© Jane Hunter 2013-2024
Projects
In the spring of 2023 writer Roger Spence visited me in Bute, to talk about my career so far.
I found our conversations really interesting and Roger’s lines of enquiry made me think quite deeply abut certain aspects of my practice.
The article can be found in issue 5 of the quarterly arts publication Art-Scot here.
At the beginning of February 2022 I travelled to Cove Park in Argyll for an artists residency.
I applied for this residency to further develop the significant shifts in my practice over the last couple of years. To spend a period of focussed time physically removed from my ‘normal’ life and its responsibilities. To be fully and actively engaged with reading, writing and experimenting with my practice.
It’s going to take me a while to put into words the full experience I had on this residency, but what I can say is that it has lit a fire in me. I wrote a quick and spontaneous post on my Instagram the day I got home, which captures quite well the highlights of my week:
“My first artists residency, in fact my first time away from home alone. A week of inspiring views and deafening wind. A group of truly warm and open people who shared the time with me. The opportunity to absolutely absorb myself in my practice and consider what’s important.
Driving rain, blinding sunshine, being smashed in the face by the waves in Loch Long, sharing a traditional Senegalese meal, fish & chips in the pub, being beaten back by wind and rain every time I went for a walk, the feeling of total comfort and ease in a place and with people I’d just met.
I loved every minute of it.”
While working in my studio at Cove Park the concept of symbiosis was something that was at the forefront of my mind. How constantly connected to the landscape I felt through the huge glazed walls of my bedroom and studio. Acutely aware of the shifts in light and weather, how this affected me and my work. The relationship with my fellow residents, how these interactions enhanced our experiences, the sharing of ideas, time, food or materials. Even down to how I was physically making paintings, having multiple pieces attached to one support, which meant that the movement required for the watery paint in one painting affects all the others. This sometimes resulted in paint running off the paper or behaving in a way I didn’t intend, but I found this interconnectedness a fascinating part of the process.
Symbiosis -
1. involving interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association.
2. denoting a mutually beneficial relationship between two different people or groups.
I explored these thoughts in a series of small ‘Symbiosis Studies’, which are currently informing a new body of works on canvas.
I know that the experience of this residency will be far reaching in my practice and I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity.
I’m very grateful to have been awarded a ‘Visual Artists and Craft Makers Award’ (VACMA), to develop my art practice in 2021. Established by Creative Scotland, and in partnership with Renfrewshire Council, the VACMA support artists and craft makers in developing their practice through new work, skills or opportunities.
I began to consider the progression of my work a year or two ago. I was increasingly drawn to explore new materials and to think more deeply about what I wanted my work to say (I wrote about it in this article here). Since then I have been experimenting with paint, finding that compared to the textiles I was used to using this medium allowed me to produce work with much greater spontaneity and expression. The VACMA award has given me the opportunity of a dedicated period of time to further develop this progression. To learn more about the possibilities of paint through experimentation with different techniques and surfaces. To reflect on the work I’ve made in the last seven years, distill the fundamental elements and bring these into my paintings.
I started by going right back to the beginning of my art education, thinking about the artists and movements I had been taught about. My ‘official’ art history education was pretty much limited to the old masters, I will always remember having to write a very long and painful essay on Géricault‘s “Raft of the Medusa” at school. While of course I completely admire, appreciate and marvel at the work of these great artists, it just wasn’t my ‘thing’ really. At home however, I was introduced to Mackintosh, Modigliani, Clarice Cliff, Picasso and Mondrian. As a teenager these are the type of artists I got excited about, and ultimately what rooted my fascination and love for modern art and design. I spent some time researching them, reading about their practice, looking at their styles and comparing their similarities. I realised that the aesthetic quality I strive for in my own work has certainly been influenced by these artists.
Applying the same method of research, I reflected on my own body of work from 2013 until 2020, analysing my inspirations, aesthetic, themes and progression to pinpoint what excited me about the work I had made. I picked out a dozen pieces and wrote down what I enjoyed about the work and what I didn’t enjoy (or what it was that made me want to explore a different approach). From this exercise I was able to really focus in on the aspects of my practice that remain constant and important, regardless of medium. I learned that my fundamental inspirations; landscape, geology, maps and diagrams, remain the same and these will continue to drive my work. That the process and materials are just as important as the finished piece - where I used to cut and stitch tweed together, now the raw canvas stained with fluid paint can create the similar feel of a ‘made object’. What I found most interesting through this exercise was that most of the pieces I picked out were ones I had made which had a strong intention and meaning, something which went beyond the basic story of the landscape and spoke more deeply of connection and experience and this is what I want to bring to the forefront in my paintings. I have previously used the very specific features of a map or diagram to form the structure and composition of my work, staying true to the contours and bedrock of the physical landscape. What I have considered now is how to use the learning and experience of studying these features in a more expressive way. Abstracting line, form and colour found in topographical or geological maps and drawings, and using them alongside organic shapes to communicate a story of experience and connection to the landscape.
With more clarity in the motivations and narrative I want to communicate with my work, I then looked at the artists I am interested in and inspired by right now. I have started to delve into the abstract expressionists, with particular focus on the women artists such as Lee Krasner and Helen Frankenthaler (on this subject, I highly recommend the book ‘Ninth Street Women’ by Mary Gabriel). I revisited the work of Scottish artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, which I was introduced to at the Watermill Gallery where I had my first exhibition, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and several others of the post-war abstract movement.
This research has lead me to a greater understanding of how the work I make fits into the art world as a whole, to make sense of and feel comfortable in the visual language I’m creating. A language of gentle restraint, economy of form, space, light and colour.
Following this period of experimentation and research, and with ongoing support from Renfrewshire Council’s Artists Development Programme, I am currently working on a whole new collection of paintings which I hope to share with you soon.
Initiated by gallerist, Rosalyn McKenna, I embarked on an exploration of the work of Jennifer Hex (1938 - 2016). Discovering similarities with how both she and I view and understand landscape and make our work.
Kilbride Bay Study 1, Jane Hunter 2018
Gott Bay Study 2, Jennifer Hex (image courtesy of The Argyll Collection)
Earlier this year I was invited to be involved in an interesting project by Rosalyn McKenna of Tighnabruaich Gallery.
‘Paintings are for People’ - "The Argyll Collection was established between 1970 and 1990 as a learning resource for the young people of Argyll and Bute. The collection consists of 173 pieces including prints, paintings, ceramics, textiles, drawing, sculpture and mixed media works, covering a wide range of subject matter. It has become a snapshot of Scottish art and is an important public asset and a rich and relevant teaching aid. Tighnabruaich Gallery are proud to announce that they will be hosting an exhibition of a selection of works from the Collection displayed alongside work by our own gallery artists. There will be an accompanying programme of talks, workshops and tours.There will also be a sister exhibition on display at the Burgh Hall, Dunoon."
This collection of artworks was purchased by Argyll and Bute Council as a resource for schools. “At the time of its inception it was believed that young people in the area did not have the same access to museums and galleries as their contemporaries in other parts of the country. The aim of the collection was to redress this situation by allowing young people direct access to a wide variety of quality art. The works would become an important teaching aid which would allow students the experience of viewing and connecting with genuine art”
When Ros got in touch about the exhibition of work at her gallery she asked me to look through the collection online and see if a particular piece resonated with me. The idea being that I would then make a new piece in response which would be displayed alongside. Ros mentioned that she had an idea which artist I might choose, but didn’t tell me which as she didn’t want to influence me!
There are so many stunning artworks in the collection and so I began listing pieces that inspired me, however as soon as I saw the work of Jennifer Hex the decision was made. Working with textiles and embroidery, observing the light and colours of the west coast and using a combination of hand and machine embroidery it seemed the natural choice. This wasn’t the only connection I felt with her though. Two works in particular stood out - Gott Bay, Tiree and Gott Bay Study 2 - the abstract shapes and restricted colour palette were telling their story in a language which was very familiar to me.
'Gott Bay, Tiree - Jennifer Hex. Image courtesy of The Argyll Collection.
Jennifer Eda Hex was born in London in 1938, but shortly afterwards moved to Kilbirnie, Ayrshire, her mothers home town. Sadly Jennifer passed away in 2016 and despite searching for more information about her and her work, the only piece of writing I have found is an article from the Campbelltown Courier published on 4 Nov 2016 - Jennifer Hex: 1938 - 2016 - an appreciation. This article gives a brief account of her studies at Glasgow School of Art, teaching positions in local high schools and time as an artist in residence in Argyll. As I can gather from this short account, she seems to have lived a full and creative life, and was a woman who gave her time generously to the education of young people.
However it was the description of her interests, vision and inspirations which made my heart beat a little faster:
“Jennifer had her own particular vision. She saw things that other people tended to overlook or take for granted or pass by; but they were not in any way strange or exceptional things. They were things which we might all see, every day, if we simply possessed a clearer vision of the sort that she had. She saw elemental things: water, air, fire, earth; that’s to say, the sea, rivers, waterfalls - even the very small ones in a burn interested her - the sky, clouds, the moon and stars, grasses and sedges… natural things in movement or flux. (she) manipulated cloth in many ingenious ways; they suggested rock faces or geological formations, the flow and eddies of the River Ness in spate, a big wave breaking over the rocks on Islay.
This was her way of understanding the world. It helps us to see, and adds to our understanding. This is what a real artist does.”
It seems I have found a kindred spirit, someone I did not know existed until this year but whose vision is so very closely aligned to my own.
Making a piece in response to Jennifer’s work gave me the impetus to finally explore some ideas I have had in my sketchbook for a while.
The piece I have made for the Argyll Collection Exhibition, inspired by the work of Jennifer Hex, is titled ‘Kilbride Bay Study 1’. On a visit to Kilbride Bay, Argyll in May 2017 I captured the scene in the photograph below, which immediately came to my mind when I started this project.
I see colours and abstract shapes created by the sand, water, rocks and trees. Taking each of these shapes and colours, I reduced them to geometric forms, the essential information about the landscape. Each shape hand cut from Harris Tweed and stitched to form a striking interlocking combination of angles, texture and colour.
It retains what I enjoy about a geological map or diagram; shape, form and colour telling a deeper story, but it also evokes a feeling and a memory of the place through those shapes and colours at the same time.
I'm grateful to have been given the opportunity to be involved in this exhibition, learn more about the Argyll Collection and of course to discover Jennifer Hex. When I'm busy working on different projects it can be difficult to allow time for experimentation, to expand on or follow the trail of a thought in my sketchbook. It can almost feel like an indulgence just to spend time in the studio 'playing' with ideas that may or may not go anywhere, but in fact it is really important do exactly that.
So, again, I'm grateful that making this work has allowed me to justify some time to play and in turn delve a little deeper into my motivations and practice.
The exhibition will run from Saturday 28 April - Friday 1 June 2018 in the Tighnabruaich Gallery.
Book Cover Artwork: Paisley’s bid for City of Culture 2021.
Referencing the geology surrounding the White Cart River which forms the foundations of Paisley’s embroidery and thread mills, now repurposed. One of which houses my art studio.
On the 24th June 2016 I made this textile sketch ‘Haud Oan’.
It was my immediate response to the results of the EU referendum which signalled the UK's exit from the EU and an image which, I found, summed up the feelings of many.
This little sketch made quite an impact, being shared widely on social media and even making it into a national newspaper.
In 2017 Professor Claire Squires, Director of the Stirling Centre for International Publishing and Communication at the University of Stirling, wrote a piece called ‘Haud Oan to Europe’, which was inspired by my artwork, for a book looking at the effects of the Brexit vote on the UK’s cultural sector and its agents.
(A photograph of the piece is published in the book “It’s not just the economy, stupid! Brexit and the Cultural Sector” published and distributed by the Centre for British Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin and the Literary Field Kaleidoscope.)
In the weeks and months following I, along with the rest of the world, waited to hear what 'Brexit' means. Turns out Brexit means... well, Brexit. (great, glad that's been cleared up). I know I'm not alone in thinking Brexit means... everything I hoped it wouldn't, but feared it would be.
It seems to me that the signs of divergence between Scotland and the rest of the UK are only becoming more stark.
From the small sketch made on that frantic day, when we couldn’t quite believe what was happening, came the finished larger scale work “Haud Oan’. The title is open to interpretation, from initial shock and surprise, fear and unsettled feelings, to a rally cry or call for patience.
Maps usually provide factual information, the coloured map I referenced in the sketch provides factual information about how the majority of people in each area of the country voted, so how can you map a feeling? As I cut the intricate coast line of the British Isles from the rich green Harris Tweed, I considered this.
As I stitched the lengths of 'greige' wool through the coastline of the UK and pulled it back through into Westminster, a swirling vortex appeared. Warm, varied and vibrant colours of wool are stitched from Scotland. They come together, dynamic, reaching out, welcoming and haudin' oan.
My partner, Sam Kilday, wrote the following poem to accompany the piece.
This land
Abound with shades and hues,
kaleidoscopic,
polychromatic.
But a tilt shift,
a definite rift.
Colour draining away.
Inward, dark,
and grey.
Look up without superiority.
Vibrance and warmth.
Welcoming. Diversity.
A depth of palette.
And richer for it.
