Welcome to the flowers, the buds and all that is growing!
At last, May is here!
My studio tent is still standing. Yet another storm, Storm Katie, which came in April or the end of March, I think, threatened to blow it over! Since I put up the Studio Tent I am a lot more aware of storms, though we have had rather a lot of late! I see it is the eleventh storm to be named since last Autumn!
“Storm Katie will batter Britain with 80mph winds as the tempest aims to put a miserable end to the bank holiday when it hits our shores tomorrow.
The Met Office has issued a national weather warning today as forecasters predict blustery conditions will fell trees and disrupt power lines.
The north of Scotland will be the first to bear the brunt of the storm as hurricane winds hit Orkney and Shetlands tonight, while 70mph gusts will later blow onto the south coast of England.
Katie is the eleventh storm to be named since last autumn and will arrive over Britain by Monday morning, after being blown across the Atlantic in just 30 hours by 200mph winds.”
A few things got blown off, but still intact and ready for more intensive painting sessions soon. At the moment I am tidying, thinking and pottering around. All part of the painting process! Still looking back an reviewing. Reading and thinking. Wondering. Waiting. Mulling. All part of the painting process. I am pushing forward with various pieces of work, but all in a very piecemeal way!
Interesting recent read:
Talking With: Vincent Longo Discusses Pollock, Neolithic Abstraction, and Working from the Center
April 19, 2016 by Janet Goleas Abstract Expressionism, ARTIST PROFILES, Contemporary Abstraction, HAMPTONS, Hamptons & East End, Painting, TALKING WITH
Vincent Longo, quote on his process:
“VL: It’s all predicated on a statement that Picasso made many years ago. He said “I don’t seek, I find.” I start with one thing and it leads to another. That’s it. It keeps going until either I see something happening or not, and decide what to do. My overall intentions—what I hope the results turn out to be—is that whatever seems like a finished product, I want that to have a kind of particular action with the viewer that puts the viewer in affect. If I’m successful, the viewer is accepting automatically what is going on in the front, in terms of the meaning. That person has more chance of seeing what might be happening.”
Love that: “I don’t seek, I find.”
Finding can be tricky…. You can have something staring you in the face and not recognise it. Or Miss it. Or find it and ignore it. I was talking to someone recently about the importance of waiting and looking when painting, and of the value of the distance of time; it is good to leave long spaces of time as a painting develops, and helpful to go off and do something else, do nothing, or work on another painting. Do a bit of gardening, or dancing, or whatever you want. But the temptation is to move forward before you have properly seen what is happening with the painting and what you have done.
Pretty much true in life, also!
Another quote: (best to refer to the whole article and see the question, but snippets serve well in this blog)
VL : Overall. I don’t think the act of painting is changed in that sense at all. Ever.
Audience 1: I say in relation to the representational in painting. There the viewer can easily relate to what’s going on whereas in abstraction…
VL : When people say this to me I really would like them to look a lot longer at what they call “representational painting” and you’ll see a lot more than what it looks like. Painting is really about creating something that hasn’t existed before. That’s what we all strive to do and it’s not about copying nature really. If you look at Monet, he wasn’t copying nature. He was redoing it and he was celebrating it. There was a show at Gagosian few years ago of his late paintings. He left white around the canvas and that white in no way interrupted what happened inside. These are all about color. I think it’s fine to have certain preferences of subject and style and what have you, but you remind me of a woman that I encountered when I was still a kid at Cooper. I was looking at White on White by [Kazimir] Malevich at the Modern and she comes up next to me. She said, “You call that art?” or something like that. “Why are you looking at this?” I said. “If you really want to know what’s going on here, you have to take longer looks at Rembrandt.” It’s all a continuum.
“Painting is really about creating something that hasn’t existed before. That’s what we all strive to do and it’s not about copying nature really.”
Not the first person to say that painting isn’t about copying nature, of course. However, it is amazing how, to the person who has not had reason to think through what painting is, how the “copying” and production of a good copy holds so strongly as a gauge of assessing the value of a painting. Of how “good” or “bad” it is. With the forthcoming Open Studios in June, I find it helpful to bolster myself up in terms of reminding myself of what I am about, as a painter. I know it, deep inside, and lots of people are content to look, see, perceive, and just be, in front of a painting without needing to control the process in some way. However, for some people, an abstract painting can push them into a sense of insecurity and confusion, unease, and even indignation. Or just walk quickly past, to avoid the encounter! Well, this is the way it is. Will always be. Others can go with it.
However, I do find while I love lots about the Open Studios, it can be a little stressful opening ones painting up to all and any comments! One needs resilience as well as self-belief!
2016 Open Studio Event – As part of Kingston Artists’ Open Studios Jenny Meehan will be showing some of her latest work on the weekends of the 11/12th June and 18/19th June. 11 – 5pm at Studio KAOS 3, 14 Liverpool Road Kingston KT2 7SZ
If you are reading this and would like to come along, do contact me via the contact page on my website http://www.jamartlondon.com Let me know you are coming, and I will look forward to meeting you!
The Art of Caring Exhibition
http://caringandcare.blogspot.co.uk/p/artists.html
I’m always very pleased when I can exhibit my work locally…For one thing, it is easier! Luckily, living where I do in the outskirts of London means there is lots happening and it’s not too far away. Having things happening in Kingston is even better! Myself and many others will have small postcard sized prints on show in the Upper Circle Gallery, The Rose Theatre, Kingston-upon-Thames, UK from the 12th to 24th May 2016. The private view is on International Nurses Day, Thursday 12th May 2016. Some of the work will also be selected for a show at the Arts Project exhibition space in St Pancras Hospital from July – October 2016.
My work shows one of my neighbours, Reg Driver, now no longer here on earth. He was an amazing man, and I am grateful to have known him.
The exhibition will be open daily from 10am-6pm at
Rose Theatre,
24-26 High Street,
Kingston upon Thames,
Surrey KT1 1HL
Art at the Bridge #7 “Building Bridges, the Female Perspective”
building bridges the female perspective art exhibition tower bridge engine rooms jenny meehan
Above “Drawn Together” by Jenny Meehan.
So pleased to have one of my art works in the Building Bridges, The Female Perspective, this year. It’s on now and runs for about five months. http://www.southwarkartsforum.org/index.php?pagename=Art-at-the-bridge
I saw it with a friend recently and will post more up about that in my next post!
If you like “Drawn Together” you can get your own print of it quickly and easily by using the print on demand Redbubble.com website. It is quick, easy and safe to buy via Redbubble and the quality is excellent!
Last year there were over half a million visitors to the exhibition, and so you can imagine I am exceptionally pleased about my work being on show at the Tower Bridge Victorian Engine Rooms. Thanks indeed, to the Southwark Arts Forum (SAF) who work in partnership with Tower Bridge.
The exhibition opened on Tuesday 8th March 2016 and there is plenty of opportunity to see it at the Tower Bridge Victorian Engine Rooms. It’s a very good show, with plenty of very interesting work based on the show’s theme “Building Bridges, The Female Perspective”. Art at the Bridge #7 is exclusively for women artists, as it was felt this would be a good way to profile the work of women artists in celebration of International Women’s Day.
Wonderful, an international audience of approximately 2, 000 visitors daily!
Bit more about the exhibition and the partnership between Southwark Arts Forum and Tower Bridge:
“Our aim in launching this exhibition is to provide a high profile platform for some of the brightest aspiring artists who live and work in our local area whilst offering an interesting new dimension to what we offer visitors to the Tower Bridge Exhibition. London is one of the art world’s most vibrant and culturally diverse hubs so to be able to give exposure to just some of these inspiring artists in such a spectacular setting as Tower Bridge is a privilege for us.” – David Wight, Tower Bridge Director
I’m so grateful for this opportunity, and SOOOO much wish that more of this kind of thing went on. There are so many wonderfully talented artists who WANT to share their work. However, we are often prevented from doing so by over high submission fees to enter work into competitions and exhibitions, which often, I feel, are money making opportunities rather than good opportunities for artists. There are many more organisations who could follow the example set here by Tower Bridge, and who could work in partnership with local arts organisations to help promote the work of local artists. We are then all the richer for it; artists need opportunities to show their work to the public. We want these opportunities not because they are money making for us… the reality is that once in a blue moon we might actually sell something. But we do want these opportunities because we love what we do and we want to share it. However, we don’t want to end up exploited and in a kind of “pay your way” system. Unfortunately this is more often the case.
I am VERY encouraged to find a brilliant example of partnership which works so well for both parties. It works for artists in a positive way and brings fresh new work to the public in an accessible way. What is more, to enter was a very affordable amount, and you could enter more than one piece. |Hooray! At last! I also knew I would be contributing to a local arts organisation, and therefore knew that even if not selected, my money would be going to something which is in accordance with my values and that I am very pleased to support.
I normally look on submission fees as a way of giving to an organisation. It’s the only way to think about it. But sadly, the system is being misused in some cases. It is worth asking the question “Is this competition/open call a profit making venture which I as an artist am ending up funding?” If it is clearly stated that it is not, in itself, profit making (ie all monies are absorbed in the costs), or it is for a charity, or a good cause you care about or something you actually want too support in some way, then it’s not bad at all. Bear in mind too that profit will be made if your work is sold, because of the commission. That profit should be enough for whoever organises it, and is fair enough; this we are all used to. But is profit being made from the submission fees? That becomes questionable as an activity in my opinion. And the amount, which is throwing money to the wind for an artist, needs to be as little as possible, in my opinion. Do people seriously think that artists can easily afford to spend £15- £25 per artwork on entering a competition?….Bear in mind, this applies even if your work is not selected and never shown.
Many may be able to do this. But how much this narrows the span of work which gets shown and exhibited…. I am sure it is a great narrowing. Certainly, the whole matter is about taking a punt. If there are prizes then this helps a lot. Yet the most important objective is not a prize but to be able to show the work and have it seen. Hopefully brought. But the buying is not to be relied upon. It’s certainly couldn’t be described as a source of income for most artists. It’s not something one even HAS to do, however it’s nice to get one’s work about. Just rather difficult financially to do this. Oh dear! I like to have my little moan, and will continue to moan about this matter without apology. However, I am glad to temper my moan with such a positive and encouraging example of what is possible, as I have found with the Tower Bridge and Southwark Arts Forum partnership, and what should be possible much much more than it is at the present time.
Thinking about considerations when entering competitions, call outs, etc, this is a good read:
“Art Contests, Competitions, Offers & Shows
Where You Pay Money or Send Art:
Will They Be Good for Your Career?
Or Are They Dead Ends, Time Wastes or Scams?” Read this by following the link!
http://www.artbusiness.com/osoqutscawas.html
This is also a good read…. Money is an important matter to artists, we don’t live off thin air, and even if we have other sources of income which help support us , this doesn’t mean we don’t need to work towards being treated more fairly… http://marketproject.org.uk/tag/competitions/
Copyright considerations for poets wanting to use artist’s images on their blogs
Now and again I find that my art images have been used on people’s blogs without permission. This mostly happens because of ignorance, and when the person is notified and asked to remove them, the problem is sorted. However, I wish I didn’t need to do this…Needs must! I guess I am hoping that writing this will be my small contribution to increasing awareness and prove useful to people who are wondering what the score is.
As a poet AND a visual artist, I can see the attraction. Wow, that lovely inspiring image, let’s write a poem about it and then post the image and the poem on a blog. Look, if you do this, you are publishing the image, and normally, for publishing an artists image on the internet there is a fee made! When people use an artist’s work, they are using an artists work, and artists are entitled to be paid for the usage. That’s the way it is.
If I use images on my blog which are not mine, I always contact the artist (or whoever is managing their copyright) and ask their permission, explaining what I am using it for and asking them exactly how they want to be credited. I have never been refused, and I have never been asked to pay for that type of use, the reason mainly being that the usage I tend to require is well accepted as being covered under the terms of “Fair Use”. (I include images which related to some kind of commentary on them). I know as an artist myself, that is it nice to know how my work is being shared, and it is often very encouraging. If someone is commenting on it, I often gain some interesting insights myself! Artists learn a lot from other peoples responses to their work! We like to know how you respond to it, and if images are used under the “Fair Use” accepted terms, then it would be strange to ask for a fee. Though it is possible, and it is also possible that the artist may not wish you to use their image at all.
What is “Fair Use” though? I am certain that some people who have used my images without permission, probably think that their use of the image is covered by “Fair Use”. However, as an artist, I can tell you now that posting one of my images and then writing a poem about it, which links the image very intimately with your own artistic creation, is NOT fair use. And neither is doing it the other way around. Writing your poem and then finding an image to illustrate it, is using the artwork as an illustration! (Something which enhances your work considerably, or at least would, if carefully chosen!).
I am a poet and an artist, and lots of visual artists are also poets and writers. Our written work is intimately bound up with our visual artwork, and often a poem and image are used as one piece of artwork. I have many paintings which I present with my own writing and poetry. I often submit work to competitions and exhibitions which is both a poem and painting combined, and which are meant to be seen and displayed together. And so I do not want other poets presenting my artwork with their poetry and publishing it on the internet, even if the image is credited. A poem colours a painting and vice versa. If you want to use images to illustrate your poetry, to add depth, volume and expression to your own, then you need to either produce the artwork yourself (cameras are good for this) or ensure that the art work you use is copyright free.
Just because something is on the internet, doesn’t mean it is there for the using. Artist’s rely on the licensing of their images as a source of income, and having it plastered around but not knowing how it is used has got the potential to quite possibly make it less desirable for use by someone who will actually pay for it. Remember, an artist’s artwork is just as personal as the poem you have written, and you would expect your poetry to be treated with respect. Make sure you treat visual artist’s work with the same respect. Do as you would be done by. Recognise their art has an evolving style and direction, and while there may be some images which they don’t mind you including on your blog (with PERMISSION!) because they don’t have a key note to play in one of the main thrusts of their body of work, or because the image isn’t a significant piece of their repertoire, there will definitely be other images which they would not be happy with your using. You need to contact any artist whose work you post on your blog, and quite simply, ask first.
An art image (Even without poem attached!) is a complete and whole work in itself. Including it in a blog without permission is the same as if someone posted your poem on their blog. It is not just a small extract or quotation. It is a whole artistic work. It would be like publishing a whole book on your blog. Would you do that? Take a book and post that on your blog, without asking? That single image, is a work in its entirety. Please, think it through. I regularly check the internet and find time and time again my artwork used without my permission. And while seeing it credited is some relief, it is still something which I follow up. And if my artwork is linked with someone else’s creative writing in a way where it quite clearly links up with the poetry/meaning/themes, etc, then I do request that it is removed. I recently found someone using an image I had specifically created for Holocaust Memorial Day and which was linked with one of my poems… Indeed the artwork had been created in response to my poem, and is exhibited and shown in many contexts with the poem which is basically the other half of the art work. You can imagine that I was not happy at all when I found another person was displaying it with their poem. I was not flattered, impressed, or grateful for the illegal use of my work! The image related to my own writing, and was intended for interpretation influenced by my own poetry alone.
I think the confusion or lack of clarity for some poets is maybe that they think using an image with their poem is included under “Fair Use” whereas pretty much all artists wouldn’t agree! I don’t consider a poem either commentary or criticism, and this is what I understand as “fair use”. I found this which might enlighten a little, which I quote from Stanford University Libraries “What is Fair Use?”. It’s talking about using written work, but I would like to draw your attention to what I have put in bold!
“Commentary and Criticism
If you are commenting upon or critiquing a copyrighted work — for instance, writing a book review — fair use principles allow you to reproduce some of the work to achieve your purposes. Some examples of commentary and criticism include:
- quoting a few lines from a Bob Dylan song in a music review
- summarizing and quoting from a medical article on prostate cancer in a news report
- copying a few paragraphs from a news article for use by a teacher or student in a lesson, or
- copying a portion of a Sports Illustrated magazine article for use in a related court case.
The underlying rationale of this rule is that the public reaps benefits from your review, which is enhanced by including some of the copyrighted material. Additional examples of commentary or criticism are provided in the examples of fair use cases.
– See more at: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/#sthash.VSp004Hw.dpuf
I hope you can see where I am going with this. None of the above says include the WHOLE work. When I use an artist’s work on my blog I always ask permission, because I don’t see the artwork as a quotation. I ask even when I am writing commentary on it because of this. It is normally straightforward to find and contact the artist, and only a few times have I tried and been unable to. Also, there are many sources of imagery which are copyright free, for various reasons, or which you are allowed to use for the purposes of commentary.
And the other side of the coin…Artists using poetry
The following is quoted from: http://www.cmsimpact.org/fair-use/best-practices/code-best-practices-fair-use-poetry#four (this was something which was compiled by several writers/poets getting together and working out what they felt was good practice)
“FOUR: Criticism, comment, illustration
Poetic quotations are frequently employed by writers and artists in other disciplines. Perhaps the most non-controversial example is that in which a scholar, critic, or reviewer quotes from a poem in order to make a point about the poet in question or about his or her work. Because poetry arises out of and speaks to the particular circumstances (social, cultural, economic) of its writing, members of the poetry community were also united in their opinion that scholars and creators in other fields should be entitled to use apt selections of poetry for purposes other than criticism. Thus, they were supportive of quotation both for textual “illustration” and in the practice of visual artists who take inspiration from poetic works.
PRINCIPLE: Under fair use, a critic discussing a published poem or body of poetry may quote freely as justified by the critical purpose; likewise, a commentator may quote to exemplify or illuminate a cultural/historical phenomenon, and a visual artist may incorporate relevant quotations into his or her work.
LIMITATIONS: This principle does not apply to reproductions in textbooks and anthologies where quotations appear without an independent critical apparatus.Quoted passages should be reproduced as accurately as possible to reflect, and not so minimally or selectively as to mislead about, creative choices embedded in the poem.Critics, commentators, and artists should provide conventional attribution for their chosen quotations.They should also have an articulable rationale for the relevance of their chosen quotations to their own work. Likewise, the extent of quotation should be appropriate to the purpose of the use.Uses that are solely “decorative” or “entertaining” should be avoided. Permissible quotations used for exemplary purposes generally should be briefer than those used for critical purposes. Visual artists generally should not incorporate entire poems in a merely decorative fashion without the copyright holder’s permission.”
“Visual artists generally should not incorporate entire poems in a merely decorative fashion without the copyright holder’s permission.” struck me for the obvious reason which I mentioned before about an art image being an entire work in itself.
There are several other interesting points, and it certainly helps to be able to look at things from both directions. As a poet and visual artist, I can appreciate both perspectives. “The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Poetry” from which the above is quoted from is an excellent read and very helpful in considering the matter, I would recommend a reading of the whole code. It helps poets understand when they and others have the right to excerpt, quote and use copyrighted material in poetry and it was created by poets discussing and considering the matter.
Hopefully my writing here will also give an visual artist’s perspective for consideration. Remember, though the wonders of the internet are great for gaining inspiration, an artist’s image is their property, and you do need to ask! Many artist’s make some (or even a significant amount) of their income through selling digital images, licensing them, or selling prints of them. I am one of those artists and I need the income stream. Clarity, communication and consent, are good principles to abide by.
Artists, photographers and designers can do all kinds of things to make the unauthorized usage of them difficult and inconvenient, and many artists, like myself, are members of copyright societies who assist us in ensuring that we are paid appropriately for the use of our work. But if you are a blogger who likes using images then it is wisest of all to make sure you ask first, and don’t just assume that if you credit the artist you don’t need to ask. Think, whole artwork = whole poem, or whole artwork = whole book, and then you might recognise that the author would expect to be asked! It is your responsibility to ensure you don’t break the law.
If I find someone has included my artwork without authorisation on a blog, I ask them to remove it. I have given permission to people when they are actually commenting on and responding to the image in a direct fashion, as I count that as critical review/commentary, (fair use without a doubt) but I still expect to be asked.
I sometimes contact other artists requesting to include images of their work on my blog, and often include the text I am posting with it, or provide a link to it, so they can see what I have written. As said before, artists like to hear how people respond to their work, and I feel in particular that if it is another artist who wants to comment, respond and reflect, and wants to share their response because it relates to their own interests and artistic development, then this is very desirable. Writing from art critics is particularly interesting, and critical writing in response to particular artworks does need to show the artworks which are being referred to.
If you want to use an image and don’t have permission, then either ask, and use only with permission, or provide a link to the original source of the image, but don’t actually post it in your blog. It is not correct that artists like people to use their images because it helps them with exposure. Artists who post a lot of images on the internet have plenty of exposure anyway, and don’t need people using their images in order to gain more.
What we need more is a respect and appreciation of the value of our work, and for our work to be treated with the value it deserves. We also like, and need, if possible to gain some financial rewards for our hard work, and this comes through the legal licensing of our work.
It is also important to bear in mind that on occasions artists might choose to produce limited editions, or sell the copyright of a work, and they ideally need to know where their work has been used and how it has been used. This means knowing when it has been posted and effectively published by other people on the internet.
If you put something on the internet, you are publishing it. You might not be making lots of money from selling prints of it, but it has still been published by you. Published artwork is normally paid for, unless the artists has specified that they are happy to waive a fee. I think a lot of web users just don’t realise that it is illegal or even bad manners to take images they find on the net and use them, and if asked to take them down, they will quickly do that without any problems at all.
Well, that was thorough, and hopefully will serve as some useful information for poets tempted to use copyrighted artwork to illustrate/decorate/enhance their writing and poetry.
Anagrams Exhibition
Yes, well this is now upon us! Here is a list of the participating artists! It’s a super exhibition! Free entry! Don’t miss it!
Participating artists in Anagrams Exhibition 2016
Chris Birch
Lucy Birkbeck
Ruth Blackford
Lizzie Brewer
Adriana Brinsmead-Stockman
Caroline Calascione
Sarah E Choi
Leo Duff
Annamarie Dzendrowskyj
Martina van de Gey
Liz Harrington
Ewa Hawrylowicz
Martin Kerrison
Jenny Meehan
Loraine Monk
Ewa Morawski
Peg Morris
Paul Mowatt
Judith North
Laurence Ogden
Rachel Pearcey
Kate Proudman
Marianne Romeo
Paul Smith
Lindsay Terhorst North
Sue Tritton Brown
The Anagrams Exhibition can be seen at Kingston Museum from the end of April 2016. Details here:
KINGSTON MUSEUM
29 APRIL – 2 JULY 2016
Wheatfield Way, KT1 2PS, Kingston upon Thames
Phone: 020 8547 5006
http://www.kingston.gov.uk/museum
Tuesday, Friday & Saturday 10am – 5pm
Thursday 10am – 7pm
Admission free
They have used, with my permission, a section of one of my paintings (unerring want of running water 2) in the publicity. Sadly the contrast between the red around the title and the green/brown leanings of the painting has confused the printer and made the printed version of the poster far greener and browner in the depiction of the painting than is the case with the original…
anagrams kingston art 2016 exhibition kingston museum jenny meehan unerring want of running water image used on poster
From publicity for the exhibition:
“Opening on Friday 29 April at Kingston Museum, Anagrams is an exhibition which showcases the winning entries to a competition where artists from Kingston upon Thames’ local artists’ groups, ASC Kingston (Artists Studio Company Kingston), Hawks Road, Fusion Art and KAOS (Kingston Artists Open Studios), have entered new work under the theme Anagrams.
This is an exhibition of transformational art, where the art work and the artist’s explanations of how they have approached the theme give the viewer a fascinating insight into each artist’s way of seeing and working. Many different techniques are showcased from painting, drawing and photography to mosaic, installation and much more.
Two prizes, the Judge’s Choice and the Public Choice, will be awarded to the artwork which gains the most votes in respective category.
“I am intrigued to see the works that have been submitted and the ways in which each artist has chosen to respond to the theme of “Anagrams” in order to convey their intentions to the viewer. Given Kingston’s rich artistic heritage, I am hoping there will be some great surprises in store from local artists”.
David Falkner, Director Stanley Picker Gallery & Dorich House Museum, Kingston University
Organised in conjunction with artist’s group KAOS. Last day is Saturday 2 July.”
White Hart Pub Chessington
Chessington/Hook Surrey Images of the White Hart Pub
Well, locals here in Chessington will remember this building. It’s now been replaced by Firs Court which provides residential support for 23 adults with learning disabilities. Firs Court is purpose built and provides state of the art homes for adults with learning disabilities.
I watched the demolition of the White Hart with interest, and with my camera in hand. I have to say that I don’t mind the absence of drunk people staggering off home past our house, broken bottles, sick, and even someone walking over the top of the car one night! It was a super building though, and sad to see it knocked down.
Here are some of the images I took. I manipulated these a lot as I was playing around, not all have been meddled with so much!
white hart pub chessington surrey photo jenny meehan ©Jenny Meehan
white hart pub chessington surrey photo jenny meehan ©Jenny Meehan
white hart pub chessington surrey photo jenny meehan
white hart pub chessington surrey photo jenny meehan
white hart pub chessington surrey photo jenny meehan
white hart pub chessington surrey photo jenny meehan
white hart pub chessington surrey photo jenny meehan
I intended to do some painting based on these images somehow, but never quite got round to it. I have often used a demolished or falling down house as an image of the mind, after having a clear dream (a visionary one!) of my own mind falling down/crumbling, due to insufficient foundations and weak structures in need of support. It was this dream which was one of the things which made me realise I needed to seek psychological help in the form of psychotherapy…There was nothing I could do myself to look at those foundations as the task was simple too big for me to do alone. Having a clear dream was helpful in accepting the reality of damage which was done in childhood and the formative years of my life.
Therapy isn’t for everyone, this is true, but for me it has been a life saver! I continue with it in the present time. It’s a good investment of time, for anyone wanting to live from the inside, outwards. For an artist, psychotherapy is particularly valuable, in my opinion. There needs to be a great deal of insight and awareness, exploration, and mind stretching!
Here are some other images which use the image of a house/dwelling. They spatter my artwork over the years!
“Arise, Sleeper, Wake/Sack Of A Great House” Jenny Meehan 2010
This one is probably as close to the dream as I could get… in colours at least. It has some kind of coffin opening!
The emotion in this painting always touches a chord with me. Such desolation, and yet, the light. How fortunate I am to be able to see it in person, on my visits to Tate Britain! Can you see the white figure in the doorway to the left? That sunk in. When painting “The Comforter/St Julian that figure reappeared, this time as black on white, but I am quite sure it is the same. The same in which the sense of a soul maybe? In my painting, it was the self, the lost self, in what it meant to me. Is it possible to loose ones’ soul? Maybe not, but it is possible to feel that it is lost. Forsaken.
figure in comforter painting by jenny meehan
And the Comforter/St Julian painting…
The Comforter/St Julian – Jenny Meehan
Acrylic, various fillers, acrylic mediums and pigments, and glass beads
I know my little figures are vague, and barely marks; I love the tension and the possibility that they are just marks, but could be figures. I noticed another in a recent painting “View”.. It is the black mark under the blue mark in the top right, as you view it. Unfortunately it doesn’t stand out in this image nearly as much as when seen in the flesh, the reason being that there is quite a pearlescent area beneath the blue, that doesn’t show up in this image at all. But when the light bounces off it, it brings you straight to this point of the painting, and this adds to the impression of there being a figure in silhouette.
british collectable abstract paintings view painting by jenny meehan copyright DACS
I’ve meandered away from houses, in taking attention to these figures. Back to houses…
scraper charcoal drawing from imagination jenny meehan DACS copyrighted
There’s a house in the air in this image!
deluge painting jenny meehan copyright DACS all rights reserved
In the bottom left, as you view it, a broken shelter emerged in this painting, well, this is how I perceived the form when I was painting it, and what it meant to me.
A later work… with shelter/house…
Through your gentleness we find comfort in fear by Jenny Meehan
There’s two in this one, one brighter with water spilling out of it, and one which is darker and floating off the corner of the painting to the top right, as you view it.
There’s more in the archives, but this does for now!
Other people, looking at my paintings, will not see what I see. But it is the emotion and sensation which are most important. Painting is to be felt.
Paul Nash
Oh, I do like his paintings and I keep coming back to them again and again.
See “Landscape at Iden” 1929 Paul Nash, (Tate)
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/nash-landscape-at-iden-n05047
I like paintings I can see for myself, “in the flesh” as I like to put it, and this one can easily be seen at Tate Britain, which is handy for me. The display caption, quoted from the Tate website:
Display caption
This mysterious picture shows the view from Nash’s studio in Sussex. The dramatic perspective and strange juxtaposition of rustic objects creates a sense of the uncanny. It has been read as a statement of mourning. While the young fruit trees may suggest the defencelessness of youth, the altar-like pile of logs may be a symbol of fallen humanity; the fallen tree as a symbol for the dead was common in the art and literature of the war, not least in Nash’s own paintings.For many, an idea of the timeless and enduring English landscape seemed to displace the violent destruction of the war.
July 2007
And a quote below from; ” Paul Nash Landscape and the Life of Objects” ( chapter 4 New Vision) by Andrew Causey
“In the course of 1929 Nash’s technique changed
from the relatively loose paint application of February,
in which brush marks betray the presence of the hand
and make the picture seem personal, to the drier
and more formalised facture of Month of March and
Landscape at Iden, which, despite the intimate meanings
they had for Nash, also convey a feeling of being
outside time. In Landscape at Iden this is related to
Nash’s new interest in perspective. Denis Cosgrove has
argued that ‘an important effect of linear perspective
is to arrest the flow of history at a specific moment,
freezing that moment as a universal reality’, adding,
‘Perspective, in structuring and directing universal reality
at a single spectator, acknowledges only one, external
subject for the object it represents … In an important
… sense the spectator owns the view because all of its
components are structured and directed towards his
eyes only.’19 Cosgrove’s sense of the twin properties
of perspective, on the one hand, as an arrest of time
and the creation of a universal reality out of a single
moment and, on the other hand, by its nature conveying
the ownership of a single individual, because what is
seen is the product one pair of eyes, is informative for
Nash in Landscape at Iden. The work is personal to
him – his garden view, his feeling for trees, his memories
of war – while at the same time the formality of its
paint surface and the absence of brush marks suggest,
to the contrary, the sense that this is an emblematic
painting, where the artist is tacking on to the idea that
it is a highly personal painting the notion that it is an
impersonal one also.
Nash’s switch to a technique which seems
impersonal because there is no flexibility in the brush
marks to leave evidence of the artist’s hand, or give
the sense that decision-making continues as the work
progresses, suggests that he had two ambitions. He
wanted to put himself outside the painting, to give it an
objectivity and timelessness, a memorialising character
that establishes it as a thing in itself detached from
the artist, while at the same time actually creating in
Landscape at Iden a painting in which a great weight of
personal emotion, unexpressed since the war, is opened
up. If Landscape at Iden is in any sense a war memorial,
it is plainly an unconventional one. War memorials
normally communicate directly with the public, while
Nash was no longer working, as he had been at the
time of The Menin Road (1918–19, plate 29), for a
broad audience. He was speaking an elite language.”
http://www.iwm.at/publications/5-junior-visiting-fellows-conferences/vol-xxi/ingvild-torsen/
Something I am reading and thinking about..
http://www.iwm.at/publications/5-junior-visiting-fellows-conferences/vol-xxi/ingvild-torsen/
Gosh, that is a substantial contribution for May….
Accumulation of lots of time in front of a screen.
I need to go and touch a leaf, a stone, and the surface of a painting!
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Copyright for all visual art by Jenny Meehan is managed by the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) in the UK. If you wish to licence a work of art by Jenny Meehan, please contact Jenny Meehan in the first instance to clarify your requirements. There is a contact form on my website www.jamartlondon.com
Licensing an image is quick and easy for both parties and is organised through the Design and Artist Copyright Society. (Note, my images are not shown on the “Art image” selection on the Design and Artist Copyright “Art Image” page. This does NOT mean you cannot apply for a license to use an image of my work from DACS… They simply have a very limited sample selection of work in their “Artimage” page!)
Art at the Bridge #7 Photographs and Visit
Had a great time at the Art at the Bridge # 7 – Building Bridges, The Female Perspective, in the Victorian Engine Rooms at Tower Bridge. Thought I would get in there before it gets too busy over the holidays. Very pleased to have my art work “Drawn Together” on show. Here are some images!
building bridges the female perspective art exhibition tower bridge engine rooms jenny meehan
Here’s an image of part of the Building Bridges Exhibition… What a lovely wall..!! (As well as the art work, of course!)
building bridges the female perspective art exhibition tower bridge engine rooms jenny meehan
As well as being part of a very harmonious corner in terms of the hanging of the exhibition, I had the good fortune to even catch a colour coordinated passer by!
jenny meehan drawn together art tower bridge
It’s a great space, lovely and light and refreshing!
glass walkway tower bridge experience as part of the building bridges the female perspective art exhibition tower bridge engine rooms jenny meehan
Even lighter on the walkway! It can hold the weight of several elephants, I was assured!
building bridges the female perspective art exhibition tower bridge engine rooms jenny meehan
jenny meehan on her visit to building bridges the female perspective art exhibition tower bridge engine rooms jenny meehan
Massive “Thank You” to Southwark Arts Forum and Tower Bridge for this opportunity to show my work. If you would like to support Southwark Arts Forum it is quick and easy to do over their website: http://www.southwarkartsforum.org/
Artists need the support of their local community in order to thrive, and organisations like the Southwark Arts Forum, Kingston Artists Open Studios, etc are always keen to look for ways they can partnership with organisations who can help them with the provision of exhibition space without charge. It’s a challenge investing time into the arts, especially with the rising cost of living, etc and partnerships like the Tower Bridge/Southwark Arts Forum one are beneficial to all concerned. Artists are not exploited by being forced to pay ridiculous amounts of money to exhibit their work, and the organisations get a wonderfully high quality selection of art work free of charge. It’s a win win situation!
Details of the Exhibition here, quoted from the Tower Bridge website:
Launching on International Women’s day,’Art at the Bridge #7′, showcases the talents of 15 local, female artists.
8 March – 31 July
Celebrate female artistic endeavour this spring with Tower Bridges new ‘Art at the Bridge’exhibition. Now in its seventh iteration, this long running exhibition in partnership with Southwark Arts Forum will display the works of 15 female artists as they explore the theme of ‘Building Bridges: The Female Perspective’.
The exhibition aims to reflect upon female perspectives in the community, providing a platform for artists to express their ideas through a variety of media including paintings, etchings, video, photography and drawing.
Each of the artists have drawn inspiration from their own experiences and these artworks offer a striking contrast to the huge and beautifully maintained steam engines that surround them.
Tower Bridge is committed to engaging with, and acknowledging, the talents of the local community. Through its regular exhibitions in partnership with Southwark Arts Forum, we are delighted to provide an opportunity for artists to gain exposure to an international audience of approximately 2,500 visitors daily.
Entry to ‘Art at the Bridge #7’ is included in the admission price.
This successful partnership was set up in 2011 as part of Tower Bridge’s ongoing commitment to engage with and acknowledge the talents of the local community; and these regular exhibitions provide an opportunity for artists to gain exposure to our international audience of 2,500 daily visitors.Check out the Tower Bridge website for exhibition times.
For sales and artist enquiries contact: bridget@southwarkartsforum.org.
There are plenty of reviews and features on the exhibition on the internet… this one shows you some more of the art works on show. I could not get to the private view as I was on a residential course, which was a great shame!
http://www.informationsociety.co.uk/all-female-exhibition-opens-in-tower-bridge/
Ps… If you like my print “Drawn Together” you can purchase your own, quickly, easily and safely, on Redbubble.com. Follow the link!
British Female Contemporary Artists – Painter Rose Wylie
Very interesting read.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/11652527/Rose-Wylie-I-dont-like-arty.html
My particular favourite quotes:
“Two years ago, the art critic Brian Sewell dismissed one of her pictures as “a daub worthy of a child of four”, and the “worst” work in the Royal Academy’s annual Summer Exhibition.
Earlier this year, though, the RA elected Wylie a Senior Royal Academician.”
Something to remember next time someone slags off your painting!
” The extraordinary thing is that this hot streak for Wylie, who is now 80, has occurred in the twilight of her career, after years of relative obscurity.”
Well, that is rather a long time to wait, but at least she is still alive… You don’t have to die first!
“For much of her adult life, she put her ambitions as a painter on hold while she brought up three children, two of whom now work in finance. “[Roy] was the dominant artist, certainly,” she says, “because I was the mother, wife, cook.” Once the children had grown up, though, she went back to art school, graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1981, and devoted herself to painting. Does she ever feel that concentrating on motherhood at the expense of painting was a sacrifice?
“That’s such a crappy question,” she shoots back. “People like to think that I was frustrated – that the male element was working and that I must have been jealous or angry.” That wasn’t the case? “No! I think children are important, relationships are important, life is important. Besides, I used to do stuff – like make their clothes. I used to make curtains, sofa covers. I made pâté.”
I Love this woman! Creativity in whatever realm, is creativity. The fact that it is not recognized by certain people, in certain circles, as important art, does not make it any less art, any less valuable, artistic, or worth of attention! Plus, the domestic matters of life are important.
“Painting is both horrifically demanding and exciting. When it’s going badly, it’s very depressing – it’s not fun. But then you get into it and you can’t stop. It’s compulsive. If it weren’t there, life would be very drab.””
The above is quoted from the very interesting article,” Rose Wylie: ‘I don’t like arty’
Alastair Sooke meets the 80-year-old whose childlike work is the toast of the art world” By Alastair Sooke 4:00PM BST 06 Jun 2015 in the Telegraph. Read the whole article here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/11652527/Rose-Wylie-I-dont-like-arty.html
Very interesting read here also:
The link above is an extract from the book, information below:
” Mark Rothko (1903–1970), world-renowned icon of Abstract Expressionism, is rediscovered in this wholly original examination of his art and life written by his son. Synthesizing rigorous critique with personal anecdotes, Christopher, the younger of the artist’s two children, offers a unique perspective on this modern master.
Christopher Rothko draws on an intimate knowledge of the artworks to present eighteen essays that look closely at the paintings and explore the ways in which they foster a profound connection between viewer and artist through form, color, and scale. The prominent commissions for the Rothko Chapel in Houston and the Seagram Building murals in New York receive extended treatment, as do many of the lesser-known and underappreciated aspects of Rothko’s oeuvre, including reassessments of his late dark canvases and his formidable body of works on paper. The author also discusses the artist’s writings of the 1930s and 1940s, the significance of music to the artist, and our enduring struggles with visual abstraction in the contemporary era. Finally, Christopher Rothko writes movingly about his role as the artist’s son, his commonalities with his father, and the terms of the relationship they forged during the writer’s childhood.
Mark Rothko: From the Inside Out is a thoughtful reexamination of the legendary artist, serving as a passionate introduction for readers new to his work and offering a fresh perspective to those who know it well.”
Kingston Art 2016: Anagrams Opens Friday 29 April at Kingston Museum
29th April to 2nd July 2016
Opening on Friday 29 April at Kingston Museum, Anagrams is an exhibition which showcases the winning entries to a competition where artists from Kingston upon Thames’ local artists’ groups, ASC Kingston (Artists Studio Company Kingston), Hawks Road, Fusion Art and KAOS (Kingston Artists Open Studios), have entered new work under the theme Anagrams.
This is an exhibition of transformational art, where the art work and the artist’s explanations of how they have approached the theme give the viewer a fascinating insight into each artist’s way of seeing and working. Many different techniques are showcased from painting, drawing and photography to mosaic, installation and much more.
Two prizes, the Judge’s Choice and the Public Choice, will be awarded to the artwork which gains the most votes in respective category.
“I am intrigued to see the works that have been submitted and the ways in which each artist has chosen to respond to the theme of “Anagrams” in order to convey their intentions to the viewer. Given Kingston’s rich artistic heritage, I am hoping there will be some great surprises in store from local artists”.
David Falkner, Director Stanley Picker Gallery & Dorich House Museum, Kingston University
Organised in conjunction with artist’s group KAOS. Last day is Saturday 2 July.
Anagram definition: An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; for example, the word anagram can be rearranged into nag-a-ram. Someone who creates anagrams may be called an “anagrammatist”. Any word or phrase that exactly reproduces the letters in another order is an anagram. However, the goal of serious or skilled anagrammatists is to produce anagrams that in some way reflect or comment on the subject.
Main image: Jenny Meehan
KINGSTON MUSEUM
29 April – 2 July 2016
Opening hours: Tuesday, Friday, Saturday 10am-5pm, Thursday 10am-7pm
Admission free
Kingston Museum
Wheatfield Way
Kingston upon Thames, KT1 2PS
020 8547 5006
Nice quote:
“Know Yourself – in talents and capacity, in judgement and inclination. You cannot master yourself unless you know yourself. There are mirrors for the face but none for the mind. Let careful thought about yourself serve as a substitute. Where the outer image is forgotten, keep the inner one to improve and perfect. Learn the force of your intellect and capacity for affairs, test the force of your courage in order to apply it, and keep your foundations secure and your head clear for everything.” quote from Baltasar Gracián (1601 -1658) from The Art of Worldly Wisdom
Creativity and Divergent Thinking…
“If creativity is not equivalent to a high IQ, then how else might it be defined and measured? Several different approaches have been taken to address this question. One has been to develop tests specifically designed to measure creativity and to designate people who achieve high scores on these tests as creative. The basic assumption behind most such tests is that creativity can be defined as having a capacity for achieving a high level of divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is defined as the ability to come up with a large number of responses to an open-ended probe; it is contrasted with convergent thinking, which tends to apply a sequential series of steps to answer a question that has only one possible solution (Runco and Marz, 1992). An example of a probe used to assess divergent thinking is asking: How many uses can you think of for a brick? A series of similar questions can be asked and then used to create a score that is a continuous measurement of divergent thinking (Torrance, 1998). This approach is favoured by some psychologists as a way of achieving an objective measure of creativity.”
Quoted from A Journey into Chaos: Creativity and the Unconscious**
Nancy C. Andreasen, M.D., Ph.D. © Mens Sana Monographs
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3115302/
Jenny Meehan - Art Journal 