‘Sacred Creatures’
Hereford Cathedral, Monday 6th October 2025 – Saturday 21 March 2026.
Images from the exhibition
The 16th Century Painted Room Residency
Church Lane, Ledbury February – March 2025
Painted Room Residency, Ledbury February – March 2025
Photo credit : Anthony Palmer
‘Laden With Fruit’
Running from 9th October – 31st December 2024 and interwoven within our own exhibition in the Chained Library as part of an artists residency are beautiful artworks created in response to “Laden with Fruit”, by Jeanette McCulloch. In this short film Jeanette talks about creating the artwork for the exhibition and her journey as an artist when creating this work. The work was specifically created to be housed in glass cabinets alongside rare books from the chained library.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dark winter days need lots of colour!…come and join me using Henri Matisse’s ‘cut outs’ as a starting point to create vivid collage pictures….and pop some money in the donation box to support medical aid to civilians in Palestine. WITH HUGE THANKS please come and join me x
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
The year began by approaching Hereford Cathedral to make contact with Jennifer Dumbleton, Cathedral Librarian, to discuss exhibiting my work in relation to medieval ‘herbals and the library’s collection of illustrated books. I am not particularly knowledgeable about herbs or plants with medical properties, but I have always enjoyed medieval art and manuscripts, and old books from across the globe that depicted plants through glorious paintings and illustrations. The wonderful stylised depiction of plants often appeared simplified and flattened, then dissected to show plant parts, often highly stylised including insects, animals, the cosmos, and people busily occupied in their daily lives.
I visited several times, sitting studying very old books, drawing in pencil. This led me to begin making a series of small handmade illustrated books, creating my own images, often working on paper treated to create unusual backgrounds.
This strange preoccupation with plant forms, pushed me further into drawing initially seeds pods and plant details, but then diving into using porcelain and paper clay. Although ‘herbals’ had been a trigger, the resulting work became an idea for an installation in the chained library in a cabinet….
The Cathedral have offered me the opportunity to be artist-in-residence during the exhibition, where I will discuss my working practice as an artist and provide opportunity for people to look at my sketchbooks and portfolio and understand the working process which led to what is displayed in the glass cabinets.
The exhibition is entitled ‘Laden With Fruit’ and as well as my work features the work of 5 other artists who have been participating for 18 months in a fortnightly BookArts Club that I facilitate in my Red Earth Arts studio (Sue Roig, Sue Molsom, Lesley Ingram, Maggie Sanderson, Valerie McLean and Ann Davies). Specific rare and relevant books from the Chained Library collection will be displayed with the artists work. The exhibition is in Hereford Cathedral Chained Library (entrance is £6) and runs from the 9th October 18th December 2023. Work is still in progress, but it’s a wonderful time to branch out into new avenues.
‘Knotworks’ Revisited
Working with Graham Hartill, Black Mountains poet and longtime friend, we began pulling together work previously made inspired by Kilpeck Church, in Herefordshire surrounded by countryside, a staggeringly unique church showing off its Romanesque sculptures, including 56 corbels and intricately carved doorway.
I think Kilpeck Church is a compelling and absolute church, with its Romanesque carvings and corbels, each a repository of image and ideas worth pursuing. Placed and hidden in the Herefordshire landscape it sits in a quiet sacred place, but draws a steady troupe of pilgrims visiting and paying homage and respect. Sitting drawing whilst listening to Graham read his poems and talking together was agift, which resulted in a series of paintings onto tissue paper which reflected the fragility of all things.
Woven into these new paintings and illustrations are a curious selection of images that pull together to then tug apart and re-configure. Because there is a fundamental interconnectivity to the themes in my work, I observe that art might bind people to place and each other. Thinking about other exhibited or published work, for example two previous Arts Council England grants, for ‘Art Cases’ and ‘Travelling by Moonlight’, exhibitions I have curated and exhibited in group and individual shows, I continually tap into my understanding that all things are interwoven and joined.
This recent Kilpeck artwork has shifted since the previous Knotworks exhibitions, and the initial art made some years ago, made in response to Kilpeck Church (and other Herefordshire Romanesque churches) and Graham’s poems, a series of ten fine silk panels (becoming the skin of a church and its wall paintings). The colours have changed and there is a different weight. Making art is a building process, of scratching in then removing, or layering then revealing and concealing.
Summer is here…
The Ledbury Poetry Festival once again gave me and many other people the opportunity to listen to the best poets, performers, and musicians from across the globe. I ran two workshops, one as part of the Family Fun Day, inviting people and especially children to alter a postcard, adding text and image to create amazing little works of art. Emily Wilkinson ran a fabric banner making workshop too. About 75 people participated during the day. The other workshop, Red Earth Arts (along with Sara-Jane Arbury) was a great success, with a group exploring our Finding Words & Hiding Words, to lovely and unexpected results.
Hellens Manor, ran a two-day Textile Bazaar (Bailey Curtis organised this event) to which I was invited to run two workshops. Inspired by the rambling gardens of this old manor house, I invited the groups to make a collage concertina book, using tags, found words, images, stamped plant forms and old vintage papers.
…So in the first two weeks of July, I got to work with 40 new people, which was a good start, different ideas, conversations and creative energies.
A very generous and gratefully received grant, from the Bulmers Charity, allowed a project that I have been devising for quite some time to come to fruition. I called it Arts & Cake and working with Tess Brooks we began delivering weekly art sessions for people who live with dementia. They attend with a partner or family member, and during each session we eat homemade cakes (made by Sophie Mokler). In a very short space of time the confidence in those with dementia grew, conversations became more relaxed, people achieved a lot as they were introduced to different weekly arts activities where they learn new skills or are reacquainted with ones they know already. Sadly the project ended, and as always, the value of it was immense in supporting people, and in an ideal world such provision would be a matter of course, not something that individuals have to set up and find funding for.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Jeanette’s book ‘In Flux’ featuring her recent paintings available now priced £7.99 please use the Contact form for a copy.
2021 has brought some new commissions.
A commission through West Midlands Railways funded by the Department of Transport, for an illustrated map at Ledbury Railway Station has been given to three artists in Ledbury. Caroline Owen-Thomas who is a local calligrapher, Cheryl Davies who is an illustrator and myself, are making paintings, drawings and calligraphic text, working with Gareth Davies who worked with rail authorities to put together this project. The map will celebrate this historic market town, rich in Tudor timbered buildings and a High Street full of examples of Elizabethan and Georgian architecture. Here are two examples of recent paintings Jeanette has made for her contribution to this project.
A second commission came from The Ledbury Poetry Festival to paint murals in their new premises, The Barratt-Browning Institute on Ledbury High Street. Here is a recent painting, inspired by the poet Sinead Morrisey. Check the Gallery page to have a look at the rest of the murals.
Past Workshops
jeanettemccullochart.com 