What began as an ‘art experiment’ by London-based Simeon Farrar has now turned into a successful fashion label; winning not only international acclaim but also the prestigious NEWGEN award three times along the way. Despite being crowned a fashion buyer favourite with stockists such as Liberty in the UK and many more in Paris, Tokyo, and Sydney (to name a few), Simeon hasn’t lost sight of his Fine Art training gained at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham. Every collection begins with a philosophical root from which the designs and drawings develop and each one-off piece is then created with Simeon’s trademark dash of humour delivered through experiments with colour and print, done by hand in his Shoreditch studio.

Simeon Farrar, all photographs courtesy of Iroquois PR

As someone who trained as a fine artist, what was it that made you want to turn your hand from canvas and paper to fabric?
I’ve always been into printmaking and I used to use a lot of screen-printing in my paintings. I would load them up with all sorts of images and paint over them to form multiple layers. I started putting some of these images on to t-shirts purely as another surface rather than as fashion. The first t-shirts were so loaded with paint like the canvases that they could never be worn. I got so into this that it soon evolved into fashion.

Simeon Farrar S/S 2012 by Jason Lear

As a ‘non-fashion’ person, did you expect to make such a big impression when you first exhibited at London Fashion Week?
Absolutely not. I had no idea what people would think of me. I didn’t even have an order book so I guess I didn’t expect to write any orders. Suddenly I had all these people wanting to order this junk I’d made which I found all a bit weird. It was still an art experiment at that point.

Simeon Farrar S/S 2012 by Abi Hall

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned about being a designer and the way the world of Fashion works?
As an artist you develop a certain degree of snobbery towards anything that isn’t ‘Art’. I can safely say that I have been cleansed of that snobbery after being welcomed so openly into the fashion world. I’ve learned that it’s all a load of rubbish and an artist just does what ever he/she feels is the most honest path for their creativity and it doesn’t need a label to make it valid.

Butterfly Chiffon Maxi

Your ‘Kate Mouse‘ illustration has become a widely recognised and coveted t-shirt graphic. Why do you think it’s had so much success?
For me it was one of those magical moments when an image just works perfectly. I’d drawn the image for a nursery rhyme collection we were doing at the time and I wanted to do Three Blind Mice. So, to name the file on Photoshop I used ‘Kate Mouse’ so I would recognise it. Then it just clicked, like a light bulb coming on above my head. I think it’s been a success for the same reason. It’s not forced or contrived, just simple and genius. There’s been such a demand ever since her birth that she’s featured in every collection since, with various additions. She gets pimped up every season. Except this forthcoming A/W 2012.

Simeon Farrar S/S 2012 by Alia Gargum

What personally inspired you to create a ‘Kate Mouse’ t-shirt with Net-A-Porter especially for the Japan Earthquake relief appeal?
Two of my staff are Japanese and they have been with me for years so due to that I feel a certain closeness with Japan. We sell a lot in Japan, and since I began the label the Japanese have been so supportive and loyal to my brand that when the earthquake hit it felt like an opportunity to repay some of that. The Kate Mouse print was our obvious big hitter, so I thought it would make the most money if we offered it for the appeal. We did it by ourselves at first, offering a free t-shirt with every donation to Save The Children. That went very well but as we were paying postage we had to limit it to the UK only. My PR company Iroquois and I approached Net-A-Porter so we could take it further. They were amazing with how they took it up and offered so much percentage of the profit to the appeal. I was very impressed with their instant generosity.

Simeon Farrar S/S 2012 by Dana Bocai

Your current S/S 2012 collection not only has your own charming take on the uniquely temperamental British summer through neon colours, raindrop prints and a nod to the new Royalty, but a uniquely feel-good quote that runs throughout. How did the slogan ‘You Are My Silver Lining’ form in your head?
There is always a sense of romance in my collections, and no matter what the theme I always like to bring that in. I like the idea of someone being your Silver Lining. No matter what happens in life there is someone who’s very presence brings with it a sense of hope or a way out of darkness.

Slogan Print Tote with Leather Handles

Simeon Farrar S/S 2012 by Alejandra Espino

What are your favourite colours to print in (at the moment) and why?
I loved using the neon colours in the S/S 2012 collection. I like printing images in neon then overlaying that with a black print and washing it all out so the greys defuse the neon a bit.

Simeon Farrar S/S 2012 by Mitika Chohan

What can we expect for A/W 2012 from Simeon Farrar?
For S/S 2012 we had a ghost print that did very well, so I’ve built the next collection round that. So I guess it’s a Haunted House collection. We’ve got lots of ghost drawings, howling wolves, that kind of thing. But, there’s also a romantic side to it. I’ve always been interested in the tragic side of vampires and the sense of undying love that runs through it. So I’ve brought a lot of that in to the collection. And for the first time, NO KATE MOUSE. I didn’t want to cheapen her and put some fangs on her or something. Kate Mouse is dead, you heard it here first.

Cloud Print Tote Bag

Simeon Farrar S/S 2012 by Gareth A Hopkins

Simeon Farrar’s current S/S 2012 collection is available to buy in store and online at a variety of stockists, and his forthcoming A/W 2012 collection will be exhibited at Tranoi this March.

The 2010 Jerwood Painting Fellowship provided Clare Mitten, Cara Nahaul and Corinna Till with the opportunity to develop their practice, through £10,000 each in prize money and six months of mentoring from leading artists Paul Bonaventura, Stephen Farthing RA and Chantal Joffe. The exhibition now running at Jerwood Space in South London is the culmination of this project.

Cara Nahaul

Cara Nahaul is the most classical painter of the three, using the traditional medium of oil on canvas. But underneath lies a more modern invention, as the paintings are based on photographs. Some of the images are very formal, others more casual, as Nahaul draws inspiration from her father’s homeland of India.

The paintings show soft, open faces painted with smooth, sometimes blurry edges. It doesn’t seem to be so much about the individuals, even though one image is an interpretation of a famous portrait of assassinated Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Instead there is a general feeling of gentleness about the portraits, a neighbourly lack of controversy.

Corinna Till

While maintaining a core focus on painting, Corinna Till takes one step further by presenting her work through photographs. Leaning up against the gallery wall are four life-size images of Till’s paintings of gateways, held in place at the spots that inspired them. Natural textures of concrete and leaves are represented in broad strokes in Till’s paintings, creating an understated but strangely beautiful result. Till’s accompanying text speaks of making observations about material history and how things came to be the way they are, but even without the explanations of the conceptual meaning, it still works.

Corinna Till

Clare Mitten’s work is the most liberal interpretation of painting, with collage and paper models being the main medium for the items on display. Mitten’s practice involves reworking technological items such as cameras and headphones, recreating them in Blue Peter-ish models and in 2D paper collages. Sometimes you can see the artist’s fingerprints in the glue, and at other times the original function of the modelling materials (toothpicks, loo roll inners) poke through – as to highlight how high-tech items may seem mysterious, but at the core they are still just a collection of components.

Clare Mitten

UK-based painters can apply for Jerwood’s 2011/12 fellowship grants on the website – closing October 2011.

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The Jerwood Painting Fellowships runs at Jerwood Visual Arts until 26th June, at Jerwood Space, 171 Union Street, London SE1 0LN. Opening hours are Monday to Friday 10-5 and Saturday and Sundays 10-3.

The exhibition will be shown at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea between 9th July and 4th September.

Cara Nahaul is also part of artist collective Silent City – read our interview here.

It was with some trepidation that I signed up for a painting workshop at the Persona Arts Festival, because my talents for painting and drawing are pretty rubbish. I look at the works of artists, photographers and graphic designers with awe, as I have no idea how they do it. But all skill levels were welcome at the workshop, I was assured, as I accepted the challenge.

L-R: Lara Sophie Benjamin, Robert West, James Hillman

Persona Arts Festival took place last weekend on the far side of the crowds celebrating the Bangla newyear on Brick Lane. At the Rag Factory, curators Anitra Pelekanou and Zia Fernandez had brought together an eclectic mix, ranging from painters, sculptors, photographers and multi-media artists. My favourite was probably painter Cyrus Iravani, with his blue-drenched, blurry style. I also liked photographer Lena Aliper, a photographer who had created a book of images and text. The photographs made the London streets look extra bleak with the lack of contrast in the images, as Aliper laments: “The only thing I’ve ever really desired is to be permanently fascinated.”

Lena Aliper L-R: James Hillman, Ricki L Klages

The workshop was called To Get There, a reference to how our finished canvases were to be sewn together to make one finished piece. We all sat down around a big table, tentatively eyeing up the tools in front of us as we waited for the go-ahead from teacher Avalele. ‘I want you to pretend like you’re a child again and use your imagination,’ she said – not entirely unrealistic as most people’s painting skills have probably been dormant since primary school. Using paper plates as palettes, we reached for the watercolours or acrylic paints. After the initial couple of minutes of doubts, people grew silent as they concentrated on the task at hand.

I ended up painting my bicycle, Lola – thus named for the Kinks song as she’s pretty butch for a girl bike. This was the first time I’ve tried painting since I was a teenager, which saw a short-lived, yet prolific, phase of moody, dark oil painting. The workshop reminded of me why I used to love painting– it’s really good fun – but I always find it frustrating that I can’t be any better at it. But at the Persona Arts Festival we all got points for participation.

The workshop and my contribution

Read more about the participants of the Persona Arts Festival here.

Hawks, snakes, dinosaurs, sharks and bears – there isn’t a kitty in sight in Caitlin Hinshelwood’s excellent fauna. We fell in love with the work from the textile designer and artist when she, alongside partner Rose de Borman, put on the Field Work pop-up shop in Spitalfields last month. In gentle earth tones, patterns of vegetables, flowers and arrows are repeated in the fabric, sometimes interspersed with Caitlin’s scratchy handwriting. The result is ever so subtly brilliant, like a cake that’s not too sweet and gets better as you eat it. I don’t want just a cushion with Caitlin’s prints – I want wallpaper. Because as we all know, too much of a good thing is wonderful.

Ghost arguments

There is something quite playful about your work – like you’ve sat down with your pencils and doodled, almost effortlessly. Is that anything close to the reality of making your art?
In some respects yes; I definitely like to get all my books and photos, put on music and just start drawing or painting with it all out in front of me. But more often than not an image is already partially formed in my mind and it’s a case of putting it down on paper, getting it out of my head. Often it is words and colour that inspire the initial ideas and then the drawing comes, that’s especially true of my paintings. The playfulness is an aspect of my work I am happy to be recognised, I know I am making work I am going to be happy with when I laugh to myself whilst I am doing it.

There’s drawing, painting, etching, embroidery and printing, I think … what’s your preferred medium?
Initially, and most recently, I’d say drawing in pen or pencil. I have rediscovered how much I like using a simple pencil of late. However, I love mixing and using colour so then painting or printing always come in. I love the process of screen-printing regardless of how infuriating it can be, I enjoy the skill of it and building up the imagery. It’s like processing photographs yourself, it still feels like magic when the image appears on the screen.

Whale cushion

Your style seems perfect for textiles – like the fantastic ‘par avion’ swallow cushion. Is the choice to use textiles a commercial one, or is this just how you prefer to work?
I studied printed textiles at the University of Brighton so it was natural to continue using it as a medium for my work and, as mentioned before, I do love the technicality and physicality of screen-printing. Making your drawings translate to textiles gives them a new lease of life, a new context. The confines of designing in a square for a cushion or making things repeat can be part of the enjoyment. I like the variety of textiles; you can produce a print design that can be reproduced and used for fashion but you can also treat a cushion like an art piece in itself. Some of my textiles can mean as much as any painting that I do.

Giving up ghosts

I love the animal themes, and the fact that it’s not just the ‘cute’ animals but also whales, dinosaurs and so on – and the vegetables! What inspires these?
Natural history is something I often gravitate towards. It seems like an obvious thing to me as I have always liked this stuff since childhood; I wanted to be zoologist when I was little, my favourite toys were plastic dinosaurs and I have been brought up to love gardening. One of the places I am happiest is in my garden and growing vegetables. The recent animal drawings are part of a collection meant as a homage to David Attenborough and his ‘Life on Earth’ programmes. Hence my new ‘Attenborough Cushions’ which as well as featuring his portrait, complete with Soviet-esque beams, depicts a different series from ‘Life on Earth’. Whale imagery and all things maritime are a personal obsession of mine I find difficult to move away from and even if I do leave it alone for a while I always end up revisiting it.

Trio of Davids

You have an impressive list of designer names on your client list. How did you build up your customer base?
After university I won a place with Texprint, an organisation that selects 24 textile graduates from across the country and takes them to show at Indigo in Paris. I think this experience really showed me the reality of life after university and what you needed to do if you wanted to work for yourself. And that meant pestering people and slogging my portfolio around Paris, London and New York so people saw my work.

You collaborate a lot with Rose de Borman, both with the homeware range and the recent ‘Field Work’ pop-up shop. Could you tell us a little about how you two work together?
Rosie and I met at Brighton and apart from becoming great friends I think we recognised in each other shared tastes and admirations, and realised our work sits well together. Since we graduated we naturally started collaborating on certain projects, sometimes it’s more enjoyable to work on something with a friend, but we have always maintained working independently of each other. The homeware range is the only truly collaborative design project we have done together and this developed from a commission to go to India and work with a manufacturer in Jaipur to produce the range. Field Work was born in 2009 out of a desire to showcase our work, in all its different forms, in a setting that we could curate and in which we could also celebrate the work of other artists and designers we admire.

Vegetable plot dress

What are you working on these days – any new projects you can tell us about?
I am mainly going to be in the print workshop – I have a load of t-shirt commissions to finish and plenty of production to do. I am going to Mexico later in the year that will hopefully inspire a whole new range of work. It is in its very early stages at the moment but I am going to be doing some work for a Whale Festival in Vancouver, which is exciting and pretty perfect for someone that likes drawing whales. And then there is another Field Work to organise – hopefully before the year is out.

Wittgenstein

Then there’s your printed t-shirt business – will you draw anyone or is it just famous people? By the way I get why you don’t want to draw Paul McCartney, I do. The other three are cool though.
Yeah I don’t have anything against the Beatles; it’s purely McCartney I have reservations about! It doesn’t have to be famous faces; I just want it to be particular to the person that has requested a t-shirt. I’d draw anyone within reason. Obviously some choices are more populist than others and I do prefer the more obscure ones, the faces that people are less likely to recognise. I am slightly dismayed by the serious lack of women though!

Caitlin Hinshelwood

See more of Caitlin Hinshelwood’s work on her website. You can read her blog, visit her shop and look at her t-shirt site too.

I wasn’t invited to Joanne Hynes and Helen Steele, but the door staff spotted myself and Susie Bubble wandering aimlessly around in the entrance hall of Freemasons and urged us on towards the show… so we crept in at the back after it started. I managed to pick up a press release that explained this collaboration but in the intervening weeks it’s been lost, so I’ll just say that the hefty bit of promotional literature was a crazy mix of pattern and excessive colour, a bit like the clothes which were a collaboration between a pair of Irish ladies: Joanne Hynes, who is a fashion designer, and Helen Steele, who is an artist. An interesting concept I am sure you will agree…

Joanne Hynes & Helen Steele AW 2011 by Nancy Straughan.

The collection was called Les Guerriers, in reference to the fierce warrior women of which Ireland is enormously proud, and was a mish mash of textures: wools, tweed and brocades, aran knitwear and metallic leathers, all styled with birds nest hairdos, literally, in the case of some models, who sported vast twig hats. Shoes were frankly barking: cutaway platforms at least half a foot off the ground. There were a couple of draped and ruched dresses with studded crystal pan collars that stood out and I liked the cute psychedelic digitally printed swing dresses which had been abstracted from Helen’s paintings, but I was instantly turned off by vast copious quantities of real fur. Bleurgh. Susie lost interest after just a few outfits.

Loving that stance!

And WHAT is that last outfit?! Do the words Dog and Dinner come to mind?

All photography by Amelia Gregory.

At first glance, the seven artists making up the ‘States of Reverie’ exhibition couldn’t be more different. Colourful, playful paintings from Malgosia Stepnik are set against dreamy oil-paintings by Clare Chapman – contrasting sharply with Wayne Chisnall’s vivid sculptures. But as the title suggests, they all present a version of a ‘State of Reverie’, where the viewer is invited to drift off into a dreamscape.

The surreal drawings by Chinwook Kim merges human beings into the landscape, using soft colours, patterns and curves. It’s hard to tell what the medium is, but the brochure says the South Korean artist has used Chinese ink on paper. It looks like untreated canvas though, creating an organic feel. While very different in outcome, the same can be said for Ann-Marie James’ pencil drawings. London-based James re-works found imagery from anatomy books, and the result is oddly cute, even more so in real life.

Boner (detail) by Ann-Marie James

LG White’s two contributions ended up being my favourites from the show. Hanging side by side in brown frames, the tiny black and white prints by the Dutch artist presents a sort of post-apocalyptic world of humans and angels. ‘Inside a bubble’ shows two lovers who, in view of an angel, have taken their Volkswagen bus into the woods outside the protected city dome for a moment of privacy.

Inside a bubble by LG White

The Scream Gallery drew a crowd for last night’s opening, with patrons spilling onto the pavement for some fresh air in a wonderfully mild January night. The variations between the artworks means there will be something for everyone at ‘States of Reverie’, with another contribution of note coming from Guillermo de Zamacoma. One of the Mexican artist’s photographs shows a woman twirling in the air, surrounded by butterflies amidst the trees. The butterflies in question are endangered Monarchs, says the brochure, native to the Mexican mountains where the shoot took place. It’s comparable to Sam Taylor-Wood’s brilliant self-portraits where she suspended herself using ropes, removing them in post production. Guillermo de Zamacoma’s lady looks like she might actually be leaping in this picture though, although with those shoes that part might have been just a dream.

By Guillermo de Zamacoma. All images are copyright of the artist, courtesy of Scream Gallery.

‘States of Reverie’ shows until 20th February at the Scream Gallery, 34 Bruton Street, London W1J 6QX. For more information see our listing.

Since graduating from Wimbledon College of Art in 2009, Alice Browne has exhibited her paintings at Foremans Smokehouse Gallery’s Divergence exhibition and opened her shared studio to the public during the recent installament of Hackney Wicked. In 2010 Alice Browne was selected to participate in Bloomberg New Contempories, which is currently at the ICA. Earlier this week, Amelia’s Magazine had the pleasure of interviewing Alice Browne.

How did it feel to be selected for New Contemporaries?

Very exciting, and it really boosted my confidence in the studio. It has been great to meet other artists through the show.

What attracts you to the medium of paint?

I think, I’ve always found that paint was the medium which allowed me, the most experimentation. It involves more collaboration than mastering.

Production Still, 2010

What were you first experiences of art or if you had to, which artist(s) have had the greatest effect on your work to date?

Early experiences of art included the Greek and Roman pottery and sculpture in the Ashmolean and treasure trove of oddities at the Pitt Rivers in Oxford. I was introduced to painting through trips to the National Gallery. I was very influenced by an exhibition of Max Beckmann’s work which I saw in New York when I was at school. Artists who have had the greatest effect on my work include Francis Bacon, Pieter Claesz, Philip Guston and Prunella Clough.

Club, 2009

What are the financial implications after the decision has been made to start out as a painter?

It’s a constant weighing up of time, really. I need a studio – so that increases costs, so I need to work more to pay for it, but have less time to spend in there! Eventually I hope it will pay for itself.

Do you work in a gallery or maintain a part time job?

I work at Jerwood Space part time and worked at the National Gallery until recently.

The paintings submitted to Bloomberg New Contemporaries will almost be a year old, by the time the exhibition opens, what are your thoughts and these paintings now and what are their relation to the works you are producing today?

Some of the paintings in the show were made at the end of my degree and represent the focus of a very intense studio-time, so they are quite important and I think about them often. Pink Black Pink is one of the most confident paintings I’ve made. I’m very much still exploring the grounds in which they operate, though I understand it better now.

Pink Black Pink, 2009

What’s an average day in your studio?

I try to keep lots of paintings on the go (10-20 or more) so that I don’t get bogged down in the appearance of any particular painting. I expect a fair few to fail- which usually comes from overworking. I tend to go from one to the next, putting things away after I’ve worked on them. The less confident I feel, the longer I spend on each so on a really good day I could work on up to 10 paintings.

What type of paint (oil, acrylic) do you use and why?

I mostly use oil as it is so flexible and sometimes un-predictable. I use a lot of transparent colours which oil is very suited for. I do also use acrylic but usually for the more predictable priming and under-painting. If I’m not painting, my favourite medium is colouring pencils and paper.

Hellion II, 2009

Your statement discusses your paintings relation to “historical notions of depth relating to the flat painting surface and depth that we relate to visual experience” was there a particular painting or text which sparked your playful exploration?

My exploration was really fuelled by an interest in the range of ways that painters have represented visual space across history; from Masaccio to the trompe l’oeil of Gijsbrechts and still life painters such as Claesz, Cotan and Morandi, to de Hooch and Vermeer to Francis Bacon, Mary Heilmann and Phoebe Unwin.

I’m also interested in the way that photography and moving image represents visual space and how it changes our first hand experience of looking.

Day In, 2010

What was your relation to painting objects during your time at Wimbledon?

At Wimbledon I made quite a few paintings and photographs which described still life objects. Eventually I found that the objects got in the way; they were always charged with associations. I wanted to explore the space of the canvas or photograph rather than create an image.

How do you name your paintings?

I start with a sort of word association game and go from there.

Obstacle No. 2 2010

What does the sub-title of the exhibition “painting between representation and abstraction” mean to you?

For a while I’ve felt uncomfortable with using these terms – I don’t find it so useful to be defined as ‘representational’ or ‘abstract’, so being somewhere in-between sounds about right.

Had you met any artists before deciding to be one?

A family friend is a photographer who works in Hong Kong, taking pictures of the landscape. I always thought it was amazing that anyone could do something so beautiful for a job.

What was it like to study at Wimbledon?

Very supportive with a real sense of community. I loved being in a green and quite residential part of London.

Watch Me, 2010

Favourite contemporary painters?

Lots! I enjoyed Caragh Thuring’s recent exhibition at Thomas Dane gallery and Robert Holyheads show at Karsten Schubert.

How did you become to be involved in Transition Gallery’s exhibition Fade Away?

Alli Sharma curated the exhibition. Its great to be included in such an amazing selection of paintings.

Alice Browne’s paintings will be on display as part of Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2010 at the ICA until January 23rd 2011 and Transition Gallery’s Group Show: Fade Away until the 24th December, 2010.

Edgar Degas’ statement; “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see,” pre-empts the paintings of Jethro Buck. Whilst Buck and Degas’ individual work relates to painting’s ability to convey emotional expressions by their manifold, their similarity lies in an ability to push the audience’s understanding of what it is to see the world.

Jethro Buck’s most recent paintings explore the geometry and non-linear perspective employed within Indian and Persian Miniatures in the creation of multiple narratives on a single picture plane. Subsequently Buck asks the audience to reconsider Western Perspective’s reliance on a single point of vision (or a single point of view) to create a static narrative within the illusion of 3D space.

What drew you to painting, as a medium?

Paint is an amazingly versatile material that can be turned, pretty much, into anything you want. It is pure pigment mixed with a binding medium, but when you squeeze it onto a palette, you have a little colourful blob of potential. Sometimes I’m quite happy just to leave it at that!

The rock where the pigment comes from is like a caterpillar, the manipulation of paint in the studio is the chrysalis and the painting is the golden Butterfly. What was a blob is transformed! Whereas, the art historians and the critics of the world are interested in the butterfly, the painters are more interested in the miracle of the chrysalis.

Whilst painting I find myself thinking in the language of paint. When visiting a museum, you’re meant to step back and think about the painting and its subject and ideas. I am always getting told off in galleries for looking so closely at a painting that my nose scrapes the surface! The closer I am to the painting, the closer I am to the world of the studio and artist’s thoughts as they mixed, diluted, scraped and brushed.

Do you find yourself follow traditional rules when constructing a painting?

Inevitably, through painting a lot, established rules are learnt and knowledge is acquired and the more of these rules you discover. However, in order for me to think differently and follow a creative process beyond a known craft, I think rules need to be broken. It is however, a good practice to learn as many rules as you can, so you know which rules to break later.

It has occurred to me that I really do not know the many rules of Indian miniature painting; For example, the relation between symbolism and the meaning of colour. The upside is that I am free to do whatever I want. However, I would like to know what rules I am breaking, as I don’t know what I’m missing. Ideally, I would like to return to India and study as an apprentice.

What is it that interests you about the possibilities of the surreal?

When a painting becomes surreal I am no longer confined by the rules of physics and therefore there are more possibilities.

I think I became interested in experimenting with the surreal after returning from India. It can feel surreal being in a different culture. What’s real to you is surreal to someone else and vice versa.

Pink and Grey

Does the subject matter of your painting change depending on the scale of the canvas?

It does, slightly, I tend to paint really big or really small. I like art to be removed from the everyday and the medium –to me- represents the everyday. I like the extreme ends of spectrums. I like the sense of intimacy produced by a small painting, as the viewer has to engage in a one-on-one level with the piece. Which is not to say big paintings cannot be intimate, when a subject is large in scale; it feels as if, it is perceptively closer to you.

Which leads to the inevitable question: Who or what are you artistic inspirations?

Nature, Matisse, Marrakech, India, miniatures, rugs, textiles, old natural history prints and TED lectures. I am interested in the relative and cyclic nature of Indian mythology, there is no absolute. There is no absolute meaning to my paintings.

What do you think enables a single painting to tell 1000 words?

Henri Matisse once said:

“The only valuable thing in art is the one thing that cannot be explained, to explain away the mystery of a great painting would do irreplaceable harm, for whenever you explain or define something you substitute the explanation or the definition for the image of the thing.”

The Fall

With this in mind, how do you approach the process of titling your work? For instance with a work such as “Fall” What’s the story behind this title?

I paint and then I write the first thing that comes to my head. ‘Fall’ comes from a photo of a really happy scene – some boys in India were jumping and flipping into a river. As the river can’t be seen in my painting, the image of a falling figure can become a metaphor for taking a leap into the unknown. The fall can be a weightless, disorientating and scary experience or an amazing, life-filled, liberating one.

‘Bird carpet bird’ was inspired by various world textile patterns and colours. ‘Oxford’ was painted in November and the colours appear muted compared to the Indian ones, because it’s a response to the sandy colours of Oxford. ‘A Zebra, on the moon?’ is less about colour and more about a zebra on the moon.

A Zebra, on the Moon

Which leads me to ask… How did A Zebra on the Moon develop? What is the story behind the image?

Zebra on the moon was born out of a conversation with Lilly (4) and Daisy Palmer (7). One day I asked Lilly what I should draw, and she replied.., “a flower eating a lorry!”

Children often possess the divergent thinking skills considered a sign of genius in adults. As we grow up, we unlearn this way of thinking, but my conversations with Lilly and Daisy have engaged this part of my mind.

As an English painter you must find yourself negotiating incredible rapid weather changes, do the differing quality of light impact upon your work?

The quality of light definitely affects my paintings. Whilst getting off a train in India, the boy sitting next to me asked, “what is your favourite thing about India?” In a hurry I said, “the people and the light“. The quality of light changes everywhere you go, in India, the sky would turn an amazing shade of red in the dusty light.

Generally, as an English painter it’s great to go to sunny countries with lots of light. The more light there is, the more vibrant colours become. I don’t think there is anywhere more colourful than India. Leaving a grey wintery England and landing in India is like suddenly discovering you have a colour saturation dial – on what you thought was only a black and white TV. On my return, my work, has unquestionably become more saturated.

Creative Goose

What impact do you think the development of Western Perspective has had on narration within paintings?

With the invention of perspective came the ability to create illusionary 3D space on a flat plane. These days’ cameras create this illusion all the time on our behalf. Photography and perspective rely on a similar principle, for the illusion to work; you have to have a single point of vision. A camera has to be still, in one place and in one time, in order to capture what is in front of it. Essentially what you end up with is an image representing a singular frozen moment – for me, perspective stops time.

This development created a way of representing the world, which –as an example- was very unlike the Bayeux tapestry or a Persian miniature, where lots of temporal events are represented simultaneously in one piece of work. It is easier to fit a wider time range on a non-perspective piece of work.

Haiku

Have you found this secondary impact of perspective as a time ‘freezer’ constraining as a painter?

It’s not a constraining idea, because it doesn’t really come into mind during the process of painting. Painting at its best is an action that happens in the here and now. I find the less thought there is usually the better a painting goes.

Does your interest in the possibilities of representing ideas of universality through geometry, stem from your own interest in biology and nature?

In a way, yes, there are many organic forms and occurrences in nature that have a flowing sort of chaotic order. I love the cracked, sun-baked earth ripples, clouds, cracked paint, the braches of a tree and the similar shapes of veins in the leaves, nerve cells and lung alveoli when looked at under a microscope. The forms repeat themselves in seemingly disparate areas of nature but there appears to be a common blueprint networking its way through everything; acting as a record of the flow of energy. Geometric patterns found on carpets and tiles are similar to these occurrences; they just happened to be straighter and neater versions.

Bird Carpet Carpet Bird

Which in turn – it could be said- relates to your long running interest in decoration and pattern?

I’ve always been drawn to pattern and if you walk around the Ashmolean or any museum, it will appear that most of humanity always has. Pattern seems to occur in cultures across all of time. It’s beautiful. Recently, my patterns have become more organised due to an increased interest in geometry. I’ve only scraped the surface of a vast discipline, but the first time I saw truly breath taking geometry was when I visited the Alhambre in Spain. As the Islamic world has studied geometry more deeply than any other culture, it makes sense –if one is interested in pattern- to study the magnificent geometric patterns of Islamic palaces and mosques.

The more I look at nature, the more geometry I see in it and the more I look at geometry, the more of nature I see in it. An obvious example of geometry in nature is the Romanesco cauliflower. I like to notice strikingly similar formations in widely different circumstances; such as the branches of trees, arteries, ripples and clouds.

Forever

An exhibition of Jethro Buck’s most recent paintings are currently on display at the North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford.
The gallery is open from 11am – 4pm Monday to Saturday and the exhibition runs from the 6th to the 18th December 2010.

SpeedArting by Gemma Milly.

So I’ve spent an hour getting ready. I’ve gone for a little black dress, bird necklace and black shu-boos, and am heading out to Stone Horse Paper Cow on Bishopsgate. As I draw nearer the anticipation rises and I can feel my heart beating faster. Why does this always happen when you’re about to meet some potential totty?

But this is no ordinary date, oh no, I’m about to arrive at an altogether more intriguing rendez-vous. Tonight, with my best-friend at my side, I am going SpeedArting. There is every possibility that I will still meet a dark and handsome stranger, the only difference is that he’ll be hanging on my wall rather than off my every word (as I’m sure they always do). And none of the ‘I’m not ready to have a relationship’ after a few dates to put up with. Hurrah!

‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ by Victoria Topping.

Brainchild of Jody Kingzett, Photographer who has snapped the likes of Dame Helen Mirren and Naomi Campbell, and who I met two years ago on a photoshoot in the freezing cold in Southwark, the concept is so simple that I’m surprised no-one has thought of it before. In a nutshell, it’s all about matchmaking you, the public ,with affordable art, in quirky locations – think Sketch Parlour not Slug and Lettuce (thank the lord!). So hats off to Jody for spotting a niche and hop, skip and jumping right into it.

Illustration by Darren Cranmer.

Amongst the artists that will be exhibiting and selling their wares this Wednesday are Neha Mojaria, who produces street-art style canvasses with a fashion twist, Illustrator Victoria Topping who creates surreal music-based illustrations, and Darren Cranmer who’s illustration style is sublimely delicate and atmospheric. Not to mention the man himself – Jody Kingzett.

Painting by artist Meha Mojaria.

The next SpeedArting event is this Wednesday November 24th at Stone Horse Paper Cow, and promises to be a festive one. What better antidote to a tiring day in the office than to grab your friends and head out for a spot of high-brow Christmas shopping, with a free drink thrown in? So if you fancy being part of the newest big thing to hit the London art scene, make sure www.speedarting.com is firmly at the top of your bookmarks, and follow SpeedArting on Facebook or twitter. Who knows, you might bag yourself a nice little bit of eye candy.

A new exhibition in the basement of Shoreditch Town Hall aims to highlight the brutal murders of over 400 women in the Mexican town Ciudad Juarez. A range of artists have been brought together over five years by Tamsyn Challenger, an artist herself, who was inspired to take action after a visit to the region.

So far 175 artists have contributed to the project, which now acts as confrontational group of portraits. Each work is 14″x10″ (apart from a few exceptions) which is much smaller than I had imagined. The size echoes the retablo, meaning ‘behind the altar’ – a nod to iconic Catholic imagery which still holds so much power in Mexico.

Artists such as Maggi Hambling, Tracey Emin and Paula Rego have lent their skills.

Brenda Patricia Meléndez Vásquez (14), by Ilinca Cantacuzino, and Barbara Araceli Martinez Ramos, by Maggi Hambling

It seems totally inappropriate to single out any particular artists or pieces that I favoured in any way, which seems was the objective from the start. Works are presented anonymously; it’s only by corresponding the chalked number on the floor underneath the works to the handout that you discover who painted each woman. The pamphlet also provides information about the subjects such as their age and, distressingly, whether they are missing or how they were murdered. On the launch night there were the odd pair sprinting around for No. 51 (Tracey Emin) and No. 130 (Maggi Hambling) but the focus is on the women rather than the artists with each image displaying their names. In fact, because of the nature of the crimes and the fact that most of the victims were from impoverished families, some of them don’t even have a photograph from which the artist could have worked. Some of the works – a pair of shoes, a pendant necklace, embossed metal – bear only the name simply because that’s all the artists had to work with.

Erendira Ivonne Ponce Hernández (17), by Phil Cath

Some were underwhelming, some were so moving they reduced me to tears. The gallery is the perfect setting for such an exhibition with its dark alcoves and myriad of rooms, but the opening night was absolutely heaving and it was impossible to see all of the works up close. This might be a good thing.

I caught up with Tamsyn to find out a little more about the project.

How did the 400 Women project come together?
On a flight home from Mexico in 2006 I had almost laid out in my mind the parameters for the concept behind 400. Initially, when I got home I set about trying to source imagery. This actually took a very long time but after help from Rupert Knox at Amnesty International I connected up with Marisela Ortiz who runs one of the mothers groups in Juarez and she sent the bulk of photos of the disappeared and murdered. I then, basically, cold-called artists I like and respect and invited them to collaborate on the project. If they said yes, I would make little connections with the artist to the woman or girl I chose for them. I’d also give them a small amount of information about their woman depending on the artist; as you can imagine some of the info is pretty grisly and I was very aware that I was asking each artist to describe a difficult thing. I was only prescriptive about the sizing because it was vital that the artist had free reign so that each work was individual.

What does 400 Women hope to achieve?
The idea for me is reliant on each artist representing the woman they’ve been given, in some way bringing her back. My hope is that unlike the easy way in which each of these women’s lives have been disposed of, the 400 Women works won’t be so easily disregarded. The importance we bestow upon objects is, of course, a tragedy and irony of our existence and is embedded in the concept. Ciudad Juarez has become an open wound, a region synonymous with gender violence, but ideally, I would like 400 Women to stand for gender violence globally. The 1 in 4 women that suffer domestic violence in this country and the US is a statistic I often think of and one that I wish we would stop putting into shadow and confront.

Elena Guadian Simental (19), by Julie Bennett

What will happen to the portraits when the exhibition finishes?
We anticipate the project will tour to the US and I would love to see it in Mexico eventually.

Will 400 Women continue to develop as an art project as well as a cause?
Potentially. I’ve dedicated five years to the project so far and up until this year have been working in isolation on it, except the other artists! The project is now partnered with Amnesty and I know that they are planning an event next year based around the work. The action cards they have produced to accompany the project are excellent and can be picked up when you visit the project in Shoreditch. These go directly to the Mexican Federal Government to request they take some action to stop the gender violence in Ciudad Juarez.

Has the opening been a success?
I’m not sure that’s for me to say, but here’s a photograph from outside…

400 Women runs until the 28th November. Get all the information in our listings section.