SomeWhereLand

‘SomeWhereLand’ is the name of my new curating/ arthub project, initially inspired by the availability of a beautiful empty unit in the Castle Quay Centre in Banbury, Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire Artweeks: 13th – 21st May

I will be showing with bronze sculptor Geoff Jeal in our ‘back garden’ which is actually like a park with a little lake and huge trees! The big marquee bought for the Fairport Festival will be put to good use. More updates to follow….

26.8.2022

The ‘Unstuck: Finding a Place’ exhibition at Fairports Cropredy Convention festival

 

 

The story so far: 

Two weeks ago, my ‘SomeWhereLand’ exhibition at the Fairport’s Cropredy Convention festival was really well received and was a great experience – scorching heat notwithstanding!

 (It was VERY, VERY hot…), and one of the greatest things for me personally was to see people’s reaction to my paintings. You never know whether the things that you choose to paint will connect with others as they do with you…I’m glad to say that those I talked to really ‘connected’, and if I can do that in a painting I’ve done my job. 

Here’s a little video of J & I rolling up the door on the day before we opened: 

https://www.instagram.com/tv/ChO7IMpD4BU/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

(Courtesy of Noemi Conan)

My co performers in the exhibition tent (the big marquee) – Sarah Arsenault, Noemi Conan, Jeremy Scott, and Rob Griffiths were really brilliant, and I am honoured that they agreed to transport their big, (in some cases), unwieldy canvases up to Oxfordshire – by car and train – and I’m aware of the expense that that incurred.  But it was so great to have most of them here for the show, some for R & R, and some to stay over the 3 days. I loved that, and I couldn’t have done any of this without my brilliant, resourceful, hardworking, problem solving husband, Jonny.  

(Being a musician/songwriter with Jonny in another life, it was also a chance for me to see one or two great acts on the big stage – Trevor Horn (the man behind many BIG hits as producer), Sharon Shannon (crazy energetic, folky, brilliant accordion player), Turin Brakes, and also a couple of friends with their own bands, and guesting with other bands on the bill.)

The attendance at the festival is around 20,000, so the footfall in the ART marquee was pretty good. ‘ART’ was the chosen name on the outside (see photos above), as ‘SomeWhereLand’ just wouldn’t fit! You had to know who we were from halfway across a field… 

The next big thing in the Cropredy metropolis  has been the opening of the ‘SHOP’ on my website!  (See above)

It’s taken about 4 arduous days of ‘nose to the screen’ of learning how to organise it, and to get everything working properly. Again, I have the impetus, and in the end Jonny, (with his years of battling with music programs and film/video making programs (Cubase / Protools/ iMovie, and all that teaches you), actually did all the hard technical stuff. The company that actually does the printing makes it sound so easy, but believe me, it isn’t!!

Anyway, please have a look here! Please scroll down to see giclée print choices, on great quality paper, and all are unframed so you can choose the best frame for your room. More prints to be added over the next few weeks. 

Excitingly, I will soon be making PAINTINGS available to buy as well. In the meantime, if paintings are what really catch your interest, please just go thePaintings pages – see the dropdown menu – and the Drawings page. You can enquire about any work that you see there regarding availability and prices. 

STUDIO VISITS
Lastly! You are more than welcome to visit my studio to see works in real life. A lot of paintings are sold online now, but seeing the actual painting / drawing in real life is hard to beat. Just message / email or phone me to arrange an appointment. The studio is big and airy, so social distancing is easy, and relatively Covid safe. 

 

21.07. 2022

 

Yes, a pretty unusual thing – a contemporary art exhibition, in a big marquee at a music festival!

If you saw any of my previous emails, you’ll know that a pop up exhibition I had planned to be in an empty unit in my local town shopping precinct couldn’t happen, due to the management moving the goal posts at the last minute!

But the fantastic offer of this event saved my bacon, and even though it’s been a big challenge logistically, practically, and almost certainly every other ‘ally’, we are nearly there.

Only 3 weeks today to the opening, but this will be slightly different to a normal exhibition ‘private view’, where anyone can come along and partake of a drink or two, and look at the wonderful artwork. Anyone can still certainly come along – we’d love to see you, but you need a ticket for the festival first of all. The website doesn’t allow me to direct you to a specific page, sorry, but I think it’s not hard to find where to go…It’s a great festival which normally happens every year, with about 20,000 people converging on our little village, and this will be the first for 2 years (well 3 in fact), due to Covid cancellations, so it will be extra special. 

We will apparently be next to the big musical instrument stall, Hobgoblin, on the right hand side as you look towards the stage, near the top of the field, so hopefully not difficult to find. 

There will be myself and 4 other artists with new work – one British artist from Oxford, and three from from London, with various British, Polish and Canadian heritages.  You can expect large scale semi abstract work, (female forms and fabrics / clothing), bold, vibrant figurative scenes of women with attitude, ecology referenced abstracts, and hard edged urban abstract painting. So something a bit challenging, surprising and stimulating to take you on a diversion from the pastoral setting of Cropredy!  It’s MODERN ART, but don’t be scared, you will love it.

I will be posting details of each artist, (a kind of ‘Backstory’, a BIT like a biog) including myself, on this page very soon. Sorry for delay, it’s been a bit frantic here, I’m afraid!

So in the meantime,  please have a look at the websites / Instagram pages of each artist to get a little flavour of what you will see.
All work is for sale, (price lists available at the show, or by emailing the artists in advance), and there will also be a limited number of giclée prints on lovely paper to buy: 

 

THE ARTISTS:

Sarah Arsenault: https://www.sarahearsenault.comand  https://www.instagram.com/sarah3arsenault/?hl=en   

Rob Griffiths:   https://www.instagram.com/b_griff_art/

Jeremy Scott:   www.jeremyscottstudio.co.uk    and  https://www.instagram.com/jeremyscottstudio/

Noemi Conan: www.noemisconan.com  and  https://www.instagram.com/noemiconan/

Myself: www.bobbieseagroatt.com and www.instagram.com/bobbieseagroatt 

Speak soon, and hope to see you on the 11th August, OX17 1AE at 2pm in our big marquee!

Bobbie Seagroatt

 

15.6.22

Hi there dear reader/fan/casual visitor… 

It’s been a long while since I last posted here, (4 months!) but there are good reasons which I won’t bore you with now. The exhibition I mentioned in the previous post below, is now only 2 months away! 

I’ve been painting as consistently as possible, (interruptions / distractions notwithstanding!), plus making some oil pastel paintings on thick watercolour paper so new stuff will definitely be on show. 

One or two of my previously confirmed artists now can’t make it, due mainly to the rescheduling of the exhibition, but some I was hoping would remain, have done ( hooray!),  and I’ve been really fortunate to have a couple more agree to do it on the new dates – August 11th, 12th, and 13th. So I’m anxiously excited because I know it will be fab, assuming we don’t have any more unforseen pandemics, or national emergencies!! It’s hard to 100% guarantee anything these days…

I’ll post more images / and details of the artists over the next few weeks, but for now, please see the revised flyer – five of us, (below), and an image of a work in progress of mine at the top! Really hope you can make it, people to OX17 1AE!  Bobbie 

 

12.2.22

Hello SomeWhereLand people!

Another long post, sorry! 

Hard to believe it’s only been a month or so since the plans for my next 2 exhibitions had to be shelved, due to the new management of the shopping precinct (with the beautiful empty unit where they were to be held) moving the goalposts! On that subject, you may be very interested to read this article from today’s Guardian newspaper: 

But I’m not one to sit down and cry (well, maybe just a bit!), I’m a bit unputdownable, and with the support and ideas of some brilliant friends, not to mention my fabulous husband,  I’m pretty sure that a great exhibition will transpire. It’ll be further down the line – in the summer of this year,  but a bit of extra time is no bad thing….I’m just a bit impatient by nature!

It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster – offers of a fantastic alt venue, big change of plans accordingly and a different way of thinking about it, but there are some huge advantages. So, in a bit more detail:

The  two SomeWhereLand exhibitions combined,  (originally for February and May, featuring hopefully 8 artists – the 5 mentioned in the ‘Unstuck’ invitation/flyer in my post below – plus the 3 artists I mentioned at the end),  will be occupying a great pitch at the big music festival (20,000 people) that happens on 11th, 12th and 13th August this year in Cropredy in Oxfordshire where I live, called ‘Fairport’s Cropredy Convention’.  Follow the ‘Festival’ right hand signpost from the homepage to see all about it.  (There have been some fantastic bands on in the past, and even I myself, as a singer in an alt life have sung on that stage….not bragging or anything. Apart from Fairport themselves, The Trevor Horn Band,  and Richard Thompson, (folk legend), will be the highlights for me this year.) 

As this is almost 6 months down the line, and at a completely different time of year to the original exhibitions, some artists are still TBC, but I have my fingers crossed, and I know it will still be great. 

We’ve sourced a good marquee, and worked out a sturdy hanging system for hanging paintings which will not be wobbly as it’ll be fixed from above, and into the ground.  Security for the works is very good as the field is all locked after the end of each night, and is well patrolled by guards.  

I have yet to design a beautiful flyer / invite but that will come soon.  A regular private view/ opening will obviously not be able to take place, as we are part of the whole festival (tickets here), but on the first day of opening, Thursday 11th August, we will be serving some drinks and pre wrapped nibbles, and as many of the artists as can possibly make it will be there to talk to you about their work!   

Stay tuned for more…

 

Hi Everyone – a bit of a long post follows, but there was quite a lot to say!

Hi Everyone, Very sorry to say that there will be no second ‘SomeWhereLand’ exhibition at Castle Quay in Banbury. Plans for the follow up exhibition, ‘Unstuck: Finding A Place’, were at an advanced stage when the Centre’s management announced the arrival of a team of retail gurus who immediately set about trying to monetise all aspects of Castle Quay’s operation.  They consequently wanted to charge me a crazy amount of money, and I would be paying them to make the semi-derelict shopping centre look interesting and alive. I even offered to put on a workshop / talk but to no avail. To say I am disappointed is an understatement. In my ensuing emails to them and periods of waiting for replies (I’m not the top of their list of priorities I know),  I tried to lay out the case to the management for something fresh, contemporary, unexpected – paintings, drawings and ceramic artworks of real quality in Banbury, to raise the cultural profile. I didn’t even think that the artists I’d asked to take part would agree to it, as it’s a bit of a hike from London, where three of them are based, but I think that the photos of the unit, and the little wobbly video I took of the first show, ‘Herstories: Photography, Fabrics and the Female Form’, were the encouraging elements that made them decide it was worth the effort.  So in the absence of the exhibition, I’d still like to introduce you to the contributing artists:  THE ARTISTS Although I wasn’t aware of it when I was researching artists for the next exhibition, Noemi Conan, who’s work I had just somehow seen by chance, already had a painting in the Royal Academy ‘Summer Exhibition’, work in the South London Gallery ‘New Contemporaries’ exhibition, and another solo exhibition at a club in west London. So I felt validated in my recognition as to what was ‘good’. I also loved the humour of the captions for her ‘Ladyboss’ series on her website, and the fact that her women all looked so defiant, or at least confrontational, wearing their everyday clothes. I loved their strength and their  **** *** attitude.  https://www.instagram.com/noemiconan/ Two of the other artists Matt King and Jeremy Scott had just finished the same course as I had completed the previous year – MA Fine Art Painting at UAL Camberwell College of Arts, and had elements in their work which resonated with me and my work in different ways: Clothing, fabric and the abstract, sometimes absent human form from Jeremy Scott with echoes of formal dress and cultural history, and Matt King’s abstract paintings of cartoon-like forms mixing areas of bold, flat colour with patterned texture. They have both been involved in exhibitions since graduation where they showed their final project work in the South London Gallery, James at Vertical Merger in Woolwich, and Matt having been included in the London Grads at the Saatchi gallery.  https://www.instagram.com/mattkingartwork/  https://www.instagram.com/jjamesscottartist/ The fourth artist Tam Levene, describes herself as a ‘ceramic artist’, which is very apt, as her ceramic vessels are arranged and fixed in ‘frames’, so that they look like abstract paintings – cool, with minimal, abstract formations. I see them as ‘3D ceramic paintings’ www.instagram.com/tamsinleveneceramics    Please have a look at their work online, (links above) and ask for a studio visit (myself included), if you’d like to see things in real life! I’m sure they’ll be accommodating….         As the fifth artist, myself, the paintings I was going to show were the more graphic side of my work, in oil, oil pastel and graphite on 425gsm heavyweight watercolour paper, and marker pen on smooth Bristol Board, rather than all works on canvas, as before. My main themes are, as ever,  the semi abstracted female form, in conjunction with layered fabrics in varying transparencies, plain or printed, and always the photographic start of these, dramatically edited (hi contrast and filters) on photoshop and iPhoto. These works are slightly smaller than the canvases, and are under glass. www.instagram.com/bobbieseagroatt   ****************** I do have some plans for this exhibition to still happen at some point, including the following one which would have been in the middle of May, (for which I had already gathered some great artists together), but there’s a saying about nothing good happening quickly, and I fear that will be the case here. I’m not the worlds most patient person, so sooner than later would be good by me!  Here are the links for the artists for the proposed May exhibition. I was thinking to maybe add another one, maybe two, but these people had already said ‘yes’, to my delight! One of the things I love about curating is that I can draw artists together in one event, and make a bit of joint magic happen. An exhibition is definitely more than the sum of it’s parts.  Please have a look at their fabulous work here:  Sarah Arsenault: https://www.sarahearsenault.com  https://www.instagram.com/sarah3arsenault/?hl=en                                                                                        Jill Swarbrick-Banks:  https://www.swarbrick-banks.com, www.instagram.com/    Rob Griffiths: https://www.instagram.com/b_griff_art/   Speak soon folks, I WILL BE BACK!!!   Bobbie

Hi Everyone,

A regretful update: the exhibition below cannot now proceed, due to matters out of my control. The terms for occupation of the unit (see below), have been changed by the management of the centre, and despite 10 days or so of emailing, no affordable option is available to me. 

So, I am doing my best to reconfigure things for what was to be this exhibition, four artists and myself, and also the upcoming one planned for May, and to which three artists had already agreed. 

Nothing is going to happen quickly, but you know what they say about good things needing time to evolve….? 

Watch this space. 

 

Invitation / flyer for the next exhibition – please save the date for the opening event / private view! Free entry, all welcome – drinks, pre wrapped nibbles, and music! See you there on the 18th February…..

 

10.12.2021  UPDATE:

4 artists now confirmed for the end of Feb exhibition and with myself (with different / new work), that’s 5 of us altogether.

It will be at this same lovely location, with some really exciting/interesting/fresh painters and a ceramic artist who all resonate with me in really diverse ways so I know this exhibition is going to be fabulous!

Invite / flyer for the opening / PV to come soon when I’ve decided a title! 

‘SomeWhereLand’ is the name of my new curating/ arthub project, initially inspired by the availability of a beautiful empty unit in the Castle Quay Centre in Banbury, Oxfordshire.

The location was perfect – opposite the museum and art gallery, an historic boatyard, and next to a coffee shop. A friend had been part of a group who had previously had an exhibition there, and I had a studio full of big paintings that needed to breathe and to be seen – a computer screen just doesn’t do it for large scale work. And the best bit? This vacant unit was totally free to occupy…

In March 2020, we all know what happened…lockdown hit all of us, and my hit came right in the middle of the MA Fine Art Painting I was doing at UAL Camberwell College of Arts in London, so my cohort was unable to have a real life show, and we never had a chance to say goodbye to each other or our tutors. (That became a subject of inspiration for some of my subsequent work).

So I then became determined to make the most of this opportunity, and ideas and planning began, hugely assisted by a chance meeting with a top curator, artist and lecturer who co-directed (with myself and my husband), the whole presentation – both of the exhibition, it’s promotion and advice on my own presentation regarding my website and Instagram.

After many weeks of hard work, the exhibition finally was organised, curated and installed! I learned so much, and after all the battling with the officialdom, (!) it was on the road, and looking pretty fine. As I said, there were so many great comments, and I now wish that I’d bought that ‘Visitors’ book I saw for £2 in a sale bin in the run up!

There will be another opportunity, however, as I have it booked again for the second half of February 14th – 28th, next year, 2022.

Watch this space…..!

Some images and a video of the gallery, the install and the location: