Artist Jayne Sandys-Renton offers open-studios welcome

Artist Jayne Sandys-Renton offers an open-studios event on Saturday, October 30 and on Sunday, October 31, both days from 10am until 4pm.
Jayne Sandys-RentonJayne Sandys-Renton
Jayne Sandys-Renton

Her studio is Nutshell House, Lavant, Chichester, PO18 0BH.

From Monday to Friday, November 1-Friday 5, she will be available by appointment only (contact 07817 109006 or [email protected]) and then open again Saturday and Sunday, November 6 and 7, 10am until 4pm.

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“The open studio exhibition covers a period from just pre-lockdown to present day (Nov 2019 to Oct 2021)” Jayne says.

“Having taken a year or so out to really focus on a new body of work, Covid hit and lockdown extended that period.

“During that time I took on a mentor with a group in London called Turps Banana which took my work in a new direction, moving from dark brooding landscapes to layered, colourful, up-close images looking through nature.

“I then had a couple of online exhibitions, one of which was an all-female show with Glyndebourne earlier this year.

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“It was amazing to be invited to show alongside such amazing artists when Covid made it impossible to exhibit live, but nothing beats seeing paintings in the flesh.

“Having to stay home during Covid focused my attention to the garden outside my studio door and how painting could transform this familiar space into a place that, at times, appears magical.

“My grown-up daughters came home, and I painted them.

“I guess the garden became a metaphor for the intense feelings that were happening in a world dealing with a pandemic, transformative moments where nature and human interaction began to create an otherworldliness, and the strange reality imposed on us all at this time.

“In some paintings the figures emerge from dense flora; others are an entanglement of gestural marks and intense colour.

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“As an alumna of West Dean College (masters 2009), recently I approached them to work in their gardens to begin a new body of work. It is another magical space, so we will see where that will lead future work!

“I am looking forward to sharing what I have produced.”

Parking on the road near the Earl of March pub or by the village green (a couple of minutes’ walk).

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