2024 what a year for Artist Alison Jacobs!

2024 has been a great year and I’d like to thanks all of my friends, supporters, family and fellow artists who support and encourage me along the way.

The amazing backdrop to my practice of course is the awesome East Quay Watchet, where I always enjoy meeting visitors who are always blown away by the standards of everything here. If you haven’t had a chance to visit me in my studio here now is a brilliant time to come when a lot of venues and attractions in rural areas are closed East Quay will be gloriously open with a fantastic new program of exhibitions events and workshops and of course all the yummy food and drink in the delicious kitchen cafe.

So lets have a quick sum up of my year. Most of which of course you can read about in my previous blogs.

2024 kicked off with A is for… I’m still collecting As so who knows maybe there will be another show in 2025. If you follow me on Instagram @Alispangle you can see all my As there.

I was very thrilled to get a piece accepted at The Atkinson Gallery Sustainable Open, this is also a piece of work that keeps evolving, maybe thats a reoccurring theme?

April saw me coming out of my studio and becoming my alter ego at The Hatch Fashion Show at The Secret Barn at Langport get on the Hatch mailing list at https://hatch-art.weebly.com/ to find out about our next fashion show booking essential.

We then took the show onto East Quay Watchet, where we strutted our stuff outside and wowed the crowds with our wearable art on the theme of the Gods returning to look for the human after the apocalypse. After the performance the theme was transformed into a stunning exhibition at the Hatch Barn called Into the Void. I created a backdrop especially for this called Gaia a huge oil painting that my costume was presented in front of.

My costume and I got let loose at Fanny’s Meadow festival where we performed infront of festivallers around the campfire it was great fun and challenge to get our costumes and dressed up in a field in the middle of nowhere.

Gaia and the rest of the fashionistas made their final outing to the Stogursey Arts Festival in September. They made a stunning display either side of the aisle of Stogursey Church. As most of my costumes where made from limpet shells gathered from the local beach to Stogursey at Stolford i thought it a very fitting end to her tour.

This year was a year of BIG mural painting for me with two completed at Steart Marshes, one inside, one out. It was a big thrill to hear of folks out on their traditional Christmas walks who enjoyed seeing them. I popped out yesterday and just caught a glimpse before we lost the light on what was a pleasant walk in nature and we even saw a barn owl which was a real thrill.

This year I really got stuck into my teaching. I was commissioned by SAW to work on their online teaching program in the Spring teaching landscape painting live online, which was quite the challenge but a lot of fun.

The Brewhouse Taunton commissioned me to run iPad workshops and travel sketchbook painting workshops wokring with all ages over the summer holidays.

I applied for the East Quay Watchet artists/teacher network programme which is running for the next 3 years. I was delighted when I was accepted and have really loved working with fellow artists and meeting all the great teachers from the West Somerset area. I ran a charcoal drawing workshop in the autumn with them which was brilliant fun and it really stretched me.

I’ve also programmed a series of workshops for 2025 in my studio at East Quay. Check them out on my workshop page and keep your eyes peeled for newsletters and notices. Also if there is anything you’ve missed or would like to do let me know. I have also been running one to ones and mentoring/coaching for creatives which has gone really well. Again please get in touch if this is anything you are interested in. I’ve been working with the wonderful artist Amy Thornley-Heard and she has worked hard in my sessions to improve her skills and push on her practice. So to sum up here are some words from her.

Alison is a highly skilled and knowledgeable artist and tutor who created a relaxed class with a clear structure, which we worked through together. I am so pleased I could work alongside some of the activity explanations and managed to create and order a set of business cards on Canva during our session! I highly recommend Alison Jacobs sessions and we are planning some 1-1 sessions to extend my understanding and use of Canva and Photo Pea