Elaine Phipps

So very pleased to have had work accepted for this show. I'm late to post about it because we've had a time of it with my Mum being very ill over Christmas - thankfully on the mend now. Anyways - here's a taster photo post!

Woke up to this ....

... bloody freezing - but there was a bumper turn-out for the PV and the show was opened by the Mayor, Councillor Akhtar Zaman. (He really was there - standing further up the stairs making his speech lol).

Then everyone rushed up the stairs to have a look!

It was a great turn-out. I'm going back to have a good look around later this week as it was pretty crowded. The exhibition run has been extended into February and more details can be found here.

This was mine - the messy one obvs (86). It was so nicely placed with other landscape pieces on one wall. I'll update this post later once I can get better pix - fab exhibition - recommend, recommend!

Since the beginning of the year I've had a calendar list of opportunities on my studio wall. Last week I took it down and threw it into the recycling bin- it had become a reproachful list of applyapplyapply, that honestly - I didn't really want to take up.

You know that thing where you see a submission oppo, go and see what kind of thing fits-in on the interwebs and then wonder how your square peg will fit in that round hole? Why do I keep doing it lol.

Yesterday was Print Day in May 2022 - I know my limitations - I am not a 'printmaker' but I do like to play with printing things. I whipped out my mangle and a few remaining polystyrene print tiles that I had kicking about and set to. I enjoyed it very much.




Print on the left, plate on the right

I don't have a press - but my table-top mangle serves me well; I don't use inks because I am both impatient and like breathing.

Bubbles will be, for a lot of people (in living memory at least) - associated with Covid and the legally-defined definitions of support and allowed connection. This soft word, describing a sense of safety, support and cocooning - has latterly become a pressure vessel of anxiety, uncertainty, inequality and rage. Much like the virus - mutating into something much darker - leaving feelings of manipulation, isolation, suspicion and despair.

Conversely, bubbles have also been a refuge and a huge reminder of the goodness that shows up and leaves love in the shape of food, offers of help and human contact by phone or online. They have been a chance to choose the positive - to notice (and live in) the here and now; to reflect and change.

2 metres apart and a world away
 tries to embrace some of these aspects and to capture the tension between ennui and a terrible anxiety - while  Nature will be our salvation
 alludes to the beneficial connection between mental wellbeing and experience/observation of the natural world during lockdown.

2 metres apart and a world away

Acrylic paint/ink/crayon and pastel on paper

Framed size 20 x 16 Inch landscape (plain white frame + mat)


Nature will be our salvation

Acrylic paint/ink/crayon and pastel on paper

Framed size 20 x 16 Inch landscape (plain white frame + mat) 


Back in the studio - not really getting into any particular routine of studio practice yet - but then we have EPIC amounts of plate-spinning going on at the moment. Generating page upon page of thoughts in my workbook; enjoying what I can get done right now.

Woot! Work included this month, in a cyber-show - Unseen - curated and hosted by West Art Collective as part of their Zero Cost Exhibition programme.

I submitted two pieces for their Unseen call, embracing aspects of my vestibular disorder - (especially the visual) in my work. I experience vestibular migraines and neurological issues that are relapsing/remitting.

My work is often focused around light - and now I am actively-aiming to include my sometimes-disordered vision (strobing, scintillating scotoma, perception oddities et al) within it.

Integrating my 'unseen' disorder into my art practice, has given value to something that has otherwise brought negativity and a sense of loss.

Top image: Migraine series - scotoma
Bottom image: Light moving across the ridge

Not here yet for 2021  - but I have experimented in previous years, with inking stems of flowers and leaves and making prints with my faithful mangle! Sadly nothing of the incredible fragrance remains.

This image is off to TAE21 - which is a sale of postcard-sized work - this year to raise funds for The Leukaemia and Intensive Chemotherapy Fund (LINC). TAE21 is curated by Cat Salter Smith and will be hosted in Cheltenham, UK.

TAE21 Postcards will be on sale online here after the physical sale on 15 May 2021 in Cheltenham - please note - the deadline for entries has not yet been reached, so check back after 1 March for the full collection. I'll link mine once it has been uploaded to the shop.

Lilacs | collography print on white card , 16cm x 12cm - available through TAE21 (see post text for details).

Another lovely project that King Street Arts in Lancaster ran through October/November. Obviously it was held online - the end result was another intensely intimate visual series - I have very much enjoyed being part of these projects during 2020.

This was my piece - interpreting the theme of kindness through colour - rose quartz, amethyst and gold - in a dancing, whirling embrace, held within a simple orb of light.

394mm x 295mm
Acrylic paint and ink on gold coated paper

This was a most lovely project that King Street Arts in Lancaster ran through late July/August 2020. Obviously it was held online - the end result was an intensely intimate visual series - (click HERE to view). So very cinematic and moving.

"This is our first public participation project, supported by Arts Council England. The exhibition is a series of photographs, each one showing 7 Objects which signify special associations for the people who have put the collection together. The picture is accompanied by a simple list of the objects. There is no explanation, no story, just the objects demonstrating not only the individuality of our lives and experiences but also something of our shared humanity."

These were my 7 Objects

"For many centuries objects have been placed in portraits to show the status, value and importance of the individual(s) portrayed. Still life painting is another way of assembling objects to act as symbols of wealth, status, character; or reminders of other times, seasons and places.