Studio

Waiting Room

Studio
Waiting Room Series, I – VI (2020)
Waiting Room V (detail)

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.

Miniature Paintings

Studio

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

ARTIST STATEMENT

Artist Research, Studio

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)