News

I seem to have been focusing on etching these past few weeks.  Climbing and Changing are hot-off-the-press. They will be showcased during the private preview on Friday 22 June 2012 at The Curwen Print Centre.  We will also keep the show open during Saturday 23 June.

Changing

Rolling, Rolling

Climbing

My next exhibition will be at The Curwen Print Study Centre.  It will be my final assessment for my year-long Certificate in Printmaking course.  It has challenged be enormously and I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.   I just have to pass now:-)  The date for the show is Saturday 23 June 2012 at the Centre, which is based at Chilford Hall in Linton.

25% of sales taken on the night at the private preview of my show with Marcus Nisbet at The Institute for Manufacturing will go to my year of fund-raising for the British Heart Foundation.  This is an invitation only event. For more information please contact me on 07765 563908.

Map to the IfM (click on it to enlarge)

I am currently 2 months into my fund-raising year.  I have set myself a target of raising £5,000 for the British Heart Foundation.

To achieve this I am taking part in a self-funded trek in the Sahara Desert in March 2013 where I will be sketching as I go along and producing an exhibition later that year.   Also I have booked and have started collecting donations for an invitation-only Auction of Promises, various friends are also organising an American-style tennis tournament, and an orchestral day to help me reach my target.

For more information about why I have chosen this charity please visit my trek page.

So far I have raised £900 towards my target.  I still have a long way to go but I am determined to achieve my goal.  During my next show at The Institute for Manufacturing 25% of sales will go towards my fund raising target.

I have recently been included in a fantastic book that is being created by Howard Guest. The book will be called Significant Shoes - Women and their Stories.  It is a wonderful little book and I can't wait to see it published.

The private preview for my show with Marcus Nisbet at The Institute for Manufacturing will be on Thursday 10 May 2012.   The Institute is a wonderful building opened by the Duke of Edinburgh in 2009.  This is an invitation only event from 6 until 8 pm. For invitations please contact jo@jotunmer.com.

I went to see the retrospective of Robert Gillmor last week at Reading Museum. What a treat.  I particularly loved all the linocut prints as I am currently trying to get to grips with the method at The Curwen Print Study Centre.

I have recently purchased his book Cutting Away which is constantly referred to while making my own lino plates.

The exhibition finishes tomorrow, 29 April 2012.

Robert Gillmor, Cutting Away published by Langford Press.

The Cambridge Drawing Society annual exhibition is on this week at The Guildhall, Cambridge. It finishes on Saturday, 21 April at 4pm.

You will find something a bit different from me this year.  A monoprint and a mixed media print, completed at the Curwen Print Study Centre.  I would be interested to hear your feedback as this will be my first exhibition of prints.

At The Forefront

46 x 56 cm

"Barking"

46 x 56 cm

I have several brand new paintings for sale at Cambridge Contemporary Art's Waterlands exhibition.  31 March until 22 April 2012.

Waterlands 31 March - 22 April 2012 This month's exhibition focuses on the East Anglian landscape. Gail Brodholt, Lara Cobden, Jenny Grevatte, Ross Loveday, Samuel Thomas, Jo Tunmer and Trevor Woods will all be showing new work. Complimenting the paintings will be a selection of artists from the East Anglian Potters Group. Jane Barker, Richard Baxter, Rob Bibby, Susan Cupitt, Joyce Davison, Margaret Gardiner, Jane Hollidge, Helen Humphreys, Lorraine Izon, Victor Knibbs, Sonia Lewis, Helen Martino, Madelaine Murphy, Colin Saunders, Usch Spettigue, Katherine Winfrey and Maurice Young will all be contributing work in what promises to be a fantastic display of East Anglian art. Gift vouchers and wedding lists Gift vouchers and wedding lists available. Please contact us at info@cambridgegallery.co.uk or call 01223 324222 for further information. Own Art loan scheme The Own Art loan scheme is designed to make it easy and affordable for everyone to buy original, high quality contemporary art and craft. You can borrow up to £2,000, or as little as £100, to be paid back in equal instalments over a period of 10 months - interest free*. For details please telephone 01223 324222 or go to the Own Art homepage. *Typical 0% APR Cambridge Contemporary Art is a registered broker of Own Art.

I have achieved mixed results while trying my hand at monoprinting at The Curwen Print Studio. I have worked on At The Forefront with mixed media but Barking is a true monoprint.  I really want to experiment more with monoprinting so watch this space:-)

Barking. monoprint

37 x 47 cm

In The Forefront

Mixed media

37 x 47 cm

I am just finishing my second term of the certificate in printmaking course at The Curwen Print Study Centre based in Linton, Cambridgeshire. I have learnt such a lot in a short space of time.

Screen printing has always filled me with dread, as it was the one thing I struggled with while studying Textile Design during the early 1980's.

Here are a couple of multimedia pieces I have been working on based on an original screen print.

Oh What A Lovely Day 1

Oh What A Lovely Day 2

For the last few months I have been working away on some new canvases ready for the Eastern Landscapes Show at Cambridge Contemporary Art in April 2012.   I am hoping that some new wood panelled work will be dry in time for the show too.  Here is one 100 x 100 cm painting that will be shown first at CCA.

Summer Marshes, 100 x 100 cm

Close up of Summer Marshes.

Here you can see the scratches more clearly in the canvas.

Canvases drying.

Hopefully they will all be dry before the end of March 2012 ready for the show.

Here is Feathery Dips. A new painting that will be shown at the Eastern Landscapes exhibition at Cambridge Contemporary Art in April 2012.  Oil on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

Two more 100 x 100 cm canvases will be finished in time for the show.  More to follow later....

Today two year 8 students from Chesterton Community College joined me for their work shadowing day.

Anna and Millie have been preparing wood panels and have been discussing the life of being an Painter. We have talked about the different techniques I use and have also looked at different painting and printing methods.

We have just filled in their booklets and finished the day by writing this blog entry!

I have been working hard already this year getting ready for an Eastern Landscapes exhibition at Cambridge Contemporary Art starting in April 2012.

Here are a few photos of three large canvases I am currently working on.  I am also hoping to finish some new wood panels but that will depend on many variables!

I have just hung a new exhibition with Marcus Nisbet at The Institute for Manufacturing.   The Institute is the public face of Cambridge University Department of Engineering's Manufacturing and Management Division. It was opened in 2009 and is a wonderful building on the University West site.

Eight of my paintings are for sale and the preview date is Thursday 10 May 2012 from 6 - 8 pm. However, if you would like to visit the exhibition, which is very near the reception area, please visit The Institute any work day, or during the upcoming Cambridge University Science Festival.

Last few days to visit the sublime Vermeer's Women: Secret and Silence exhibition at The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

I loved the collection. Each painting, despite the crowds surrounding them, made you stop and really observe the story the painter was describing.  If you can get to see it before January 15th 2012 I thoroughly recommend it.

Extract taken from The Fitzwilliam Museum website.

Vermeer's Women: Secrets and Silence

Wed 5 October 2011 to Sun 15 January 2012

Mellon Gallery (13)
Free Admission

Please note: Due to popular demand, there have been long queues for entry to Vermeer's Women: Secrets & Silence, from the morning to late lunchtime. If at all possible, we recommend that you attend after 3pm, in order to make the most of your visit. If you come earlier, may we ask you to please limit your visit to 30 - 45 minutes, in respect of other visitors. Thank you.

Late opening hours between 3 - 15 January

Explore the intimate beauty of Vermeer's exquisite scenes of Dutch 17th-century women in their homes in the only showing of this stunning exhibition. At its heart is Vermeer’s extraordinary painting The Lacemaker (c.1669-70) - one of the Musée du Louvre’s most famous works - rarely seen outside Paris and now on loan to the UK for the first time.

The painting is complemented by three key works by Vermeer representing the pinnacle of his mature career, A lady at the virginals with a gentleman 'The Music Lesson' (c.1662-5) on loan from The Royal Collection; A Young Woman Seated at a Virginal (c.1670) from the National Gallery, London; and Young Woman Seated at a Virginal (private collection, New York).

Joining these are 28 masterpieces of genre painting from the Dutch 'Golden Age' evoking the private realms inhabited almost exclusively by women who we glimpse engaged in domestic tasks, at their toilette or immersed in pleasurable pastimes such as music making, reading or writing letters.

Featuring works from museums and private collections in the UK, Europe and the USA, many of which have never been on public display in Britain, this Cambridge showing will be the only chance to see these masterpieces brought together in one exhibition.

Other artists featured in this exhibition include:
Cornelis de Bisschop, Gerard ter Borch, Esaias Boursse, Quiringh van Brekelenkam, Gerrit Dou, Pieter de Hooch, Samuel van Hoogstraten, Nicolaes Maes, Cornelis de Man, Eglon van der Neer, Jacob van Ochtervelt, Godfried Schalcken, Jan Steen and Jacobus Vrel.

Despite the -16°C snowy weather last week I managed to fit in a trip to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.  The buildings of the Museum are worth a trip let alone the treasures that await you when inside.

The original building opened in 1912, however a new extension was built in 1991 by the architect Moshe Safdie, creator of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and the Musée de la civilisation in Quebec.  It is a wonderful, atmospheric space creating a perfect setting for the art curated within it.

On this particular trip I came across works by Bruegal, Maes, Daumier, Tissot, Sisley, Rodin and Dix, to name but a few.

A couple of favourite pieces were by Richter, Alma-Tadema, Picasso, and Dali.

I have a new range of greeting and postcards available.  You can purchase the greeting cards from Jaynes Frames, 8b Station Road, Histon, CB24 9LQ. However the full range,  and postcards can be purchased from my studio.

Greeting cards are £1.85 each or 3 for £5.00

Postcards are £1.00 each.

Tomorrow, 2 December I am taking part in a very special event at The Wildlife Trust.  Ovenden Contemporary Art have organised a one night only exhibition with 20 Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire artists. 30% of all sales will go to The Wildlife Trust.

This special event will take place at The Manor House, the headquarters for The Wildlife Trusts for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Northamptonshire, in Cambourne, a new village just a few miles west of Cambridge. There will be original paintings, prints, sketches, photography and sculpture directly from the participating 20 artists.

You can turn up at anytime between 5.30 and 9pm, entering through the main pedestrian entrance on Broad Street.  I

For more information please go to the website.