Film of my life as a painter

 

Filmed in my Spanish residence and studio:

www.casadelamorera.com

Wrapping the paintings

Leafscape paintings - an exhibition of botanical art at Abbott and Holder, London, February 2017.

With the LEAFSCAPE exhibition opening at Abbott and Holder in London in six days time, I decided to spent this afternoon wrapping up the leaf paintings in preparation. Here are some photographs that my housemate Holly kindly took while I was working. She's pretty good with a camera as you will see. 

Jess Shepherd (Inky Leaves) - photo by Holly Markham

I can't even begin to describe how tired I am. I haven't slept properly since well before Christmas and have given up putting make up on to conceal my bags and dark rings. It is a pointless exercise and besides, I have better things to be doing with my time!

 

So the paintings are being moved to Abbott and Holder on Valentines Day which I think is rather lovely. My friend Paul is going to be driving the van up via Haslemere where my framer is currently looking after the three massive paintings.  It is supposed to be a sunny day which will make the whole process much more bearable. Wish us luck!

Jess Shepherd (Inky Leaves) - photo by Holly Markham

Indiana and the Temple of Leaf

Botanical illustration of 'Indiana' (Catalpa bignonioides)
work in progress - 76 x 56cm - watercolour on paper

Its been a month.. I won't apologise as I had nothing of importance to say and dislike publishing drivel. It certainly has been a odd time, I know it usually is in my world, but there has been a lot of too-ing and fro-ing in space and time. I am basically doing more 'time travel' than usual and it still goes on. At first it took me by surprise as I entered what I call the 12^th house* back in December. As you already know, it took me to some dark places (the maze), but now its taking me to some wonderful places and since January I have decided to just let go and ride this Wonker-like roller-coaster.

Polar Bear, the steam engine I used to work on as a 
child at Amberley Museum - my very own roller-coaster

This morning I find myself going through some receipts I found from my trip to California back 2013 and this is what I mean by time travel. It can take on all sorts of forms. Last night while I was trying to get to sleep, I found myself in the dens of my childhood, riding steam engines and eating picnics. What is peculiar about these experiences is that they aren't just memories or spells of reminiscence - I am actually THERE. I can smell the smoke and hear the birds, feel the clay dust, the soot and the dampness of the woodlands of Amberley Museum where I was 'brought up'. I can hear the wurring of the heater under my feet in the gift shop and navigate my way through all the offices at different stages of their own evolution. I can jump from one theatre bench to another and cast shadow puppets on the wall where the projector casts its light. I can see all the hundreds of museum keys mounted on another wall, all splattered in oil and grime from dirty hands and engines. I spot the cat and enter the mess room. I trace every line on every worn out face and collect years of experience from their tired eyes. Stained tea cups, coffee grounds, chalk footprints. The clank, clank, clank of the blacksmith going about his work, the toot from the train and the ding of the cow bell on the pottery bicycle. This is so real, it is like I am on drugs. Is this full blown nostalgia I wonder? I don’t think it is, as there is no sense of longing, its just I am there like ghost, like a time traveller. I can even watch myself. It is poignant, the entire vision isn't nostalgia it is a garment of clothing that covers my skin and makes me, me.

It has been rather beautiful this January... still no rain and lots of sunshine.
The farmers are a bit worried about the lack of rain, but life goes on.

GIANT BEANS...

As I find myself there again, in the wonderland of my childhood, I come to remember I giant ceramic bean that my mother made for an event at the museum, I must have been 11 or 12 years old at the time. It was a carefully planned operation by my mother. She made this enormous deep red bean which was glazed in cadmium red and gold ready for a special day where all the children would come into the site, see the enormous bean (which was about as big as 2 year old) and help to dig a hole to bury it. Then, come Christmas, it would have grown into a giant bean stalk ready for Santa's grotto. I helped with the installation... painting massive bean leaves against a cloudy blue sky in the freezing cold December air in a pair of dungarees. Things like this have made me who I am, nothing has changed, I am still painting big leaves.

The beginnings of the Judas Leaf - started yesterday

AND GINGER MUMMIES...

I watched the 'Immortal Egyptians' on the BBC last week (recommend it!)... again, I found myself leaving my present state of being. I was not in Spain, I was not 31 years old, I was 8 years old, in the British Museum on my first school trip, staring down at a petrified (naturally mummified) corpse called 'Ginger'. Time stopped when I was 8 just like it did last last week, but when I was 8 years old I was travelling even further back. I was picturing him laying in the desert. That moment was so important to me that I actually decided to start this blog back in 2009 using the poem I wrote about the experience in 1992. Museums... they seem to have pretty much dictated my evolution.

AND THE TEMPLE OF LEAF...

Leaftastic

The leaves continue to evolve and grow and I think I have a title for the show, although it isn't set in stone yet: 'The Botanical Menagerie'. It's either this or 'Leafscapes'. The first is an attempt to try and describe the fact that these are leaves in 'cages' on display - like a menagerie, or a zoo. The second has a double meaning on the fact that the paintings are like landscapes or maps, but it is also a bit of a pun as the leaves are trying to 'escape'. Anyway - I welcome your thoughts on these titles. It might be that the whole double show is the 'menagerie' and then under this title come the leafscapes and the RHS. 

So, news front - my studio has turned into a forest of leaves as I keep starting new works, getting the skeletons in and then moving onto the next one. I am not sure why I am working like this. It is rather frenzied and not my usual style. I feel that there is a subconscious tactic to this approach - it's almost like I am trying to see what a bunch of enormous leaves look like together and if this is actually going to work before investing too much time on each individual piece, whilst also ensuring that they are all finished 'together' at the same skill level. I am finding that with all this practice my painting is most certainly improving and this could mean that the leaves I do right this minute might end up looking very different to the leaves I finish in December 2016. As with all shows, I feel that there needs to be a level of consistency, so to juggle them around in this way is helping to achieve this. Come summer, when I am working from live specimens, I won't be able to do this as well, but these dried petrified leaves seem to be helping me with this process.

Indiana, Indie and Pop1. 

I nipped into London this month to see the Julia Cameron exhibition and the Bauer Brothers, both of which were lovely, intimate shows. I like intimate, bite sized exhibitions - they are so much easier to digest and usually less busy. The Bauer brothers was so small that no one in the Natural History Museum knew what I was talking about when I asked where it was or where the book was in the gift shop. It was a secret show! Anyway, I am already looking forward to going back to London for the Georgia O'Keefe show at Tate in the Autumn. Can't wait!

And here they all are (bar one)... 

*Astrological terminology for the 12th house that is often associated with dreams and illusions - the room within a room.

Studio updates

It's been quiet again. I think I am getting quieter and quieter, going deeper and deeper underground. I am bored by social media and more entranced by the things outside my door. I suppose this isn't a bad thing. 

Currently, what I find when I step outside of my door are platoons of corn stubs,
shimmering Poplar trees and long, long shadows.

So I have been getting on with a commission of a wreath made up of Salvia officinalis, Lavandula officinalis, Marjorana officinale, Veronica officinalis and Rosmarinus officinalis plants  for a new website.

Preparations are also underway for my upcoming show. I have worked out the time I need to build a collection of work together. I was aiming for February 2017, but with the RHS also in contention, I might have to wait until 2018. Lets see... So I have been very carefully selecting specimens for the job. I feel like one of those judges at a summer fete judging flowers, fruits and vegetables, except my criteria are slightly different in that I am looking for the perfection in imperfection. 

As for the RHS... well this has all gone awry in my heart. I still don't feel 100% happy doing what I wanted to do and all other ideas still aren't really fitting the bill. They are either too whacky, too difficult or not very me. I am finding it difficult trying to find something that I want to do that isn't going to be seen by the judges as madness. With this difficulty, I have decided to just step back from the whole thing and let the plant/theme/subject find me. 

After drawing after drawing, and fantasy session after fantasy session I have had a complete rethink on what I am doing. I often find that this is how I come to most of my pieces of work - there are those that come from dreams and fantasy and those that come from reality. Dreams come first and I tend to stick with them. Darth was a dream, as was the Coffee and Cos. They are usually softer paintings that come with an aura of uncontrollable darkness. Sometimes I dream so much I end up falling out on the other side and finding a simple solution in reality. I wonder how it will be with the RHS? So no blogging about this for a while now. Not sure what I will be writing about instead but I want to carrying on going deeper within in order to create something incredible and I feel I can't do that when I am spreading myself out on the web.

A spontaneous burst of pigeons - fabulous movement. 

Came across this the other day... a diary entry before I went to the UK in August... Made me laugh whilst also highlighting the importance of taking one's time in planning:

"Drawing it out and its the wrong size, only slightly wrong. Could go forward as is, but not happy with the size and that will ruin everything. I know it will. I got away with it on the pineapple, but not with this. I need Gertrude to be big. Bugger. Totally pissed off I have wasted 3 whole days  on this, sitting in a boiling hot room for nothing. Part of the process. The planning is so important and remember what Steven Moffat says - 'it is all the ideas that you didn't go ahead with that makes good writing'. It's all the silly doodles and ideas that lead to something ground breaking. I must remember this".

Inky Leaves Mini Films

I have my cousin Poppy staying with me this fortnight. It's been brilliant having her around. She's been helping in the studio and been busy keeping me company - something I think I might have needed. She also provided me with an extra pair of hands, which subsequently meant that I could get some short films made...

La Fabula at la Finca 28 September 2014

On Wednesday it was time for me to wave a jolly good farewell to English shores. As I watched the docks at Portsmouth and HMS Victory disappear from view, I was filled with a good feeling. There was no sadness, just a strange type of openness which filled my heart. I have been living out of rucksacks for so long now, I have become accustomed to the life of a nomad and nothing appears to frighten me or make me feel unstable. I seemed to have learnt how to ground oneself without using the ground. 

View from our cabin on Brittany Ferries. Farewell Pompey!

So much of Wednesday was rather unproductive and I decided to catch up on much needed sleep whilst indulging in Leonard Cohen songs and some delicious vintage wine. I got the top bunk in what was a rather roomy cabin.

 

The sea was a millpond and we all slept rather well that night. There certainly is nothing better than being gently rocked to sleep in an air of delicious scent (I went a bit mad at the perfume counter before bed). Breakfast was fantastic (thank you Brittany Ferries) and fuelled with a full English breakfast, half a dozen chocolate croissants and a pot of tea we drove down from Bilbao to Granada in a day (well actually Andrew did. Mum was in charge of regular CD changes and I did sweet FA). We disembarked the ferry at Bilbao with a flock of Hells Angels at around 1pm and arrived in Granada at 11pm. Granada greeted us with an electrical storm of epic proportions. It was very dramatic and terribly exciting. In fact, one could almost describe the experience as Biblical, as by this time we were all indulging in a bit of Leonard Cohen and he was belting out the many verses of Hallelujah during this part of the journey in the middle of the night. God it gets dark here.

After dropping off all of our things in the new office on Friday, my mum and Andrew had to deliver the van back to its depo in Malaga, while I hitched a ride to our house in the mountains with all of the things we needed for our exhibition on Sunday. I'd just like to say a quick thing on van hire here, as its the only appropriate place. If you are planning a move similar to this one, I can say that we all think that using Way to Go van hire is a very good way of doing the move. It is much cheaper (£550.00 for 5 days) and the company was very helpful throughout. 

The entrance leading to the new 'Browse' office and the studios of both Kitty Shepherd and Inky Leaves. Santa Fe, Granada

My new place of work has the most amazing garden complete with an Indian Bean Tree (one if my favourite trees), a Magnolia grandiflora, a Horse Chestnut laden with conkers, two intact Canary Palms, Dahlias, Roses, Jasmine, Wisteria, Cycad and LAWN (as rare as hen's teeth down here) etc. The list of plants is endless...

Saturday was a bit of a nightmare... Prepping for an exhibition always is rather mad isn't it? And let me tell you, it's even worse when moving house... Word of practical advice, don't exhibit if moving house. So, with our labels printed and mounted onto foam board, our plinths primed and statements written we hiked over to the Finca del Castillo Arabe in the Valle de Lecrín on Sunday and set up. Yes, we are totally bonkers. Mum and I were going to hang our work on Saturday afternoon in preparation, but we had another storm and there was too much fog over the National Park for us to actually get through. We also experienced 6 power cuts. I think this is how we have to roll here in Spain...

Tables set up for lunch, art work on the walls. La Fabula at la Finca, La Finca del Castillo Arabe, September 2014

It was a fabulous day in the valley and an experience I will never forget. We had an eight course lunch by a top Granadian chef, Ismael Delagado Lopez, from La Fabula, which was utterly delicious and satisfied (what has recently become) my overwhelming need for posh nosh (London appears to have turned me into a food snob).  You can see some superb photographs of the dishes taken by Barbara Taylor-Harris here. 

Posh nosh, and VERY tasty too!

Throughout the day, Ophelia got to show off in her new frame which was very carefully constructed by the brilliant firm Bond-a-Frame in Chichester. I'm very grateful to them for not only mounting her in record time, but for exploring such bizarre framing options on my behalf. I am very much aware of what an unreasonable, picky customer I can be in framing shops and they were so tolerant of my demands! Thank you Bond-a-Frame, you did a superb job. I opted for the magic glass with Ophelia too, which is non reflective, UV filtered and is very special in that it doesn't alter the light and colours of the piece in the way normal glass does. Something to do with the composition or ratio of the silicon in it I think... Anyway, Ophelia is delighted with her special, slip mounted, box frame. 

Guests enjoying their Spanish nosh

Mum had a good show and managed to raise €210 for the local charity Acompalia through the sale of her mugs. I was sad to say farewell to this little tree, which also found a new home on that day. It's called The Magic Tree and it's magic.

Mum's magic tree

¡Me Voy a España!

Our local lake in the Winter

So as time is ticking on, I find myself packing boxes, ordering extra sheets of paper and saying good bye to Brick Lane. It's been an emotional few months that is for sure. There has been a lot of retrospection and tying up of loose ends as I prepare myself for the next step. It's a bold one - Inky Leaves is moving studio to Spain! I have been very lucky in that my mother and stepfather have offered a place for me to stay while I work towards building a portfolio of work and learn what it is really like to paint full-time. This is a tad scary, as I have never painted full time and I might end up falling out of love with it, but then you never know how it will go unless you try. I'd much rather give it a try than regret not having tried at all when I am on my death bed. 

The Almond fields near our house in Spring

With all of this in mind, I have also taken the plunge and booked some driving lessons. My test is scheduled for August. Fingers crossed. I am also picking up my Spanish lessons again and going for a little holiday to Galacia with my house mate. We have both been through the wars, so it'll be a time of healing for both of us and hopefully a lot of fun!  So at this rate my 30th birthday will be in Andalucia, and maybe a rather quiet affair. Might have a trip to the cemetery with all the locals as it is right next to the day of the dead and it's tradition to have a trip to the cemetery in the night.

One of the local lakes in Summer

Along with my portfolio work I hope to do a series of paintings for a book that will be published by Kew Gardens and my mother and I are looking at the possibility of running some courses. I really hope the funding comes through for this book, as it would be such a good experience for me and I believe something rather lovely to have on a bookshelf. Even if I do say so myself!

The Sierra Nevada in Autumn

So yes - ¡Adiós Amigos! I will be blogging again once I am on tierra española

Botanical Art at the RHS Secret Garden Sundays

It's been a while since I have signed into the blogosphere it has to be said, but then I have been incredibly busy and other social networking sites have taken over becuase they have better apps for android tablets. Who would have thought such a technological rat-race would happen right in my hands?! And so sadly the blog was neglected for much of the Spring, but fear not my friends, for I have just logged in and will make more of an effort now I have the summer months ahead of me in the UK.

The Inky Leaves stand complete with 10% discount on prints and bunting to RHS members.

So what's new? Well Last Sunday I took part in my first RHS Secret Garden Sunday event in the Halls on Vincent Square (above). This was a brilliant event full of really interesting stands which were manned by very knowledgeable people. There are plant stalls, food stalls (of which I can vouch the food tasted amazing), tea stalls, seed stalls, cheese stalls, massage stalls, live music (this month it was folk group Effra), do-it-yourself craft stalls and a games corner! My favourite stand was the one for gardeners questions, which was manned by the RHS itself - a good one to remember if you are planning on coming to the next one which is on July 6th. I shall certainly be there on the 6th, and also again on August 3rd and November 2nd. The November one will be an rather grand affair no doubt as it has a special Christmas theme - great for present hunting...

Inky Leaves bunting in action in the garden £9.99/14 piece length (c.4m) Interested? Email me!

Other things from the Inky Leaves studio... well I have been gallivanting around California... as you do. This was JUST what I needed as I completely forgot about everything and after what was '2013' one can only say I needed to forget everything and start over - 2013 was indeed a toughy! So after driving 1500 miles around CA (well actually Henry did that bit) and taking in all the beautiful scenery (yeah, I mainly did this bit) I got back to the UK and did another application for a PhD. Lets see how this one develops... Same proposal, different University. In the mean time, I have managed to scoop up some commissions (which I seriously need to get going with), been grappling with the idea of submitting something to the RHS (still unsure about that though as it would be mean dismantling all my beautifully framed works) and I have been tending to the garden A LOT.

I could go on forever putting images of the wonders of CA up, so I will stick to exhibitions here... The two BEST shows where this one in The Autry in Los Angeles and the Underground Gardens in Fresno, the latter of which is a permanent attraction and well worth a visit. The place is great for botanical artists - so many amazing fruit trees and grafted trees there. You'd probably need to check with them first if you wanted to paint there though.

I have also been doing a lot of sewing and the boarder of 'London Love' is almost complete! YAY! Once this is done I will get on with the text and try to fit in a sky line.

London Love up close

London Love - a work in progress

It's been great reading about what everyone else has been up to while I have laid dormant, especially to hear about the SBA show which I sadly missed as I was across the pond as well as the ISBA's first big show. Well done to everybody - all of the work looked amazing.