From Hare to Here 2018-2023
In early 2017, inspired by my wonderful artist friend and neighbour, Tim Steward, I’d launched into a love affair with soft oil pastels. I worked on huge sheets of lush paper (“Always use good paper”, Tim told me), which I clipped onto a makeshift drawing board and balanced on the cooker in the kitchen. Then, in the Autumn, I progressed to creating art work in our tiny spare bedroom, which became my art room. It felt wonderful not having to clean up sticky pastel debris any more. It was a big step forward.
One evening, working late, I felt an inner itch to add another dimension to my work. I had just started a new piece and found my gaze falling on a pile of magazines on the floor. I flicked through and then started tearing out bits of paper that caught my eye. The hours passed and my confidence grew. I added more and more papers, including newspaper and even a table napkin to create what you see below.
I found the whole experience intriguing. I remember feeling such freedom as I tore and glued down unlikely patterned combinations and saw interesting partnerships appear before my eyes. I’d got the collaging bug!
Those first art pieces felt free and light and very experimental and brought me so much joy. Later I progressed to doing whole landscapes purely with paper and then in 2018-2019 my fascination with hares appeared, when we moved to Suffolk. Pictures often contain up to 600 pieces of paper. It never ceased to delight and fascinate me how my brain made decisions about what would make a good partnership on the page.
In 2020, I started teaching and encouraging others to use collage as a daily practice, either to reduce stress or to strengthen imagination and intuition and as a way to enter a flow-state for creativity.
During the Covid years I sensed that I was entering another transition. Simply creating a picture totally out of paper didn’t do it for me anymore. I needed to include the richness and vitality of acrylic paint. As I moved to using this medium it seemed a natural step to include and integrate collage into my work.
Slowly and surely, I developed a deep interest in abstraction and observed my practice focusing on design and value, colour and texture. I slipped away from pictures of regal hare’s and views across snowy landscapes, curated from paper scraps and I started making art that was strongly abstract in style. This has been a thrilling discovery and feels authentically in tune with my creative voice.
The challenge of creating abstract art is equally as intriguing as discovering a piece of paper of a tartan slipper that fits perfectly to suggest a shadow on a hare’s hind leg…BUT for now I’m taking a deep dive into my abstract work and instead intend to combine collage papers into my pictures when it feels appropriate. And sometimes you see them, but mostly you won’t. They just become a part of the warp and weft of my finished pieces….in which I’m choosing colours and shapes and mark making from my heart.
J x
