Yellow Wallpaper Sneak Peeks

I’m reaching a stage in my Yellow Wallpaper Project where I’m ready to share some of the sketches, images and thoughts that are coalescing into a (hopefully) coherent shape. Please check out the page devoted to the project if you’re interested in seeing how an artistic project comes together or just curious about what I’ve been up to locked up in my studio fuelled by soya lattes and turpentine fumes!

The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman a well known (in the U.S.) feminist writer who was working at the turn of the 19th century. This text is a layered complex examination of the female psyche disguised as a gothic horror adventure about one crazy lady… you can see why I love it!

I hope to have the project finished in a few months please watch this virtual space as I add more sneak peeks and musings on the text and my response to it. My ‘style’ is developing in concert with my interpretation of the text and I hope to have some new and interesting pieces to display at the end of this creative tunnel.

If you are interested in commissioning a piece please email me to discuss details although I am busy I’m happy to take on any small projects that inspire me. If you would like information or to be appraised of prices on anything you've seen here online at an art show or in Greenwich market's Artists' Quarter do not hesitate to email me.

I will be attending shows in 2013 and maybe returning to Greenwich's art market check here or on my twitter feed for details. Keep updated with my work (and my life!) by following me on twitter twitter.com/rebeccaoncanvas

B.A.R.C.

I’ve just updated my collections and added the portraits of dogs that form my Cicing/Asu collection for B.A.R.C. the paintings have been donated to the charity however if you are interested in one of a limited edition series of prints (proceeds will be donated to B.A.R.C.) please contact me. If you are interested in finding out more about the charity visit their website here: www.balidogrefuge.com The name of the collection “Cicing/Asu” is two Balinese words for dog ‘Cicing’ is complimentary a word a Balinese person might use to refer to a pet and ‘Asu’ is derogatory a word I often heard in reference to the dogs I worked with while volunteering at B.A.R.C. As in my “Rats with Wings” collection I am examining the human reaction to and interpretation of animals and how whether that reaction is positive or negative an individual animal is always disadvantaged when reduced to a symbol and not engaged with as a sentient fellow creature.

I've returned to work on 'The Yellow Wallpaper' and hope to have some sneak-peeks available soon to view on the website. I’m surprised to find so many links in the different subject matters I turn my artistic eye to, the dogs in Bali tell a different story to the island paradise narrative that is often repeated by tourists and lonely planet guides just as the history of women’s mental illness tells a subterranean truth about our society. The yellow wallpaper is all about pulling back the dominant narrative and exposing sub-patterns and sub-text… turns out that’s what I’m all about too!

I am currently free for commissions so if you have an idea you would like to become a painted reality please email me. If you would like information or to be appraised of prices on anything you've seen here online at an art show or in Greenwich market's Artists' Quarter do not hesitate to email me.

back to the grindstone!

I'm just getting back to work in my studio after a month away in Indonesia working on a collaborative art project there to raise money for B.A.R.C. Bali (dog) Adoption and Rehabilitation Centre. Find details of this project in my new collection Cicing/Asu and find details about B.A.R.C. and the work they do at www.balidogrefuge.com. The country was beautiful, the dogs were fun and hard work and the climate was near paradise... so I'm happy to be back in London in the snow.

I'm returning to work on 'The Yellow Wallpaper' and hope to have some sneak-peeks available soon to view on the website. Until then please wet your appetites by reading the full text of Gilman's short story here: www.gutenberg.org/files/1952/1952-h/1952-h.htm I'm experimenting with the juxtaposition between the stylised figurative work I am used to and a more freeform abstract impressionist approach which i think by turns is developing into an interesting (and sometimes alarming) style.

I am currently free for commissions so if you have an idea you would like to become a painted reality please email me. If you would like information or to be appraised of prices on anything you've seen here online at an art show or in Greenwich market's Artists' Quarter do not hesitate to email me.

I will be attending shows in 2012 and returning to Greenwich's art market check here or on my twitter feed for details.

Keep updated with my work (and my life!) by following me on twitter twitter.com/rebeccaoncanvas

a holiday and a short artistic foray

I have been working on a project based around Charlotte Perkin Gilman's short story The Yellow Wallpaper. The drawing painting and writing has been heady and intense and I hope to have the project finished sometime in 2012. Check back here as I intend to create a blog to chart the progress of my new collection and as an outlet for some of the strangeness this short story stirs in my mind.

You can read the full text of The Yellow Wallpaper here: www.gutenberg.org/files/1952/1952-h/1952-h.htm

For the next month or so I will be in Indonesia collaborating with fellow artist Linda Buller to raise funds for her stray dog shelter. After the success of my rats with wings project which focused on the unloved/dispossessed animals on London's streets I hope to contribute to helping Bali's much maligned strays by painting them with the same innate dignity I attempted to convey in the foxes and pigeons in my 'Rats with Wings' collection.

I will of course post pictures of these paintings here and prints may be available for sale with proceeds going to B.A.R.C. www.freewebs.com/balidogs/ originals will also be available for sale... in Bali.

When I return to London I will be free for commissions so if you have an idea you would like to become a painted reality please email me. If you would like information or to be appraised of prices on anything you've seen here online at an art show or in Greenwich market's Artists' Quarter do not hesitate to email me.

I will be attending shows in 2012 and returning to Greenwich's art market check here or on my twitter feed for details.

Keep updated with my work (and my life!) by following me on twitter twitter.com/rebeccaoncanvas

The Yellow Wallpaper

I am embarking on a new project based around Charlotte Perkin Gilman's short story The Yellow Wallpaper. The story is a gothic-feminist narrative which is based on Gilman's own experiences of a Victorian 'rest cure' in which women suffering from anxiety, depression or even psychosis were locked in bare rooms alone with no access to any mental or physical stimulation. They were not permitted to read or write or accept visitors and as you can imagine often decended further into their illness as a result of this treatment. the narrator in Gilman's text is sequestered in an attic with bizarre smouldering yellow wallpaper and as the tale progresses she begins to see/imagine another woman behind the pattern of the wallpaper, desperate to get out.

Every new artistic project feels like a journey and I’m excited and humbled to be starting this one, you can read the full text of The Yellow Wallpaper here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1952/1952-h/1952-h.htm I am intending to keep people informed on the progress of my new collection through a blog which i will add to the site soon, i would appreciate any comments or observations on my interpretations of The Yellow Wallpaper as the project develops so please check out my blog and tell me what you think.

Ironically or appropriately I am intending to lock myself in my studio for the next few months to concentrate on this project so i will not be at Greenwich Artist's Quarter however if you are interested in viewing any particular piece I can arrange private viewings in my studio in North London.

I am currently free for commissions so if you have an idea you would like to become a painted reality please email me. If you would like information or to be appraised of prices on anything you've seen here online or at my stall do not hesitate to email me.

Keep updated with my work by following me on twitter twitter.com/rebeccasquire

Suspended Animation... Taking the rest of the month off!

Thanks to everyone who came to Chelsea to support me at the Untitled Arts Fair, it was exhilarating to present my new collection and inspiring to meet so many amazing artists and clients. If you are interested in buying a print version of the Goblin Market comic book please contact me via email, I have a few of a limed edition signed first print run left.

I am now starting a new collection inspired by another piece of literature I love and i will keep you updated on my progress though this website and possibly a new blog. I am very excited about my artistic journey and wherever i may be going on these explorations I think it will be distinctive and hopefully 'brutally beautiful' (this is how a customer at the Untitled Arts Fair described my Goblin Market collection). However... before that new adventure begins I am taking a few weeks break to visit family in Australia. I will still be contact-able via email but I will not be in London until July.

I will be free for commissions upon my return so if you have an idea you would like to become a painted reality please email me. If you would like information or to be appraised of prices on anything you've seen here online or at my stall do not hesitate to email me.

Keep updated with my work by following me on twitter twitter.com/rebeccasquire

Goblin Market at the Untitled arts fair

I haven't added any new work to my collections page on this site for a few months as I am holding back my new collection inspired by Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market to unveil at the Untitled arts fair on the weekend of the 3rd 4th and 5th of June. Goblin Market is a beautiful victorian poem about addiction, sexuality, feminism and religion disguised as a cautionary fairy tale for young maidens. Read the full text here: http://plexipages.com/reflections/goblin.html. My new collection tells the story of Goblin Market using the messy visceral medium of paint and pre-raphalite imagery juxtaposed with abstract movement to explore the complex themes of the piece.

If you would like to come along and see the new collection 'in the canvas' the details are here: http://www.untitledartistsfair.co.uk/ I will be at stall B31. If you would like free tickets for the show or for the VIP champagne opening on Friday the 3rd please contact me via email and I will see what I can do. There will be hundreds of other artists displaying their work but most importantly two of the members of Greenwich arts collective Charles Borrell and James Yates will be there too so we can support and inspire each other and hopefully the public.

I will be free for commissions after the Untitled fair so if you have an idea you would like to become a painted reality please email me. If you would like information or to be appraised of prices on anything you've seen here online or at my stall do not hesitate to email me.

Keep updated with my work by following me on twitter twitter.com/rebeccasquire

To market, to market to buy... some art!

As of yesterday (30th of Jan) I am back at Greenwich market in the Artist's Quarter every sunday come rain or shine (but if it snows I will stay at home). It is great to be back out there talking to the public about my work and spending time with the rest of the artist's collective. I am showing an eclectic collection of dreamlike works focusing on the female form, if you are familiar with my recent work you may notice a shift of focus and style.

I am preparing for a big summer show http://www.untitledartistsfair.co.uk/ where I hope to present a whole new collection the weeekend of the 3rd 4th and 5th of June may seem like a long way off but to me it is just around the corner so I will be burning the inspirational candle at both ends these next few months, hope you can be there to see the results.

I am currently free for commissions so if you have an idea you would like to become a painted reality please email me. If you would like information or to be appraised of prices on anything you've seen here online or at my stall do not hesitate to email me.

Keep updated with my work by following me on twitter twitter.com/rebeccasquire

Happy New Year

Like everyone else I have been in festive limbo for the last few weeks; catching up with friends and family, indulging appetites and opening gifts. As of today I am back to work in my studio doing the prep work for my summer show and listening to old jazz LPs. I will be back at the art market in Greenwich towards the end of January when hopefully winter's teeth will be receding and I will have restocked my stall.

I am currently free for commissions so if you have an idea you would like to become a painted reality please email me. If you would like information or to be appraised of prices on anything you've seen here online or at my stall do not hesitate to email me.

Keep updated with my work by following me on twitter twitter.com/rebeccasquire

It's that time of year again...

It is getting cold at Greenwich market and next sunday (12th December) will be my last trading day before I take a festive break for a few weeks. I will still be available via email if you need to acquire last minute arty gifts and can arrange delivery or postage within reason.

2011 is going to see the start of a new collection as I prepare for a big summer show. The collection is going to focus on the fetishisation of property, particularly mass produced items that become more than the plastic they are made of. I won't say anymore than that, you will have to wait and see... and so will I, as I often surprise myself! Thanks for all your support this year, I'm looking forward to encountering lots more interesting pieces and interesting people on my artistic path.

I am currently free for commissions so if you have an idea you would like to become a painted reality please email me or come down to the market for a chat, If you would like information or to be appraised of prices on anything you've seen here online or at my stall do not hesitate to email me.

Keep updated with my work by following me on twitter twitter.com/rebeccasquire

Enjoy the darkest few weeks of the year however you celebrate and know that as of the 21st of December the days start getting longer (good news for those of us who rely on light to work in!)