So it’s been a time of going inward and gradual emergence for all of us and it’s strange coming into the world again don’t you think? For me renewed contacts have been a joy where they have been possible, but it is not without caution.
However, during the time of lockdowns and insularities I have moved studio to Maker’s Dozen which is part of Wolverhampton Art Gallery and I have been painting in a beautiful bijou(ish) space.
oil on canvas
It’s time to welcome you, my friends and supporters to visit. I have an Open Day on Saturday November 27th from 11am until 4pm to wish you a happy Yule season and show you some endeavours. There will be prints, cards, seasonal cards, special offers and originals.
As an added bonus I am very excited that my lovely artist friend Rachel Shakespeare will also be opening her studio next door. Her work is divine (literally) and she creates a sacred space to show and tell within. She will also be displaying the work of Nicky Perriman.
Couple this with a visit to Wolverhampton Art Gallery and an exhibition there by Wolverhampton Society of Artists and you have a nice trip out seeing the good side of Wolverhampton. Incidentally there is going to be the British Art Show 9 coming to Wolverhampton from mid-January to April AND a beautiful new cafe in the Art Gallery opens to coincide with that. I was fortunate to be invited into the building site to see it developing this week. I can see it is going to be a favourite place in Wolverhampton to spend time eating, drinking and attending events.
oil on canvas
My studio can be accessed from the rear patio of Wolverhampton Art Gallery – either go through the gallery itself or go up the steps off Wulfruna Street opposite the Arena Theatre. We are asking for masks to be worn if possible.
If you can’t visit this day then do message me and we can happily open up another time.
Not sure whether we are really finding it a season to be jolly this year. There has been so much pain and suffering that it’s hard to think of Christmas parties, gathering families and carol singing without feeling whistful and sometimes quite sad. We have, I suppose, to find our own way through and find things which give us pleasure in a deepening winter and a confusing world. We may need to rephrase and instead say: ” ‘Tis the season to be grateful.”
Gratitude can go a long way towards finding some kind of contentment in small moments. I am finding ways to celebrate what I have. In the words of Dr. Andy Cope, (doctor of happiness at Loughborough University) I wake up each day and say to myself “my teeth don’t hurt and my pancreas is glowing with health.” Try it – it’s a good way to start the day!
Ways that have helped
As you may know I am moving from my huge studio where I had held lots of wonderful classes in creativity with groups of fun loving and eager art makers. In the time that we have been keeping ourselves to ourselves I have worked from home and therefore smaller.
For me, spending time drawing and painting, is great – it is fully absorbing and is time away from the news and social media which only serve to fuel fear and mistrust. I have also enjoyed taking photos on my long tramps around the streets and along our urban canal network. With more time it is amazing what you can notice right under your nose – particularly small details. Documenting shifting light through photography has been absorbing.
Last week I undertook a little online challenge – Folktale Week 2020 which involved prompt words and in my case paints, pencils and pastels working just to A5 size. I liked the discipline and sometimes only finished my daily prompt just before midnight by the skin of my teeth!
Here are my images …. along side them a story emerged quite natually, of a kestrel on Dartmoor! More of that to come maybe but here are the images:
An event for you – how to have a little fun and calm time with me online
On December 13th I will be hosting the second of my Wolf Town Art Club sessions online. I used to have open house at the studio once a month on Sunday lunch time for people to come and work on their art and meet like minded folk. We can’t do that for now so art club is online … do come and join us – no experience and limited resources needed. This time we will do a mindful drawing exercise and look also at colour palettes – read all the details here – there are a few places left at the moment.
If you need to buy art materials in a hurry Jacksons is brilliant – if you don’t have an account at the moment click the banner below and you will get 10% off and even if you DO have an account click on the banner anyway because you will still get 5% off – I get all the materials I can’t get locally from them.
All the above links will give you a 10% or 5% discount. Think Christmas!!!!
So … to the future
We don’t really know what it holds do we but I have invested in a new space to work from – it is pregnant with possibility! And when events can safely go ahead I will look for venues to hold our workshops. We will survive!
Unfortunately the robin Christmas cards have all sold out. In addition to this I have some original artwork getting ready for exhibitions next year – drop me an email if you are interested in viewing sooner….clare.wassermann@gmail.com
Journal and Travel Books workshop with Clare Wassermann
Plans are afoot in Studio 103 for lots of new workshops both hosted and delivered by me. Please let me know if there is anything you would like to see here other than what I have put in so far. I can do my best to accommodate requests and it’s good to know what art folks would like to participate in next year. I don’t know if you don’t tell me!!
There’s art jewellery making, felting, lino printing, poetry, journaling with me and more ….
Art jewellery workshop by guest artist Linda Alton
Current Work
I am currently starting a series of new large oil paintings influenced by Hundertwasser depicting Gaia as the Goddess of the Earth. Working as an artist last year at Boundary Way Allotment Project has been hugely influential. Thank you to the Arts Council and Heritage Lottery Fund from the artists- we are hoping to receive more funding to continue this wonderful work in the community next year.
The piece I am currently working on is Gaia under the Wrekin spreading her rays through the allotment site. The Wrekin is a large hill surrounded by flat land and is very much a landmark all around the area. You can see it from our site and the sun setting behind it is a wonderful thing.
very early stages of Gaia and the Wrekin
The site is wonderful and has a camera obscura, a community garden, sensory garden, a wildlife pond and an orchard. It also has a large polytunnel where we have held art workshops. There are several open days a year and the public are welcome. Here is the link. It’ a beautiful website.
Christmas Cards
I have the new 2018 Christmas cards available in my studio – please come and visit if you are local. Profits go to Compton Hospice (Compton Care) in Wolverhampton where my father was looked after wonderfully over Christmas just before his death last year.
The cards are £4 for six cards with envelopes A6 size.
There is another design to choose from too.
Peace Dove – Syria
Saatchi Gallery Visit
Yesterday I happened to be in London so I took myself off to Sloane Square for a snoop around the gallery – I haven’t been for ages. I was waylaid for ages though in the beautiful Taschen Bookshop next door. A whole shop of the most beautifully printed art books – it was a must.
Anyway eventually I made it into the gallery and it was certainly enjoyable even if some of the art was a little difficult to look at.
A major exhibition there currently is BLACK MIRROR: ART AS SOCIAL SATIRE featuring the work of 26 contemporary artists, open until 13th January 2019.
Black Mirror explores art’s role in social satire, and how
political uncertainty has influenced art of recent years.
Using media such as collage, caricatures, photography and
installation, the exhibition shows how satire can provide both light relief as
well as unsettling commentary on the tumultuous, divisive climate of modern-day
politics.
Black Mirror features some of the world’s most exciting
contemporary artists making work about the world we live in, exposing anxieties
our modern obsessions create. Artists featured include Turner prize nominee
Richard Billingham, whose photography series of his parents Ray’s A Laugh
pioneered “squalid realism” as he confronted the art world with the reality of
poverty; Polish artist Aleksandra Mir who parodies newspapers by crudely
drawing them with childlike tools – bringing new meaning to “fake news”; and
Chilean sculptor Alejandra Prieto, who transforms rejected lumps of coal into a
beautiful, desirable object of opulence, confronting class disparity and the
commodification of luxury over function.
At a time of collective unease, Black Mirror emphasises the
importance of art and satire in dissecting power structures, questioning
societal norms, and visualising political unrest, providing light relief to
life’s uncertainties.
The Saatchi Gallery was founded in 1985 with the aim of
bringing contemporary art to as wide an audience as possible by providing an
innovative platform for emerging artists to show their work. Over the last five
years the Saatchi Gallery has hosted ten out of the top 15 most visited
exhibitions in London, according to The Art Newspaper’s survey of international
museum attendance, and also has more followers on social media than any other
museum in the world. Entry to all the Saatchi Gallery’s exhibitions is free.
More info:
Saachi Gallery
Duke of York’s HQ
King’s Road
London
SW3 4RY
OPENING HOURS
10am-6pm, 7 days a week, last entry 5:30pm
Admission free.
Clare Wassermann Art 