10th May 2023 to 26th May 2023
Honeydale Farm, Station Road, Shipton-under-Wychwood, OX7 6BJ Signs at entrance say FarmED. There is a cafe with a fabulous Cotswold view, along the Evenlode Valley.

FarmART@FarmED

Year-long residency, Jill is one of five artists observing what is happening at FarmED. Jill has been drawing people at work, farmers, founders, food production, managers, volunteers, fencers, flora, fauna, film-makers, road-layers, wall builders, visitors, conferences and cafe, whoever happened to be at the farm when visiting. All the drawings are made in the moment, sometime simultaneously walking and drawing, following her subject, or she puts her little three-legged stool down on which to sit and prop her drawing board on her knees - in all weathers. The stool sinks into the earth!

Oxfordshire Artweeks

Oxfordshire Artweeks in Chadlington

2024 - The Line That Draws The Eye, portraits drawn in less than five minutes.

2023 - FarmART@FarmED, Artwork from of year long residency.

2022 - Body Of Work, Nudes and People at Work

2021 - Barely There, Minimal Line Figures

2019 - Looking At You. Abstract Art Cards

2018 - Gestural Gestation. Vestal Vessels

2017 - Still Moving. Abstract Landscape, Vestal Vessels

2016 - Still Moving Figure. Abstract Landscapes, Thomson's Table

2015 - Still Moving Figure, paintings and drawings, ArtLights.

2014 - Abstract Landscapes + nudes, paintings +...

Headlines

Working online with drawingisfree_org, experimenting with drawing the head for a short duration of time, to tease out a more dynamic, gestural and unexpected ways of recording particular people.

At 8am every Monday morning, and again in the evening - online - drawing unknown artist's faces and hands. Each randomly picked person, (who is also on the same site, drawing), pauses for the duration of one track of music - around 4 mins, and everyone draws them. During an hour's session about a dozen portraits are drawn.

I am loving it.

No time to consider or contemplate, or even measure the...

Solo Shows

Solo shows:

2022 - Body of Work, Oxfordshire Artweeks.

2021 - Barely There, Oxfordshire Artweeks.

2019 - Looking At You, Oxfordshire Artweeks and Berlin.

2018 - Still Moving, The Mill Arts Centre, Banbury.

2018 - So und So, PremArts, Berlin

2018 - Gestural Gestation, Oxfordshire Artweeks.

2017 - Still Moving, Oxfordshire...

Body of Work

As a trained contemporary dancer Jill is interested in

movement.Her drawings are made quickly, creating a vital,

dynamic and gestural line.Her mainstay is working from Life-models in the studio,

where they move from one held position to another.

Last year, she was involved withTHE GLYME LANE PROJECT, drawing allotment holders

at work, and is currently pursuing the theme of

drawing people at labour, as part of a year-long

residency at Honeydale Farm, or FarmED in

Shipton-u-Wychwood.

This exhibition is of two parts.

Bodies at work, quick drawings made observing people

at...

Barely There

How much information is needed to portray the figure? Jill has been paring back, using minimal line or brushstroke, to see just how little information is required.

Looking At You

Historically the female nude was principally for the male gaze. The mode, in a submissive pose, eyes downcast or looking away modestly, had a non-confrontational manner.

In a few paintings, like Manet's Olympia (1863) and Goya's The Naked Maja, (1800) the model looks directly at the viewer. These were shocking for their time.

So Und So

How are drawn figures regarded? Are they seen, or perceived, as un-named sexual objects or are they seen as the epitome of womanhood, fulsome, feminine and curvaceous. Do we, the viewer, change our perceptions of who they are, as we gaze at them, and do they, the drawn figures, appear to change in their pose from this way to that. What kind of mental and visual adjustments do we make when we view them?

Jill Colchester is challenging our perceptions of young women. She is celebrating their dynamism, their grace, their fluidity and youth.

This pop-up exhibition is fleeting in time,...

Gestural Gestation

Over Nine months Jill drew her model during her pregnancy, in a gestural way. The poses were briefly held and often drawn layered, one on top of the other.

Still Moving

The brain can fill-in missing visual information, so not all detail need be drawn. This can lead to an economy of mark-making, and by layering the short-held poses, a dynamic quality is achieved. It can appear to the viewer that no one pose is dominant and so the eye is challenged to see if the model is posing this way or that.The model, therefore, seems to be still moving on the canvas.

Group Exhibitions

Group Shows

2024 - Women By Women IV, Ronapainting Gallery, Oxford

2023 - Drawingisfree, Paris College of Art, Paris

2022 - For Women By Women II, Ronapainting Gallery, Oxford

2021 - ING Discerning Eye, The Mall Gallery, London

2021 - For Women, By Women, Rona Painting Gallery, Oxford,

2020 - cnarts Darl-e and the Bear Gallery, Woodstock, Oxfordshire.

2019 - Oxford Art Society.

2017 - Burford Garden Company Original Art,

2017 - Oxford Art Society Open.

2016 - Poseytude Gallery, Oxford Art Society Open.

2015 - Poseytude Gallery.

2014 - Oxford Art Society.

2013 ...

Teaching

Jill currently tutors with Oxfordshire Adult Learning, a faculty of Abingdon & Witney College.

She offers a 60-week drawing course over two years which can be joined at either level, starting in September:

Drawing From Scratch, for beginners

A thirty-week course for the complete beginner or for those who would like to revisit the basics in drawing. Learn about line and tone (shading), to make objects look three dimensional. Practise perspective, elementary portraiture and figure drawing.

Drawing for Improvers

A thirty-week course for those who have some experience with drawing and...