Bubblegum

Blue Haze

Flower Bomb

Cambridge Contemporary and Helmsley Walled Garden

 During this year of cancellations I have been lucky that it has been possible for two events to go ahead.   My exhibition at Cambridge Contemporary Gallery was moved from May to September and  is running until September 27th, showing some of my best work to date alongside quirky and beautiful ceramics by Shirley Vauvelle and luscious paintings by Sally Anne Fitter. Altogether a wonderful exhibition full of top quality work by three established  and highly individual artists.

Cambridge Contemporary Gallery Exhibition 5th-27th September

Perhaps surprisingly, although my classes were cancelled at The National Trust, the small organisation of Helmsley Walled Garden allowed painting courses to go ahead and for the first course we had the privilege of  having the gardens to ourselves when they were still closed to the public.

 As anyone will know who has visited, Helmsley Walled Garden is worth a visit.  The garden is an uplifting, calming place of solace and visual abundance. It is a perfect environment in which to teach painting and study structure, composition and colour.

 I have been wondering about these two strands of my working life. The public life of teaching and the solitary life of a plein air landscape artist who spends most of her time in the middle of a field alone and wondering how they connect. Students on painting courses each bring a gift of their own. Their own way of expressing, working with materials and unique ways of seeing things. Teaching, makes me reflect on what I do and how I do it. Looking at structure with others makes me look with fresh eyes.

Flower Power Watercolour and Mixed Media
Helmsley Walled Garden 19th-20th September 2020

For those who would like to experiment with different ways of working with Watercolour, including inks, gouache, pencil and oil pastel. The emphasis is on experimentation. 

For details and booking, please see my courses page 

Participants at the Helmsley Walled Garden painting workshops

Where the Owls roost

Owls can vocalize at a low frequency which allows their songs to travel long distances without being absorbed by vegetation. This would be a useful ability for us in Lockdown. While we have been relying increasingly on technology to communicate and keep society functioning, the natural world has been going on as it always has. In Spring I enjoyed recording the plant world opening up as I painted outside, Plein air, recording British landscape at its best.

English Spring

Lockdown has given birth to some new creative ideas. One is my 'Little Darlings' series of mini paintings. The creative thinking behind these is to paint petite florals which include as much mark making, layering and experimentation with colour as is possible on a small canvas. Produced over a period of several weeks they are rich unique little jewels and very affordable.

The Little Darlings collection

The lack of working to deadlines is tricky. Bursts of creativity are interspersed with periods of sloth and inertia. However, I have done things I usually wouldn't have time to do such as sort out the ancient chaos of my Mosaic store boxes. I tried to give the boxes of china away but this proved more difficult than I would have thought. Sorting through all the old plates, saucers and bowls got me inspired again and I now have a brand new Mosaic Studio. New creations include New Baby Bird Mosaics - a special present to give on the arrival of a new baby. Each one a unique special gift that will last a lifetime. Vegetation Mosaics are designed to make your outdoor space pretty and are still at the design phase - but watch the website.

Mosaic work in progress

Photographs by Sarah Banks www.sarahbanksphoto.com

So here we are eight weeks into Lockdown. This is a weird experience for everyone. Exhibitions and shows and teaching all cancelled.

The good news is it is Spring and I live in the middle of new growth. Every day from hour to hour the landscape changes. From early Spring to the beginning of Summer I have been recording the English countryside. It is difficult to do it justice. But I try. Sitting in the middle of a wood painting the freshly ploughed earth in the distance and the bluebells by my feet. Watching the trees transform from their sculptural naked forms to fresh greens and yellows.

Sometimes, especially in times like these, I feel spoilt and privileged to be out in the air and surrounded by beauty. Isolation is normal for me. But something is amiss. I am missing my audience. The people I paint for. So here is a little taste of what I've been doing. I am looking forward to sharing this new work with you. Either at Cambridge Contemporary in September (fingers crossed) or Art 4 Youth in October or York Open Studios 2021.

Ripe Corn Before the Storm

Recently I was required to write an Artist Statement and Biography. This was a difficult task as writing requires a different part of my brain from painting. Nevertheless it was an opportunity to consider what my work is really about, who it is for, what inspires it and whether there is any point to it.

Although all my work begins 'in the field' with observation, 'painting what I see', I realise that it quickly becomes, 'how what I see makes me feel'. How trees and hills and furrow sit together in the language of light and dark. I am interested in the significance of place. This might be somewhere well known such as Ripon Cathedral or the White Horse or a random field or view in which the way things are placed in the landscape makes it out of the ordinary.

As an Art student at York College I specialised in sculpture and I think this looking for shapes, their juxtaposition and contrast, is apparent in my paintings. All paintings begin with observation of what I see and most are painted out in the field- en plein air, but at a certain point the painting takes over and I become interested in pattern, mark making, colour and texture as vehicles of expanding what I see. The work becomes intuitive. In this way, 'my work becomes a hybrid between the observed and imagined, the seen and felt.'

I seek to record a moment in time. A landscape that will change not only with the seasons but with the passing years.

2019 has been quite a year. Being Artist in Residence at the Yorkshire Arboretum on the Castle Howard Estate was a wonderful privilege and helped produce some of my best work to date. It is easy to see how The Yorkshire Arboretum is twinned with Kew, as trees and avenues, hidden spaces and gardens within gardens reveal themselves - constantly changing colour and form throughout the seasons. The physical conditions were challenging as I had to transport materials a long way in all weathers but it is a special experience to paint landscape in situ. Something of the essence of place is recorded and painting on Birch ply seemed a fitting material to record the many languages of trees.

The year finished with a solo exhibition at Helmsley Arts Centre which was the first place I exhibited twenty four years ago. So it was a rather lovely, cosy 'Coming Home.'

I have already begun my new collection for an exhibition with Sally Anne Fitter at Cambridge Contemporary Gallery in May 2020. This should be a very lively, rich exhibition and an interesting combination between one of my favourite contemporary artists and myself. Exciting new painting courses are planned for the New Year too; A 'Watercolour with a difference' Still Life course at Helmsley Walled Garden and two Landscape painting courses in the Water Gardens at Studley Royal, Fountains Abbey.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me in 2019. I am looking forward to sharing some exciting new work with you in 2020. There are some (still secret) projects planned using cutting edge technology (which is something for a technophobe). You might be able to 'walk through' my paintings some time soon...watch this space...

PA to Artist, Lesley Seeger

Hours: 6 hours per fortnight (sometimes more)
Job Type: Permanent
Rate of Pay: £15 per hour

Yorkshire Artist, Lesley Seeger is seeking a creative, flexible and 'tech-savvy' individual to work with her on the IT side of her fine art business.

The successful candidate will be required to work 5-6 hours a fortnight from Lesley's home in Hutton's Ambo (Near Malton). These hours can be worked flexibly with the potential for more hours at certain times. Although the majority of the work will be IT based, it is essential that the successful candidate is creative with a good eye as there are also design aspects to the job.

This is a varied and engaging role, working on a wide variety of projects.

Day to day activities include:

• Maintaining the website and updating the blog (Squarespace site with instructional videos by the designer)

• Designing and sending monthly mailchimp newsletters

• Simple graphic design using photoshop

• Digital filing and organising

• Social media posts

• Use of Open Office

• Collating information for applications for exhibitions, competitions and residencies

• Occasional liaising with galleries

To apply:

Please apply by Sunday 1st December by emailing mail@lesleyseeger.com with your CV and a covering letter explaining why you would be the best candidate for the role.

Dates:

Closing date for applications – Sunday 1st December 2019
Interviews - Wednesday 11th December 2019 between 1.00pm and 4.00pm in the centre of York
Training Day - Wednesday 18th December 2019 - This will be in Hutton's Ambo between 1.00pm and 4.00pm and you will be training with Lesley’s current PA

The final exhibition for my year long residence at The Yorkshire Arboretum near Castle Howard took place this month. The sight of the collection beautifully hung and framed was a far cry from all the sweaty lonely days with my wheelbarrow panting up hills and down lanes laden with boards, paints and water. Most of the paintings were produced outside in boiling sun (my favourite plein air weather) because the layers dry quickly and I can get exciting painterly surfaces and effects. Many of them also spent evenings hidden under trees and bushes so I could return to them the following day for the next layer of work. Some of the paintings will be shown at the Cambridge Contemporary Gallery in May 2020.

An exciting and challenging commission recently was to paint a house in Filey. It is one of those characterful Victorian houses with lovely windows and brickwork. A statement in colour was central to the brief along with my trademark florals.

Above: Images of work in progress

The painting is a good example of observation and imagination working together to produce a hybrid, part reality and part make believe; all inspired by close observation of the house itself.