ArtCan are pleased to introduce you to our artist Jill Meager. Jill is a fine artist who primarily creates original portraits of animals, birds and children. We are delighted to share more about her practice and thoughts on being a member of ArtCan. Enjoy!
Art captures a passion and communicates it to the viewer. Every time I see an animal, bird or child, I immediately want to involve myself in its existence, to describe its form and presence, and to uncover its identity. The eyes are always my starting point: once I have those in place, I feel I can see into the soul and find the path to the portrait. Although I work across all media, I particularly like the roughness and grittiness of charcoal and pastel – organic materials to describe organic beings. Over a few weeks, I add, take away, add more again until I am happy with my invention. My studio floor becomes a heap of dust and rubber flakes, broken pastel and charcoal sticks and the discarded wrappings of many erasers.
Some of my favourite birds are in the Corvid family and I travel round the UK looking at the intelligent, resourceful and frequently hilarious antics of various rooks, ravens, magpies and crows. For the recent portraits, I have been using ink: it coincides so beautifully with their dark and graceful fluidity.
I have also been doing some collages. I love the slightly 3D, sculptural effect of layering paper and card over and over until the subject comes alive and seems ready to stride off the page. My desk fills up with pots of glue, brushes, scalpels, and tweezers, the studio awash with sheets of coloured paper -bought, painted, torn from magazines, or randomly sourced when I am out and about. Magpie-like, I have an eye for glitter and booty to bring back to my nest.
More and more, I am aware of climate change and species loss and am in the middle of a series called Darwin’s Birds, exploring the idea of what he saw and what we are in danger of now losing. I expect this theme of loss to become increasingly part of my work. And that would be my advice to any new artist: find your passion and stick with it, and if you can, try and do some good. The world feels a very fragile place at the moment.
I studied at Cambridge University and Putney School of Art and Design, initially working as an actor – on stage, on TV and in film. But raised as I was in rural Scotland, I have wild creatures in my blood and soon resumed a life of making art and exploring the natural world. Alongside my art practice, I work as a freelance performance and communication coach. It feels very connected to the creative process as it’s mainly helping people to hone their writing skills and express themselves with precision and passion. I also do this for a Labour Member of Parliament and I am passionate about politics.
I have been a member of ArtCan for three years and have taken part in several exhibitions. It has been a privilege to be part of this group of national and international artists and to meet and discuss different practices, approaches, views and ideas. (Artists are normally quite solitary.) Work is exhibited regularly and in great locations – the Shard is particularly exciting and I have sold one of my works there! It’s also a great organization because the revenue for sales goes entirely to the artist. It’s challenging enough to make money from making art, but then when you have to give up 40 or 50 percent of the sale price, it’s very hard to make it work financially. This is something ArtCan completely understand – they are on the side of the artist and have proved that there is another way. The entire ArtCan team is also brimming with ideas, energy and enthusiasm to get things done and makes the whole process a pleasure.
You can find more about Jill’s work here: www.jillmeager.com
