November 2011

• After several enquiries I decided to publish the images of the 19 drawings, the complete Bracknell Regeneration Project series, and the digital fresco panel from my Observations on a Town exhibition into a small book. I was amazed with just how straight-forward it was to put together and how well the colour imagery of the printed book matches the original drawings. If you are interested in seeing a preview of the book and finding out about how to order one please visit my book page at Blurb.com.

October 2011

• I finally made it to southern Spain last month and visited a few destinations that were on my 'must see' list since I studied the Moorish architecture as part of my Art History degree. The Mesquita (Cathedral) in Cordoba was amazing with it's the colourful arches, the patterned tiles of the Alcazar in Sevilla were wonderful, but the Alhambra in Granada is an experience that goes beyond description, just go see it! Photography is the starting point for most of my mixed media work and the images of the repeated patterns that I collected in Spain will keep me inspired for a long, long time.

September 2011

• I've started working on a series of small sculptural pieces that are a response to the steady stream of news of the breakdown of western society. In news reports on possible causes of the riots in the UK last month, ideas ranged from the breakdown of the family or the educational system, to the impact of the media and the greed of big business. This led me to research what it meant to be a 'Pillar of Society' and I came across discussions of seven main subjects or institutions. As I see them they are all crumbling or broken in some form or another which has provided me with ample inspiration. My first three Pillars of Society - Government, Family, and Business will be shown in a Group Show at Gallery@49 in Bracknell opening this month.

August 2011

• The Digital Fresco workshop at the end of July at the Digital Media Centre in Bracknell was a great success over a very hot and humid 2 days. Unfortunately this meant a few hours of watching plaster drying till we could get to the state we could apply the wet transfer digital prints to the fresco surface, but the results were amazing and I'll be posting a new section on the DMC web site soon. One artist, Julie Shackson, attended from Cardiff in south Wales and created a wonderful digital fresco, you can read about how she created it on her blog at Juju's Fybercafe.

July 2011

• I've been busy the past two months setting up a small artists studio group in an empty shop in Bracknell town centre. I've researched the non-profit versus charitable status, negotiated lease terms, prepared budgets, and calculated studio rents, but finally we're in! I can now concentrate on painting the walls and planning my own work space needs. These are aspects of an artistic practice that art schools rarely cover but many artists deal with at some point in their career. I recently had the opportunity to discuss the setting up of specialised printmaking studios with a group of artist-printmakers who have the added challenge of expensive presses and public use of their facilities. My article Pressing Ahead is in the Summer 2011 issue of Printmaking Today out now.

June 2011

• The ancient art of fresco, where a mural was painted directly onto a wall using pigments mixed with water and applied onto wet plaster has been updated for the digital era. Using a pigment inkjet wet transfer process a digital print can be applied to wet plaster creating a digital fresco. I'll be showing work ranging from a small fragment to a life-size wall using this technique at the Bucks Open Studios in Burnham. The studios are open from the 18 June till the 3rd of July. I'm also running a workshop introducing the basics of this Digital Fresco technique at the Digital Media Centre at South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell in late July.
• I'm in a state of flux this month as I'm packing up my studio I have shared with 2 other artists for the last 5 years. What was formerly an empty shop waiting to be demolished is returning to that state, but it's wait may soon be over. Meanwhile we are hoping for news on a different empty shop that the very supportive people behind Bracknell Regeneration Partnership are offering. It could perhaps keep us in an affordable studio for a few more years! If you want to know more about our creative uses for empty retail shops visit the ReOrsa web site.

May 2011

• I'm in the final stages of completing my urban ruin New Dead End Street which is my follow-up work to Notes from Market Street and Daylight Robbery. It rounds out a trio of life sized works on my repeated urban subjects of windows, walls, and pavements. This work will be included in a sculpture trail as part of the Buckinghamshire Open Studios events taking place from the 18th of June to the 3rd of July. I'll be showing along with 7 other artists in a beautiful country garden in Burnham, Bucks. For more information click here.

April 2011

• With news of wars, uprising's, earthquakes, tsunami's, nuclear meltdowns and budget cuts on everything, the second decade of the 21st century is certainly off to an interesting start. All of these events were the inspiration for my latest print 'Uncertain Times'. This print and more can be seen as part of the group exhibition 'LOOP' at the Bankside Gallery London, adjacent to Tate Modern, from the 19th to the 25th of April.

March 2011

• LOOP, an artist-led initiative, are very pleased to announce that they will be exhibiting at the Bankside Gallery London, adjacent to Tate Modern, from the 19th to the 25th of April. The exhibition which will be opened by Gill Saunders, Senior Curator of Prints at the Victoria & Albert Museum, will showcase recent work by a group of contemporary artists who explore the varied visual language of print within their art. The artists are Anna Alcock, Alison Bickmore, Helen Bridges, Anthony Broad, Ian Brown, Janet Curley Cannon, Gloria Ceballos, Marianne Ferm, Julie Hoyle, Samuel Lawson, Gail Mallatratt, Scarlett Massel, Elizabeth Ockford, Elizabeth Peer, Sumi Perera, Bill Pryde, Lucinka Soucek, Maki Takizawa, and John Tate, founder of LOOP.
• It is always wonderful when I get feedback on my art from someone who's encountered it for the first time, especially if they feel interested enough to write about it. This was the case with Susan Hynes who wrote a review of my recent solo show at the Corn Exchange in Newbury. The comment I appreciated most was "Janet's work has actually made me stop and think and take more notice on what is going on around me." You can read the full review here.

February 2011

• I will be exhibiting in the upcoming ReOrsa Artists Project No. 5 which opens at the More Arts Space in Wokingham, Berkshire on the 10th of March. The exhibition, curated by Tonia Maddison, showcases the work of 18 regional artists all responding to the theme 'All That Remains'.

January 2011

• I'm very pleased to have work selected for the upcoming Open Photography 2 exhibition at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol. The judges looked for contemporary approaches to photography in art and was open to the broadest possible range of artwork involving photographic processes, including the latest digital experiments. The exhibition opens on the 20th February and runs until the 5th of April.
• My digital print 'Leave the Furniture' has been selected to be part of Small Print:Big Impression an annual printmaking exhibition sponsored by Leicester Print Workshop. The exhibition will tour from February to December 2011 to five venues across the Midlands and the North of England. The first show opens in February at the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, situated within the historic New Walk area of Leicester.

Highlights from 2010

• A selection of my recent digital prints will be included in a small group show in a gallery located in the beautiful countryside of Northwest Germany, between Bremen and Oldenburg. Galerie Am Stall is bringing together the work of 5 artists to explore the rich visual vocabulary possible through various printmaking techniques.
• When the opportunity arose to submit an animation for consideration in the annual Pixel Pops competition with the theme 'Urban Realities', I just had to try. It was even more enticing when reading the description by the curator Jeanne Brasile, "The films will be projected onto vacant buildings, idle billboards, and crumbling structures which would be chosen for their line of sight to highways, airline flight patterns, rail lines and areas with heavy foot traffic - presenting what perhaps those passing by may have never paused to contemplate". Luckily I DID get my animation 'Urban RedGeneration' selected, so if you happen to be passing through Newark, New Jersey USA this month and see it on a crumbling structure let me know!
• Critical Mass: Printmaking Beyond the Edge the latest book by Richard Noyce has just been released. It showcases the work of 52 artists from 28 countries, I am one of four artists selected from England to be included. "In recent years the boundaries between the once distinct fields of the visual arts have become blurred, and growing numbers of artists now incorporate printmaking techniques within their practice. This book provides a broad-ranging and challenging source of information on the most exciting cutting edge developments in international printmaking" as stated in the overview. My sculptural piece 'Daylight Robbery' was selected by Richard after he visited my studio in 2009. The work is a statement about recent economic events and uses several digital print processes along with a variety of other media. The book is available from Amazon.
• My animation 'An Urban Abstraction' has been chosen for the 'Contemporary Video Art from The Projection Gallery.com Collection' and will be shown by BBC Big Screens London in the period up to the end of 2010. It's a group showreel compiled for the Local Shorts programme to be shown on the large outdoor public screens at Walthamstow and Woolwich and other potential BBC events. The selection was made with an emphasis on accomplished artists from the UK and overseas whose work is appropriate for the public arena.
• I was commissioned by Artists & Illustrators Magazine, a practical advice arts publication, to write a three-part introduction series on using Photoshop within a visual fine art practice. The articles are published in the February, March, and April 2010 issues available throughout the UK.