The Precious Hours 2017, Collagraph and block print on paper, 92 x 71 cm, Edition of 25
The Precious Hours is an exhibition of new prints and works on paper by Katherine Jones, Rabley’s artist-in-residence 2016-17 and runs from 17 March – 28 April 2018 at Rabley Gallery, Wiltshire.
During her residency Katherine Jones travelled down to Rabley Home Farm from her home in London on a monthly basis. Katherine was able to witness the seasonal changes on the farm as well as more formal changes such as the sale of the dairy herd, which marked a fundamental shift for the farm. She has not attempted to document these changes straightforwardly, rather, the relative space and minimalism of the cultivated landscape in contrast to the squeeze of the urban environment; the differences in scale; the bittersweet nature of farming and our larger changing environment have been the catalyst to the new work.
Katherine Jones at the Rabley Drawing Centre pond.
‘During this residency, Katherine Jones has shared The Precious Hours to be inspired, be concerned and be knowing of this place. Her new watercolours and prints meander through conundrums, alighting upon symbols and references. Their intent is not aestheticism, but question. The physicality of these fragile pieces of paper is both beautiful and profound.’ Meryl Ainslie 2018
Here is a selection of works on show at ‘The Precious Hours’ for the full catalogue please visit the website: click here
Special Event: Artist Gallery and Studio Introduction – Saturday 21st April
Artists Katherine Jones and Fred Galley will discuss their residencies at Rabley Drawing Centre, walking you through the studio and into the gallery to see their exhibitions – Katherine Jones, ‘The Precious Hours’, New prints and works on paper & Fred Gatley, ‘Rabley Series’ Ceramics. This is a free event but places are limited and booking essential. view and book event
The Precious Hours
The title ‘The Precious Hours’ is meant to be read in both a domestic and global context. All time is precious and, as the warming of our planet speeds and visibly affects our environment, the passing of time is ever more apparent.
The work in this exhibition is mostly the result of a year’s residency at Rabley Drawing Centre and Rabley Farm. I visited the farm roughly once a month, made drawings, collected objects and made prints that have been developed both in the Rabley Print studio and back in my London studio.
The show brings together a lexicon of motifs to describe the place and the thoughts evoked during the residency – containers, farm buildings, fields, rocks, birds, clouds and the man-made Rabley pond. During the year, depictions of scale and space have given way to a focus on the passing of time – both in a domestic and global sense – and the visible effects of environmental change making the speed of its passing ever more apparent.
The paintings, sketchbooks and mono-prints are part of the formation or gathering of these individual ideas. The editioned prints, however, are the result of a slower percolation – a consolidation of disparate threads into something more concluded.
The large-scale prints bring together drawings of the farm and surrounding area, the windbreaks between large open fields, mixed clusters of deciduous and evergreen trees and structures loosely derived from the farm’s buildings. These include the farmhouse – large and open, and a serene ‘hide’ from which to observe the birdlife, in particular the red kites and swathes of jackdaws.
A dominant theme has been the sky – so much wider in open Wiltshire countryside than in the city. The warmer average temperatures of recent years are thought to be behind an increase in the occurrence of towering white cumulonimbus clouds. Being more reflective than the grey blanket-like stratus, they form a feedback loop that increases rather than slows the warming of the atmosphere.
This sense of an acceleration of cumulative imbalances in our environment prompted a shift towards more tension in the images – bucolic scenes and skyscapes described in jarring contrasts of line and tone in a colour palette dominated by light flesh-tones and pitch black. Dramatic, distorted, drooping or pouring in a flow-form towards the ground, they describe the accumulation and acceleration of a momentous surge. The resulting aesthetic is something resembling melting ice-cream – sweet, ethereal colours dripped into the brown earth.
I am indebted to Meryl and Andrew Ainslie for giving me the opportunity to work at Rabley and for being such generous and accommodating hosts. Being at Rabley has shifted my perspective and been a catalyst to a new body of work, much of which is still in progress.
Katherine Jones
2018
About the artist
Katherine Jones is a fine art printmaker and painter. She combines traditional forms of intaglio and relief print (etching, collagraph and block-print) to produce her distinctive images. Fragile floras are covered with protective environments – each luminous and held in the surface of print and watercolour. Jones’ images play with the balance of botanical history and the metaphors of a fragile world.
Jones studied printmaking at Cambridge School of Art and Camberwell College of Art. She has been widely exhibited and received numerous awards and residences. Awards – 2014; London Original Print Fair Prize; Printmaking Today Prize; 2015 Artist in residence, Winchester School of Art; Eton College, UK. Public Collections – Victoria and Albert Museum prints and drawings collection, London National Art library, UK; The House of Lords, UK; Yale University Library, USA.
‘Katherine Jones – The Precious Hours’ Publication
Rabley Gallery have published a book to accompany the exhibition. We have copies for sale in the gallery for £18 (special price) or you can view and purchase the book online here: Book Preview
The exhibition runs until April 28th 2018
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