstract painting and music….Kevin Power / Sean Scully October 2, 2002
(Questions to Sean Scully on the occasion of Encuentro, Mudial de Las Artes,
Valencia October 3-6 2002)

“It is sometimes said that all art aspires to the condition of
music. I would like my art to aspire to something like the condition of music:
but a condition that can be felt and experienced in a deep moment. I think
with painting you can get rid of the problem of time. You can feel it abstracted
in the rhythms, in the layers of the painting; but you are, for your moment,
free.
I do believe abstraction is and was meant to embody deep emotion. I believe
that’s its job, in the history of art. The edges of the character and forms in my
paintings should lie against and with each other, with complexity and
emotional depth. Naturally one feels time in my work, because it is layered. It
is repainted many times, in different colors and weights of paint, always by
me: until somehow everything lives, however gracefully or awkwardly, in its
right place. So it’s a façade, but it’s a façade that submits to feeling or is
overwhelmed by it: since nothing is perfect.”

This is something I wish I heard more often:

“You have talked about yourself as a ‘romantic realist”, a stance that given our
present circumstances is not easy to sustain both on account of the geo political changes
taking place in the world and because numerous philosophers seem to be questioning the
gains of our Western humanist tradition to which such an attitude clearly belongs. How
do you see the real as now penetrating the romantic frame through which you “feel” the
world?
This is a very big question, a question about which one could write a book. I
am very aware that the romantic is now seen to be of limited relevance.
However, I have attempted to articulate my idealistic sense of romanticism in
the world, as it is, with its problems now. Without giving up on my true
personal feeling. To say it simply, I think it’s not only possible, but important to
offer a deeply felt example of a humanistic art form: in a world that has
become extremely cynical. I have lived through many changes, social and
political, that have affected me and changed me. However, my art is trying to
address something eternal and universal. So however difficult it may be for
someone with my sense of connection (connectedness) to continue to offer
an idealistic/humanistic view, I have to keep doing it. In fact, the worse it gets,
the more crucial it is to offer it.
I hope my work can stand as an example of another possibility. I realized,
when I moved out of the political arena in my radical days, that I would
experience as an artist moments of guilt and impotence.”

Here’s a bit about the programme I watched:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2019/15/unstoppable-sean-scully

You can watch it here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00041pb/unstoppable-sean-scully-and-the-art-of-everything

Signs of the Times… Continues!

One of the great things about art working is the way that things develop over time.  I think it may be the best!  I love the way I get new perspectives on things I have done often several years ago.  The “Signs of the Times” strand of experimentation started a few years back, but set me off on a useful path into working with flat surfaces and geometric elements…A welcome change from the lyrical abstraction.  (It’s easily possible to become over saturated with one aspect of your work).  Contrasts and changes, trying new mediums, and keeping an open mind are essential in artistic creation.  Concepts are all well and good, but the tree of ideas grows from the art working, in my opinion.  Life and its experiences enter the life of the artist and strange things happen there!  Well, this is the approach which works for me.  There are many others. It can work in other ways too.  I find the openness and flow essential though, in my own creativity.  Openness and flow involve a fair amount of trust, risk, and uncertainty.   We get to know our materials well.   We need to also get to know ourselves well.  Because what we do comes from deep within us.  It cannot come from anywhere else in the end.  And life changes.  It changes us.  And the work of any artist evolves along with everything else.

 

geometric abstract colour design art jenny meehan jamartlondon british contemporary femaile artist symbolist graphic colourist contemporary abstraction experimental jenny meehan art for sale to buy prints affordable, jenny meehan abstract art print

The night time version, maybe calm moment in the dark, partner of calm moment in the light! © Jenny Meehan. All Rights Reserved

 

 

Above is one example of my series “Signs of the Times”: Geometric abstraction experiments carried out using vector graphics software. It was a delight to try communicating simple phrases and emotions visually in an abstract form, making simple yet emblematic pieces of affordable art. Affordable because the artwork is printed via Redbubble.com, which is a print on demand site.  Yes, it may not be very “fine arty” in the exclusive sense, but it’s no less fine art because it is accessible.  I have grown tired of the whole idea of value and art.  What I mean is, the connection (which is sometimes made…not by all) that if something is very expensive and out of reach it is somehow more well, “art”.  The reality is that sites like Redbubble.com make the work of artists very accessible.

When people buy products on Redbubble.com, for example, they may be buying a mass produced item, BUT, and it’s a big BUT…The design and the artwork on the items is far from mass produced.  It may be very available on Redbubble.com, BUT that doesn’t mean that lots and lots of it is going to be sold.  Far from it…Thankfully the world is FULL of marvellous artists.  So full, in fact, that most of us only occasionally sell now and again.  So the items which people buy on Redbubble.com could quite easily be “one-offs”.  Yes, there is no limiting of editions, (the traditional way of restricting prints executed in the traditional manner) but if someone is looking for a piece of art by an artist, they could consider buying something through a print-on-demand site.  They may well be getting a totally unique object which ends up being a “one-off”, even though it is not marketed as such.

https://www.redbubble.com/shop/jenny+meehan+art-prints

The only thing it will not have, of course is a signature!  And there is that point which the item will have never been actually touched by the artist…But that is the object itself.  Art is not just about the production of objects and artefacts. “Common place” ones or “exclusive” ones…It makes no difference does it?   The appearance of one of my own artworks through the avenue of Redbubble.com is a choice I have made most purposefully. It reflects my feelings and values.  It’s part of how I operate, and not just for practical reasons.  There are practical reasons.  And I carefully selected Redbubble.com because of the quality of the products.  They met my own requirements for forms that my artwork might be re-presented through.  Yes, I will also have my paintings, and sometimes sell those, from time to time.   And some numbered (but not limited edition) prints.  But I have no time or desire to do things which distract me from my main focus of innovation, creation, experimentation, and development.

https://www.redbubble.com/shop/jenny+meehan+art-prints

 

Digital printing is a whole new world!

Part of my thinking in this kind of direction also leads me to an interest in using substrates which are generally utilised in distinctly “non-fine art” realms.  Banners and advertising boards.  Company promotional material product materials and equipment. Printing is now so wonderful! So much is possible which was not possible before! We see such much printed matter all around us. So many interesting surfaces and substrates.  Do I feel that I somehow debase my art work by presenting it on materials used for advertising? Not one little bit.  Why should I?  This is the matter we meet in our daily life and it should be the material of fine art too.  Why not?  It’s a most definite form, and we associate it with one type of activity but that doesn’t mean it cannot be associated with another.  The longevity possible now, and the quality of printing and inks has come such a long way. It’s amazing!  Exciting!  Fantastic!  If I had more money available to spend, I would be printing my work on many more substrates than I use at present…if it suited the realisation aptly!

Maybe there is a kind of redemption going on for me in this desire?  For our desires are so much influenced by what is around us.

“A successful advertising message transcends the audience perceptions of needs and wants. It creates an emotional appeal that subtly convinces the audience that the item being promoted will make a difference in their lives by either making them happy, giving them status, satisfying a desire or providing security.”

I like an emotional appeal to a viewer to come from the imagery I create. But because it is what it is. And it can be to them how they wish it to be.  It’s always good when someone connects and it’s helpful to me if they decide they want to buy something. (Why not?) But to replace advertising with my own imagery and take over the territory, even in just a very small way…As a gesture maybe?  It feels good to do this.  Maybe I have moved myself from the position of passive object of the advertising to the active subject in some sense? I won’t be told what I desire…(I am sure I often am! Not advertising proof!)  I will put my expression, the product of my own desire to create, on substrates/objects/forms associated in our minds with advertising.

It’s nothing new.  But I need to think it through, so I am doing so.

On a slightly different, but allied tack…

There are various billboard art projects going on/which have happened.  The materials and context are often used to great advantage.  There are many themes developed by billboard artists, yet the majority address social issues.  There’s a kind of takeover bid…using that advertising space (and so the same media). A kind of graffiti form, with just a bit more of an element of disguise maybe?! Billboard artist use many strategies, including appropriating well known ads to alter meanings, making objects which look and function like adverts, and graffiti over advertisement boards.

There’s often text and a clear concept, rather than something which is abstract expressionist though.  I like my work to be in the public realm, but it doesn’t have to have the kind of extent of publication that something with a message would be targeted at.  (Though wouldn’t the world look lovely if all the adverts were removed?  I think we would probably feel all a lot better to be honest.)

So much public space is dominated by the media, corporate culture and advertising.

I’m very fond of the Guerrilla Girls work! (Guerrilla Girls is an anonymous group of feminist, female artists devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world. The group formed in New York City in 1985 with the mission of bringing gender and racial inequality into focus within the greater arts community. The group employs culture jamming in the form of posters, books, billboards, and public appearances to expose discrimination and corruption. (wording from Tate website)

Mmm.

I do remember there being some project I came across years back which put artist’s work up on posters on the tube.  Trouble was it did cost quite a lot of money to do so.  Nice way to share your work if you can though.  I remember coming across some and very much enjoying the fact that I wasn’t being exposed to an advert.  Simply a piece of work with a name, which I could look into if I wanted to, but could just enjoy it’s presence in front of my eyes.

 

And look at this… What an interesting read!  Coming from a slightly different angle…Very interesting on “special status”.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110823130029.htm

Fine art in advertising can backfire
Date:
August 23, 2011
Source:
Boston College
Summary:
Fine art has been used for centuries to sell goods and ideas, but a new study finds artwork can lose its special status with consumers if it’s improperly used for product illustration.

“The researchers suggest the responses reflect how humans have evolved to recognize and appreciate art as a special category of expression.

“People have evolved to care about art,” said Hagtvedt. “It is something we have appreciated in all societies known to man, throughout history and pre-history. It is also a magnificent tool for marketers who rely on its communicative power in a thoughtful and honest manner, but those who use it thoughtlessly are not likely to impress anyone.””

Ah!  So that’s one way which “fine art” might be utilized, from one direction.  Many very successful artists are happy to have their art work used in this way, and often they are very well known ones.  While others, far less well known and defensive of the “value” of their work (even though it generates little in the cash sense) may feel horror at the very thought.

It is the sense of being set apart from the objectives of advertising…This is important.

Does my practice of sometimes choosing to manifest my fine art practice on a PVC banner, or in a material form commonly used for advertising change it’s nature at all? No!  Why should it? If I think something looks right printed on something commonly used for marketing material, then might I fear it somehow less fine art because of the substrate or the intended purpose of the item when it was manufactured? No, of course not. I can print what I want where ever I want.  If it serves the vision and works aesthetically.  If the conceptual aspect materialises in line with my intention, then I could print on your bottom and that would be just fine.  (Well, maybe not. With consent! I’m sure it’s been done before anyway!).

So the movement of some expressions of my work, which is indeed part of a “fine art” practice, onto objects which are part of everyday life, is a lovely thing, and something I need not ever steer myself away from.  Indeed, for many years, I have used table clothes with my digital imagery on them (dye-sublimation printed) in my domestic sphere…There’s been no need for a separation of myself from my art working/results of my art working materialised  in every day life.  It’s been a necessary combination!  I live in an art gallery!  It’s called my home.  The relative status of such a situation is one thing. Just one thing. Nothing more.

That my home is also my workplace is both great and challenging.  It doesn’t offer me the same sense of status (it appears) as someone who works in a separate place, but to be fair, I think that may be partly just an ignorance thing… People don’t recognise what happens in homes as work in the same way they do when activities take place in other buildings. And many people don’t see art working as work.  Or indeed, don’t see anything as “work” unless it involves the generation of finances. (However, I have a vague memory that I have probably rambled on about that in some earlier post!)

When writing this artist’s journal, repetition is the name of the game.  I’m a stuck record on some things!

I may be digressing a little.

The main thing is that it’s my prerogative to use whatever materials I want, regardless of how they may be normally perceived or used in our culture/society.  If, for whatever varied reasons, the appearance of something generated by me on an object of lowly status, be it via Redbubble.com or on an advertising banner, cushion cover, whatever, seems less in value because of it’s form, then so be it.  I think maybe just to be aware that artists make very careful choices about what they do, and why: this may help understanding a little. It’s all part of the same thing in the end.  What we do.  It’s an expression of us. Whoever we are and whatever we do. We all measure up things all the time.  Cannot help doing so. But in no way, not one bit, is doing what I do in the way that I do it any kind of indication that I am valuing my artwork any less than someone who only sells to Kings and Queens for large amounts of money.  The whole value thing is an illusion.  I kind of enjoy breaking through it a little bit. That’s all.

And redemption. Buying back the territory a little bit.  I have become so tired of all this advertising so much in my face all the time.  Isn’t it tiresome?  Isn’t it relentless?  Persistent!  It’s a pest!

 

Remember! When people buy products on Redbubble.com, for example, they may be buying a mass produced piece of merchandise, BUT, and it’s a big BUT…The design and the artwork on the items is far from mass produced. The art working itself is original and unique.   It may be very available to everyone because it’s on Redbubble.com, (GOOD!) BUT that doesn’t mean that lots will be sold. There IS potential for something to become commonplace; No limited edition, HOWEVER in practice very few items will be sold which utilize the work of the individual artists in any large numbers.  WHY? Thankfully the world is full of brilliant artists selling on Redbubble.com. I’m saying this because I think folk don’t think things through.

If you are an art collector and want to collect artists work, then please don’t shun any options you have to get the artwork which you want.  It’s great to have an original piece of art, but also good to have examples of the artists you collect, across many of the mediums they use.  Nowadays print is a medium which cannot be ignored and there are many artists who see through the “value” goldfish bowl and the marketing strategies which often get used by art dealers, etc and which dictate more than they should what art collectors feel is worth collecting.  Realise the artificial constructs which are in operation. If you collect art, collect it because you love collecting the art you love to collect, and collect it in all forms, regardless of status or perceived value.  The value is what it says to you and means to you. 

 

London Downpour – Lyrically Abstract Painting – Jenny Meehan

We are a little past March and April now, but as I have been working on some editing of past writing “Some Kind of Narrative” my mind has taken me right back to the passage in my life, in 2012, when I started working with a therapist and started along the long road of recovery from much too much trauma!  Trauma in early life, I discovered, has a habit of sticking with you, even when you would like to leave it behind. I continue in therapy.  But looking back, I can appreciate all the work I have done, and I am reaping the rewards of it too.

And so my recollections dug up this painting for me.  It was painted during 2012.  I went into London twice a week for psychotherapy then.  I met my therapist at the Guild of Psychotherapists,  Nelson Square, which is not far from the South bank. I would very frequently walk along the river side and often in a state of numbness emotionally.  It was exhausting at times.  It was nice to sit down and gaze at the water.

And during 2012 there was plenty of water to gaze at, and coming from all directions!

“The 2012 Great Britain and Ireland floods are a series of weather events that affected parts of Great Britain and Ireland periodically during the course of 2012 and on through the winter into 2013. The beginning of 2012 saw much of the United Kingdom experiencing droughts and a heat wave in March. A series of low pressure systems steered by the jet stream brought the wettest April in 100 years, and flooding across Britain and Ireland. Continuing through May and leading to the wettest beginning to June in 150 years, with flooding and extreme events occurring periodically throughout Britain and parts of Atlantic Europe.”

The wettest April in 100 years!

The painting “London Downpour” was painted over several months.  I always paint in a piecemeal fashion. Very rarely do I paint from start to finish.  The painting was exhibited at The Strand Gallery in June 2013 and was brought by a collector, Roger Lewis.  I was very glad of this.  Not only for myself and him (for it’s always happy when a person finds a painting they love) but for the charity to which I donated a portion of the price, as part of the arrangement, (as suggested by the exhibition organisers).  The painting is a good example of some of the main elements I was experimenting with at the time.

London Downpour- Jenny Meehan painting abstraction at The Strand Gallery London as part of "Lines" visual art exhibition, jenny meehan jamartlondon london downpour process led painting british contemporary female abstract expressionistic painting, claude venard style work of london southbank tate modern river thames,contemporary emerging artist exhibition london.

London Downpour- Jenny Meehan painting abstraction at The Strand Gallery London as part of “Lines” visual art exhibition. Lyrical and geometric abstraction painting southbank london from the imagination! painted in a process-led, intuitive guided fashion, external impressions from regular trips to London appear to have seeped into my subconscious!

 

London Down Pour process led painting contemporary female painter Jenny Meehan southwark southbank memory based abstraction lyrical solid liquid dialectic,contemporary london south west based visual artist woman painter

Floating…. Yes, this is a strand I continued with.  Solids and liquids… yes, another.  Water… yes, that too.  Formal elements…experimenting with paint continued and developed; textural elements becoming even more important and refined over time.

Mostly resonating with those walks along the Thames; past Tate Modern.  Which looks quite different now!  The sooty feeling of London.  Always felt it on your skin.  A contrast of buildings and water.

The paint is acrylic, but I see carefully balanced with earths… So important, because otherwise acrylic paint can be far too loud for a restful painting.

artist talk school london downpour, jenny meehan artist talk at st joachim's catholic primary school 2014

jenny meehan artist talk at st joachim’s catholic primary school 2014 on painting techniques used in london downpour painting

I later gave a talk at a primary school and shared a little about how the painting was created.  Funny being in a classroom again.  I used to be a primary school teacher. I have lost quite a lot of weight since then!

 

Ah, wow! What a great read!

Anton Vidokle
Art without Market, Art without Education: Political Economy of Art

https://www.e-flux.com/journal/43/60205/art-without-market-art-without-education-political-economy-of-art/

 

Read it all… Here’s a little taster! (E-flux Journal #43 – Anton Vidokle – Art without Market, Art without Education: Political Economy of Art)

“But since his time, Warhol’s economic independence seems to have been misunderstood. The independence that came from his bridging of the bohemian sphere and the sphere of day-to-day commerce has been converted into a vast proliferation of so-called artistic practices that treat art as a profession. But art is not a profession. What does being professional actually mean under the current conditions of de-skilling in art? We should probably be less concerned with being full-time, art-school-trained, professional artists, writers, or curators—less concerned with measuring our artistic worth in these ways. Since most of us are not expected to perfect any specific techniques or master any craft—unlike athletes or classical musicians, for example—and given that we are no longer tied to working in specific mediums, perhaps it’s fine to be a part-time artist? After all, what is the expertise of a contemporary artist? Perhaps a certain type of passionate hobbyism, a committed amateurism, is okay: after all, we still live in a reality largely shaped by talented amateurs of the nineteenth century, like Thomas Edison and so many others. I think it’s perfectly acceptable to work in some other capacity in the arts, or in an entirely different field, and also to make art: sometimes this situation actually produces much more significant work than the “professional art” we see at art fairs and biennials. Ilya Kabakov supported himself for decades by being a children’s book illustrator. Marcel Duchamp worked as a librarian and later sold Brancusi’s work to make a living, while refusing to be dependent on sales of his own work.”

Quote from https://www.e-flux.com/journal/43/60205/art-without-market-art-without-education-political-economy-of-art/

Anton Vidokle is an editor of e-flux journal.

© 2013 e-flux and the author

 

Kingston Artist’s Open Studios 2019 in June!

 

Kingston upon Thames in Surrey has a lovely hub of artists and each year we show our work, dotted around different venues in Kingston Upon Thames.

Open Studios in Kingston is a collaborative public exhibition whereby local artists and makers open their own homes or studios to the public and exhibit their work.

The Open Studio venues are organised into art trails in and around Kingston, featuring a wide range of 2D and 3D work – painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, glass, photography, digital art, textiles, paper art and mixed media.

This is a perfect opportunity to meet local creators, see their work, talk to them about their techniques and inspirations and buy affordable art direct from the artist.

 

British Lyrical Abstract Paintings:  See http://www.jamartlondon.com/

2019 Open Studios in Kingston will be taking place on 8/9th and 15/16th June
from 11am to 5pm each day.

If you would like up to date information when it comes out, contact me via my website information form and I will send it to you asap! 

http://www.jamartlondon.com/contact/4569980742

I plan to display a selection of recent work, both original paintings and prints. The price range of my original work is £80 to £600.  Most of my original fine art sells for around the £200/£300 mark, making it an affordable buy for any art collector.  I also offer a selection of prints for purchase for under £100.

 

There is a super video which was made last year which gives you an idea of what Kingston Artist’s Open Studios is all about!

 

Do come along!

 

“If funders truly believe in the humanistic value of the arts, they must not compel artists to merely adopt the practices of for-profit entrepreneurs. They must advocate for the value in what artists already do: bringing the artistic imagination more fully into everyday life and making creative expression a fundamental human right.They must resist the inexorable logic of the so-called free market, and advocate for the fundamental core value that there are things in this world that are not for profit – they are for something else, something more vast, meaningful and enduring, and that artists can lead the way.”

Quote from Andrew Horwitz

Had to pop that in here… So good.  So true!

The downside is we live in a culture which fundamentally devalues artists.  This is reflected in the fact that artists don’t get paid for exhibiting their work… rather they are used as a source of income generation, often through so called “opportunities” which involve hiring out space. There are exceptions to this, and what a jewel it is when they come up, but they are few and far between.  The majority of the general public are not aware that artists are the ones who pay to show their work, in the main. (Yeah, I am taking about the “Fine Art” strand of creation, so bear this in mind!) They are not aware that the majority of artists probably have an income from their art working of around £5,000 a year (my informed guess, based on conversation and snippets of research done over a few years)….A DACS survey in 2010 found it around £10,000, but I think one needs to bear in mind that this is only one pool of artists, and they are likely to be the ones who have had work published here and there… (like me! but I am rather the under a £1,000 year department! lol!) and this is across the range of visual art, not “fine art” alone.   Also bear in mind “Careers typically are sustained by a portfolio of other activities with 35% having a formal second job.”  And also need to add other sources of income, ie spouse, partner, etc.  So generally speaking, the majority of artists are supported in some way, but not by the the proceeds of their labours…  This is important to recognise.  But it is not convenient to recognise.

Yes, I am grateful I can do what I do… No taking for granted here, with me…I waited long enough to be able to do what I always dreamed of, but this doesn’t mean that I have money to invest in paying for the luxury of showing my work…and being an income source for others!  I’ts my choice to do what I do, and I am glad I have that choice, but it does not make my creative work less work because it doesn’t reap financial rewards sufficient to make it profitable, or a source of life sustaining income. 

This is not a rant, (well… OK, maybe it is!)  but it needs to said to increase awareness.  If the general public, who are able to and so inclined, wish to support artists and are more aware of how much that support is needed and valued, then this is all well and good.  Even if they don’t, I still think awareness is a good thing. The reason I think it is important is that artists are often treated as though they operate as businesses when in reality they just don’t. Often by businesses…not so incidentally!   Well, yes, there are some, of course, but some of us don’t want to be, don’t choose to be, or don’t want to change our direction/work by attempting to be… This art working matter is a different matter from income generation, and without the financial aspect, it is still a worth while, valuable, and a valid contribution to the world; the life sustaining dimension of art should not be underestimated… It may not be linked with finance in the way many other activities are but that does not make it any less purposeful. Or significant.

However, this doesn’t mean that we don’t need finance, and that we are not going to price our work in such a way that it helps fund our creative project, or that

Do you need exciting, engaging, images for a book cover design?

Do you need exciting, engaging, images for a book cover design? If so, then take a look at my website jamartlondon.com, for a start.

My artwork is particularly suitable for themes of: faith, religion, philosophy, Christian, church, all faith traditions, inter-faith, spirituality, the subconscious, psychoanalytic themes, mindfulness, contemplative practices, healing, health, both physical and mental, trauma recovery, metaphysical and psychological focused writings, the devotional life, and many other subjects.

Indeed, pretty much any subject matter or theme which benefits from a more abstract graphic image; one which also conveys basic feelings and ideas in an open and experimental manner; would benefit from it’s clarity of communication being enhanced by one of my art images.

From the lyrical abstraction of some of abstract expressionist style textured paintings, to the geometric abstraction clear edged imagery, which I also produce, the value of non representational imagery in book cover design which is both colourful and interesting, and stimulates the eye with colour and striking composition, cannot be under estimated.

If you are looking for something particular, do contact me, because I only display a small amount on the internet and may even be able to create something specific to your needs, or be able to locate something from my extensive archives which meets your need.

DACS administrate my licensing agreements and organise the use of my art work images quickly and conveniently. They are very helpful and can guide you through the process if you are unfamiliar with it. I normally follow their guidelines with respect to the fees for licensing, as these are set in line with the industry standard.

DACS do offer a good reduction in fees for registered charities. Occasionally it may be possible for slightly reduced rates to be negotiated in other circumstances.

To find out more about how you can arrange to use my imagery, see here:

https://www.dacs.org.uk/licensing-works/frequently-asked-questions#FAQ122

 

British Lyrical Abstract Paintings:  See http://www.jamartlondon.com/

A Poem of Panes

 

 

A Poem of Panes

It was only when they shattered
I felt the panes of glass between the window frame.
Those who knew me
could not see through my eyes.

I am aware of the surface, and of my own sinking.

I set my face forward,
but cannot progress.

They call my brother’s head injury “the invisible disability”.

The impact of one, booted, blow
also
unseen

in me.

Jenny Meehan 2014

The artwork I produce often relates to my psychological and emotional recovery journey, which is related to past trauma. In this instance, the full realisation of the impact of my brother’s traumatic brain injury on his personality and functioning, our relationship, and of its effect on my own mental capacity, made several years of my life exceptionally difficult. A major part of the difficulty was my inability to express what I was going through. Though able to function through the depression and anxiety (sometimes “just about”) , my awareness was that of being disabled internally, due to the shattering of my sense of self, and the isolation I felt. This is something I will never forget . Art can be a wonderful and powerful communicator of a person’s journey.

I’m working through my own traumas, and very grateful to be able to do so.  There is an image for the above poem, but it’s way back in the archives and I’m a bit pressed for time today, but I can dig it up in the future and I will post it.  It is the case that it is far easier for me to create visual art and write than it is to verbally speak about my own experiences.  I am sure this is very true for a large number of people.  While I can talk to a certain extent, it is far easier not to.  I do have an ongoing interest in trauma and recovery which just seems to continue  and certainly stretches far beyond my own experience.

I think it’s brilliant that mental health is more in the spotlight than it has been previously and there certainly is less stigma about it.  Here is an excellent read below.  I have just included a short extract here, but do follow the link to read the whole article.

 

“For John Launer, GP educator and narrative medicine pioneer, medically unexplained symptoms are better understood as ‘medically unexplored stories’. Most GPs, especially those who work in deprived areas, bare witness every day to their patients’ accounts of trauma; including physical abuse and neglect; parents who were, because of alcoholism, drug abuse or mental illness unable to care for their own children in their earliest years; stories of material and emotional deprivation, abandonment and loss, domestic violence, crime and imprisonment and with shocking frequency, child abuse. Trauma begets trauma so that people rendered vulnerable by trauma in childhood are very frequently victims of violence and abuse in later life. Survivors of trauma use drugs and alcohol to cope with the aftermath, then find themselves involved with crime which leads to imprisonment and homelessness and further cycles of alienation and despair.

People whose work does not involved repeated encounters with survivors of trauma frequently either cannot believe, or refuse to believe how common it is. For years it’s been assumed that people invented stories of trauma to excuse bad behaviour. The medical profession bears a lot of responsibility for this, largely ignoring the psychological consequences of rape until the last 30 years.”

We need to talk about trauma

Long Stream of Paintings

 

And here lies a long stream of paintings… Or should I say, pieces of paintings, fragments of paintings, parts of paintings?

I take a lot of photographs as I work.  It is a good way of considering the material qualities of the paintings.  Something about isolating a section in a frame makes the eye think about it differently.  It may become the beginning of something new, but if it does not, this is of no consequence.  The process of taking images isn’t in order to achieve anything other than looking again and seeing again, and maybe being introduced to the composition within the composition, which I didn’t know was there!  It enables me to meditate further on the paint.  This may sound unusual for someone who is not a painter, but for a painter, meditating on the paint is very helpful indeed!

 

British Lyrical Abstract Paintings:  See http://www.jamartlondon.com/

 

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

 

Breaking my paintings into fragments by taking the images… It is a way of looking closely at them… but also interesting that I create in such a piecemeal way these paintings, pulling the work together into a whole, and then insist on breaking them up again afterwards, in one kind of way, at least!

 

British Lyrical Abstract Paintings:  See http://www.jamartlondon.com/

Into the Studio Tent for 2019!

 

jenny meehan jamartlondon abstract expressionist lyrical textural colorist paintings

jenny meehan jamartlondon lyrical abstract expressionistic paintings in progress

 

Yes!  As the weather warms and I begin to tidy up the mess, so the studio tent becomes a place of artistic production!

Feeling GREAT!

 

Another good read…

One of my keen interests … I guess that’s what comes of having an exceptionally high ACE score myself! Lol!  This is a great read, and very heartening!  I have come a long way myself, but it’s a rough road to travel on, and exceptionally challenging at times!  All worth while work though.

 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-last-best-cure/201508/8-ways-people-recover-post-childhood-adversity-syndrome

 

Jenny Meehan Contemporary British Female Artist

 

(Just in case you were not sure about that!!!! )

My original artwork has two main strands: Lyrical Abstraction, painterly, fluid, with a lot of focus on light, how it bounces off the surface, textures and finishes, and Geometric Abstraction (created through digital imaging software) in which I focus on flat areas of smooth, solid, and translucent colour; ideally intended to be printed on even, matt or semi-mat surfaces.

While I’m experimenting with the overlap between the two, and make it my practice to regularly try out new mediums, in order to keep my artwork fresh and steadily evolving, identifying the strands in this way is helpful for clarity.  I use writing and poetry in my art working and now prefer to use sol-silica paint over acrylics or oils, though I am still known to dabble in many different types of paint, due to their particular material and visual qualities!

If you would like to give money to help support my creative practice, I can accept it quickly and easily through the Paypal.me process. Simply put the following in your browser:
paypal.me/jennymeehan
and follow the prompts. Please consider supporting my work in this way if it strikes a chord with you and you are able to do so. I do need support in order to continue my art working.

http://www.jamartlondon.com/contact/4569980742 direct link to contact page of website

Signing up as a follower on my WordPress blog ( https://jennymeehan.wordpress.com) also helps, as does sharing the posts when you receive them.  Anything you can do to help me is much appreciated!

My artwork is particularly suitable for themes of: faith, religion, philosophy, Christian, church, all faith traditions, inter-faith, spirituality, the subconscious, psychoanalytic themes, mindfulness, contemplative practices, healing, health, both physical and mental, trauma recovery, metaphysical and psychological focused writings, the devotional life, and many other subjects.

All my images are licensable and this is arranged through the Designer and Artists’ Copyright Socitety (DACS). If you wish to use my artwork, please contact me in the first instance.

http://www.jamartlondon.com/contact/4569980742 direct link to contact page of website

Alongside my mainly lyrical abstract paintings, there is another important strand in my work which includes more of a narrative.  Well, some kind of narrative. Through my writing, and my participation in ongoing psychotherapy, I draw on my subconscious.  It’s this process of self reflection, examination, and other contemplative practices which are rooted in my own faith tradition as a Christian, alongside a good dose of yoga and West African drumming, which have created an exciting way ahead for my work with visual art.  I think it’s the relationship between my writing and visual work, particularly through poetry, which helps determine the direction in my art practice.

I’m a member of Kingston Artists’ Open Studios: http://www.kingstonartistsopenstudios.co.uk/product-category/artists-m-to-z/

 

Posted in abstract internal (imaginative) and external landscape(representational) painting, artists past/present who influence me-london gallery/exhibition visits, experimental/exploratory lyrical poetic visionary painting/fine art, fine artist painting lyrical direct romantic expressive abstraction south west london/ surrey, geometric abstraction expressionism fine art prints for sale to buy jenny meehan jamartlondon artist blog | Leave a Comment »
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Hot Stuff! Much needed at this time of year! – What is Lyrical Abstraction? – Expressive Lyrically Abstract Paintings by Jenny Meehan – Access Roads and Alleyways in Trauma Recovery

March 5, 2019

 

 

hotstuff golden haze jenny meehan lyrical abstraction affordable print, jamartlondon, lyrical abstraction british, contemporary lyrical abstraction,female painter

Hot Stuff/Golden Haze by Jenny Meehan jamartlondon.com

Hot Stuff!  Golden Haze… Two names for this.   It’s one of my  “painting to print”  series…  Need a bit of warming up at the moment. My hot water bottle is a great friend!  Sorry if the phrase “hot stuff” sounded a bit more exciting than it is!  Lol!

I have had a cold for such a long time, and I have so much mucus never-endingly streaming from my nose, that I think I may be turning into a snail.  If I were a snail I could move very fast indeed, for my amply supply of mucus would have me whizzing around for certain.  At present I am unable to whizz around, so writing must do.

I’ve put this artwork on Redbubble.com, so you can buy it safely, quickly, conveniently!

 

https://www.redbubble.com/people/jennyjimjams/works/35893135-hot-stuff-one-digital-collage-painting-=uprint-by-jenny-meehan?asc

I have one version of it signed by me, and this will be for sale at this years “Kingston Artists’ Open Studios”.

Kingston upon Thames in Surrey has a lovely hub of artists and each year we show our work, dotted around different venues in Kingston Upon Thames.

Open Studios in Kingston is a collaborative public exhibition whereby local artists and makers open their own homes or studios to the public and exhibit their work.

The Open Studio venues are organised into art trails in and around Kingston, featuring a wide range of 2D and 3D work – painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, glass, photography, digital art, textiles, paper art and mixed media.

This is a perfect opportunity to meet local creators, see their work, talk to them about their techniques and inspirations and buy affordable art direct from the artist.

2019 Open Studios in Kingston will be taking place on 8/9th and 15/16th June
from 11am to 5pm each day.

If you would like up to date information when it comes out, contact me via my website information form and I will send it to you asap! 

http://www.jamartlondon.com/contact/4569980742

I plan to display a selection of recent work, both original paintings and prints, and a couple of examples of mosaics I have been working on as well, (though they won’t be for sale).  Working with mosaic is adding some interesting perspectives on my painting, which is much appreciated!  The work I have on offer will mostly be available to buy I should think.  The price range of my original work is £80 to £600.  Most of my original fine art sells for around the £200/£300 mark, making it an affordable buy for any art collector.  I also offer a selection of prints for purchase for under £100.

Visual Art and Poetry Linkage!

One of the aspects of my creative work I am enjoying at the moment is the linkage between my visual art work and my poetry and writing.   The space between the two… between the visual art work and the words I write, is another space, and while it’s fun playing with space visually and also poetically when writing, there is yet another space created between a visual art work and something that the artist writes about it.

I’m pretty possessive about this space, and I guess I can be, at the point I am with my visual art working.  I have contacted people in the past who have used my visual art without permission or payment on their own blogs, and written their own poems about it.  I ask that they remove my artwork from their blog.  Generally they simply just don’t realise that they need to seek permission.  If my visual art practice was not so intimately connected with my own writing, I would maybe be flattered, but as an important part of my own practice, the painting-poetry combination and the integrity of it is something I feel protectively about.  It’s part of what I offer to the world, and my painting and digital work is, with increasing frequency, presented for exhibition and display, very purposefully paired with my own writing.  Indeed I would go as far to say as the visual work and the writing become one art work.

This happens over time.  What tends to happen is I create the visual work… this is one strand. Then, it needs to wait, normally for some time.  This is counter cultural, for in our culture waiting is not generally valued very much at all.  We are all now now now or never.  But I have an ongoing relationship with the paintings and digital imagery I produce, and it continues for several years after I deem the art work visually completed.  Because the visual completion is only one part of the process.  After this time, I need to dwell with the work for a while.  And though I have had a strong sense that the work has achieved something, in terms of emotional expression and I have felt satisfied with it’s state of being, what it means for me is only discovered over time.  And so I will revisit it, and reflect, it will remind me of certain things and I will relate to it over time.  It is maybe like a kind of proving process?  It’s symbolic and metaphorical nature,  still always retaining a sense of the unknown, and subconscious resonance (which is very attractive I think, and shouldn’t ever need to be explicit!).

But like all things in life, there is also the application. And I do like my work to be useful, used, out there. (with permission!) It may be mine for a while, but believe me, I am always pleased to see it go elsewhere, and I don’t hold onto it.  Part of the process is my thinking and critical evaluation of it.  My thoughts, research, interests, and the decisions I make as to how I am going to use it.  I’m delighted when it is used in book cover designs, because these are always very carefully thought about and the relationship between the content of the book and the image on the cover is very exciting, especially when I get to read the book! So there is a relationship between word and image there, and it’s a topic I find of great interest and have done for a while. But in relation to establishing a relationship between my own visual artwork and the words I choose to write, it is when I spot a subject of interest that there becomes an invitation to almost recreate the work.  For it is a recreation and a new artwork, when married to words I write about it.  This is the reason much of my work has two titles.  The first title is generally the first one, when the work stood alone, and then in time, with thought, and often writing, the work develops into something else and has an additional title added to it.  By writing and re-responding to the visual art work, in my view, I recreate the work.

So once my visual art work; be it digital or painting, or sculpture, whatever; once it has it’s poem/writing attached, It’s become something else… More focused, more specific, more applied.  It’s met me in my life, come to be, and then I want it to have a life which has relevance not only for me in that personal way, but has taken on some useful role, which touches shared points of interest, not just emotionally (though this is my main interest, for sure) but which establishes relationships far beyond that which first brought it into being.  It needs some action and reaction in the world, some relevance, some other people, things, ideas, missions, purposes to have a new kind of dynamic existence.  This doesn’t mean it ever needed any justification…It is sufficient to just be, as indeed any person in the world is sufficient just to be.  The value is there, just in existence.  But to have application is always good.

I often describe myself as both a fine and applied artist.  The main thing is, that at the moment, (most of the time), I create what I do with no set purpose in mind.  It’s my working method.  It’s the way that I have totally free reign. It allows me to work on several things at once, in a piecemeal fashion, and with no concern for the end outcome at all.  This is why I like it.  I do enjoy working to specific briefs and for particular purposes; these present their own challenges and that in itself is interesting and enjoyable; but so many of my ideas come from this kind of total free flow possible with a less structured approach.  Being less structured doesn’t mean less disciplined.  Far from it.  The structure has to come from within, and this requires a certain stamina.  I love life invested into the realm of creativity, but it certainly is hard work. However, it couldn’t be any other way.  And there’s a great peace which comes from doing what you care about in life. It’s well worth the effort, whatever comes or doesn’t come of it.  In a sense, my main concern is to maintain my own integrity, and develop, both personally and professionally.

Artistic activity needs to be flexible, and I enjoy the way my own weaves into my other activities and roles in life.  I have been thinking recently I need to invest more time into writing, and I am looking into copy writing, proof reading and editing as activities I might develop more experience in. I have two ebooks of my own I would like to work on as well.  I had a dreadful habit of trying to do everything at once, but I guess the good thing is that I can catch myself trying to do the impossible and pull myself back!

 

 

"opening the way"painting©jenny meehan, abstract impressionist lyrical original fine art to buy, licensable non representational images, christian abstract expressionist artist, spirituality religion, faith, contemplation, mindfulness, contemporary abstract icons, jenny meehan jamartlondon abstract paintings,art informel gestural, uk fine artist poet-painter

jenny meehan jamartlondon abstract paintings “Opening the Way”

 

Opening the Way – Lyrical Abstraction -Painting by Jenny Meehan

I described my painting style as primarily lyrical abstraction to someone recently at an artists’ networking event, as it’s the most appropriate description for my painting, at least, but “lyrical abstraction” is not a term a lot of people are familiar with!  I have become quite content with the fact that my painting style might be viewed as a little dated and not current…though of course I do not agree with that perspective one little bit!  I think there are many undercurrents in the visual arts, running along merrily, and what surfaces as being “current” at one time or another is a matter of trends and fashions, not a matter of what is really developing as significant.  How can one discern the undercurrents which make a large wave?  How can you see what happens until it culminates in a bigger movement?  What determines the movement…is it due to something which happens above the surface, or underneath it?  Who knows?  The mystery is good.  And here you see, I find myself slipping very comfortably into the category of a lyrical abstractionist (maybe not a word!) painter!

Some helpful pointers and considerations, features maybe, of what would place my painting in this category of lyrical abstraction.  Lyrical abstraction is a term, and has it’s uses.  (Well, it does if people know what it means!) So hopefully my thoughts shared here will help you in your understanding of what characteristics may be dominant features of paintings defined as being “lyrical abstract” paintings.  One will need to detach some aspects and add others, because I do believe that terminology has limitations as well as benefits.  Also, what something was in one part of history, is never quite the same as what it is in other parts of history… Our times determine so much, and any artists responses are conditioned by the times they live in.  I do, as you maybe know, love looking back into the past, and I think it’s a good practice for any artist to ensure they look at those who have come before them and find out as much as they can, so that the can appreciate the work with the benefit of being able to look backwards… for from the past the future comes…

Anyway, I digress, as is of my habit…

The term “Lyrical Abstraction” is much debated. Which makes it very attractive I think!  Larry Aldrich used the term lyrical abstraction in the late sixties to describe some of the artworks he had collected. The feature he felt was important was that they represented a return to personal expression following Minimalism.

An exhibition was held at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
May 25- July 6. 1971

“Statement of the Exhibition

Early last season, it became apparent that in painting there was a movement away from the
geometric, hard-edge, and minimal, toward more lyrical, sensuous, romantic abstractions
in colors which were softer and more vibrant. Painters were creating, in significant numbers,
works that were visually “beautiful” — up to then, in the art world of the sixties, a dirty word.
Though they were not going back to any previous style, these new young painters related
to men who have been doing painting of a painterly nature for twenty years or more — Mark
Rothko, Robert Motherwell and others. The artist’s touch is always visible in this type of
painting, even when the paintings are done with spray guns, sponges or other objects.
Surfaces are never anonymous as in minimal paintings; they are delicately nuanced and
often suggestive of cloudy voids. These paintings all represent a distinct shift to an ex-
pressive interest. As I researched this lyrical trend, I found many young artists whose paint-
ings appealed to me so much that I was impelled to acquire many of them. The majority
of the paintings in the Lyrical Abstraction exhibition were created in 1969, and all are a
part of my collection now.

Larry Aldrich

April 1970″

 

Take a look at the artists shown here:

https://archive.org/stream/lyabstracti00whit/lyabstracti00whit_djvu.txt

 

A slightly more recent example here: http://palmbeachartspaper.com/art-review-lyrical-abstraction-show-demonstrates-resilience-of-american-painting/

A variation of the term was used decades earlier in the late forties by the French art critic Jean José Marchand;  Abstraction Lyrique. This was with reference to a European trend in painting a bit like  Abstract Expressionism.  Free, emotionally inspired and very personal compositions based not on external appearances but evolving rather from the subconscious, instinctive parts of the painters. The evolution and  construction of the painting  coming from within. I guess we could go even further back, too to Wassily Kandinsky in the first decade of the twentieth century!  Rather than working with images from the external world and altering them in order to express abstract ideas, in the way that happened with Suprematist and Constructivist artists using recognizable forms in their art but in ambiguous, symbolic ways, another group of artists approached abstraction in a different way. Not knowing what meaning there might be in what they painted was just fine!  Painting freely, with no preconceived notions and the expectation that things unknown could be expressed through their work. Some likened their paintings to musical compositions.(ie Kandinsky) The general emphasis was that of expression emotion in an abstract form. Paintings were imaginative, expressive and personal. Unashamedly subjective, and poetic.  Soulful work…not so much leaning towards objective academic interpretations but learning more towards the mysterious, spiritual, and less tangible aspects of life.  Painting as a source of seeking maybe…not attempting something which is defined and explained, but rather being all about personal connection with life and the universe.

Rather good! A search for what is essentially personal.

Harold Rosenberg wrote: “Today, each artist must undertake to invent himself…The meaning of art in our time flows from this function of self-creation.”

That was then, but surely this is also relevant for today? Maybe even more so…because the challenge of the self and the sufficiency of simply being, is with us, and maybe even greater with the influence of media, advertising, internet, etc?

Is “being” enough?  This may be one of the most important questions we ask ourselves!

We have so much information and knowledge for the intellect to play with at our disposal now!  It’s great, fun, interesting. Yes, all of this.  But is knowing things with our heads sometimes a deceptive liberty?  Does it prevent us from walking freely in mystery, unknowing, and that which we cannot hold onto in our heads, but which our hearts and souls might testify is good and life giving?

I do ask myself these questions.

I think my work could be said to ask them, but does it need an answer?  And if it doesn’t ask for an answer, is it a question?

!!!

“Each artist must undertake to invent himself.”  Is sticking with me in this digression…

But what with lyrical abstraction today? Movements move and change… tendencies run this way and that…Who knows? No one has the ultimate view. In the early twentieth Century artists like Kandinsky, Giacometti, Fautrier, Klee and Wols embodied lyrical tendencies in abstraction. Later Mathieu, Riopelle, Soulages and Mitchell moved them forward. When I was growing up in the 60’s and 70’s many artists continued and expanded the movement.  There are many voices singing out  lyrically in abstract paintings!  There is an essential quest of lyrical abstraction, which is to express something personal, subjective and emotive, and to do this in a highly poetic, free and abstract manner.

I think this section of Ronnie Landfield’s “Autobiographical Statement, 1997-2010” speaks with a resonance which I am happy to echo, (in my own unique way, of course!)

“My inspiration has been my conviction that modern painting is fueled by the combination of tradition and the realities of modern life. Spirituality and feeling are the basic subjects of my work. They are depictions of intuitive expressions using color as language, and the landscape (God’s earth) as a metaphor for the arena of life. The revelation of a primal image that delivers an immediate response in the viewer is my goal. Hopefully my paintings convey a felt perception of life, an awareness of the history of art, and a clear expression of my passion and sense of spirituality. I sense a visual music that externalizes what I feel within me and in the air.”

What a fantastic statement…

The revelation of a primal image that delivers an immediate response in the viewer is my goal.

Well, all writing aside, this is most certainly enough, more than enough, and will ever be enough!

Paint on!

Words are words, and paint is paint!

See more of Ronnie Landfield here: http://ronnielandfield.com/

Some contemporary painters which you might like to view…

the Spanish artist Laurent Jiménez-Balaguer

Margaret Neil

Ellen Priest

 

 

‘Un’antenna sensibile’

Rather nice quote, for my notes!

Quote by Christopher Adams: Claudio Del Sole: ‘Un’antenna sensibile’
Christopher Adams

“Del Sole saw no contradiction between his predilection for abstraction and his observation of natural phenomena, finding inspiration in the swirling patterns of galaxies and nebulae. Nor did he recognise any distinctions between art and life, asserting: “The artist is not enclosed in a restricted or exclusive world of his own. He is like an antenna, sensitive to all that which happens around him. Therefore, he is attentive to social changes and the progress of science; that is, to the unfolding story of mankind.”

Yes!  Like an antenna!  I like this very much!  And attentive!  So true!

We take in all that surrounds us, ingest it… and then do what we do with it!  There is some kind of narrative in every person, expressed through words and images.  When I work with abstract forms visually, there is no disconnect from the outer world, even though I don’t work with pictures (ie recognisable objects). I approach the matter and materials in the same way that I approach nature, life and all I see in the natural world, even though I don’t seek to emulate it.  I am not attempting to create something more distant or disconnected “more spiritual” or “set apart” from the world in any way. It’s rather an engagement, a translation maybe a good word, an interpretation of my being and living based on emotion and experience.

 

 

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

I take less photographs now than I did, but sometimes you see something you cannot resist!  Looking at the sky reminds me of why I don’t lean towards representational painting myself, though I do enjoy looking at others work.  I find the work is always before me, far surpassing any emulation I might make of it.   I do enjoy a bit of drawing… It’s always good to do from time to time… Mostly because of the mark making though.

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

Broken branches in Oxshott Woods.  Oxshott Woods has a special resonance for me because as a child we went for a walk there every Sunday.  I like this image of mine because it conveys brokenness but also a real invitation to move forwards into the image. I remember the exposed roots of so many of the trees in Oxshott woods and how entrancing they were…

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

Another Oxshott Woods/Oxshott Common image.  This was taken on the edge of the big “sand pit” area.  It’s fun to think I am walking the very same ground I did when we went for walks there when I was a child.  It’s amazing how things change, and quite a relief to be honest.  I’ve probably written it elsewhere, but I had a really difficult childhood, in so many ways, and I’m now enjoying life more than ever before; so much happier and so much more alive!  It’s good I have come a long way, and though it’s easy to feel I wish things had been easier, in the end, the past makes us what we are, and we cannot live without it, but we can move on.

Things I have been reading recently:

Good read on trauma and how it affects ones sense of time:

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4166378/

Lots in there to read and think over, so popping in my journal for now. I’ve skim read parts.

 

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2167702613495199

 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/experimentations/201711/six-elements-self-care-in-adults-childhood-trauma

 

Rear Access Roads and Alleyways

 

rear access road chessington drawing 2 jenny meehan

rear access road chessington drawing 2 jenny meehan

rear access roads chessington drawing jenny meehan

rear access roads chessington drawing jenny meehan

jenny meehan landscape black and white photographic images,jamartlondon photography

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

 

I’ve popped these in because I have realised recently how important the “Alleyway” was to me as a child. We lived in Teddington, not Chessington, and the alleyway of my childhood was narrow, and quite different to the rear access roads I have drawn here.  However, emotionally there is a strong connection I had previously overlooked.  My brother and myself would play in the alley…exploring around the backs of peoples gardens…peeking through holes in fences and sometimes creeping into places we were not meant to be!  It was all very exciting and interesting.  The drawings of the rear access roads in Hook and Chessington were drawn by me in what I like to call my “wilderness” phase.  It was before I really got into painting as my main focus, and yet grew highly aware that painting was the right direction for me to go into creatively, in a big way.

Emotionally it was a tough time, and I struggled psychologically also; I felt very lost indeed, in terms of having a sense of self.  I find it interesting that, at this time, I found the rear access roads so comforting, and so safe, and all at the very time in my life when fear grew increasingly severe.  It provided an area and space to feel I existed in.  I think the lack of facades was helpful, also, for I was aware my own had slipped somewhat!  It was a raw, bare, place, of exposure and of no longer being able to pretend I was “all right”.  Somehow embracing the “shadow side” had to happen.

I was not familiar with the term “shadow side” at that point in my life, however I do remember being fascinated with the dark, square areas I came across, which I think you can see comes across in the drawings. For me, I saw these as being a void…a place which represented how I increasingly felt inside.  Inner emptiness.  At times (the worst) where I would rather be: in nothingness.  A lot of the areas of interest for me in my frequent walks involved an appreciation of decay, decomposition, and neglect, with some attention to unexpected growth, and finding unexpected treasures.  Even in the worst of life’s passages, if looking outwards, beauty can be found with some effort, and I did find it, even though I couldn’t see any inside myself at that point.  Carl Jung stated “the shadow” to be the unknown dark side of the personality, which was instinctive and irrational. There was also a sense of this in what the dark, blank areas communicated to me.  Like some kind of mirror, they reminded me of how instinctive and irrational I was at my core, and I was certainly more aware of that than I had ever been aware of before in my life!

Quote from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/evil-deeds/201204/essential-secrets-psychotherapy-what-is-the-shadow

“For Jung, the theory of the‘‘shadow’’ was a metaphorical means of conveying the prominent role played by the unconscious in both psychopathology and the perennial problem of evil. In developing his paradoxical conception of the shadow, Jung sought to provide a more highly differentiated, phenomenologically descriptive version of the unconscious and of the id than previously proffered by Freud. The shadow was originally Jung’s poetic term for the totality of the unconscious, a notion he took from philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. But foremost for Jung was the task of further illuminating the shadowy problem of human evil and the prodigious dangers of excessive unconsciousness.”

 Quote from Stephen A. Diamond, Ph.D., 

 

Well, as per usual I have written myself out of words, and need to stop for now. I do prefer this longer narrative to that which I would achieve by posting short posts on instagram, or making shorter blog entries.  Writing longer means I can go a little deeper, and that is more benefit to me as an artist than just posting up things which haven’t required me to probe a bit deeper into my own mind and emotions.  Skim reading may save anyone from unwanted reading matter, I know, and this also gives me some freedom.  I spend a lot of time skim reading, and also skim thinking, (sometimes more than I want), so the knowledge a reader can slip across unwanted material with such ease, is something which has surely liberated me in exploring writing about my art working in this manner.  A matter which caught my interest and caused me find this interesting read; 

 

https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/skim-reading-from-screens-is-doing-scary-thing-to-your-brain-according-to-neuroscience.html

 

 

My original artwork has two main strands: Lyrical Abstraction, painterly, fluid, with a lot of focus on light, how it bounces off the surface, textures and finishes, and Geometric Abstraction (created through digital imaging software) in which I focus on flat areas of smooth, solid, and translucent colour; ideally intended to be printed on even, matt or semi-mat surfaces.

While I’m experimenting with the overlap between the two, and make it my practice to regularly try out new mediums, in order to keep my artwork fresh and steadily evolving, identifying the strands in this way is helpful for clarity.  I use writing and poetry in my art working and now prefer to use sol-silica paint over acrylics or oils, though I am still known to dabble in many different types of paint, due to their particular material and visual qualities!

If you would like to give money to help support my creative practice, I can accept it quickly and easily through the Paypal.me process. Simply put the following in your browser:
paypal.me/jennymeehan
and follow the prompts. Please consider supporting my work in this way if it strikes a chord with you and you are able to do so. I do need support in order to continue my artworking.

http://www.jamartlondon.com/contact/4569980742 direct link to contact page of website

Signing up as a follower on my WordPress blog ( https://jennymeehan.wordpress.com) also helps, as does sharing the posts when you receive them.  Anything you can do to help me is much appreciated!

My artwork is particularly suitable for themes of: faith, religion, philosophy, Christian, church, all faith traditions, inter-faith, spirituality, the subconscious, psychoanalytic themes, mindfulness, contemplative practices, healing, health, both physical and mental, trauma recovery, metaphysical and psychological focused writings, the devotional life, and many other subjects.

All my images are licensable and this is arranged through the Designer and Artists’ Copyright Socitety (DACS). If you wish to use my artwork, please contact me in the first instance.

http://www.jamartlondon.com/contact/4569980742 direct link to contact page of website

Alongside my mainly lyrical abstract paintings, there is another important strand in my work which includes more of a narrative.  Well, some kind of narrative. Through my writing, and my participation in ongoing psychotherapy, I draw on my subconscious.  It’s this process of self reflection, examination, and other contemplative practices which are rooted in my own faith tradition as a Christian, alongside a good dose of yoga and West African drumming, which have created an exciting way ahead for my work with visual art.  I think it’s the relationship between my writing and visual work, particularly through poetry, which helps determine the direction in my art practice.

I’m a member of Kingston Artists’ Open Studios: http://www.kingstonartistsopenstudios.co.uk/product-category/artists-m-to-z/

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“Praying the Way” by Terry Hinks and “Leap of Faith” cover image by Jenny Meehan – Sharp Gallery, Brixton “Dreams and Dreaming” – New Lyrical Abstraction Paintings by Jenny Meehan –

January 12, 2019

Great Start to a New Year! Praying the Way!

 

praying the way by terr hinks, Bible Reading Fellowship with leap of faith image by jenny meehan, religious devotional book covers, licensable images christian publishing, prayer spirituality publications UK cover design, non pictorial book cover design, geometric abstract book covers,

“praying the way” by terry hinks book published by Bible Reading Fellowship with “leap of faith” image by jenny meehan

 

What a delight to see this amazing book cover design for the also very amazing and inspiration book of “raw and authentic prayers” by Terry Hinks. Terry Hinks is a United Reformed Church minister and the author of a number of books on prayer.

The cover design and inside pages are the work of designer Alison Beek, Designer, for the Bible Reading Fellowship,  who licensed my image “Leap of Faith” through DACS for the cover design of the book.

It is the best thing in the world to see my artwork used for such purposes as this, as close to my heart and faith!

I now have my copy, and am already being blessed!  It’s a super book, deep and insightful, challenging and touching.  I love the idea of starting this year “Praying the Way”.  It is through all the small leaps of faith we make that we move forwards, and it seems to me that the path appears the moment we make a brave jump into the air!  Many things change as we mature in our faith; previous beliefs however dear are challenged, and life seems to be a matter of constantly realising how little we know, and how much we need to hand ourselves over to the one who created us and loves us so dearly. While certainties fall away, still the potential to trust ourselves into the hands of the Creator exists, and the path of committing ourselves to Christ (if that’s our faith tradition) and continual desire for repentance, enlightenment, and growth in compassion, can move with strength forwards into the years to come.  Well, that’s my prayer for this year I think.

 

 

 

© Jenny Meehan DACS All Rights Reserved leap of faith (jennifer meehan) jenny meehan geometrical abstrace design artwork fine art print to buy

leap of faith jenny meehan (jennifer meehan) geometrical abstract design artwork fine art print to buy

 

“Leap of Faith” is one of my personal favourites, it’s true.

If you like it, I do have it up on Redbubble.com, which is a print on demand site.

https://www.redbubble.com/people/jennyjimjams/works/13790986-no-cares-take-courage-leap-of-faith-design-by-jenny-meehan

My original artwork has two main strands: Lyrical Abstraction, painterly, fluid, with a lot of focus on light, how it bounces off the surface, textures and finishes, and Geometric Abstraction (created through digital imaging software) in which I focus on flat areas of smooth, solid, and translucent colour; ideally intended to be printed on even, matt or semi-mat surfaces.  While I’m experimenting with the overlap between the two, and make it my practice to regularly try out new mediums, in order to keep my artwork fresh and steadily evolving, identifying the strands in this way is helpful for clarity.  I use writing and poetry in my art working and now prefer to use sol-silica paint over acrylics or oils, though I am still known to dabble in many different types of paint, due to their particular material and visual qualities!

Do you need exciting, engaging, images for a book cover design?

Do you need exciting, engaging, images for a book cover design? If so, then take a look at my website jamartlondon.com, for a start.

My artwork is particularly suitable for themes of: faith, religion, philosophy, Christian, church, all faith traditions, inter-faith, spirituality, the subconscious, psychoanalytic themes, mindfulness, contemplative practices, healing, health, both physical and mental, trauma recovery, metaphysical and psychological focused writings, the devotional life, and many other subjects.

Indeed, pretty much any subject matter or theme which benefits from a more abstract graphic image; one which also conveys basic feelings and ideas in an open and experimental manner; would benefit from it’s clarity of communication being enhanced by one of my art images.

From the lyrical abstraction of some of abstract expressionist style textured paintings, to the geometric abstraction clear edged imagery, which I also produce, the value of non representational imagery in book cover design which is both colourful and interesting, and stimulates the eye with colour and striking composition, cannot be under estimated.

If you are looking for something particular, do contact me, because I only display a small amount on the internet and may even be able to create something specific to your needs, or be able to locate something from my extensive archives which meets your need.

DACS administrate my licensing agreements and organise the use of my art work images quickly and conveniently. They are very helpful and can guide you through the process if you are unfamiliar with it. I normally follow their guidelines with respect to the fees for licensing, as these are set in line with the industry standard.

DACS do offer a good reduction in fees for registered charities. Occasionally it may be possible for slightly reduced rates to be negotiated in other circumstances.

To find out more about how you can arrange to use my imagery, see here:

https://www.dacs.org.uk/licensing-works/frequently-asked-questions#FAQ122

 

January and February 2019

Well, it’s one post every two months from now on.  My art working has a certain amount of momentum to it at the moment, and I am keen to keep the focus on ongoing art working… however, I do love writing this journal… It’s very useful to me and serves as a small amount of space for contemplation.  Reflection, and anticipation.   It’s very interesting as a tool.   I enjoy looking backwards at earlier posts and hearing my voice at that time often proves helpful in informing the present.

It frequently amuses me how some people, on understanding the contemplative nature of my work, assume I have hours to spare.  The funny thing is, for all of us, is that it is very easy to imagine that other people have more time than us.  We all do it.  I do too.  I often remind myself of my own judgements of others,  and  find some comfort in the fact that our assumptions about others, when properly examined, often can reveal interesting feelings and beliefs we ourselves hold.

The reality is that it is a constant battle to push my art working forwards.  It’s a bit easier than it was when the children were younger, but I still have a house of people which needs management, and those who manage a household know that this is something of an invisible role.  Things just happen by magic, I believe.  It’s unpaid and unappreciated work.  But where would we all be without it?  If the house is a bit of a mess now, (which it pretty much always is!) then without my labour invested into it, things would be unworkable.

While I don’t mind my work being based in the household (and this has advantages in terms of productivity generally), it is yet another factor which might suggest to some folk that I do not work.  I completely get the reality that art working is not a job, in the usually understood sense. It’s a role, but being an artist is not a job. Not if jobs are defined by their capacity to generate income, anyway.

It’s a funny old thing, because there are huge numbers of artists involved in art working, and the vast majority of us earn less than a few thousand pounds a year from our creative activities.  Most people don’t realise this at all.  Income for artists comes from other people, other activities and roles, and we really need the support of people investing in us and our work. I really need the support of people investing in my work…buying it, sharing it, valuing it.  It is my contribution to the world, pure and simple.  Not the only one, but the one I care about with a passion and the one I believe I am meant to be pursuing.

Which is why I do it.

Yet cultural richness… The richness of contemplative experiences, dwelling in the moment, inner examination, reflection…individual and shared.

Cultural richness… The world of the imagination, the spirit, the journey we all make through life, which can be enhanced, enlightened, and inspired by the arts of all varieties…

Cultural richness…  Of a worth which is often not appreciated as much as it might be…We take it for granted a lot of the time.

So many ways of life shared by so many people. And artistic expression of experience is fundamentally important in communication and understanding. Cultural richness is something which includes diversity in anything that has to do with how people live: music, art, recreation, religion or beliefs, languages, dress, traditions and stories.  It also encompasses things like how we organise ourselves and how we interact with the environment, and even the  attitudes we hold towards others.

So if you like my art working, and think it brings something valuable to the world in it’s relatively small way, then do consider supporting me.  You can do this buy buying my work (very pleasing, as it releases more room for more work!) licensing my art images through DACS, the Design and Artists Copyright Society, buying merchandise with my designs and art on it, which you can do through Redbubble.com (I get a small percentage of the price you pay…Every little helps.   You can follow, share and help promote as you are able, if so inclined.

Contact page on my website:  http://www.jamartlondon.com/contact/4569980742

I have a lot more art work than I am able to show on the internet.  The reason being that my time for marketing and promoting, and putting things onto the internet is very restricted… I cannot keep up with my own creativity.  I keep my own archives and that is something in itself!  So if you are looking for something specific, then it’s always worth contacting me, which you can do through the contact page of my website.  I can produce artworks in a large variety of scales and formats, on different materials and through different techniques.  It’s often quite interesting for me to have a focused project to meet precise specifications.

If you just simply wish to support me financially, that’s really helpful too.  How?  Just here!

https://www.paypal.me/jennymeehan

Safe, quick and easy!

There isn’t a way of me thanking you through this method though, so if you do choose to support me through this system, please send me and email and let me know it was you, so I can express my gratitude.  I don’t like asking for financial support, but I have realised I cannot afford not to, and I don’t mind losing a little bit of pride…I have too much anyway!

A lot of people don’t realise that artists, more often than not, have to pay to show their work in exhibitions, and that putting on your own exhibitions costs a great deal of money and time.  I am frequently surprised how the general public don’t realise about artists paying to enter their work in exhibitions, in addition to paying commission.  However, I don’t think I should be surprised, because it is not something shouted about.  It’s one of those mainly hidden matters, which makes it harder for artists to share their work.  And sharing our work is something we love to do.  However, paying to share it is probably one of the biggest hindrances to a much richer artistic experience for all.

I am always totally grateful that I can even invest my time into doing what I love.  I could not do this for many years, due to social and economic reasons, but now I can, I never take it for granted.  I am fortunate to do what I love. What is my calling in life.  Amazing.  It’s less fortunate I don’t get more money for doing it, but it’s well worth the sacrifices made.  This investment of time does cost though…It costs me and those around me in many respects, for I certainly could choose to invest myself and my time into more profitable activities.  Sometimes good things come my way, and its’ a great boost.  To have some finance to enable me to continue what I do is my main objective.  Circumstances may change… It’s workable now, thankfully.  I would like to show more, do more, submit more work, and push outwards far more than I am equipped to do at the present time.

It’s HARD work, this artist matter.  I wonder why I do it from time to time, but the truth is, I cannot not be who I am, and this, it seems, along with being a mother, is my role.  I am also a qualified teacher, which is handy, especially for mentoring and art tuition, and a qualified dental nurse (earlier career!) which is also handy, because we all have teeth, and it’s useful to know a fair bit about them.  (I still find it interesting!) My interest in health, both physical and psychological, and spirituality, have proved perfect partners for my art practice which is informed by my own experiences, never ending research (I love research!) and the beauty of nature. I have to laugh sometimes: mothering and caring, the unpaid domestic work carried out, AND being an artist! It’s kind of counter-cultural, in terms of value, at the moment!

Recent Work

 

Well, in these darker Winter days, I have finally gotten around to more computer based work, and this includes posting up some of my recent paintings on my website jamartlondon.com.

This new series has quite a light, refreshing feel to it.

breath one, ©jenny meehan ©jenny meehan, abstract impressionist lyrical original fine art to buy, licensable non representational images, christian abstract expressionist artist, spirituality religion, faith, contemplation, mindfulness, icon, jenny meehan jamartlondon abstract paintings

jenny meehan jamartlondon abstract paintings©jenny meehan title breath one

 

©jenny meehan, abstract impressionist lyrical original fine art to buy, licensable non representational images, christian abstract expressionist artist, spirituality religion, faith, contemplation, mindfulness, contemporary abstract icons, jenny meehan jamartlondon abstract paintings,art informel gestural, uk fine artist poet-painter

jenny meehan jamartlondon abstract paintings title painting breath two

 

©jenny meehan, abstract impressionist lyrical original fine art to buy, licensable non representational images, christian abstract expressionist artist, spirituality religion, faith, contemplation, mindfulness, contemporary abstract icons, jenny meehan jamartlondon abstract paintings,art informel gestural, uk fine artist poet-painter

jenny meehan jamartlondon abstract paintings title Light Touch

 

"onwards and upwards" ©jenny meehan, abstract impressionist lyrical original fine art to buy, licensable non representational images, christian abstract expressionist artist, spirituality religion, faith, contemplation, mindfulness, contemporary abstract icons, jenny meehan jamartlondon abstract paintings,art informel gestural, uk fine artist poet-painter

jenny meehan jamartlondon abstract paintings

 

 

"opening the way"painting©jenny meehan, abstract impressionist lyrical original fine art to buy, licensable non representational images, christian abstract expressionist artist, spirituality religion, faith, contemplation, mindfulness, contemporary abstract icons, jenny meehan jamartlondon abstract paintings,art informel gestural, uk fine artist poet-painter

jenny meehan jamartlondon abstract paintings “Opening the Way”

 

"release" painting ©jenny meehan, abstract impressionist lyrical original fine art to buy, licensable non representational images, christian abstract expressionist artist, spirituality religion, faith, contemplation, mindfulness, contemporary abstract icons, jenny meehan jamartlondon abstract paintings,art informel gestural, uk fine artist poet-painter

“Release” painting jenny meehan jamartlondon abstract paintings

 

 

 

 

Gallery Visits

This time of year… Right from October and into the New Year, is a good time to be out and about looking at Exhibitions.  I have visited several, but only highlight one here…Telfer Stokes, at the Redfern Gallery.

I really enjoyed the Telfer Stokes exhibition at the Redfern Gallery… Reminiscence: New York Paintings and Metal Objects… It ran from 21st November to 4th December. The Redfern Gallery is one of my favourite galleries to visit…They seem to show work which I find particularly interesting. I did prefer the metal objects to the paintings.

If you follow this link you get to the relevant page on The Redfern Gallery website. There is an online publication you can access there also.

My favourites: Flare, 2017,Welded steel

76 x 79 x 15 cm

https://www.redfern-gallery.com/exhibitions/43/works/image_standalone631/

Also, very keen on…

Linch Pin, 2014, Welded steel

55 x 107 x 3 cm

https://www.redfern-gallery.com/exhibitions/43/works/image_standalone634/

and last but certainly not least…

Crux, 2014, Welded steel

65 x 60 x 60 cm

https://www.redfern-gallery.com/exhibitions/43/works/image_standalone638/

 

 

A little bit of reflecting…

Seeing Matisse’s “Snail” aged 9, I said that I wanted to be an artist so “I could do that”. The desire never left, symbolised in my keeping an easel despite countless moves, which I still own now. Since 2005, when I flung myself back into the early impulse to visually create, the desire developed, and I’ve done things artistically in my current situation which weren’t possible earlier in life, due to adverse life circumstances. I love all aspects of my work, and value it deeply,  not only that of my current profession as an artist, mentor and teacher, (and mother/household manager!) but past roles as a primary school teacher, dental nurse,  and various administrative and caring roles. All these roles and experiences make me who I am, and inform the directions I put my effort into, and my interests and topics of research.

Sometimes past roles can be unexpectedly useful…I was rather amused to find my past skills as a dental nurse useful when seeking to extend my knowledge of materials and techniques by experimenting with mosaic, which is something I did recently through two excellent courses led by Vanessa Benson, both at West Dean College and the City Lit, in London.  Some little pieces of glass mosaic are amazingly like little teeth, and having a knowledge of various dental tools and equipment available is also proving useful, as I continue to tinker with the medium! (I’m using syringes a lot at the moment!!!)

My interest in materials, their composition, and uses, from a more scientific angle, was something nurtured through this past career choice, and I discovered, far more recently, how interested I am in the scientific and technical aspects of materials when I started to research the use of silicate and sol-silicate paint.  I’ve always been interested in materials to a certain degree, but when I starting using the sol-silicate paint, and experimented with various other similar more ecologically friendly paints, the interest grew.  Before I carried out the mineral paint mural at Trafalgar Junior School a few years back, I needed to do a lot of technical research which I found completely absorbing and interesting.

So it’s amazing how little bits of your past seep into the present, so unconsciously and without deliberation, very often. Knowing your materials well means you know their limitations, and you know which technical considerations are relevant to the particular purpose you employ them for.  This means that if you decide to stretch materials beyond their capacity, you can exploit what happens in an intentional and knowledgeable way.  It also means that if you have particular specifications to meet, ie, in terms of longevity, or resilience to certain factors, you can ensure your art work meets those, and be reasonably confident that they will.

How I choose and use materials in the creation of artworks has to have a solid technical understanding behind it, and I think it’s an aspect of art creation today which in some quarters doesn’t the the amount of emphasis it needs.  I spend a huge amount of time researching all aspects of the mediums I work with so that the choices I make when working with them are informed ones.  If I want something to last, then I make sure it has all the chances it can to last.  If I want something to be temporary and transient, then I can choose to ignore certain things which I know will happen over time to the work.

Indeed, is some artworks, the changes which occur over time and a fascinating dimension of the work and completely integral to its purpose.  But if what the artist intends then fails due to a technical aspect being ignored, then this is just poor workmanship.  I have seen some horrible examples of artists ideas being badly executed because of ignorance about the materials they are using, and it always makes me feel slightly embarrassed to call myself an artist when I see it happen! There are some situations when crafts-person is a far more attractive word to use!!!!

But whatever words can be used, expressive colour and mark making; the structure of composition; the illusive space possible across the face of the a substrate; these motivate me to play with visual poetry and this I believe can work on the human soul in an essential and valuable way, enriching our experience of life. It realises for me both an outer and an inner vision. This is a liberty which I don’t take for granted, and I didn’t expect to be able to work with something I love so much. I’m also aware of the restrictions I face in terms of space and money right now. However, thankfully, though I may not be able to work on the scale I would like to, I AM able to do a lot with what I have. Generally in life, though it is important to have aspirations and always look just that little bit further than where you are, this needs to be balanced with acceptance and contentment.

 

painting after constable, interpretation of Constable sketch, oil on board jenny meehan

Experimental painting carried out in 2008 by Jenny Meehan based on a sketch by Constable.

Above is a very early painting of mine, which I am very fond of.  This was one of my experiments with oil paint. It has just the feeling I like to have, gentle, breezy, light, but not wishy washy, some motion and stillness, with a light touch. This light touch, and feeling of air and space, is something I have continued to explore in completely non pictorial, fully abstracted paintings, as you can see if you visit my website jamartlondon.com and look at my paintings for 2019.  I post new work at the beginning of the year.  This is because I have had enough time over Winter reviewing progress and identifying new directions.

http://www.jamartlondon.com/paintings-2019/4594054042

 

blue boat painting by jenny meehan inspired by ivon hitchens british painter

“Blue Boat” Oil Painting by jenny meehan (after Ivon Hitchens)

“Blue Boat” is another early painting, same year I think as the one above (off the top of my head) inspired by Ivon Hitchens who is one of my most favourite artists.  Bit bolder with the colour here.  I still have this one and don’t mind letting it go.  If you want to buy it contact me via the contact form on my personal website jamartlondon.com and I will give you more details.  It was awarded “highly commended” in the Needhams Competition…quite a few years back now.  See my list of exhibitons at jamartlondon.com

 

Sharp Gallery, Brixton

I am very pleased to be part of the exhibition at the Sharp Gallery in Brixton.   The value of creativity and the arts in healthcare of all sorts is widely recognised and projects like this are worth their weight in gold.  Here’s the work I am showing, with the partner poems and other text displayed below:

 

art and psychotherapy, art and psychoanalysis, art and subconscious, art and dreams, flower dream print by jenny meehan

flower dream print by jenny meehan

 

laid to rest print by jenny meehan jamartlondon.com, art and dream, art and subconscious, art and trauma recovery, art and psychoanalysis, art and psychotherapy, artists who use psychotherapy, art and psychological distress, art and trauma recovery

laid to rest print by jenny meehan jamartlondon.com

 

Dreams and Dreaming

Framed digital prints and their partner poems – Jenny Meehan jamartlondon.com

Flower Dream

Deep within the pot of me… 

Not cracked, like Mummy.

Not hung on the wall,

slipping downwards…

A glassy look

that never met my tears.

I am sad and angry…

I won’t deny it.

For too long it was inconvenient

for me to exist in reality.

As I was saying;

Deep within the pot of me

I hoped for sunlight.

I dreamt of a day

when someone mysterious

would knock at the door, and come, 

laden with flowers…

flowers upon flowers… 

Come laden with flowers,

and colours, and petals, 

and leaves, and stalks…

To give. 

To give something

to me.

Not bleeding, or painful; like daffodils when you cut them.

(My sister was horrified).

As I was saying…

I hoped for sunlight

deep within the pot

of me.

But I could not reach out for it,

though I heard it was there…

in the garden.

In the garden of flowers,

which naked, Mummy ran through,

when all was solved

and the world was

entirely

her own. 

The birds told me…

Deep in the garden…

In the shed…

I do exist.

This is why

I cry for the flowers.

They took my sister away, because she was too angry.

But keep me here, because I am no trouble.

And who needs flowers, anyway?

As long as your pot is not broken.

As I was saying…

Not cracked, like Mummy.

But empty,

non the less.

And the flowers are so beautiful; 

A beautiful dream 

for me. 

Jenny Meehan 2017

This poem accompanies the Digital C type print “Flower Dream”.

“Flower Dream” is a numbered edition print (NE#1), signed by the artist-poet Jenny Meehan. It’s printed with Epson ink on 300gsm paper. Framed print: £50

See jamartlondon.com, under “Digital Imagery” for information on what a numbered edition print is.

Laid to Rest

Sleep peaceful, daughter, sleep

Dream the pathways through your mind…

leave the troubled day behind.

Sleep peaceful, daughter, sleep

Dream many dances through the sky…

Starlight night, then stepping bright;

A morning bird’s hopeful cry

To see you deeply, freely, sleepy

dropping safely, easy, warm,

into resting places

waiting

ready for the dawn.

Ready for the dawn.

Blessings; blessings; blessings 

dreamy…

Dreamy child, of mine.

Blessings; blessings; blessings

dreamy.

Dream-child

of peaceful

mind. 

Jenny Meehan 2018

This poem accompanies the Digital C type print “Laid to Rest”.

“Laid to Rest” is a numbered edition print (NE#1), signed by the artist-poet Jenny Meehan. It’s printed with Canon ink on 220gsm paper. Framed print: £50

See jamartlondon.com, under “Digital Imagery” for information on what a numbered edition print is.

About Jenny Meehan

Jenny Meehan is a Kingston Upon Thames based artist working painting, poetry and digital imagery. Following her studies at Kingston University,(BA Hons Literature) a Post Graduate Certificate in Education at Roehampton University led to a career in teaching. From 2010 Jenny focused on the Visual Arts, training at both West Dean College and local adult education provision. Selected by a wide range of judges, her work has been displayed across many galleries and museums in the UK. These include the Dulwich Picture Gallery, Pallant House Gallery, and Kingston Museum.

“I’m very pleased to be part of this exhibition. I have a keen interest in mental health and recovery, partly due to the traumas experienced in my formative years, and the realisation in 2010 that I couldn’t deny the reality of their effect on me any longer. My engagement in psychotherapy has a rich and interesting relationship with my creative output which I exploit with interest. 

The subject of dreams is something close to my heart. Finding dreams and allowing them to exist is probably one of many people’s greatest achievements. As is using the darker dimension of our experiences, and seeing light permeate through even the deepest fear.

I hope you enjoy the poetic space I create in presenting both word and image together.”

The exhibition at the Sharp Gallery runs from the end of January to end of March.  Please check the venue to see viewing opportunities.  Sharp Gallery, 308, Brixton Road, SW9 6AA http://sharp-gallery.webflow.io/

Alongside my mainly lyrical abstract paintings, there is another important strand in my work which includes more of a narrative.  Well, some kind of narrative. Through my writing, and my participation in ongoing psychotherapy, I draw on my subconscious.  It’s this process of self reflection, examination, and other contemplative practices which are rooted in my own faith tradition as a Christian, alongside a good dose of yoga and West African drumming, which have created an exciting way ahead for my work with visual art.  I think it’s the relationship between my writing and visual work, particularly through poetry, which helps determine the direction in my art practice.

I think it probably does this by helping me to identify how past experiences contribute to the present interests I hold.  I think developing a clear voice is very useful when you are involved in the visual arts.  There is so much wonderful art out there, but in the end, we need to find the motivation and drive within ourselves to persist with the vocation of artist.  It isn’t easy, in our current materialistic and capitalistic focused culture.  But it is worth it.

Kader Attia’s first UK Survey Exhibition

The exhibition “questions our ideas about wholeness and injury, authenticity and repair, belonging and otherness” I read, and this, along with some interesting images drew me to take a better look than a screen permits!  Very interesting to read more about his interests and focus here

I like the look of this exhibition very much.  This time of year is good for visiting exhibitions, and  while I cannot afford to visit as many as I would ideally like, because of the costs involved, to be honest, living in this part of the country, there is so much on offer to see, big and small, that I have more than my fill of gallery going!

 

Loving Research – The Philosophical, Psychological and Metaphysical Kind! Mostly…

I love researching.  It’s  something I regularly fall into, and enjoy very much.  I don’t consciously draw lines between my researching activities and my artistic production, in the way that maybe a Scientist would with their work… There’s normally no need.  But my visual art certainly has a flickering background of thought behind it, which generally only comes into focus if I need to write an artist’s statement, or similar, about a specific piece of visual art work. I prefer to let my research happen organically, tracing it’s pathways through the thoughts, physical artistic output, and my general experiences of everyday life.  I remind myself that I am not working for a gallery, and needing to put signs up against every piece of work I produce, so that it might be articulated with the language of words.  With so much emphasis on the conceptual today, it’s tempting, maybe, to feel the need to legitimise artistic practice with words, for some.  Maybe all? And sometimes.  And while bending your intellect, this way and that, is fun…(I love it)…I don’t think it can make a piece of significant art happen, however much someone might try.  Because what is significant wells up within for a person.  Maybe where the research comes into  play is that it can be helpful for an artist in developing a reflective artistic practice.  In being able to identify what one is trying to express/do/communicate and what it means to oneself personally, and also to relate it to many other thoughts, theories, approaches, and beliefs.

This may be part of why I have chosen to write this artist’s journal…At least this is a way I can track some of my preoccupations, for the problem I have with note books, of which I have many…is they dance around the house constantly, picked up, then left, lost and then found.  It seems right to let this happen.  And it’s so interesting when old ones turn up.  But with this artist’s journal…There is the constant screen in front of me, and the only thing which changes is what I am writing. I think it may be of passing interest to someone now and again, and I think about the fact it is maybe read occasionally. However, it’s not the same as writing for some other person, because while that maybe one aspect, I allow myself repetition, deviation, and other flaws in the writing, which wouldn’t be acceptable in another form to the same extent. The pleasure in writing this artist’s journal is possibly much greater than the pleasure in reading it, but never mind.  It is what it is!  It’s somewhere to attach bits of interesting things I have found, and enables me to pick them up when I need to, and rediscover them when I don’t expect to find them again, but with the significant added benefit, that when I feel like a bit of writing, I know where to go!

My reading notes;

Something I am looking at now:  John Macquarrie on Language, Being, and God
Author(s): Eugene Thomas Long
Source: The Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Dec., 1976), pp. 255-279
Published by: Philosophy Education Society Inc.

Need to think on this for a while… Very interested in reading more John Macquarrie.

I think I am between a realist and idealist.  Objectivity and subjectivity seem to both hold equal sway in reality! I think paradox and tension between things vital and helpful in life.  I’m interested in dipping into considering different perspectives, but all my own thinking seems clearly rooted in a firm belief of an external (as well as internal) Creator God who does exist, whatever I might think.  And I am so much a lover of the material world, (nature) which I don’t see as apart from the spiritual, but also expressing the wondrous qualities of God.  What I do get from reading (admittedly in a somewhat cursory and skimming type matter) is lots of interesting relationships between elements I don’t normally bother to think about!)

Some other reading:

 

https://www.thoughtco.com/working-with-worry-449711

https://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/does-beauty-still-matter-art

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-daily-princetonian/prosumerism_b_1463166.html

 

I’ve been thinking about other faith traditions and Christ, and how the tendency to shuffle into thinking one’s own faith tradition is better than someone else’s is so unpleasant and not Christ-like.  What we know of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ through the New Testament communicates that Jesus honoured and respected people of other faith traditions without doubt.

In his book “Discover the Power Within You” Eric Butterworth wrote:
“I have often speculated on what Jesus would have done if he had been seated around a table with a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Muslim and a Shintoist—discussing ultimate Truth. I just can’t believe that Jesus would have said, ‘You must all forsake your beliefs and come and follow me.’ I think he might have pointed out that the differences were chiefly a matter of semantics, and that there is an underlying principle similar to the Christ idea in every religion. I think he would have stressed the basic unity within the diversity of religions, pointing out that the greatest need of all persons is to find that indwelling unity with God, which is found in the principle of divine Sonship, that we call the Christ.”

Well, that’s some of my reading for the time being.

Publishing this Post NOW!

I’m going to publish this blog post early rather than late. I’ts got longer than I expected it to!

Now I’ve decided only to post once every two months, in order to reduce time spent on writing it, and hopefully enhance the focus of it, I’ll get it out there and forget any more blog writing for a nice big chunk of time!

 

 

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November and December!

December 11, 2018

©jenny meehan contemporary female abstract artist kingston upon thames surrey art culture

jenny meehan prints ©jenny meehan

November and December are when I tend to turn my attention to updating my website and various other computer based tasks.  A good time for more socialising too!  While I love and need much time in solitude, I am an extrovert by nature and there are so many fun things to do at this time of year! I have packed my studio tent away for this year.  It’s too cold now, and the days are shorter anyway.

Above you see, along with my feet, some prints which were printed for me as part of a prize awarded!  It was the 2nd Prize in Digital Art Category of Chester Art Centre Open Exhibition 2017.  One hundred pounds worth of digital printing!  What a useful prize!  I have put them in frames and prepared them ready for next years Kingston Artists’ Open Studios. They are archival quality prints, and look fantastic.  I am very pleased with them. Though I won’t label them limited edition,  because I feel that is somewhat irrelevant in today’s digital age, (with so many printing options available), because I don’t print and sign much work nowadays, they should probably be labelled 1/1….    for it is very unlikely I will produce anymore.  But I don’t know what I may want to do in the future with them.  For this reason, I tend to just sign and number my prints without specifying how many I will or won’t make.  As said, the reality is that I don’t spend much time on printing my work now or getting it printed.  Too busy creating, innovating, and experimenting!

I have made several visits to the British Museum in the later part of this year.  Glad of it.  Great place to wander through and appreciate the wealth of historical artefacts; all in one place.  I love looking at historical artefacts and discovering more about the past. I admire craftsmanship and find religious beliefs and learning about different cultures very helpful.  Kind of liberating.  The focus of so much creation is bound up in religious belief.  I find this helpful to bear in mind.

Ritual. Remembrance. Death.  Eternity.

These were the words I left with.

And a focus on the art working I do, which is purely focused on what I am doing.  Yes, it’s hard…Because there is a need to share, promote, and put things on the internet.  But as the years go by, I am learning to focus more, and in a more refined manner, on the work itself.  What it means.  What it says.  Why it matters.

Helpful.

We have so much.  It can get confusing!

 

Looking Back

Looking back, though not very far, here are a couple of images of my paintings from this year’s Kingston Artists’ Open Studios event.  If you like visiting Artists, seeing their work, and getting a chance to ask the questions you want, as well as maybe having the opportunity to buy an original piece of fine art much cheaper than you would probably be able to get it at a gallery, then an Open Studios event is just the thing for you.

Contact me via my website jamartlondon.com and ask to be placed on my mailing list and I will send you information on the Kingston Artist’s Open Studios event in 2019.  Surrey artists open their studios each year, and Kingston has a wealth of artistic talent just waiting to be explored.

http://www.jamartlondon.com/contact/4569980742

 

kingston artists open studios jenny meehan paintings in situ

KAOS open studios jenny meehan paintings

On the left “Joy and Pain” and on the right (face on view) “Father, Son and Holy Spirit/Trinity”.

The latter painting has been licensed for use on one of the Bible Reading Fellowship’s publications, on the cover of a book by Nigel G. Wright titled “How to be a Church Minister”.  I am always very pleased when images of my paintings are licensed for use.  It’s great when they can be of practical use, and particularly, as a bit of a writer myself, I am pleased when they are employed in the service of writings relating to faith and spirituality. It’s wonderful to see my paintings used in design…As long as a licence has been issued!  Being a member of DACS (Design and Artists Copyright Society) has been one of the best moves I have made.

If you want to use any of my paintings, and are looking for something specific, do contact me, because the vast majority of my work is not shown on the internet.  I really do work hard, and produce quite an array.  It’s quick and easy to purchase a licence through DACS.  My paintings have graced many book covers.

 

©jenny meehan

waterloo clock ©jenny meehan

Love this clock!

In 2010 the specialist clock maker Smith of Derby removed the hands and many of the internal workings of the clock so they could be re-engineered to work with the latest technology. The  clock’s historic exterior was also  cleaned and decorated as part of the project.  The clock has been a central feature of Waterloo Station since the early part of the 20th century.  The clock was made by Gents of Leicester and is believed to date back to the 1920s.  My photography now is pretty much limited to the occasional snap here and there, such as this one.  I have a huge archive of the years I spent focused primarily on photography but I tend to use it for reference mostly.

 

under pressure©jenny meehan

under pressure ©jenny meehan

Yes, well, we all feel like this sometimes.  An example of some early experiments with Photoshop.  The image was based on a cut out and stencil mono type  I made at West Dean one year.  We live in a society and culture which exerts an awful lot of pressure on us, in a relentless manner.  What a challenge it is to even just BE.  How do we define ourselves from the inside out, in a strong and certain manner, in the face of all the media? What masks do we adopt and what happens when they fail and we fall? What happens when our vulnerability and fragility need to be faced, our self encountered, and avoidance and repression, distraction and entertainment, fail to keep us afloat?

 

Jenny Meehan on Redbubble.com

Redbubble is a great “print on demand” website and I have some of my images there.  The world is full of fabulous artists and Redbubble is a good place for buying merchandise which is original, exciting and contemporary.  The artists on Redbubble get a royalty payment from any items that you purchase there, so it is one way to support the creative community and help artists gain a little bit of income from their work.  Do take a look!

https://www.redbubble.com/people/jennyjimjams?asc=u

I only get a small royalty percentage, but it’s lovely to know someone has chosen something with my design/artwork on it.  It’s one of those welcome emails…And a small, but vital encouragement to me!   I don’t print very much of my own artwork anymore, as I prefer to focus on painting and poetry, but using a company like Redbubble.com does mean if people want to buy something printed they can quickly and easily, and it doesn’t take my time up in order to produce the item.

 

https://www.redbubble.com/people/jennyjimjams/works/13671316-spring-will-come-surface-pattern-design-by-jenny-meehan?cat_context=u-prints&grid_pos=9&p=art-print&rbs=9ffb27e7-1ab7-4d7e-9c74-621ba19bc8b0&ref=shop_grid&searchTerm=jenny%20meehan%20art-prints

 

Follow the link above to see one of my patterns.  Using the “Spring Will Come” image.  Now the patterns I make tend to be with pieces of stone and glass, as my new venture into mosaic continues.  But however they are made, there is something very satisfying about making patterns.

 

 

 

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome ©jenny meehan west dean college time enjoying the garden

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome ©jenny meehan west dean college time enjoying the garden

An early photograph of mine taken at West Dean Gardens.   I am posting up rather random images, because I have spent time looking through my archives.  Pathways of various kinds have always held my interest.  Way forward. Need to move forward.  Sense of direction.

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome ©jenny meehan west dean college time enjoying the garden

This little decking area is no more in West Dean Gardens.  They have removed it.  The pond area has changed a lot. This is such an elegant bench. I have so many photos and drawings of seats, benches, chairs…resting places.  The need to stop. Dwell. Cease moving. Contemplate.

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome ©jenny meehan west dean college time enjoying the garden

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome ©jenny meehan west dean college time enjoying the garden

And so many photographs of plants, trees, vegetation, and all growing things!  Growth, natural form, being essentials for the eye, in appreciation of variety, vast variety, endless variety, of God’s amazing ongoing creative power and endless inspiration to be found by looking at it!

I continue my professional development in the visual arts through the short course programme at West Dean College when I can.  It works very well for me, and I find it has been far more useful to me than a fine art degree.  My degree is in Literature, and I also studied a substantial number of modules in History as part of my degree at Kingston University.

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome ©jenny meehan west dean college time enjoying the garden

Another sweet West Dean moment!  And yet another of numerous images of water.  Water.  Sea. Rivers. All things watery. I love water and rocks, and all the images I have taken, while I don’t tend to refer to them directly, feed into my consciousness and inform my paintings.  I think the years I spent taking pictures were a good training in terms of composition particularly.  I also reached the point where I had so many pictures they did not interest me so much, and this may be one of the reasons I jumped into abstraction!

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome ©jenny meehan west dean college time enjoying the garden

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome ©jenny meehan west dean college time enjoying the garden

 

Lovely light.

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome ©jenny meehan west dean college time enjoying the garden

On my most recent course at West Dean College, the box needed a tidy up, but in this image the rounded shapes are very neat and tidy!

 

black and white landscapes jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography landscapes in uk ©jenny meehan west dean college time enjoying the garden

Another West Dean Gardens delight.

 

It’s a bit of a brief journal entry, I know. But I am so much absorbed in my work at the moment.  There’s some great relief for me at the present time in not writing so much.  Just being totally immersed in experimenting doesn’t seem to need any kind of documentary.  I am almost tempted to stop writing this journal.  I won’t do that, but it may be shorter and sharper.

Many years ago I used to enjoy the Abstract Critical website.

 

https://abstractcritical.com/note/the-conspiracy-theory-series-a-note-on-the-kinblethmont-show/index.html

There were some interesting discussions… It helped me put my brain into action, and introduced me to thinking about abstraction at a time when I was still battling internally with if I should really let myself go down the abyss!

Reading what Alan Gouk had to say was exceptionally helpful to me.

 

Happy Christmas!

Now I must go.  As said, I think it likely that I will now continue just to post once every two months.

angel print for all saints church of england kingston upon thames angel campaign submission by jenny meehan

Angel print for All Saints church of england CofE Kingston parish church kingston upon thames angel campaign submission by jenny meehan

https://www.redbubble.com/people/jennyjimjams/works/14968646-holy-holy-holy-abstract-angel-design-by-jenny-meehan?cat_context=u-prints&grid_pos=1&p=art-print&rbs=7bd9f01c-9a54-440b-8296-bec275550d06&ref=shop_grid&searchTerm=holy%20holy%20holy%20jenny%20meehan%20art-prints

You can purchase a print of the above art work by me on Redbubble!

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Graveyard Glimmers Mosaic and Poem – Thelma Series – The Upper Room by Jenny Meehan – “Boat House” Monotype – Jenny Meehan “Icy Landscape” – Jenny Meehan “Eternal” – Jenny Meehan

October 2, 2018

©jenny meehan grave yard glimmers mosaic and accompanying poem jenny meehan

grave yard glimmers mosaic and accompanying poem jenny meehan ©jenny meehan

 

 

The Grave Yard Glimmers

 

Under grey ground

my shattered self, recovered

crept gentle, back to the moment

when

a younger me-child

within

Summer holiday sunshine

discovered

picking, glass, stones, off graves

was an open treasure chest.

Even while the body laid low…

sighing with relief…

anticipating release…

for each passing moment.

 

Simple time steps.

One strand of self to

reflect

back to me.

 

Porous ceramic spreads moisture

Yet only a shadow

touches

meeting edges

I am sorry that I left, and still sometimes leave

these parts of me behind.

 

Much later,  my rape was a vacation of another kind.

 

I hover, momentarily, over my body

unable to take in, even in  consciousness

the un-do- able

which was done.

 

It takes years to cry.

And bodies lie under the floor

even in houses.

 

Light still

makes glimmers

Glimmers in eyes

meeting.

Glimmers in finding

pieces

all broken

but beautiful.

 

l hold hope, for you

my friend, and myself

on dream-like, flattened

slates… to write all over

a past story, a new one…

 

We wash the silver ore, and smelt it

in the smiles of those we love.

 

Jenny Meehan

August 2018

 

 

Looking forward to working with mosaic in November, tutored by Vanessa Benson, whose inspirational course at West Dean College this year has kicked me off in this direction!

Realising my poetry and all the visual work I do are inseparable.  Well, I knew this already, but now I know it more.  Also, I will always be a materials orientated artist.  One who handles my own materials.

The most annoying saying “Everyone is an artist”.  Is everyone a plumber too?  The role of an artist has a broad skill set attached.

Everyone is innately creative, yes, but everyone is not an artist.  I hate walking past Cass Art and seeing the motto… it’s something like “Let’s fill this town with artists”.  Sounds like a nightmare to me.  Do you want a town filled with artists?   Would be quite a poor town, for a start! But it would, of course, be ideal for the local art shop!!! At least they are honest!

I was reading recently that a survey found most artists earn between £1,000 and £5,000 a year. That sounds about right.  I kind of felt relieved on reading it.  It is hard when you live in a world where finance reflects value.  I know I am doing what I should be doing in life, and feel extremely grateful, that finally, after years of waiting, I am able to work at the work which feels most natural to me.  It’s not to be taken for granted.  But it isn’t a “job” in the proper sense. And all the other work I have done in the past is very relevant, and has been valuable in many different respects.  It’s made me who I am.  I wasn’t unhappy in the work I previously did.  Just not quite so fulfilled. But there are many aspect to being fulfilled in life, and there were parts of me which probably developed, in a good way, which I might have avoided, if I was art working then.   Discipline is important. For an artist, if you have not got it, you cannot be productive, I don’t think.  Getting up each morning to do what you must, is part of every occupation, and we don’t always feel like it!

And now, I cannot rely on a “job” to define who I am.  It’s sometimes challenging.  Like being a mother, I guess.  The key thing is, I think, not to confuse status or money with value. It’s always a challenge! What I do does pay for itself.   Sometimes I feel discouraged, but it’s only passing.  Thankfully enough good things happen to keep me motivated!

 

 

Thelma Narrative Series

My Thelma sculpture project was in 2014 and it is now 2018!   In truth, the project is not finished, because I got a mould made of the essential base of Thelma and intend to make some plaster versions in order to experiment further.  Indeed, I will.  Yet for now, here are the images with text, which does seem to have a degree of being a complete work.  The actual wax sculpture is in a box in my cupboard, and now and again I pick bits off it and add bits on!  It is one figure, which I moved through a series of transformations without thinking about concepts  in a conscious way.

ONEthelma psychodynamic jenny meehan personal development psychotherapy and art relationship investigation psychoanalytic visual experimentationONEthelma psychodynamic jenny meehan

ONEthelma psychodynamic jenny meehan personal development psychotherapy and art relationship investigation psychoanalytic visual experimentation THELMA ONE

 

thelma psychodynamic jenny meehan personal development psychotherapy and art relationship investigation psychoanalytic visual experimentation

thelma psychodynamic jenny meehan personal development psychotherapy and art relationship investigation psychoanalytic visual experimentation THELMA TWO

 

thelma psychodynamic jenny meehan personal development psychotherapy and art relationship investigation psychoanalytic visual experimentation

thelma psychodynamic jenny meehan personal development psychotherapy and art relationship investigation psychoanalytic visual experimentation THELMA THREE

 

 

 

thelma psychodynamic jenny meehan personal development psychotherapy and art relationship investigation psychoanalytic visual experimentation

thelma psychodynamic jenny meehan personal development psychotherapy and art relationship investigation psychoanalytic visual experimentation THELMA FOUR

 

 

 

thelma psychodynamic jenny meehan personal development psychotherapy and art relationship investigation psychoanalytic visual experimentation

thelma psychodynamic jenny meehan personal development psychotherapy and art relationship investigation psychoanalytic visual experimentation THELMA FIVE

 

thelma psychodynamic jenny meehan personal development psychotherapy and art relationship investigation psychoanalytic visual experimentation

thelma psychodynamic jenny meehan personal development psychotherapy and art relationship investigation psychoanalytic visual experimentation THELMA SIX

 

This is probably my favourite in the series…It’s the one I associate with the ongoing process of participating in psychotherapy!  Hard work, at times,  yes,  but something which can be a tool in bringing freedom from the negative consequences of violence, abuse, and trauma.  This time I spend in therapy is an investment I choose because I value self reflection so much.  Participation in Psychotherapy can be viewed two ways.  One, is that of being a practice of WELLNESS…Which for me, it now is, thankfully. (Mostly)  It’s like going to the gym to keep fit.  (Mostly, not always! Sometimes it’s painful and hard! Still challenging, still uncomfortable. Always will be! )

I find it very harmonious with being an artist, and working in the way that I do with other people with mentoring/spiritual direction/teaching art.  The other way that psychotherapy can be viewed might be summed up with “Gosh, they must be very screwed up to need therapy” maybe?  It is the idea that someone would only participate in psychotherapy if they really had to, because it wasn’t possible to carry on without it.  Because why would they want to do take part in something like that otherwise?  Well, I do understand that perspective.

Personally, I did start my psychoanalytic journey in a very distressing place, and I knew it was what I needed, and things were often very alarming and extremely difficult.  So it wasn’t optional in any sense in 2011.  Yet my journey, and the experience gained from working with a very good therapist, has been so valuable and positive, it seems needless not to carry on with it, as long as it bears fruit, which it does.  I do review it from time to time, but so far, I reach the same conclusion, which is why stop for the sake of stopping?  It might be different if I was not an artist, but it’s become part of the process of my artistic creating, and it’s so useful, even for that, even apart from the other benefits.

It feels like pulling a net through my own depths, pulling it along the sea bed.  It’s an effort, but somehow drawing deep in myself in this way produces a lot of goodness.  Life is vastly improved, and I feel so much more alive than I ever used to be.  So the effort is definitely worth it for me.

Thoughts on the sculpture…

Difficulty of wading forwards… Trolling is a method of fishing….  There is a huge sense of continuity and flow, in this one, with metal outside of the figure clearly relating to the which goes through it’s core.  Through the waters of my mind, in the psychoanalytic work I am doing.  Found this, it’s helpful..

“Bodies of Water and the Unconscious
Often in dreams, large bodies of water (oceans, lakes, pools) symbolize the unconscious. As with bodies of water, we often see the surface, but cannot easily see into the depths.

Also, the vastness of the ocean symbolizes the vastness of the unconscious mind. Jung observed long ago that the unconscious mind was much vaster than the conscious portion. His insight has been confirmed by fascinating developments in neuroscience, where new technologies, such as particularly sophisticated MRIs have enabled brain scientists to see that the unconscious processes in the brain dwarf the conscious mind in magnitude.

In those regions of the brain/mind lies the meaning of dreams. Jungian therapy is always aware that, for each of us, much goes on in the depths of those oceanic waters…”  quoted from https://www.briancollinson.ca/index.php/2012/11/jungian-therapy-the-meaning-of-dreams-5-water.html

 

WOW!  The unconscious mind….

Oceanic Waters!

thelma psychodynamic jenny meehan personal development psychotherapy and art relationship investigation psychoanalytic visual experimentation

thelma psychodynamic jenny meehan personal development psychotherapy and art relationship investigation psychoanalytic visual experimentation THELMA SEVEN

 

Must be the faith aspect coming through in this one!

 

 

thelma psychodynamic jenny meehan personal development psychotherapy and art relationship investigation psychoanalytic visual experimentation

thelma psychodynamic jenny meehan personal development psychotherapy and art relationship investigation psychoanalytic visual experimentation   THELMA EIGHT

No doubt some  theme of healing…  And in this one, a mould was made, and the body cast in plaster.

 

Interesting looking back at these.  Rather funny that I depicted my right thigh with what looks like a strip of metal along it.  This was before my knee replacement and before I was having problems with my walking!   Plaster for me is evocative of healing and holding, and showing this  liquid flow over the now plaster form, is something I like a lot.  The flow may be static in that the plaster is set,  but it is suggestive of flow and continuity by it’s very shape, and the meeting point between those forms of underlying form and dripped plaster brings some awareness of touch and being touched to my mind.  As the final figure is the model cast, it’s a new creation but still intimately related to the former figure in brown wax.   I will continue working with this, and post up soon.

 

So this is September…OOOps… Late again, October!

 

jenny meehan jamartlondon art work uk licensable images

jenny meehan jamartlondon art work uk licensable images

 

Painting “Upper Room” by Jenny Meehan 70 x 50cm   This is available, contact me if interested.  Use contact form on my personal website jamartlondon.com  http://www.jamartlondon.com/

Direct link to contact page; http://www.jamartlondon.com/contact/4569980742

Bit about my painting…

About Jenny Meehan’s Paintings

My process led painting…romantic, expressionistic, abstract and lyrical, is simply the result of my own contemplative practice, which I work through in many ways. Let by instinct and intuition, inspired by my own life experiences, and several much loved artists, including Klee, Hitchens, Claude Venard, Matisse and Kandinsky, it provides the ground for the viewer’s own interpretations and responses, and will be whatever you want it to be. My own titles reflect my own interpretation/,sense of meaning, but the beauty and openness of non objective painting allows you a place in the process exclusively yours!

The image doesn’t show the extent to which texture, and various surface finishes are used in the painting, for example, I use tiny glass beads for their effects on light hitting the surface of the painting. Maybe they could be seen as a dance of light and colour? Certainly, as the light in the day changes, the appearance of the painting changes considerably, with different parts being emphasised and other parts sinking into the background. This painting is one which responds, and I hope you get pleasure from viewing it! See more at http://www.jamartlondon.com

 

 

 

jenny meehan jamartlondon art work uk licensable images

jenny meehan jamartlondon art work uk licensable images©jenny meehan

 

Boat House, Monotype. ©jenny meehan

Sometimes the simplest of things can give pleasure.  I am looking at this one at the moment, particularly as I think about how I will approach working with mosaic in November.  I think to start with some kind  of simple forms, rectangular, square, maybe a good start.  I don’t see myself going into the pictorial.  I suspect I will need to seriously spend time considering the materials I use.  They will suggest a way forwards, I am sure.  And I want to make more effort with this linkage between my poetry and visual expression. I think that’s key for me.

 

jenny meehan jamartlondon art work uk licensable images

jenny meehan jamartlondon art work uk licensable images©jenny meehan

Icy Landscape ©jenny meehan

A major theme of my work is recovery from trauma.  The subject of an internal landscape dominates my creative practice.  Tiny glass beads are used in the above painting and they catch the light, transforming the appearance of the work at different times of the day.

 

“Eternal” Painting by Jenny Meehan

 

 

jenny meehan jamartlondon art work uk licensable images

jenny meehan jamartlondon art work uk licensable images©jenny meehan

Eternal by Jenny Meehan ©jenny meehan

This is one of my paintings which has been licensed for use as a book cover. The cover designer was Alison Beek.   I really like my paintings being used in this way, and it is a small source of income which helps sustain my artistic practice, so it’s very much valued.

https://wordery.com/quiet-spaces-prayer-journal-mrs-olivia-warburton-9780857465245?currency=GBP&gtrck=S2Z1YnlZVlZsTTV6K1BVYkdyNERsL2JwTWhWcHA3dnM5bERaeTRueE1KNndyem4vbG5ENFJSV2tycFVKK0tnUHpISjRLNFJMY2hnaWJHb2hMMGg4UlE9PQ&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyLOtiOTn3QIVROd3Ch13IwVCEAQYAyABEgJmVPD_BwE

“Finding God in all things, hearing God’s voice for ourselves and others…the Quiet Spaces Prayer Journal will help you to develop and maintain a life of creative prayer. With space to write, quotations drawn from Christian tradition and BRF’s Quiet Spaces publication to aid reflection, this is ideal to buy for yourself or as a gift for anyone wanting to deepen their prayer life. It features quotations to inspire, allowing plenty of space to write.

Quiet Spaces Prayer Journal Spiral bound edition by Mrs Olivia Warburton”

Edited by Mrs Olivia Warburton ISBN-139780857465245Format Spiral bound, Publisher BRF (The Bible Reading Fellowship) Publication date23 Sep 2016Pages192Product dimensions 150 x 210 x 14mm E Weight338g

“Quiet Spaces is BRF’s prayer and spirituality journal. Published three times a year, each edition journeys through up to nine themes drawn from the Bible, spiritual writers, the natural world, the lives of Christians from across the centuries or from Christian spiritual traditions. Each theme is explored in twelve prayerful ways using creative activities, your personal faith experience, poetry, liturgy, reflection, imagining and meditation, helping you into a heart encounter with God. Ideal both for those who have discovered the benefits of reflection, meditation and contemplation and are looking for a resource to guide their periods of quiet and for people coming to reflection and meditation for the first time.”

 

I use my own copy!

 

This months post is September and October combined! It’s my aim to write a bit less on my journal each month and work more on my poetry.  As I mentioned at the beginning, a brilliant course on mosaic at West Dean college tutored by Vanessa Benson has provided some interesting routes in using mosaic, and along with my other ongoing experiments with silica sol mineral paint I want to immerse myself more in silence and music and poetry than longer blog entries.  And drumming too.  I am loving my djembe, and enjoying learning some traditional West African patterns.

I think I may have exhausted my writing capacity a little bit when writing “The Very Patient Knee Replacement Story by Jenny Meehan” last year!  By the way, the knee is working wonderfully.  It’s an “Attune” knee.  I am no longer disabled and able to live a full life. I am so grateful for the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre, and the NHS.  My life would be quite different without such a positive experience.

west dean college short course jenny meehan flora and foliage images© Jenny Meehan DACS All Rights Reserved

west dean college short course jenny meehan flora and foliage images© Jenny Meehan

 

Really enjoying these…

http://openchurch.network/chalketalk

That’s me for now!

Do take a look at my website. http://www.jamartlondon.com/

I will be updating it over December.  I have a lot more work than I can show on the internet.

 

 

 

 

Posted in british 21st century modern contemporary female uk artist, christian themes book cover art jenny meehan, contemporary christian faith/meditation/reflection/journalling/British visual artist fine painter, fine artist painting lyrical direct romantic expressive abstraction south west london/ surrey, licensable abstract expressionist textural colourful fine art painting images, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
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July, Well, August…Missed a month, because of time spent in the sun! – Volatile organic compounds and why it’s worth being aware of them – Looking backwards in order to move forwards – How to pray when we don’t want to pray – In the Garden – Langstone Harbour – The Tide Comes In

August 10, 2018

This is not the right time of year for writing blogs…

The sun is so hot, and so good at drying paint! (More on that later!)

I have a lot of work in progress… As always!

There are masses of flies in the studio tent, but thankfully they do leave when I come in and work in there.

Not much sign of snails in there even, except in a few damp crevices!

And I have now realised that I do get sun burnt even when inside the tent… translucent tarpaulin is not great at keeping UV rays off the skin!

(Update..And now in August…The rain has come! Much easier to work now!)

 

I am going to keep this months journal entry short, but have to say…

Congratulations NHS!  On your 70th year!  When posting this journal, finally….It’s a long way back.

Thursday 5 July 2018…

And without the NHS I wouldn’t be able to walk or stand as I need to…

It’s freed me to paint and work, and I am grateful every day I wake up with a working knee!

I can carry things, move work around, paint big paintings, and have big dreams.  Before my knee replacement my whole life was starting to run into a funnel, with a very narrow spout!

I’m not going to post lots of images of paintings in progress… I really have far too many and it would become quite pointless.

Because I work in such a piecemeal way, I have to work more on relinquishing the work when it is in progress, rather than tracking it.

I find this more helpful to my self.

It’s an odd way of working.  But I think its about picking up pieces.  And I have so many pieces.  Picked up and put down.  Not normally advised as a good way to work.  For for the abstract painting process it works very well for me.  This also applies to my many notebooks, reading and research.  It’s a constant process of losing and finding things. And unexpected relationships occurring.  With a lot of contemplation in between.

I have toyed with the idea of revealing what I am up to with my work, as it happens, but I need the energy brewing inside with the pressure which comes when something hasn’t been released into the world.  It feels like the minute something is published, it’s partly let go, somehow.  I don’t mind putting the occasional piece of work on here from time to time, but that’s enough.   It feels much better to publish images which I know have stood the test of time.  They have proven themselves able to stand on their own two feet.  Paintings with feet. Now, that’s a thought…

 

 

VOC’s  and painting large abstract paintings in the VERY hot sun

I am very much loving the sol-silicate paint I use from Keim Paints.

It’s AMAZING… and as I am working outside in the very hot sun, it is also very healthy!

I do wear gloves if I know I am going to be handling a lot of paint, because it is very alkaline.

It’s drying quick…I use Soldalit.

Very fine brushes are best, I find, but rollers can be useful.

The light bounces off the matt surface beautifully.

It’s a JOY!

keim soldalit sol silicate paint hand mixing up colours for use in fine art abstract paintings by jenny meehan

keim soldalit sol silicate paint hand mixing up colours for use in fine art abstract paintings by jenny meehan

It takes hours to make many pots of paint ready for a painting session.  Well worth it though!  I love this paint. It’s heaven!

I first started using Keim mineral paints a few years back.

I do use acrylic paints too, but I wouldn’t use large amounts in the sun anymore.

I did do this a couple of years back…

I could smell the fumes coming off the surface of the paint in the hot weather, and thought to myself, “NO, no NO!”  This isn’t good for me.

As I have to paint large scale out of doors, and very hot days ARE quite handy when drying paint matters, having paint to use where I don’t need to worry about what I am inhaling is just GREAT!

I don’t paint if the temperature is more than 30ºC, as per instructions… and find painting in the morning and evening essential at the moment because it is so very hot.

“Important Note – Materials must not be
applied at temperatures below 5ºC nor those
in excess of 30ºC, nor if it is raining, or if there
is an immediate likelihood of rain”

There certainly are no worries about an “immediate likelihood of rain” at the moment.  (PS  written before the rain came!  In the end, there were a good few days above 30% too!)

I do remember having to be very careful when painting my exterior mural all those years back, and needed to hang bubble wrap over the entire surface to protect it from rain!

I am painting on grey board…it is absorbent, and I thought I would need to use some fixative for the first layer, but I forgot to get some.  It is indicated, but as the area is so small (compared to what it would be if painting a large wall) I am managing without it.  I wish I had got some in order to make the paint layers a bit thinner, but with a fine brush and quick spreading I am getting away without it.

The grey board varies in thickness.  It is a little bit flexible, so not quite the rigid surface required but I don’t mind experimenting…It will most likely crack if bent, but I am not planning on bending it.  And I am currently experimenting on some flexible surfaces with the intention of cracking the paint layer.  So in some pieces I play things safer, using what I know of the materials I work with in order to produce a more predictable result.  And in other pieces I am jumping out, breaking the rules of the usual application of the Keim mineral paint, and enjoying the fact that, as I am not using the materials with the requirements of a building application to be met.

I spent a great deal of time mixing up the colours with the selection of Keim mineral paints I have available.  And now I need to move forwards at quite a rapid pace, because they won’t last forever…Their shelf life is stated as being 12 months.  I have found this varies a lot (and for my purposes, can be several more years, as long as stored carefully)  but once I have mixed up the colours, I guess maybe because of air and some evaporation, I need to commit to some steady application!

I love these paints so much…

Yes, all types of paint have their qualities, but it’s so nice to use paint which is healthy and environmentally sound.  VISUALLY it is pure as pure can be.  None of the plastic quality of acrylic paint.

Yes, acrylics can do many things well…I have not thrown mine out.  But I won’t be using mine in the hot sun again for certain.

But working with the Keim Mineral Paints is fantastic.

When I come to wash out the brushes or whatever, I tip the painty water on the garden.  Don’t need to put anything into the water system.  I am not sure if this is good for the garden but the plants seem happy enough… No complaints as yet!

If there are thicker paint layers in containers, it’s just a matter of letting it set and chipping it out.  That goes on the garden too.

I am also experimenting with the Keim Mineral paint in many other ways, which will no doubt seep out as time progresses!

keim soldalit sol silicate paint initial layer of painting fine art abstract paintings by jenny meehan silicate mineral paint third generation keim

keim soldalit sol silicate paint initial layer of painting fine art abstract paintings by jenny meehan

Above an example of the early stages of one of my paintings.  I am seriously into circles and squares at the moment.  Rests and motion, drums, drum beats, sound, filling space, boundaries, edges, meetings, ….That’s the poem.

 

 

Volatile organic compounds and why it’s worth being aware of them

For those not familiar with the term VOC, paints used in the home contain ­potentially harmful chemicals such as ­solvents and volatile organic compounds (VOCs),  and when paint dries, these chemicals evaporate into the air where the hapless artist or decorator  inhales their toxic fumes. This is true for both water based (acrylic emulsions) and solvent or oil based paints.  Inhaling paint fumes can exacerbate asthma and ­sinusitis, and because the solvents are absorbed into the lungs, then the blood stream, they can lead to headaches and dizziness.

I have experienced this myself when working with oil paints indoors on a hot day.  I keep my use of oil paints for cooler days, in a well ventilated area, and not on a very large format, where possible. Though I do confess to liking the smell of turps, I also realise that the fresher the air the healthier is my breathing!  It’s worth being aware that when VOCs are inhaled, they can cause eye, nose and throat ­irritation. In large quantities, ­animal ­studies have linked these chemicals to birth defects, cancers and damage to the central nervous system.

Oh er…

So best to breath fresh air!

According to the World Health Organisation, professional painters are most at risk, for they have a 20 per cent increased risk of a range of ­cancers, particularly lung cancer.

That’s a big percentage increase.

So anyone using larger amounts of paint, regularly, on bigger surface areas, needs to consider VOCs and the effect on their health.

There is even a  ­neurological condition brought on by long-term exposure to paint solvents — ‘painter’s dementia’, which I guess isn’t that surprising.  The World Health Organisation has also concerns about the long-term health effects of ‘off ­gassing’.  Off gassing is  the release of vapours over the life of the paint. (ie when it is on your walls).

If you do use a large quantities of paint as an artist, then it’s worth using it as safely as possible.  AND disposing of your paint responsibly.

Keim Mineral paints have given me the freedom I need as an artist to experiment with paint in large quantities, but free from any concerns of impacting the environment, or myself or other people, in a negative way.

If you are using large amounts of oil or acrylic paint, on a regular basis,  then consider using a respirator mask if you want to be keeping your air as fresh as you can, and work in a well ventilated area, taking regular breaks.

Healthy is important.

Now I can walk well with my new knee, I am pleased to say that I incorporated walking into my efforts for a healthy lifestyle.

Still eating a bit too much sugar!

 

Looking backwards in order to move forwards

 

internal landscape jenny meehan representational original fine painting landscape jenny meehan expressionist

the river within jenny meehan ©jenny meehan

I spend a fair amount of time looking backwards at previous art work. I find it essential.  As well as looking forwards, into all the ideas I have.  But the ideas of the future have no roots, and the past is well rooted.  So I need both to work for me well.  Constantly I find myself filled with ideas which could happen in the future.  But I also find myself finding some ground to stand on in work I have done in the past.  I normally don’t realise where I am going at all with my painting unless I regularly look back, and then I see, like an old friend, a painting waving at me and saying… “See…  this mattered to you then and now it matters to you again!”

So when I found this one, (above)  “The River Within” (quite early…around 2010, I think) I realised another strand…

KAOS open studios jenny meehan paintings

KAOS open studios jenny meehan paintings

This river business, with arc, is quite clearly something which is going to stay with me.  It’s popping up all over the place.  For myself, the significance of water is life. This feeds into my faith and belief as a Christian and follower of Christ, and should most accurately be read as an expression of that in most of my work.  If someone wants to “read” the “meaning” of my painting in that way.  Hopefully little things I write and say don’t detract from the poetry of the work which is my deepest motivation in creating it.  Water as spiritual life, flowing from the Creator of all, and manifest through the sacramental incarnation of Christ in the world.  Quite a mouthful!

However, for those of you from different faith and spiritual traditions or none, I also, as I play with various concepts in my thinking and enjoy researching many dimensions of things I encounter in life, explore many other angles on the symbolic elements I experiment in my work and all of them add something very great to the whole process, and open many interesting avenues, all resonating in a meaningful way. All faith traditions have many areas of overlap and unity, and it’s vital to appreciate these, share them, and respect differences, accepting the other/s, in the way we would wish to be accepted ourselves.  Love is the most important thing in life.  Love God and love others as yourself.  And communicating viewpoints with respect and peace.

Other Christian people may enjoy the way my faith is centred and rooted, and resonates with their own faith experience, and maybe recognise some themes in my painting practice  which stem from my belief system.  But I don’t tend to describe myself as a “Christian Artist”.  This is mainly because I am not attempting to convey a scriptural narrative or assert my work as specifically Christian, ie for Christians or for a Christian context.  Who I am as a person is intimately connected with my work, but the complexity of a human individual goes far beyond their religious tradition and identity within that.  All kinds of things have shaped my life. And while how my faith religious beliefs shape it is of interest to many, there are many other people who don’t find this dimension of my work of any interest to them.  I paint for myself and, for all who are interested in my work, for whatever reason.  For the purposes of search engines, then it’s common sense to use keywords which include Christian, because many Christians do seek out artwork created by others who share the same faith.  But it is my hope that this doesn’t ever prove a barrier to accessing or appreciating what I do. I am sure many other artists from different faith traditions and belief systems feel the same way.  Art is always there with the aim of opening eyes to new ways of seeing and experiencing the world.  New perspectives tend to enrich life, widening and extending the borders of what we had previously embraced.

Ooops, meandering and slightly digressing again!  Water, and many other concepts and ideas around it, have a long term thread through my visual art practice.  My contemplative practice and the research I do all feed into my painting and help steer the direction of it.

 

How to pray when we don’t want to pray

I found this very useful…See below, the writing in italics. This was published in Formed by the Spirit, The Newsletter of the Southwark
Diocesan Spiritual Formation Group; Opportunities, events, resources and articles on prayer and spirituality Issue 27: February 2016. It is written by Chris Chapman.

How to pray when we don’t want to pray
There are times when we don’t want to pray. We find that we are too busy to stop – but somewhere recognise that our activity is a way of avoiding the pain of silence where we might meet our own raw emotions or unresolved history.
Underneath all, we might not be sure we can trust this God with what matters to us most. We don’t want an answer that isn’t our answer
Or perhaps we are fed up with sitting there in the place of prayer and not getting anywhere. For all our efforts we remain distracted and restless, so far from the place of peace and understanding we desire.

How to begin to pray when we don’t want to pray? Here are some suggestions:

1] Begin from where you are and how you are: So, perhaps your prayer starts ‘I am sitting here unwillingly’ or…’I am not able to trust you’ or …’I am angry with you’…or ’I wonder whether you really care about me’…or ’I am afraid of what you want from me’.

2] Acknowledge that part of you that doesn’t want to pray…look without judgement at this side of your being. Now seek out that part of you that does feel drawn to pray: a sense of invitation that arises somewhere from within, an impulse that comes not as an ‘ought’ but as a longing that perhaps you are not used to listening to. Listen to that desire now.

3] When are you most relaxed: walking, cooking, gardening, knitting, or losing yourself in a book? Imagine yourself sharing this time with God. You are not so much looking at each other face to face as being side by side, comfortably sharing the experience. Perhaps some words flow one way or another, but being alongside might be enough of a beginning.

4] Let go of trying too hard. So, rather than summoning up your concentration, fighting distractions that come, or trying to squeeze wisdom from bible verse that mean little to you…relax. Prayer does begin with intention, and with choosing to place ourselves in a listening, attentive place, but the rest belongs to God. Leave what comes or does not come from your time of prayer with God. Everything is gift.

5] Use you body to help you to pray. Hold you hands closed to make fists. What is held inside there…feelings, experiences, repetitive worries or thoughts? Now open your hands and turn them palm upwards. All those things are still with you but now there is air around them…now you are open to God who cares about you and about what you carry. Keeping your palms open, turn them so they face down. Now you allow what you carry inside to fall away.

6] Be present: When we step into the present moment we also step into the ‘always’ of God. Look up from your work desk and watch the moving clouds. Open your window in the early morning and listen to birdsong. As the sun gathers strength enjoy its warmth on your back. Give thanks for what you receive in that moment.”

All very helpful!

 

 

In the garden

I am spending a lot of time in the garden right now.  It is the largest area I have for painting in and so when the weather is good painting weather it is a priority for me to be there.

I enjoy gardening too.

Here are a couple of poems I wrote inspired by the beauty of creation.

January

to merge – climb – burst forth
written forms vibrate each shoot
trees majestic stand

(Jenny Meehan copyright 2009)

Blossom and Bamboo

curved tips arching low
in stillness dips light-flecked wish
white blossom pleads pink

(Jenny Meehan copyright 2009)

 

Blossom, Bamboo, and Branches all feature in my visual art quite regularly.  Here are a few examples:

 

oriental blossom, image flower abstract, orange graphic blossom, japanese style flower image, jenny meehan jamartlondon, abstract flower

oriental blossom by Jenny Meehan © Jenny Meehan.

 

and a more recent monotype.  I used cut paper, ink and rollers to create the art work below:

bamboo blowing monotype jenny meehan, blue yellow white abstract bamboo, bamboo print art buy,bamboo graphic print meehan,

bamboo blowing monotype jenny meehan

© Jenny Meehan.

 

bamboo wind figure, figure drawing bamboo, jenny meehan art, crouched human figure in wind,

jenny meehan drawing painting uk ©jenny meehan

“Crouched and Facing Bamboo in Light and Shadow”  is an experiment with the shadow of the bamboo in my garden and a drawing of a crouched figure.  It’s still in progress as I am not 100% happy with it, but it has potential.  It’s expressive of struggle, pain, pressing forwards.

Bamboo is VERY useful!

I have a lot in my garden.   It makes very good paint mixing sticks.  It makes useful paintbrush holders.  And it is great for hanging things on.  I love looking at it blowing in the wind.  It’s so strong, and yet bends.  It is spreading year by year.  So I think I need to think up some other uses for it.  I did make some bamboo pens, which worked quite well.

I have a tree in the garden with blossom.  The blossom is beautiful, but delicate, and it does not last very long.  It’s fragile and white. The wind takes it and scatters it like snow. It looks just like snow when its falling.

The London Plane Tree at the front of the house is another source of interest and inspiration .  I’ve moved computers recently and cannot locate the full image digital file, but the purple picture on the top right is “Notation” which is based on an image of the London Plane Tree.  And the blue image on the left is the base image I think.  I took many, so not sure exactly but it looks like it.    I do have extensive archives on hard drives and could locate the image quite quickly but I am so behind on so much I cannot be bothered to do this right now.

Take a look on redbubble.com at the fabric design I created from one of my images of the London Plane outside my house:

https://www.redbubble.com/people/jennyjimjams/works/14956416-london-plane-lacewood-tree-pattern-design-by-jenny-meehan?c=389187-jenny-meehan-surface-pattern-and-clothing-designs

And the Fatsia in the front garden…

https://www.redbubble.com/people/jennyjimjams/works/14960095-fatsia-japonica-abstract-design-by-jenny-meehan?p=art-print&size=x_large

 

I also have many photographs of blossom, which I focused on one Spring;

jenny meehan jamartlondon.com photography,great white cherry blossom, black and white image tree blossom, blossom flowers close up,great white cherry photograph image,

jenny meehan jamartlondon.com photography ©jenny meehan

 

jenny meehan jamartlondon.com photography,great white cherry blossom, black and white image tree blossom, blossom flowers close up,great white cherry photograph image,

jenny meehan jamartlondon.com photography ©jenny meehan

 

jenny meehan jamartlondon.com photography, great white cherry blossom, black and white image tree blossom, blossom flowers close up,great white cherry photograph image,

jenny meehan jamartlondon.com photography ©jenny meehan

 

I tend to use ice, glass, frost, snowflakes as metaphors for trauma, and the way that blossom, though soft and beautiful,  looks like snow when it is falling, fascinates me.  Falling snow melts, and snowflakes are beautiful, things can viewed as  one thing soft, and alive, or conversely hard, sharp, painful.  Falling implies surrender, even death.  Healing from trauma when it happens is trans formative.  It changes the way things are seen and experienced.

 

Just a few here shown.  But blossom and bamboo continue to inspire me!

Some information from Wikipedia;

“In Japan, cherry blossoms symbolize clouds due to their nature of blooming en masse, besides being an enduring metaphor for the ephemeral nature of life, an aspect of Japanese cultural tradition that is often associated with Buddhist influence, and which is embodied in the concept of  mono no aware.  The association of the cherry blossom with mono no aware dates back to 18th-century scholar Motoori Norinaga.[11] The transience of the blossoms, the extreme beauty and quick death, has often been associated with mortality;  for this reason, cherry blossoms are richly symbolic, and have been utilized often in Japanese art, manga, anime, and film, as well as at musical performances for ambient effect”

and

“Mono no aware (もののあはれ?), literally “the pathos of things”, and also translated as “an empathy toward things”, or “a sensitivity to ephemera”, is a Japanese term for the awareness of impermanence (無常 mujō?), or transience of things, and both a transient gentle sadness (or wistfulness) at their passing as well as a longer, deeper gentle sadness about this state being the reality of life.”

Mono no aware…  How beautiful…

Redbubble.com

I really need to put some more of my artwork on Redbubble, but never seem to get around to it.

I get a small royalty when someone buys merchandise on the site with my design on it.

 

http://www.redbubble.com/people/jennyjimjams/works/16697304-new-era-geometric-abstract-rainbow-colours-design-by-jenny-meehan

chakra colours, yoga design, multicoloured, yoga products, geometric abstract design products to buy, new era rainbow coloured abstract design by jenny meehan

new era rainbow coloured abstract design by jenny meehan ©jenny meehan

Please note, all my images are copyrighted and should not be used without permission under any circumstances.

If you wish to obtain a license to use a work of art by Jenny Meehan, please contact Jenny Meehan in the first instance to clarify your requirements.

This is quick and easy for both parties and is organised either directly with the artist or through a collective management organisation; DACS, depending on nature of use.

 

Good Quote:

“Shortcomings, both real and imagined, when deeply seen and accepted, are an important part of the transformative process of learning to let go. If we do not let go of the need to be perfect, our need to be perfect will get in our way. Likewise, if we do not let go of our fear of failing, our fear of failing will get in the way. But as we learn to let go of the need to be perfect and the fear of failure, the intimate, earthy stuff of being a vulnerable, loving human being begins to shine through. In an ongoing process of learning to let go we bear witness to the great truth that the master limps. The mastery of life is intermingled with the ongoing weaknesses and limitions that gives life its rich and many layered texture and meaning.”
Copyright © 2013 Dr. James Finleyhttp://contemplativeway.org/newsletter/contemplativeliving.cfm

 

Langstone Harbour – The Tide Comes In

This painting is one from the past, but still available to buy if anyone would like it.  It is a rarity in my work, as it was painted outside, as you can see from this image.

sea scape painting langstone harbour painting by jenny meehan

langstone harbour painting by jenny meehan

Langstone Harbour lies between Portsmouth Harbour to the west, and Chichester Harbour to the east. It is a tranquil and beautiful place, the heart of a dynamic urban area, and a vital part of an extensive biological system.

The harbour is home for charter fishing boats and commercial fishermen, and hosts two commercial aggregate wharves. Many recreational activities including yachting, canoeing and windsurfing are also well established in its sheltered waters.

Langstone Harbour is recognised internationally for its importance for nature conservation, and is a haven for aquatic wildlife and a myriad of bird species.

The Langstone Harbour Board works to ensure the harbour remains a safe place for work and leisure, as well as an area rich in plant and animal life.   Quoted from the http://www.langstoneharbour.org.uk/

I love water and water appears time after time in my work. As said before!   This painting was a very immersive experience, and as the tide came in, my feet did get wet!  The canvas blew off a couple of times too!  It started off with a very blue sky and then the weather changed for the worse, but I kept some blue in there!

 

Jenny Meehan, of the mud flats at Langstone Harbour 2009

 

Well, better late than never, this post, originally for July, will have to suffice for August as well!

 

I sell my paintings when no longer needed for study and exhibition purposes.  At between £200 and £500 only, they are very good value indeed.  For a high quality original abstract painting, you may need to look quite a long way for something in this price bracket.  I sell my original paintings to enable me to continue to invest my time and effort into the painting endeavour.  Developing my work, materials, research and study all involve time and money.  It’s a matter of passion in the end.  Any support is welcome and appreciated.  Please contact me via my contact page on my website jamartlondon.com if my painting practice interests you and you are looking for high quality contemporary abstract painting by British female artists.   I also have extensive archives of my paintings and photography which can be licensed quickly and easily through DACS.

 

 

Posted in abstract internal (imaginative) and external landscape(representational) painting, british 21st century modern contemporary female uk artist, british contemporary semi/abstract/non-objective experimental/exploratory process led painting/fine art, christianity christ centred spirituality art creativity contemporary contemplative, contemporary christian faith/meditation/reflection/journalling/British visual artist fine painter | 1 Comment »
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June Kingston Artists’ Open Studios (OS18) – Small World Futures – A CollectConnect Production at the #unsettledgallery – Surface Work Exhibition links – Tiny Bones Poem by Jenny Meehan – Looking back at some paintings

June 18, 2018

small world futures chapbook sampson low publishers

small world futures chapbook

 

I enjoyed taking part in the Small World Futures project earlier on this year.

And look here….. The delightful chap book!

HUGE thanks to Collect Connect for all their hard work!

Title:  Small World Futures – A CollectConnect Production at the #unsettledgallery

It’s published by Sampson Low Ltd, 2018

http://www.sampsonlow.com/

Chapbook 24

LB088

ISBN 978-1-910578-80-3

All rights reserved.

Text quoted from the sampson low website:

“The tradition of chapbook publishing in England is a long established one and here at Sampson Low Ltd we think it’s the perfect format for our most exciting authors and artists. Although small (A6) and relatively brief (16 printed pages) our punchy publications share their ideas with you in one delicious sitting.”   and see here:

https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/chapbooks

This wonderful chapbook is the remaining evidence for the exhibition which took place in public spaces around London Bridge.

“Info: Small World Futures is a collection of 38 miniature sculptures depicting what life could look like in years to come. Each of these small artworks will be placed in public spaces (#unsettledgallery) around London Bridge. A writer will also use the worlds as inspiration.
Venue
#unsettledgallery
Starts
Thursday, February 1, 2018
Ends
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Address
London Bridge, London
Location
London
Organiser
CollectConnect” 

I love this kind of thing…  I sometimes moan a bit about not showing my work as much as I would like because of costs involved.  Something like this gets the work out there on the street.  OK, you have to be prepared to loose it.  But that’s not a bad thing now and again.  I liked very much the writing on my work…I am pretty sure I published it here on this Journal a few posts back.

How good to now have this chapbook as a record!   Do go and buy one for yourself.

https://sampsonlow.co/chapbooks/

vibe drome by jenny meehan

vibe drome by jenny meehan

 

Kingston Artists’ Open Studios (OS18)

Kingston Artists’ Open Studios (OS18) took place on 9/10th and 16/17th June 2018 from 11am to 5pm each day.

It was a really good year, and very enjoyable.

Here are some images of my paintings in situ…

kingston artists open studios jenny meehan paintings in situ

KAOS open studios jenny meehan paintings

KAOS open studios jenny meehan paintings

KAOS open studios jenny meehan paintings

KAOS open studios jenny meehan paintings

Kingston Artists’ Open Studios is a voluntary group, and we need and appreciate all the support we can get. If you think you could help us in anyway, do contact us via the link below.  Visual art is important to the health of society, bringing pleasure, connection, and space for contemplation.  The value is not easy to measure maybe, but it is always worth investment.

Hope to see you at this even next year, maybe?  !Jenny Meehan

http://www.kingstonartistsopenstudios.co.uk/

http://www.jamartlondon.com/

 

kingston artists open studios jenny meehan

kingston artists open studios jenny meehan  image from 2017

 

Image shows paintings of Jenny Meehan and ceramics by Cressida Borrett  http://www.cressidaborrett.co.uk/

Contact me via my contact page at jamartlondon if you would like more information!

http://www.jamartlondon.com/contact/4569980742

 

Looking backwards and moving forwards…

Or moving forwards and looking backwards?  !!!

This old post from 2012…

This painting…  I liked it, and it was exhibited at The Ark Conference Centre in Basingstoke.  Titled “Sorrow for Myself”.

sorrow for myself, abstract colour markmaking painting, human figure, depression, grief,trauma, loss,psychotherapy and art,jenny meehan fine and applied art,british contemporary abstract fine painting,subconscious subject matter,emotional release,lyrical abstraction,lyrical markmaking,instinctive intuitive process led painting,

The narrative:  The weight is heavy. The sun sets. Broken fragments are carried away. Down stream.  This is sorrow.  Sorrow for myself.  Blood is shed, but it is the blood of Christ which covers. God is compassionate.

The reference:  “Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;

it was our sorrows  that weighed him down.

And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,

a punishment for his own sins!”

We think about being sorry for ourselves as a bad thing.  But it’s not what I meant with using the term “Sorrow for myself”.   I have allowed myself  to feel sorrow for myself, and to feel the sadness which I previously did not allow very much room for in my life.  It seems to be for me a process of allowing myself to feel compassionate towards myself.   I picked up this painting last year and decided to continue to work on it.  I have now titled it “Kaleidoscope” …

Not a great image of it…  Main archive image is still in the camera, but this will do for now.

Also I am increasingly deciding to put watermarks over my images.  It’s a boring job to contact websites and get them to remove images they have no permission and/or license to use.  Very boring.

©jenny meehan kaleidoscope painting jenny meehan process led painting abstract lyrical british colourist

kaleidoscope painting jenny meehan ©jenny meehan

 

The story behind this title is as follows;   I had a  vision while at an Ignatian Retreat Day at the Mount Street Jesuit Centre a while back where I could see I was holding a kaleidoscope in my hands and lamenting the broken pieces in it.  Then Jesus, or rather, Yeshua the Messiah… (Digression!  So many people just use the words “Jesus Christ” meaninglessly, I am seriously wondering if I might be best to use Yeshua, as it’s more in the historical context and I don’t hear people using it carelessly!) Anyway, back to the point.   He placed his hand on mine and told me to lift the kaleidoscope to my eyes and point it at him.  He guided my hand to turn it and as I did so beautiful light and patterns flowed through it, and the patterns went on forever and ever and they were always changing and all completely different.   Both looking at the brokenness, which was a sorrowful process,  and looking through the kaleidoscope, which was wonderful,  are important.   It was hard to allow Yeshua to touch my hand.  Maybe I felt like a leper, as we had been meditating on Yeshua healing the leper?  Maybe?  I wonder if the turning motion was the process of repentance?  It would seem so based on my current reflections and thoughts.  A continual process.   Allowing our Creator God to turn us around?  Writing words about it seems shoddy and clumsy.  But I continue to think about it.  And to title the painting with its continued work “Kaleidoscope” is just right.

Here it is now.  I showed it at this years Kingston Artists’ Open Studios.

I sell my paintings when they have been exhibited and/or I no longer need them for study and reflection. I don’t sell more than a handful each year. It’s great when they find someone to own them.  Makes more room in my house for the new ones too!  I am increasingly not using frames as they take up a lot of room.  I am now starting to work on card and other substrates rather than stretched canvas.

 

Tiny Bones Poem by Jenny Meehan

 

Tiny Bones

I trod on fragments of bone;
Homosexual, Jew and gypsy.
Unknowingly desecrating
precious loved ones,
with my soles.

A heartless, human realisation –
I did not know, until the man told me.
When he spoke,
my world changed.
Brokenness took a new meaning.
Even the tiniest
prejudice
is a terrible thing.

I took one of the splinters –
pressed it
into my skin
and wept.

Jenny Meehan

lasting stones of memory painting by jenny meehan for holocaust memorial day kingston

lasting stones of memory painting by jenny meehan for holocaust memorial day kingston

 

 

“Surface Work”  Exhibition across Victoria Miro’s London galleries  VERY GOOD INDEED!

This was good… VERY GOOD.  When I found out about it it was straight into the diary.  Essential viewing for any female abstract artist. And other folk too, of course!  I wrote about this a little bit in my last post.  But here is more information…

Some text from the website:

“An international, cross-generational exhibition of women artists who have shaped and transformed, and continue to influence and expand, the language of abstract painting.

Information
Private View 6-8pm, Wednesday 11 April 2018

14 St George Street, London W1S 1FE
Tuesday-Saturday 10am-6pm

Taking place across Victoria Miro’s London galleries, this international, cross-generational exhibition is a celebration of women artists who have shaped and transformed, and continue to influence and expand, the language and definition of abstract painting.”

It included the following female artists:

“The exhibition includes: Rita Ackermann, Etel Adnan, Gillian Ayres, Sara Barker, Lynda Benglis, Suzanne Blank Redstone,
Betty Blayton, Sandra Blow, Sarah Cain, Varda Caivano, Lygia Clark, Prunella Clough, Angela de la Cruz, Jay DeFeo,
Svenja Deininger, Lucy Dodd, Louise Fishman, Helen Frankenthaler, Mary Heilmann, Ilse D’Hollander, Loie Hollowell,
Tess Jaray, Martha Jungwirth, Bharti Kher, Lee Krasner, Yayoi Kusama, Agnes Martin, Joan Mitchell, Katy Moran, Annie
Morris, Rebecca Morris, Victoria Morton, Elizabeth Murray, Dala Nasser, Elizabeth Neel, Tomie Ohtake, Betty Parsons,
Howardena Pindell, Liubov Popova, Fiona Rae, Mary Ramsden, Dorothea Rockburne, Jackie Saccoccio, Mira Schendel,
Yuko Shiraishi, Raphaela Simon, Pat Steir, Hedda Sterne, Alma Thomas, Mildred Thompson, Adriana Varejão, Paule
Vézelay, Jessica Warboys and Mary Weatherford”

List of works:

https://www.victoria-miro.com/usr/documents/exhibitions/list_of_works_url/items/45/454bb64bd0bd410bbd30ffb8d4d2b9cb/surface-work-mayfair-walking-list-final.pdf

Quote from press release:

“Surface Work takes its title from a quote by the Abstract Expressionist painter Joan Mitchell, who said: ‘Abstract is not a style. I simply want to
make a surface work.’ The exhibition reflects the ways in which women have been at the heart of abstract art’s development over the past
century, from those who propelled the language of abstraction forward, often with little recognition, to those who have built upon the legacy of
earlier generations, using abstraction to open new paths to optical, emotional, cultural, and even political expression. Historical and
contemporary works shown in dialogue will create a series of conversations across the decades, touching on themes such as the monochrome,
process, geometric abstraction, seriality and gesture.”

News coverage example:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/apr/15/surface-work-victoria-miro-review-women-abstract-painting?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Guide to the exhibition:

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/8554a0b8#/8554a0b8/1

I posted some images last month.

 

victoria miro surface works visit 2018

victoria miro surface works visit 2018

 

The painting above, WELL…That’s paint! It’s inspiring!

Adriana Varejão
Azulejão (Moon), 2018
Oil and plaster on canvas
180 x 180 cm
70 7/8 x 70 7/8 in

 

On the way home I sat at Waterloo station and enjoyed the view!

 

 

waterloo station image jenny meehan

Romantic Abstract Expressionistic Lyrical Paintings by Jenny Meehan British female painter

When I get to archiving my current work by processing the images and information I promise I will post them up on this journal.  But this time of year is the important and vital painting season for me.  I need to paint now because I use my studio tent and it is most usable at this time of year.  Kitchen and garden are also handy, but as my paints and tools are all out, sorted and ready to roll, painting has to come first.  This is the least piecemeal part of the year… from March to September and  this is because I focus and drive ahead in all respects. Practically it works best.  Image taking, admin, and all the rest are confined to the darker weeks and days, the colder and the wetter times.  Yes, times like that still occur, this is the UK, of course, and I let the weather determine my course of action and artistic activities.  So my website remains a little need in an update, and digital tasks pile up.  Housework piles up.  All piles up, but the most necessary.  It’s actually much easier to structure things this way than try and equalise the process.  I do write this artist’s journal, but that is because I love to write!  However, this explains the lack of new images of more recent paintings.     So repetition of paintings displayed on this artist’s blog is the necessary result.  Never mind.  Cannot do everything!

catastrophe becoming painting 100days100women.wordpress.com, abstract expressionist lyrical romantic painting, jenny meehan © Jenny Meehan DACS All Rights Reserved

catastrophe becoming painting by jenny meehan submitted to 100days100women.wordpress.com british collectable abstract paintings ©jenny meehan

 

This is one of my personal favourites.  It’s got a great surface…I am pleased with what I have achieved.  This is one of my best achievements.

©jenny meehan DACS

seaside details ©jenny meehan DACS

This is a detail from “Sea Side”.  How annoying… The full painting image is on one of my hard drives and not on this newer computer.  I have extracts but no full view available right now to post.  Never mind!

 

seaside details

©jenny meehan DACS

seaside details ©jenny meehan DACS

seaside details

seaside details

seaside details

©jenny meehan DACS romantic abstract lyrical painting british female contemporary artist

seaside details

seaside details

seaside details

seaside details

seaside details

summer seaside details romantic expressionist lyrical abstract painting by jenny meehan jennifer meehan

summer seaside details romantic expressionist lyrical abstract painting by jenny meehan jennifer meehan

©jenny meehan DACS romantic abstract lyrical painting british female contemporary artist

seaside details

©jenny meehan DACS romantic abstract lyrical painting british female contemporary artist

seaside details

seaside details

©jenny meehan DACS romantic abstract lyrical painting british female contemporary artist

seaside details

©jenny meehan DACS romantic abstract lyrical painting british female contemporary artist

seaside details

©jenny meehan DACS romantic abstract lyrical painting british female contemporary artist

seaside details

©jenny meehan DACS romantic abstract lyrical painting british female contemporary artist

seaside details

©jenny meehan DACS romantic abstract lyrical painting british female contemporary artist

seaside details

©jenny meehan DACS romantic abstract lyrical painting british female contemporary artist

©jenny meehan DACS
romantic abstract lyrical painting british female contemporary artistseaside details

 

All this dancing and prancing around with painting… lyrical and brushmarks, experimentation and exploration.   I am pushing ahead.

 

This is another sound painting.  As it is the seaside time of year here in the UK…As much as possible,  this is a good one to show now. The side side is one of my favourite places.  Both positive memories from the past and current pleasure inform the feeling.  As my childhood was more sad than not, I hold onto the happy parts most keenly because they were gifts and I am glad I received them.

 

drop in the ocean painting jenny meehan romantic lyrical abstraction expressionist abstract fine painting drop in the ocean painting jenny meehan

british collectable abstract paintings ©jenny meehan DACS
romantic abstract lyrical painting british female contemporary artist

Ah thank goodness for that “Drop in the Ocean” painting is at least to be found in completeness!

These two go very well together. Not surprising really!   I am selling these, so contact me if interested, via my website;  jamartlondon.com

I sell my paintings when no longer needed for study and exhibition purposes.  At between £200 and £500 only, they are very good value indeed.  For a high quality original abstract painting, you may need to look quite a long way for something in this price bracket.  I sell my original paintings to enable me to continue to invest my time and effort into the painting endeavour.  Developing my work, materials, research and study all involve time and money.  It’s a matter of passion in the end.  Any support is welcome and appreciated.

It’s bye bye for now.

Cannot believe it took until the 18th of the month to get this done.

Never mind.

 

 

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Victoria Miro “Surface Work” Exhibition – Kingston Artists’ Open Studios – “Business! Mankind was my business!”; Reflection on Artists and what our Business is – “My Muybridge” Exhibition at Kingston Museum; “Mind’s Eye” by Jenny Meehan – Kaleidoscope: Colour and Sequence in 1960s British Art – Goodbye to Llewellyn Alexander Gallery; Remembering “The Upper Room” – “Christ Under the Tree/Contemplation/Garden of Gethsemane” Painting by Jenny Meehan

May 17, 2018

Victoria Miro Trip – Surface Work Exhibition

 

A quick shimmy around some of the paintings on show!

 

victoria miro surface works visit 2018 jenny meehan british contemporary lyrical abstraction abstract expressionist romantic painter artist non representational british female painter artist london

victoria miro surface works visit 2018

 

victoria miro surface works visit 2018 jenny meehan british contemporary lyrical abstraction abstract expressionist romantic painter artist non representational british female painter artist london

victoria miro surface works visit 2018

 

victoria miro surface works visit 2018 jenny meehan british contemporary lyrical abstraction abstract expressionist romantic painter artist non representational british female painter artist london

victoria miro surface works visit 2018

 

victoria miro surface works visit 2018 jenny meehan british contemporary lyrical abstraction abstract expressionist romantic painter artist non representational british female painter artist london

victoria miro surface works visit 2018

 

 

victoria miro surface works visit 2018 jenny meehan british contemporary lyrical abstraction abstract expressionist romantic painter artist non representational british female painter artist london

victoria miro surface works visit 2018

 

A bit of self indulgent selfies and digital alterations!

victoria miro surface works visit 2018 jenny meehan british contemporary lyrical abstraction abstract expressionist romantic painter artist non representational british female painter artist london

victoria miro surface works visit 2018

 

victoria miro surface works visit 2018 jenny meehan british contemporary lyrical abstraction abstract expressionist romantic painter artist non representational british female painter artist london

victoria miro surface works visit 2018

victoria miro surface works visit 2018 jenny meehan british contemporary lyrical abstraction abstract expressionist romantic painter artist non representational british female painter artist london

victoria miro surface works visit 2018

 

victoria miro surface works visit 2018 jenny meehan british contemporary lyrical abstraction abstract expressionist romantic painter artist non representational british female painter artist london

victoria miro surface works visit 2018

victoria miro surface works visit 2018 jenny meehan british contemporary lyrical abstraction abstract expressionist romantic painter artist non representational british female painter artist london

victoria miro surface works visit 2018

 

https://www.victoria-miro.com/exhibitions/521/

 

You see, I may not be hanging in a gallery like Victoria Miro’s, but I can still hang around in one, and be inspired.  Many muses sit on the shoulders of those who carry a paint brush (or any other paint applicator!)

It was great just to be there…Great encouragement among some of the remains of work done by other women.  The older I get the more wildly I feel I love painting and the more it matters.  Yet I was also thinking very much, and reflecting on the words:

“Business! Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!” is a quotation from A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

 

“Business! Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence,

were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the

comprehensive ocean of my business!”

 

Reflections on Artists and what their “Business” is!

 

With all the ambitions in the world, all the hopes of being remembered, and of having one’s painting remaining, after you die, (and hopefully in more than a charity shop), in all of the random thoughts about the significance of the work you do, and whether it would ever have a high value placed on it in the realm of financial exchanges or not…Many of us artists entertain such fancies, even though we might not admit to them.  It seems that in this current time, artists are treated as entrepreneurs, who operate primarily in order to make money.  Yet the vast majority of us, in my opinion, do what we do in order that we might continue to be able to do it.  This is a non-profit making endeavour. The motivation is not financial. It is much, much greater than that. It’s about humanity, culture, depth of experience, connection with others and with oneself. It is creating a vessel for inner life.  The inner life of us as individuals, yes, this is an essential part, and even doing this can be quite a challenge,  but this also applies to a much larger expanse… Our relationships with the world around us and the inner life of not just our own body but humanity in it’s most inter-relational dimension and expressions. Art is essential, not a side line matter, or something to hold status just because of monetary value, or not.   Any trade is always going to be a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business.  And I am very glad I have sorted this out in my own head!

Thoughts of success in the business sense of the word are most probably an illusion. For me, personally, I think this is the case, and I have happily dispensed with the ambition, (for it has popped its head in the door on a few occasions).  It’s taken time to sort out WHY I do what I do, and WHY it matters.  Art making is NOT business for me and it won’t hold that place in my life either. It’s been perfectly acceptable for artists in the past to have day jobs and also be an artist, and there hasn’t been any shame in that.  For me, my “day job” is a mother and homemaker, and undervalued in our society as this job is (not even claiming the merit of being a “job” because it is not paid work), it’s an important and worthwhile occupation.  I have to confess to being grateful that as my offspring get older, I have more and more time released for my artistic endeavours!  There is always a (mostly) healthy tension between the two.  Both affect each other and it’s an interesting relationship.  Less frustrating now than it used to be when the children were younger.

For some artists, for their art working to be a business, may be what they want and aim for…It may matter a great deal, and/or it may need to matter. It may just happen; a fortunate combination of the right factors and knowing the right people, having the funds to get where they want to go, or other advantages which pave the way forward.  Or it may be a huge struggle of the most difficult and challenging type with very little advantage or fortune, yet they manage to do it anyway.  Or a bit of both, from time to time. This is all very admirable, and I think it’s great.  It’s not my path though, and I will always be content as long as I am able to work with materials in the way that I do.  For me it is ALL about working with materials, enjoying writing, and loving relationships. That is loving…and relationships, and loving relationships!

I think that even if an artist’s work does enter the business arena, this  does NOT actually make it more valuable in any but material currency.  The value of your work is the value of your work.  It is part of your life story, and it’s significance lies mainly in that.  It is the expression of your very self and that is why it matters immensely.  I read recently somewhere…I cannot remember where it was… that art is “a vessel for the interior life” and I just love this. Love it to bits.  Involvement and commitment to the arts is a humanistic endeavour; it’s about relationships and interactions with other people and our environment.  Ideas, thoughts, new perspectives, spirituality, insights, human development.  Emotional, spiritual and mental engagement, reflection, and creative regeneration.  Now, more than ever, the interior life is in danger of being depressed.  The time to dwell, reflect, and just be… The time of gazing, experiencing, allowing space and light to exist with no other reason to need to be than that they are.  I guess that is my painting popping into my head now.

Artists bring the artistic imagination into everyday life.

Creative expression is a fundamental human right.

Let’s not forget that.

 

We all, naturally, are pleased when people appreciate our work as artists and show they value what we do. We are especially pleased when collectors decide to buy our work and pay money for it, because money is very useful indeed and can open lots of creative doors in terms of enabling us to try out new ideas, develop professionally, and increase our skills.   Unfortunately, this cannot be counted upon.  It isn’t sufficient to keep us to the task we are engaged with.  A lot of strength and determination need to come from within.  If thoughts of public appreciation and recognition are realistic or not, (and it’s always nice when work is appreciated) ultimately, it doesn’t really matter one bit, because indeed, it’s just “a drop of water” anyway, this money matter.  The business of life, in truth,  is much greater.  I find it helpful to remind myself regularly of this though, because I get so caught up in what I am doing it’s easy to loose all perspective!  Such is the problem of any passion, I suppose. This is most probably why I am taking the time to write what I am now.  I write to myself, as much as to anyone else!

So I am content with my selfies in this gallery, with esteemed work behind me, even though not my own!  Great inspirational visit, much appreciated.

Kingston Artists’ Open Studio!

http://www.kingstonartistsopenstudios.co.uk/

Kingston Artists’ Open Studios (OS18) will be taking place on 9/10th and 16/17th June 2018 from 11am to 5pm each day. I will be enjoying the kind hospitality of one of my KAOS artist companions just a short walk from Kingston Town centre, not far from the Kingston Gate of Richmond Park.  I will be part of the KAOS 9 studios which is based at 14 Liverpool Rd KT2 7SZ   Parking available (metered Sat)

It would make a lovely day out to follow a few of the trails in and out of artist’s homes and studio spaces, so do come along!

For more details, please contact me via the contact page on jamartlondon.com. I will put you on my mailing list and send further information as soon as available!

http://www.jamartlondon.com/contact/4569980742

Hope to see you! Jenny Meehan

I need and appreciate greatly your support!  I don’t take part in any other event, so the Annual Kingston Artist’s Open Studios in Kingston Upon Thames Surrey is the only time I get out there and invest time in this type of activity.  Most of my collectors come across me in other ways.  But it’s a good way to meet me and other very talented creatives!

Basically I work on a non-profit making basis, as any money I get from my creative activities gets fed straight back into my creative project.    Materials, professional development, research activities and writing, plus all the associated tasks which are part of my practice all take time and money. I am fortunate that I can work in the way I do, and I never take it for granted.

Like many artists, I don’t have  profit making aspirations, for me it is simply a matter of wanting to continue to be able to do what I do in life. To be true to myself. And share what I have with others, if it helps and enhances their life in any way possible. I sell my paintings when I have spent sufficient time learning from them and when they have been exhibited.

I sell my original paintings for between £200 and £400, which is amazingly affordable.  I do this deliberately because I would rather my paintings be affordable and bring pleasure to others in an accessible way.  If something strikes a chord with you about my work, then follow your instinct and buy one if you can. If your are not able to, then thanks to the wonders of the internet, I am glad you can at least see them that way.

There is such a wide variety of artists and their work.  All so different and wonderfully unique.

So come along and support your local creative community.  Kingston Artists’ Open Studios is a voluntary organisation which supports creativity!

 

© Jenny Meehan DACS All Rights Reserved lyrical abstract expressionist colourful textural art painting spirituality christian religious faith licensable image book covers etc see jamartlondon.com

joy pain painting by jenny meehan © Jenny Meehan DACS All Rights Reserved lyrical abstract expressionist colourful textural art painting spirituality christian religious faith licensable image book covers etc see jamartlondon.com

Joy/Pain Painting by Jenny Meehan .  One of the works which will be displayed as part of this years super Surrey arts event: “Kingston Artists’ Open Studios”. VERY busy at the moment getting work ready for this.

 

“My Muybridge” Exhibition at Kingston Museum

 

At the same time as the Kingston Artists’ Open Studios is the “My Muybridge” Exhibition, flyer below.

My piece is rather dark and delves into the subconscious mind of Eadweard Muybridge as I imagine it might have been.  Work is a funny thing.  We can do fantastic and amazing things, but in the end it is our being which makes the most significant mark of our existence.  What we do matters, of course, but nothing can take the place of happiness, contentment, relationships, love.  It’s very important for artists to remember this, because we get so caught up in our work.  This is lovely, and yet our work is only one little aspect of us in the end.  I guess I felt I wanted to go beyond his work, as this has had its impact, and it’s out there, well known, appreciated, clearly seen. And it will always be seen and noted.  But I tend to be interested in the things which are not so obvious, and while  speculative, and imaginative, it gave me a lot of pleasure to make this painted collage.  I did this after doing a great deal of research on reports and perspectives, both factual and imaginative,  on Eadweard_Muybridges personal life, as much as we know.

If you are not familiar with Eadweard Muybridge you can do your own little bit of research here…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadweard_Muybridge

 

Here is an extract from my statement about the work.  Unfortunately the artist’s statements are not shown in the exhibition.  This is a bit of a shame I think, as often new perspectives on a subject are made much clearer when the artist’s thinking and approach; their rationale, is at least glimpsed at.

“My creative practice includes poetry and painting and the relationships between the two. My interest in the subconscious provided the foundation for this work which touches on both lack of affect and the murder of a man.

The Mind’s Eye
What thoughts and memories
unsettled
might dwell in the unconscious mind of the artist
as he works?
Projected onto models…
Figures of his own past
laughing
moving
strangers
touching new pain in the mind’s eye?
Shot images…
they infiltrate the heart
yet, even the most animated
leave it
still
so solitary.

Jenny Meehan 2017”

 

Quite a nice change for me to produce something with a particular subject in mind from the outset. Immense amount of research went into the work.

 

artists and subconscious mind, artist interpretation of muybridge, kingston museum exhibition 2018, british female contemporary artist jenny meehan, brain injury muybridge and emotional affect, imaginative interpretation, projection into creation, minds eye muybridge artwork jenny

minds eye muybridge artwork jenny

 

 

Kingston Arts at Kingston Museum My Muybridge exhibition surrey cultu

Kingston Arts at Kingston Museum My Muybridge exhibition surrey cultural event 2018

 

Things which make me happy:  Art Collectors who kindly let me know how they feel about my work!

This lovely quote, written by one of my collectors!  It is always a great happiness to sell and painting, and this is not a simple matter of money, though we all need that, it is far, far more!

“I thought your picture was the finest thing in that exhibition — I am very pleased to be acquiring it. I have lots of things in my collection — Terry Frost, Clifford Fishwick, Sandra Blow, Barbara Hepworth, John Hoyland, Keith Vaughan … Also a fin de siecle artist called Charles Conder.”  

I keep the buyer confidential as I am not in the habit of listing other people’s personal possessions, but it’s bringing a smile to my face, of course!  It’s a few years back now.

 

Kaleidoscope: Colour and Sequence in 1960s British Art

1 April 2017 – 3 June 2018

Looks very good!

http://www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk/exhibition/kaleidoscope-colour-and-sequence-1960s-british-art

Text copied and pasted from the website:

“An Arts Council Collection Touring Exhibition

British art of the 1960s is noted for its bold, artificial colour, alluring surfaces and capricious shapes and forms, yet these exuberant qualities are often underpinned by a strong sense of order, founded on repetition, sequence and symmetry. Bringing together outstanding examples of painting and sculpture from the Arts Council Collection and other major UK collections, Kaleidoscope examines 1960s visual art through a fresh and surprising lens, bringing into view the relationship between colour and form, rationality and irrationality, order and waywardness.

As the first Arts Council Collection survey of 1960s British art in over twenty years, Kaleidoscope assumes a wide angle, looking across media and movements to find fresh correspondences. From this perspective, the mind-bending surfaces of Op Art, the flattened repetition of Pop, the mathematical order of Constructivism, and the sequential placement of brightly-coloured abstract units found in New Generation sculpture find a common language shaped by sequence and symmetry.

Kaleidoscope represents the work of over twenty artists including: David Annesley, Anthony Caro, Robyn Denny, Tess Jaray, Phillip King, Kim Lim, Mary Martin, Eduardo Paolozzi, Bridget Riley, Tim Scott, Richard Smith, William Tucker and William Turnbull.” 

I am not going to get there to see it in person, but thankfully so many resources online, I can have a very good research session!!!

 

“Christ Under the Tree/Contemplation/Garden of Gethsemane”

It is always a great pleasure to sell a painting.  I find it interesting and exciting to meet those who decide they like my painting so much they want an ongoing relationship with it!!!  Some of my painting I hold onto, (often for quite a while!) maybe because I am still learning something from it, or I am wanting to hold it for an exhibition or event, or I would like to do some writing around it.  I am always happy to let it go… I see this as part of the process in fact, and I have no wish to die under a pile of my own work!  But I do not paint in order to produce.  Bit of a paradox there!  I have realised I need to keep the creation process completely separate from any other journey the work might make.  The painting has a second life, apart from me, and it has the life which has been happening during its creation. The two are not connected. The reason for the paintings existence cannot be equated in any way with what will happen to it.  It must speak only for itself.  And that must be completely enough reason for its existence.

I have painted only a couple of works as commissions over the last ten years.  I don’t doubt there’s a place for this, but it is not my usual way of working at the present time.  The very good thing about painting something for an external reason or purpose,  is it can introduce very specific challenges which are great to get stuck into. The “Mind’s Eye” painted collage was like this.  And I enjoyed it, for the challenge. It involved a lot of research which takes time.  But it is interesting intellectually.  In creating something for a particular purpose things often get more conceptual at a stage when I wouldn’t normally think in clear thoughts.  Usually the thinking and reflection comes long after I have painted something.  So getting all conceptual can be an interesting dimension to a work.  Or sometimes the challenge can be practical, as it was when I created a painting for the company “All Glass”  So I am always open to external reasons for a painting to be.  However focused I am on what I am doing, I think I always need to be open to change, development, challenge, debate, discussion.  But above all,  nothing should interfere with the process of creation, and the relationship I have with my painting needs to be focused.  This seems to be the main challenge in painting, for me I find.  It’s an act of contemplation which takes time and discipline.  It’s great!

 

The painting below  “Christ Under the Tree/Contemplation/Garden of Gethsemane (yes, THREE titles!)

 

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

I am pleased that this has now a new home.  Also such a lovely comment and feedback on it.  As recent I am not going to quote, but as always, thank you.

 

Another Exhibition at Kingston Museum

 

me in front of anagrams kingston museum banner surrey art event

me in front of anagrams kingston museum banner

Gracious!  This was me in 2016… I have lost quite a bit of weight thankfully!  Kingston Museum chose to use part of my painting on their banner which was good, and here I am standing in front of it!  That was before my knee replacement when I couldn’t walk very far or well at all!  Apologies, this is a bit of repetition.  I write in a piecemeal fashion.  Happens sometimes.  Cutting down time by leaving as it is!

You can see some very interesting pieces of art, including my own offering, at the My Muybridge exhibiton!   Details:  Kingston Art 2018: My Muybridge’ exhibition at Kingston Museum 4 May – 7 July 2018 Wheatfield Way, Kingston upon Thames KT1 2PS

 

Kingston Arts at Kingston Museum My Muybridge exhibition surrey cultu

Kingston Arts at Kingston Museum My Muybridge exhibition surrey cultural event 2018

Ooops! Bit random, already wrote about that.  Must remember not to write my blog in the same way I paint my paintings! Piecemeal!

Wrote that earlier too!  Ha Ha!  More of the same!

 

Studio Tent… In the Spring and Summer it’s a wonderful place!

 

 

 

studio tent jenny meehan

 

 

 

There’s a lot of work going on in my studio tent at the moment.  This time of year in the run up to the Kingston Artists’ Open Studios is always full on!  Love it!  Yet I don’t tend to share my work at this stage in the making…It feels better to keep it to myself.  There is a lot of colour mixing going on.  A fair amount of finishing off too.  A lot of preparation for the Kingston Artists’ Open Studios.

So what I can show you now is a few past photos from the archives.  Though I don’t tend to paint from direct observation very much at all anymore,  I still get my inspiration from creation around me.  Everything goes in through the eyes.  I love looking and look hard as much as possible.  Taking in all the wonder and beauty around me.  Endless beauty and design, beautifully expressed.  So much. So immense. So inspiring.

 

©jenny meehan

Creation and nature is so wonderful, I love it!  Cannot bear to copy something like this flower above, because it is so perfect anyway!  Do enjoy taking photos though!  It’s all colour, light and composition which are such a joy.

 

 

A small selection of memory images

I’ve posted these because I don’t tend to show my photography anymore…it’s all paintings I exhibit.  But my archives are full of photographs and my photographs are memories which still beckon in visual directions and serve some kind of purpose for me in reminding me of things which have made an impression on me and which I thought worthy to remember.  Though my photographic output is not what it was, due to the need to focus on painting, I like to share past digital imagery.

 

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

 

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

 

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

 

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

 

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

jenny meehan jamartlondon photography monochrome

 

 

 

jenny meehan jamartlondon.com photography

jenny meehan jamartlondon.com photography

 

As you can see, water is a repeated theme.  In various forms, from ice to unfrozen!  Vast amounts and small amounts.  I spend a lot of time looking at water!  Water is an element which repeatedly inspires! It’s immensely relaxing, interesting, and amazing!

 

 

 

Digging Up Old Posts…Fragment from 2012 Jenny Meehan WordPress Artist’s Journal

I always enjoy a reminisce, and here is one:

“If you are in London this Summer,  take a look at the “Not The Royal Academy” exhibition of original artwork at Llewellyn Alexander (Fine Paintings) Ltd situated very close to Waterloo Station. There is a  varied selection of paintings on show, and seeing them makes me think I really ought to try to enter something into the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition next year. It helps to think that if you don’t get something in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition itself, you could have a chance of getting something on show at Llewellyn Alexander’s “Not The Royal Academy” exhibition instead.

http://www.nottheroyalacademy.com/#salon

The exhibition of paintings at Llewellyn Alexander is changed around every three weeks, so I think I need to go and take another look soon.  The paintings are representational and taking a quick look at the website it looks like the prices are around the £400 mark in the main.  It is a very pleasant gallery, they are always very welcoming and though the space is quite compact, they always seem to use it well ensuring that the do have quality, fine painting on show, rather than paint squeezed out a tube, with a long explanation of what it means!

Thinking about the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition , and possibly entering a painting in it, it is a lot of hassle for a very small chance of success, but on the other hand, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained” comes to mind.  You never know.  It’s all a bit random I am sure, pot luck really, but it is exposure and I have realised that I can save some money by reducing the pages on my website next time it comes up for renewal, so I might just re allocate the money saved to enter the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition next year.  If I paint a representational painting, it might get into the Llewellyn Alexander show, so I might just do that.”

I was up in London near Waterloo Station recently and noticed that Llewellyn Alexander was, by all appearances, at the end of its’s life.  And I find it is all done and dusted!

“After 31 Happy years of trading,
the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery
closed its doors on February 24, 2018.

Best wishes to the many customers
and artists who enjoyed our exhibitions.”

Well, all things do come to an end.  But I will miss the gallery immensely.  It was a lovely place to visit…I particularly liked their miniatures and the “Not the Royal Academy” exhibitions.  The year after I wrote the text above I did submit to the Royal Academy and then, rejected in due course, trundled over to Llewellyn Alexander with my painting “Upper Room”.  Interestingly, though it is an abstract painting, they received it and exhibited it, and this is something I am very grateful for.  I felt it  somewhat of a compliment, bearing in mind the work is so abstract.  It’s a great relief when people can see quality in an abstract painting.  For indeed, though bold, abstract and  bright, the painting did involve a sensitivity and discernment which is not always spotted by all who cast their eyes on it.

lyrical abstraction,abstract expressionist fine painting, british english women artist, 21st century painter female, upper room, christian artist art spirituality, contemplative art, meditative art, romantic abstract lyrical expressionism, abstract acrylic painting christian art sacred symbolism jenny meehan

lyrical abstract painting selected for “Not the Royal Academy” exhibition at Llewellyn Alexander Fine Paintings Waterloo in 2013. For sale.

 

I do still have this original painting, so contact me if interested.  I am normally happy to part with paintings if they have been shown in a public exhibition at least once.  And if I have dwelt and learnt from them long enough, which is the case with this one.   I am happy for it to go to another life now.  It’s a signature painting…What do I mean by that?  I think it marks a decisive point in my creative evolution. It was awareness of presence and the importance of this in a painting which became a clearer goal.   And those glass beads, of course, and pure pigment.  Which continue to feature in much of my painting.   I sell my original paintings, when ready to roll away with the waves and embark on their new life with another person between around £130 – £500.  I would rather have them appreciated by other people than just hanging around here, so keep the price on the low side… Gotta be realistic.  There’s a lot of wonderful art work in the world. A lot of choice.  My prayer is simply that the paintings find a friend they can live with, are appreciated, and that the person that buys them LOVES the painting, and continues to get a lot of solace and enjoyment from gazing at it.  Then it has done its job and I have done mine.  And as long as I can continue to do the work I do I am happy.   Here’s some old text about the “Upper Room” or “The Upper Room”.

Here’s some information on my painting “The Upper Room” which is to be included in the “Not the Royal Academy” exhibition at Llewellyn Alexander (Fine Paintings) LTD.  (I just love to include the “fine paintings” part!   I know I could miss it out quite easily!)

“The Upper Room” is a painting in which I started with no idea of the direction it might take me in, instead responding to each mark and colour as the painting progressed in a process based approach. Using both my instincts and formal considerations, I ended up with this. Emotionally, it made me think of the New Testament account of Jesus taking the Last Supper with his disciples, I think because of the sense of presence and warmth it communicated to me emotionally, (The Holy Spirit, the comforter, “I will be with you”) even though it contains a large area of black. Also, because of the way it is held together with a building type structure; upper and a lower areas, and suggestions of both entrance and exit. Pentecost also happened in an “Upper Room” though not the same one, I don’t think.

 

Well, that is more than enough for this month! I have a habit of continually popping different pieces into place!

PS…

 

If you would like to give money to help support my creative practice I can accept it quickly and easily through the Paypal.me process. Simply put the following in your browser:
paypal.me/jennymeehan and follow the prompts. Please consider supporting my work in this way if it strikes a chord with you and you are able to do so. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a way via this system for me to send a “Thank you” to you, so you will need to just simply know that I appreciate it very much indeed!    Putting work into exhibitions does unfortunately cost money, and yet I like to get it out there.  Submission fees are the bane of my life, and I will spare you the moan. Because I have moaned before on this blog and there is no need to moan again!  (The Kingston Museum Exhibition was fine, by the way,  and no gripe with that, very very good arrangements, and very fair,  but so many exhibitions require considerable chunks of cash JUST to submit…)   That’s even before you get your work shown, (or not).

My ego doesn’t matter, it’s not about that. It is NICE to have work selected, yes, it’s a nice affirmation, but only a bonus. An artist makes their work for themselves primarily. The have to hang it in the gallery of their soul and be completely happy for its presence to inhibit them forever!  But when it gets hung elsewhere, it’s great too, because it is shared, and who wants to keep something all for themselves when it can be shared? But It’s the way things are this paying to show your work to others. A right pain.  Sometimes just a small amount.  Not a problem. Just a bit of a shame when money is made out of artists wish to exhibit their work, sometimes so ruthlessly.   As an artist, you just want your work to be seen, because as music is made to be heard, art is made to be seen. Simple as that.

Jenny Meehan on Redbubble.com

Redbubble is a great “print on demand” website and I have some of my images there.  The world is full of fabulous artists and Redbubble is a good place for buying merchandise which is original, exciting and contemporary.  The artists on Redbubble get a royalty payment from any items that you purchase there, so it is one way to support the creative community and help artists gain a little bit of income from their work.  Do take a look!

https://www.redbubble.com/people/jennyjimjams?asc=u

I get around 30% of the price you pay for the merchandise you buy.  Every little helps!

 

 

Posted in abstract internal (imaginative) and external landscape(representational) painting, artists past/present who influence me-london gallery/exhibition visits, british 21st century modern contemporary female uk artist, british contemporary semi/abstract/non-objective experimental/exploratory process led painting/fine art, contemporary christian faith/meditation/reflection/journalling/British visual artist fine painter, reflections, Surrey culture/arts-Kingston Upon Thames, South West London, United Kingdom | Leave a Comment »
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Spring! Sun! Kingston Open Studios fast approaching -Easter Art Installation at St Paul’s Church of England, Hook – The Soldier and the Cross poem by Jenny Meehan – Signs of the Times geometric abstract prints – Drop in Drawing and Painting, daytime art tuition – Kingston Art 2018: My Muybridge’ exhibition at Kingston Museum “Mind’s Eye” by Jenny Meehan selected

April 20, 2018

Little Robin Friend

robin my supervisor!

Well, my little robin friend is serving as supervisor in the garden right now!  I go out there just for a look or for a rumble around the studio tent and I hear his chirp, see something flitting through the foliage, and there he is!  Before I know what has happened, I find myself digging around in the earth… weeding, moving pots, filling pots with earth…  I tell myself I am doing this because it needs to be done, but the truth is that while this is true, the most immediate reason is this little robin is telling me he wants me to work in the garden so he can have some insects, worms, and whatever else I reveal!

I am now to be found rustling around myself, not in the foliage but in the studio tent.  This year I am keen on rollers it seems and have an assortment.  I started using them last  year in experiments and now I have gathered quite a few.  It’s good to have new tools to experiment with. So there’s some action happening.  There is a lot of tidying up to be done, and I am grateful for the studio tent.  OK, it has its limitations, but I know of many artists whose studio space isn’t much different, even when “indoors”.  The only difference with mine is that it gets rather damp and wet.  I have extended it now.  It consists of two tarpaulin covered market stalls and has now ventured into the side passage and outhouse.  That’s the wet and damp part, because there is a crack in the ceiling. It’s reinforced concrete.  The good news about having a large crack in your ceiling is that the water does drip down through it.   I’m serious.  It’s better for the water to have somewhere to go than to build up above and then damage the concrete further.  Well, that’s how I have chosen to think about it!

In this new darkened area of my studio tent, or now my studio tent with outhouse extension, is that I can experiment with larger substrates and also light projection.  I have been wanting to do this for ages, so at last a new door is opened.  I have purchased some folding tables too, so I have more table space.  It’s great to have more space.  I cannot quite use it fully yet because of the weather, but it’s not as if I am waiting around to do things.  There is always plenty, and more, to do.

Generally in life I am feeling less frustrated by the demands of the domestic using up time when I could be painting.  It’s always a huge conflict, but acceptance helps a lot.  I am beginning to appreciate the benefits of having my focus fragmented into so many pieces, as it forces a kind of relinquishment which I think probably helps in the long run, even is somewhat frustrating short term.  I have always had workaholic tendencies, and  often found myself doing the work of two people (unfortunately not for double pay!) in past jobs, so I am aware of constantly overreaching and over stretching myself.  This is not a problem as long as one is aware of it.  It needs to be managed, addressed, and disciplined!  And life… Needs to be enjoyed!

I remain secretive, as is appropriate, about current work in progress.  For my eyes only! But always willing to look backwards!

 

Signs of the Times Series

 

© Jenny Meehan DACS All Rights ReservedQuick Dip print by Jenny Meehan

© Jenny Meehan DACS All Rights ReservedQuick Dip print by Jenny Meehan. One of the Signs of the Times series

 

There’s a great feeling of rest looking at the smooth flat colours of the signs of the times laminated prints…I’d never bother trying to create that surface in paint which is why I continue to appreciate this series.  And the compositions are still teaching me a lot.

 

© Jenny Meehan DACS All Rights Reserved digital print buy abstract geometric Rush Hour - Jenny Meehan Signs of the Times Series

© Jenny Meehan DACS All Rights Reserved Rush Hour – Jenny Meehan Signs of the Times Series

 

Rush Hour is one of my favourites.  You can buy a version of it here, on Redbubble.com.

https://www.redbubble.com/people/jennyjimjams/works/13790846-rush-hour-calm-in-the-cityscape-design-by-jenny-meehan?p=art-print&rel=carousel

 

I get a small royalty from any sale on Redbubble.com.  Every litttle helps!

 

Enclosed Garden (Hortus conclusus) Digital Print from Jenny Meehan's "Signs of the Times" print series. See more at jamartlondon.com

Enclosed Garden (Hortus conclusus) Digital Print from Jenny Meehan’s “Signs of the Times” print series. See more at jamartlondon.com

 

jamartlondon fine art prints emerging female british artist designer visual art exhibition event jenny meehan art prints exhibition cornerhouse with alan and miriam dean deputy mayor and mayoress of kingston upon thames

“Signs of the Times” hung at the Cornerhouse Community Arts Centre, Surbiton Surrey

 

That was a long time ago!  The good thing about the laminated “Signs of the Times” is they can be hung in bathrooms and kitchens.  I have one which has been hanging in our bathroom for years, and it looks just fine.  No mould or any deterioration.  If you would like to buy one of my own signed versions contact me via my website as I have one or two still around.  I am not planning to print any more, as Redbubble do such a great job of producing good quality prints.

http://www.jamartlondon.com/

 

 

No Cares/Take Courage print from Signs of the Times series by Jenny Meehan

No Cares/Take Courage/Leap of Faith print from Signs of the Times series by Jenny Meehan

This is another favourite of mine…Again, available from Redbubble.com

https://www.redbubble.com/people/jennyjimjams/works/13790986-no-cares-take-courage-leap-of-faith-design-by-jenny-meehan

 

 

 

geometric abstract colour design art jenny meehan jamartlondon british contemporary femaile artist symbolist graphic colourist contemporary abstraction experimental jenny meehan art for sale to buy prints affordable, jenny meehan abstract art print

The night time version of Calm Moment, maybe calm moment in the dark, partner of calm moment in the light!

Here’s an artist’s statement which was submitted with some of the series “Signs of the Times”

Artist Statement – Jenny Meehan

My current body of work, some of which you can see on the enclosed images, is basically a series of experiments with shape and colour. After having worked throughout last year on a series of very lyrical and process led paintings, I realised that I felt the need for more structure in my work. Fuelled by an interest in conveying emotion and thought through elements of abstraction, while at the same time seeking that sense of formal balance which I consider essential to my work, the series of digitally produced laminated prints which I have called “Signs of the Times” relate to my own life and experiences.

The current series will also form the foundation of further paintings in the future, and bring to my painting practice an element of planning. I think that, far from being rigid and inflexible, this will introduce an initial underlying structure which I will be able to use in a very exciting way as I experiment with the relationship between solidity and fluidity in future paintings. Each step in the process of developing my work opens up numerous possibilities, and I cannot be sure exactly of what will happen, which is rather exciting. I do not take a scientific approach to my art, but view it as a process which defies logic, by necessity, and embraces the irrational and spiritual within me.
So these works, though they stand in themselves and I consider them finished, like everything one does are neither an end nor a beginning, but part of an evolving and organic process which I feel pulls me along with it, to some extent. I feel very fortunate to be able to work with visual language and consider it a great privilege to do so. “Signs of the Times” is an interesting experiment in relating thoughts and emotion to visual language in a very direct way.

Jenny Meehan is a Fine and Applied Artist based in South West London/East Surrey, United Kingdom. She works mainly with painting, drawing and digital photography and also writes poetry and an artist’s blog. Jenny also teaches small groups and individual in her studio space. More examples of her practice can be found at http://www.jamartlondon.com .

There are still some “Signs of the Times” in progress, as I work in a piecemeal fashion over periods of several years.  It’s a very enjoyable way of working with shapes and colours!

 

Easter Art Installation at St Paul’s Church of England, Hook

I was very pleased to be able to create this installation in service to the Church and in order to help the prayers and reflections of any who ventured into the building during Holy Week.  I will post some additional images soon when I have worked on them, but this gives you an idea. Other members of the church also created some beautiful places to reflect.  It was well worth the effort.

 

holy week art installation at st pauls church of england hook jenny meehan jamartlondon contemporary christian art in place of worship

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

holy week art installation at st pauls church of england hook jenny meehan jamartlondon contemporary christian art in place of worship

holy week art church of england hook jenny meehan

 

Lots of images!

It all seems rather a long time ago now!

Was a bit last posting up the April blog entry!   Open Studios is rapidly approaching and this is a very busy time of year for me!

Not quite done with the contemplative theme though…

 

The Soldier And The Cross

This is an old poem I wrote a few years back.  I didn’t display it as part of the installation in the church but I have re read it, and edited it slightly.

The Soldier And The Cross

For a moment
I thought you a bit of a wimp…
To turn,
And say to me
“What have I done to you?”

I saw…
In your innocence…
A victim mentality
related to my response to suffering…
A powerless moment

of weakness
and subjection.

And ALL in me,
ALL that grasps onto power…
Felt repulsed
and
disgusted by you.

By the sight of you.

Because…
It was true…You had done nothing,
Yet, I hated you,
and your holiness
frightened me.

 

I,
I am the accuser.
I have raged against you
And despised the look of love on your face.
In paranoid fear
I have threatened you with my wrath
And struck the blow
which tears across your face.
I have hardened my heart
against your love
and pushed you
hard, straight down
against the ground.

In acts of violence
I have hated, and hated more.
I have hated you
More than I dare say.

So  how do I stand?
Do I have  a place to stand against you?
And can I stop your
Love
from breaking me?

If I believe,

just for one
moment

that you might choose to forgive?

 

©jenny meehan

 

 

Drop In Drawing and Painting

I have finished the sessions until September.  I am a trained teacher and I like to use my teaching skills to help people with the development of their own visual expression.

 

jenny meehanccol0033

 

I will be running some more sessions from September.  I shouldn’t call them “Drop in” really, as I do need to know in advance if people can come.  So if you are interested in these do contact me, and I can send you more details.   They are suitable for all levels, as the input is very much individual.  The advantage of them is that it is possible for people to just come for a “one off” session, rather than needing to sign up for a whole course.  This gives more experienced artists a chance for some input as they feel the need, and in pace with their own work flow.   It gives beginners a chance to experiment creatively with support and a level of input normally only possible with individual tuition.  I don’t plan a structured session, but the structure is determined by the individual needs of the students attending.  I do normally throw a few ideas about for possible areas to explore and experimentation, which all those attending are invited to spend some time on if they wish, though normally people come with existing work, or work in progress, or an idea of what they would like to do, or are trying to achieve.   Contact me via my website if you are interested.  There is sometimes a bit of a waiting list, as I don’t hold many.  http://www.jamartlondon.com/

Time Passes Painting by Jenny Meehan

I have this painting on the wall at the moment and am getting a lot out of it.  It’s an early abstract painting but I am still learning from it.  I might well take it along to the Kingston Artists’ Open Studios event this year.

 

jenny meehan jamartlondon art work uk licensable images

jenny meehan jamartlondon art work uk licensable images

 

I have started removing some of my canvas paintings from their frames and will sell them unframed now.  It means I can sell them for a bit less, (£180) and I have found that often people either like to select frames themselves or like to display them unframed.  It takes a lot of time for me to make frames, which I have been doing up until now, and it is also very expensive.  As the pace of my painting has increased, I am less inclined to spend time with framing.

Kingston Artists’ Open Studios (OS18) will be taking place on 9/10th and 16/17th June 2018 from 11am to 5pm each day. I will be enjoying the kind hospitality of one of my KAOS artist companions just a short walk from Kingston Town centre, not far from the Kingston Gate of Richmond Park.

It would make a lovely day out to follow a few of the trails in and out of artist’s homes and studio spaces, so do come along!

For more details, please contact me via the contact page on jamartlondon.com. I will put you on my mailing list and send further information as soon as available!

http://www.jamartlondon.com/

Hope to see you! Jenny Meehan

If you would like to give money to help support my creative practice I can accept it quickly and easily through the Paypal.me process. Simply put the following in your browser:
paypal.me/jennymeehan and follow the prompts. Please consider supporting my work in this way if it strikes a chord with you and you are able to do so. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a way via this system for me to send a “Thank you” to you, so you will need to just simply know that I appreciate it very much indeed!

 

Upper Room Painting by Jenny Meehan

This one isn’t on the wall, but it’s the one I use for the background of my website jamartlondon.com.

 

jenny meehan jamartlondon art work uk licensable images

jenny meehan jamartlondon art work uk licensable images

It’s available for purchase if you are interested.

 

Good News

 

Shortlisted for Kingston Art 2018: My Muybridge' exhibition at Kingston Museum 4 May - 7 July 2018 Wheatfield Way, Kingston upon Thames KT1 2PS

minds eye edward muybridge kingston musuem exhibition jenny meehan

I have had my painting “Mind’s Eye”, image above (sorry, not tarted up image yet!) selected for the exhibition at Kingston Museum this year, details are:

Kingston Art 2018: My Muybridge’ exhibition at Kingston Museum 4 May – 7 July 2018 Wheatfield Way, Kingston upon Thames KT1 2PS

Bit of a departure for me in this one, using images.  Like collage..

 

TO FOLLOW THIS ARTIST’S BLOG SIMPLY GO TO THE RIGHT HAND COLUMN, LOCATE THE  “FOLLOW” BOX AND POP IN YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS.  YOU WILL THEN RECEIVE MONTHLY UPDATES. 

 

Jenny Meehan (Jennifer Meehan) is a painter-poet, artist-author  and Christian contemplative  based in East Surrey/South West London.   Her interest in Christ-centred spirituality and creativity are the main focus of this artist’s journal, which rambles and meanders on, maybe acting as a personal (yet open to view)  note book as much as anything else.  

Her website is www.jamartlondon.com.  (www.jamartlondon.com replaces the older now deceased website http://www.jennymeehan.co.uk)

Contact Jenny via her website: 

http://www.jamartlondon.com/#/contact/4569980742

 

 

If you would like to give money to help support my creative practice I can accept it quickly and easily through the Paypal.me process.  Simply put the following in your browser:

paypal.me/jennymeehan

and follow the prompts. Please consider supporting my work in this way if it strikes a chord with you and you are able to do so. Unfortunately there isn’t a system in this facility for me to send a thank you.  But if you do use it, then understand that I am grateful!

Another way you could support my participation in the visual arts could be by praying for me, if that’s part of your daily life. As mentioned above, I also put some of my visual art work on the “print on demand” website redbubble.com. People buying merchandise with my designs on through redbubble.com results in my gaining a royalty for the use of the image concerned.

Signing up as a follower on this WordPress blog also helps, as does sharing the posts when you receive them.  Anything you can do to help me is much appreciated!  Time and money is limited for me, and it’s a challenge being a mother-artist in terms of promotion and increasing awareness of what I do.  I put my energy into producing my artwork.  For the rest, I need any help I can get!

Jenny Meehan (Jennifer Meehan) BA Hons (Lit.) PGCE  offers art tuition.  Please contact Jenny through the contact form at www.jamartlondon.com for further details.  Availability depends on other commitments.    

 Jenny  works mainly with either oils or acrylics  creating both abstract/non-objective paintings  and also semi-abstract work.  She also produces some representational/figurative artwork,  mostly using digital photography/image manipulation software, painting and  drawing.  Both original fine paintings, other artwork forms,  and affordable photo-mechanically produced prints are available to purchase.

This artist’s blog is of interest to artists, art collectors, art lovers and anyone interested in fine art.  Those interested in British 21st century female contemporary artists, women and art, religious art, spirituality and art, and psychoanalysis and art, will probably enjoy dipping into this Jenny Meehan Contemporary Artist’s Journal.

Art collectors are often interested in the processes, techniques, interests and influences of the artists whose work they collect, and sharing my thoughts and perspectives through a blog is an important dimension of my creative practice.

My main focus is directed towards process led abstract painting, and you can view some examples of this on my website jamartlondon.com.  I encapsulate my painting as being romantic,expressionistic, abstract and lyrical.  Art collectors interested in lyrical abstraction, abstract expressionist, and essentially romantic art, are likely to find my paintings an interesting and exciting addition to their art collection. Art collectors can view a list of exhibitions I have taken part in on my websites exhibitions page; http://www.jamartlondon.com/#/exhibitions/4570944550

Art collectors can see selected examples of my original paintings  organised by year on jamartlondon which gives you a brief overview of the development of my painting over the years:

http://www.jamartlondon.com/#/paintings/4570156802

I am a self-representing artist, whose aim is to ensure  I continue to develop my painting practice in an innovative and pioneering way, rather than attempt some kind of commercial success, and whose aim is also that my work is historically relevant, rather then celebrated in that so called and illusive “art world”.  I hope to add to the number of people who value, collect, and develop an interest in my paintings and to thereby sustain and develop my practice over many years. 

Posted in art installation for contemplation in churches, british 21st century modern contemporary female uk artist, christian contemplative artist london spiritual direction and mentoring jenny meehan, christianity christ centred spirituality art creativity contemporary contemplative, contemporary christian faith/meditation/reflection/journalling/British visual artist fine painter, daytime painting drawing tuition workshop mentoring art, geometric abstraction expressionism fine art prints for sale to buy jenny meehan jamartlondon artist blog, licensable abstract expressionist textural colourful fine art painting images, Surrey culture/arts-Kingston Upon Thames, South West London, United Kingdom | Leave a Comment »
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