I am currently showing some paintings at Messums as part of their Routes North exhibition. All of the contributing artists were interviewed about their practices ahead of the show.
Routes North is open to view from 15th January to 19th February, at Messums, Harrogate. more information can be found here
Over the past 12 – 18 months I have had the pleasure of collaborating with RAD UNION on their advertising campaigns, and also in the creation of my own bag design! The pattern was inspired by a recent painting – Night Dip. I often work digitally pre-painting, so it was interesting to work backwards, and digitise a painting. We named the bag Soft Rave – which is some kind of fictional aesthetic I find myself returning to time and time again.
The Soft Rave trolley comes in 2 frame colourways: blue/pink and yellow/black. There is an outer zip pocket, smooth wheels, and the folding frame has two hooks for attaching to your shopping trolley.
This summer I was commissioned to create 4 paintings for the new Wetherspoons Stick or Twist pub, based in Leeds. The paintings focused on the imagery of card games, with my own visual language underpinning them.
each painting is 117 x 97cm, oil on canvas.
During the summer of 2021 I undertook my largest mural project yet, for Vonder Europe. Vonder have short term let apartments across London, Berlin, Warsaw and Dubai. Vonder Earls Court is their first hotel, based in London. Murals were created for all 3 lobbies, and additional murals were dotted along all corridors.
read more about Vonder Earls Court here
During Summer 2019, I had the pleasure of showing a selection of paintings at Fika North. I had just completed a recent body of ‘all over’ style paintings (better description suggestions welcome!) so it was great to be able to hang these together. This show also proved to be my most successful, as almost all the paintings found new homes!
Just before the first Covid lockdown, myself and Dan Harland collaborated to show our newest bodies of work at Gallery 164. We both work within abstraction, and we realised after a few chats that we both approach ‘space’ within a painting – Dan links spaces and places with memories and the passing of time – and I explore the fictitious space and planes within the picture surface.
The show was on display 3 January 2020 – 29 February 2020
find more info about Gallery 164 here
view more of Dan Harland’s work here
I was recently invited by One Good Gift to select my hot picks of their current works for sale – there is a great range of styles and mediums available, but I settled on the above 4 (clockwise from top left):
Beside the Sea mixed media artwork, £65, by Gill Gathercole
‘Architect Tower’ vessel, £160, by Andrew Walker
Aqua Spaces 2 (2020), £249, by Michael Carter
Linen wall hanging, £850, by Boniface Interiors
You can read more about my thoughts in the full editorial here, and visit my One Good Gift Artist Page here!
I have been continuously working on small studies in-between larger works – here are some from the last month of 2020. (All oil on canvas, 12 x 15cm)
Waiting Room is an ongoing series of oil paintings, each measuring 81 x 56cm, and using a repeat palette. I have recently taken a step away from thick impasto layers, in favour of a more subtle approach. the oil paint is worked into the raw canvas with a small brush so it sits ‘within’ the surface, allowing the canvas texture to show through. Blocks of colour meet – but aren’t built up in layers – so there are areas of interest in these boundary edges.
As there is usually a major digital aspect to my practise, in this series I wanted to highlight the personal feel of traditional painting, even though I haven’t opted for the usual viscous finish. There are subtle nuances in this body of work; the inconsistencies in canvas texture, paint thickness, and colours. I mixed the colour palettes for each painting individually, rather than batch mixing. This means they are all almost the same, but with slight shifts in colour – a celebration of human error.
This body of work has been very therapeutic. The use of a disproportionally small brush makes the process very meditative, and the subtle texture feels earthy and grounding. Waiting Room was started in August, when the first Covid lockdown had ended. Life was busier, I could access and enjoy more, but needed moments of calm, which this series gave me.
I have a series of painting ‘miniatures’ for sale, created between 2018 – 2020. they are all oil on ply, measuring approx 8 x 8 cm, and each come with a key hole in the back for easy hanging. I’m selling them for £20 each, email me if you are interested: info@jennybeard.co.uk
Three of my paintings are now available to buy as prints from https://funkycurator.com
they ship internationally, and in a range of sizes.
My ‘Singularity’ print is now available on DROOL here. It is available in a range of sizes, finishes, and framed or unframed. prices start at £35.
I was recently interviewed by Reset//, which can be found here: www.resetfinearts.com/jenny-beard
I discuss my background and development of an artist, and discuss themes within my work.
photos and film by Jacob Dixon
I Recently had the opportunity to work with iQ Student Accommodation – showcasing my practise since graduating from University, and also providing original artwork for their digital branding.
Searching For Peace 2019
4 Birds/ vol II 2019
Vicious Circle 2019
View of the exhibition “WHERE THE END STARTS” curated by Andrea Karnes at Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Fort Worth (USA), 2016
View of the exhibition “WHERE THE END STARTS” curated by Andrea Karnes at Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Fort Worth (USA), 2016Enter a caption
View of the exhibition at PERROTIN Co,. Ltd. Tokyo (Japan), 2018
Photos by Jenny Briggs and Paul Ellison
Myself and Benjamin Craven were recently commissioned by Yorkshire Design Group in partnership with In Good Company to paint a mural on their ‘floating office’. The office is permanently docked just behind 46 The Calls, and functions as Leeds only floating office – which is available to rent from Yorkshire Design Group.
In Good Company focus on bringing artists and local Leeds businesses together, to spread more art around the city.
the design was a combination of both mine and Ben’s signature styles, executed by just the two of us over a few weeks in September 2019.
The barge is over 100 years old, and is almost twice the size of your regular canal boat. you can see it from Leeds Water Taxi on the route from the station to the Armouries, or via the bridge connecting The Calls and Brewery Place.
Jenny Beard is a painter working within contemporary painting, and her process is built upon automatic drawing, using digital tools to create and manipulate sketches. Abstract imagery is used to explore optical space, depth, and flatness. The work is open ended and explorative, dealing with the paradox of appropriating abstract marks for abstract paintings. During this mimetic experience, the work could be read as representational.
“The idea of creating an art that self reflectively focuses on and thematizes its own concerns and the correlations of its creation as well as sustaining, at the same time, an open relationship to the world and to meaning as such, came very near to squaring the circle”
(Herzog, 1997)
When approaching the work, Jenny is interested in gestures and marks – and when they become signs. Marks are ambiguous, whereas a sign directs us, informs us. Part of her practice involves pushing paint between gesture and sign. What happens if a mark is isolated – If it is scaled up, repeated, or a pattern is made of it?
Digital methods are embraced in Jenny’s practice, but the work is always finished traditionally and meticulously. Painting doesn’t die; instead digital exploration opens up new ways of seeing and laying paint, which creates a refreshing relationship between artist and painting.
(up to date as of 17/07/2019)
Left to right: Guerilla Girls, Sophie Vallance, Jenny Beard. Photo credit: Viola Zichey, Tempe Storm and Chloe Toone
Swoon, oil on canvas 125 x 160 cm
visit www.gutsgallery.co.uk
Influenced by the works of Robert Ryman and Cy Twombly, Suzan Frecon’s abstract paintings are meticulous studies in colour and composition. Using her own hand-made encaustic and paints with varying degrees of luster, Frecon works with a discrete vocabulary of geometric and rounded shapes that achieve balance through size and texture.
Composed with meticulous attention to the physical qualities of her chosen medium, Frecon’s subtle, interacting arrangements of colour and form are at once reductive and expressive.
“Figurative versus abstraction: that’s something that I left behind so long ago. I don’t want to have to insist on that. But I want to have a painting be on a high plane of abstraction. And I love paintings that have figures in them, I go to the museum and look at them all the time. But today, in my time, I know I could never paint like Bellini, nor is that my intent. I don’t want to paint ‘story’.” – Frecon
In May I was contacted by Miss Selfridge to work with them on their Summer campaign. I created a large scale painterly backdrop for the editorial shoots, film and displays in their london store. We also created a short film of the process, which you can watch above!
SYZYGY was a show consisting of over 80 artists, as a final output from our time at Leeds Arts University. My paintings were displayed alongside Samantha Hennings colourful sculptures.
My latest painting is a study of critical painting, within my own practise. Process is an important aspect within my work, helping to translate urban abstraction into paint. This piece will show two flip sides to how I work, and see. The result is a painting within a painting, a study within a work, a diagram of sorts.
Corio Clouds, ink and acid on aluminium
Even if no one else comes, 2015
My painting ‘LS2 VI’ and me
Sarah-Joy Ford & Jake Mullins
Chya Hsu
Andy Welland
Songnyeo Lyoo
Paint by Number have launched their 3rd issue, which you can order from their website. You can also browse the artist directory. It was an honour to be included alongside many talented artists in both the magazine and the launch exhibition.
Photo: Mila Tobolenko
Jenny Beard, Artist 