Jillian Eldridge - About my work and me
Looking out at a field, a hedge, fluttering of green in a breeze, new buds and new growth. The subtle colours on the trunk of a tree, sunshine dappling through branches onto a surface of subtle greens, browns oranges and greys. The shy flit of birds in the canopy, the buzz of a bumblebee weaving its way through the air, a moth hiding in the leaves resting until dark. Surrounded by natural life, but in reality so little of it remaining.
I work in oil paint and watercolour and love to draw with graphite pencil. My paintings, once purely of abstraction now have a more figurative quality, and as I watch the patch of world around my home more intently, they take on a deeper meaning. Earlier paintings came about through an interest in migration both ancient and in the present day, human and animal/bird/insect, and this is still highly relevant to current concerns with so many of our migrating species arriving in ever diminishing numbers.
My concern for the diminishing countryside and natural habitat influences my work. I split my time
between meadow restoration and painting, and through doing so, my paintings become more about that landscape. I am engrossed in the life cycles of flowers, insects, birds, trees and their vital interconnectedness.
My drawings are objects in themselves, rather than notes for painting, though the act of drawing is both highly enjoyable and a method of practice too. Whilst my paintings are a spontaneous reaction to my immediate world of landscape, weather, vegetation and animal life, they are also the joyful experience of use of a brush applying richness of colour to a surface to create on object of beauty.
Education
2004 - 2006
Brighton University. MA Fine Art (Practice and Theory)
1994 - 1997
Wimbledon School of Art. BA (Fine Art) Hons
1993 - 1994
Hastings College of Art and Technology. Foundation
Exhibitions
Solo
2018
Thompson Spare Art, Tunbridge Wells
2017
One One Six Gallery, Tenterden
2015
Leytonstone Art Trail, Leytonstone, London
2015
2008-2015
Londonnewcastle Project Space, Shoreditch, London
South East Open Studios
2009
The Arts Forum, Hastings
2004
2003
The Greenstede Gallery, East Grinstead
Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery
2003
2002
The Stables Gallery, Hastings
Jason Kirk Originals, Covent Garden, London
2001-2002
The Richard Coleman Consultancy, Blackfriars, London
2001
2001
The Global Cafe, Golden Square, London
CMYK Designs, London
Group
2018
Rye Creative Centre (with Veronique Marie)
2013
2010-2013
Greenstede Gallery, East Grinstead (with Sarah Flack)
Rye Society of Artists
2009-2015
Rye Creative Centre, Rye
2007-2012
Rye Art Gallery
2008-2010
Coastal Currents
2008
Francis Iles Galleries, Rochester
2007
2006
Heronry Barn Gallery Space
Final Show, University of Brighton
2005
Interim Show, University of Brighton
2005
The Stables Gallery, Hastings
2003-2005
The 'A' Gallery, Wimbledon
2003-2004
Rye Art Gallery
2001
Rye Art Gallery
1997
Wimbledon Library Gallery
1997
The Cut Gallery, Waterloo