Tag Archives: willow

Grant award Arts Council England

I am delighted to announce that I have been awarded a Developing your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England.

My project ‘Investigating new ways of creating with natural and recycled materials in a historical environment’ will enable me to take time out from my normal work to focus on experimenting and challenging myself as an artist.

I am grateful to Arts Council England for supporting me to do this. I also wish to say thank you to ‘a space’ arts @aspacearts, Southampton City Council @SotonCC and Tudor House and Garden @tudorhouseandgarden for providing support and encouragement to follow my dreams.

 

Phil Gibby, Area Director, Arts Council England, South West, said:

“We’re delighted to support Jacqueline Rolls through our Developing Your Creative Practice funding programme, thanks to National Lottery players.

This investment will give Jacqueline time to focus on her creative development as a willow sculpture artist, to experiment, and to take creative risks.

At the Arts Council we believe that creativity fulfils us as individuals and helps us to better understand the world, which is why we’re so pleased to back Jaqueline in developing her creative potential.”

 

 In the beginning 

My  first day working in the gardens  (  26th September )

I spent my first hours with furzy staff, meeting a few of the volunteers. There is something special about spaces such as this which is so tangible that you can feel it that entices people to stay and be part of it

A space for tranquillity, time to be part of something that is important and worthwhile.

Id already met with the head gardener who had said that he was happy for me to create different things around the garden, I knew that it would take me time to become familiar with the space so  I decided  to something simple, so much of creating new work for me is to allow myself time to play and just get into the creative experience so  as I love the colours of the leaves especially the varying shades of  reds and golds,

Creating simple swirls and circles, large petal shapes and mounds under one of the rhododendron.

wooden heartI was drawn to an old wooden stump at the top of the rise. a nearby plant was shedding heart-shaped leaves, different shades of red.

I find such starkness enticing.  as I was working for some young families with children walked past,  curiosity got the better of them and they asked me what I was doing

We spoke about the pleasurable act of creating  patterns with leaves  and found materials, one of the ladies was particularly interested in what I was doing and asked me if I’ve made the colourful shape under the tree, she said that they’ve been  trying to guess what it was, I encouraged them to do have a go themselves