END oF year show: essential school of painting

Jennifer Steele Evans and Tessa Campbell Fraser Art Matters 2, Mile End Art Pavilion, July 2024

Our last end of year show for the Contemporary Fine Art course run by The Essential School of Painting. Tessa and I definitely got the memo to dress up in our most luxe dressing gowns.

It’s funny that creativity is like a spiral. You go on a journey of discovery only to find yourself back to where you started but with a different perspective. The same but different. Transformed.

And that is how I feel after two years of creative experimentation with Liane and Bob at the Essential School of Painting. Exploring new paths, picking up what resonates, leaving behind what doesn’t: all without sharing my progress in public. I think time without the external pressure for validation is so important. It’s been hard and my once bouyant engagement on Instagram has suffered BUT I truly believe I can’t be authentic and be a slave to the algorithm. BUT the journey is a spiral not a circle. Coming back true creative self was the mission I set out on, and on that journey my work has evolved - and so have I. But it’s still recognisably me. It’s still about connection to the natural world, intuition, shared histories and origins and, importantly, being comfortable with treading a new path.

The biggest discovery I made on this journey in the creative wilderness was that medium is sooooooo important. Trusting my intuition to start working in gouache and watercolour again AND THEN finding working with oil on wood panel was THE missing link. Everything fell into place then, I was working with the media, not fighting it. Loving the natural grain of the wood, the smooth mystical mirror surface that acts like a portal to another world - it’s just magical.

Anyway…

…And so, just like that, I finished the online Contemporary Fine Art Course with the Essential School of Painting with a lovely show, with lots of lovely people and their art. I think this year’s work was really stand out and I would love to thank everyone that acquired a piece of my work during or after the show.

Links

If you want to find out more about in-person or online courses available at The Essential School of Painting check out their website here.

Find out more about Tessa Campbell Fraser’s practice here

sagFind out more about ESOP tutor Liane Lang’s practice here

Find out more about ESOP tutor and RCA lecturer Bob Matthew’s practice here