Archive of Work — Jess Blandford

Colour Studies (2021-23)

postcard size colour studies in oil paint on gesso boards, made in 2022

Colour Study, 2022
Oil on 5x7” Gesso Board
23.5 x 28.5cm open framed
SOLD

Colour Study, 2022
Oil on 5x7” Gesso Board
23.5 x 28.5cm open framed
NFS

Colour Study, 2022
Oil on 5x7” Gesso Board
23.5 x 28.5cm open framed
SOLD

(Un)Tethered (2018-20)

This series of abstract paintings are a playful exploration of domestic space. They are influenced by descriptions of the ambivalent mother figure Baba Yaga’s unstable hut in russian folktales. Hidden layers of colour suggest invisible repetitive work. These abstract structures don’t hold together logically. They are wonky, they float away or tumble open. Attempts to tether them seem perhaps to be futile.

I’m delighted to have this work represented by ForgeArt a contemporary online gallery that showcases emerging and established artists that challenge, stimulate, inspire and tell a story. Please see their website if you are interested in buying one of these works.

(Un)Tethered X, Verde
Acrylic on canvas board 30 x 40cm, 2020
Open framed - £425

(Un)Tethered III
Acrylic on board, 25 x 25cm, 2019
SOLD

(Un)Tethered IX, Orange
Acrylic on canvas board 30 x 40cm, 2019
Open framed - £425

(Un)Tethered XIII, Indigo
Acrylic on wood panel 20 x 20cm, 2019
Open framed
SOLD

(Un)Tethered IV, Green
Acrylic on wood panel 20 x 20cm, 2019
Open framed
SOLD

(Un)Tethered XIV, Neopolitan
Acrylic on wood panel 40 x 40cm, 2019
Open framed - £495

(Un)Tethered II, Blue
Acrylic on wood panel 30 x 30cm, 2019
Open framed - £375

(Un)Tethered XII, Coral
Acrylic on wood panel 55 x 55cm, 2020
Open framed £525

(Un)Tethered XVII, Mustard,
Acrylic on Wood Panel, 2020
62x62cm
Open Framed
SOLD

(Un)Tethered VIII, Plum
Acrylic on canvas board 30 x 40cm, 2019
Open framed - £425

(Un)Tethered I, Buff
Acrylic on wood panel 30 x 30cm, 2019
Open framed - £375

(Un)Tethered VI, Silver
Acrylic on wood panel 55 x 55cm, 2019
Open framed
SOLD

(Un)Tethered VII, Yellow
Acrylic on wood panel 20 x 40cm, 2019
Open framed - £375

(Un)Tethered V
Acrylic on board, 20 x 20cm, 2019
SOLD

Tethered I
Acrylic on board, 30 x 30cm, 2018
SOLD

Untitled (2018)
Acrylic on canvas board, 30 x 30cm
SOLD

Tethered II (2018)
Acrylic on board, 30 x 30cm
SOLD

Tethered III, Ghost
Acrylic & pencil on board, 30 x 30cm, 2018
Not for Sale

Untitled (2018)
Acrylic on canvas board, 30 x 30cm
SOLD

Line Drawings (2011-2024)

I’ve been making repetitive line drawings for over a decade. They are each hand-drawn with ink on paper and are quiet meditations on the invisible work that so many women do to keep homes and families running smoothly.

The drawings are simple. They are a repetition of individual lines. Each line is similar but unique. Like the work involved in domestic life, they are mundane, familiar, often boring. But for me something interesting happens in repeating the act over and over. Like the never-ending task of wiping (surfaces, hands, bums, tears…), the act of repetition, performed day-in-day- out, creates a kind of intimacy. The cumulative effect of a simple task done (mostly!) with patience turns the ordinary into something valuable and unique.

Easy Breezy Diptych, 2024
Hand drawn original
Black ink on 425g watercolour paper (hot pressed)
63 x 84cm
Float mounted & framed with UV non-reflective glass
£600

Frequent Interruptions, 2024

Hand drawn original
Black Ink on 425gsm watercolour paper (hot pressed)
44 x 63cm, Float mounted & framed with UV non-reflect glass,
SOLD

Again (and again), 2024

Hand drawn original
Black ink on 425gsm watercolour paper (hot pressed),
63 x 44cm, Float mounted & framed with UV non-reflect glass,
£400

Bit Ragged Around the Edges, 2024

Hand drawn original
Black Ink on 425gsm watercolour paper (hot pressed),
44 x 63cm, Float mounted & framed with UV non-reflect glass,
£400

The Ever Elusive Lie In, 2024

Hand drawn original,
Black ink on 425gsm watercolour paper (hot pressed),
63 x 44cm, Float-mounted & framed with UV non-reflect glass,
SOLD

Hiatus II, 2022
Black ink on china white acid-free paper
59 x 84cm framed [SOLD]

Swish, 2022
White ink on gun-metal blue acid-free paper
59 x 84cm framed
SOLD

Peek, 2019
White ink drawing on grey acid-free paper
92 x 71cm Framed [£500]

Feeling Ragged, 2022
White ink on grey acid-free paper
73 x 53cm Framed
£425

Interval, 2019
Black in drawing on white acid-free paper
88.5 x 68cm Framed [£500]

Ripple, 2019
Black ink drawing on white acid-free paper
62 x 87cm Framed
SOLD

Are we nearly there yet?, 2020
White ink on graphite grey acid-free card
60 x 40cm framed
SOLD

Torn, 2019
Black ink drawing on white acid-free paper
68 x 88cm framed
SOLD

Curtain Call, 2020
black ink on white paper
40 x 40cm framed
SOLD

Yesterday, 2020
Black ink on off-white acid-free paper
52 x 52cm framed
SOLD

Glimpse, 2019
White ink drawing on grey acid-free paper
71 x 92cm Framed
SOLD

Hiatus, 2019
Black ink drawing on cream acid-free paper
62 x 87cm Framed
SOLD

Hush-hush, 2019
Black ink drawing on cream acid-free paper
78 x 64cm Framed [£510]

SOLD

Breeze, 2019
Black ink drawing on cream acid-free paper
78 x 64cm framed
£510

SOLD

Line Drawing, 2017
White ink on dark grey paper
[sold]

Murmur, 2019
Black ink drawing on cream acid-free paper
78 x 64cm Framed
SOLD

Line drawing, 2012
Black ink line drawing on white paper
[sold]

Line Drawing, 2017
White ink line drawing on brown paper
[sold]

Line Drawing, 2018
White ink on dark grey paper
32 x 42cm Framed [Sold]

Whose turn for a lie-in? (diptych), 2024
Hand drawn original
Black ink on 425g watercolour paper (hot pressed)
63 x 84cm, Float mounted & framed with UV non-reflect glass
SOLD

A bit ragged around the edges, 2024
Hand drawn original
Black Ink on 425gsm watercolour paper (hot pressed)
44 x 63cm, Float mounted & framed with UV non-reflect glass
SOLD

Again (and again, and again), 2024
Hand drawn original
Black ink on 425gsm watercolour paper (hot pressed)
63 x 44cm, Float mounted & framed with UV non-reflect glass
SOLD

Fluorescent Yellow Room (2010)

This work was made in collaboration with Joe Morris as part of the Market Estate project in 2010.

The Market Estate Project invited 75 artists and designers to work alongside residents of a soon to be demolished housing estate, in Islington London, transforming the flats left behind, corridors, staircases and building facades and transform the building into a creative celebration, a colourful and rich last memory of the estate.

More than 2500 people attended the event on 6 March 2010 which invited the public to explore the art works created on site, just before the demolition bulldozers move in.

Our work, Fluorescent Yellow Room, transformed one of the rooms in a flat into an immersive colour-saturated evocation of a 1960s living room. Using period furniture and domestic objects we painted every surface in the room fluorescent yellow. This colour was chosen for both its overly hopeful brilliance and its association with the nuclear age and warning. Its antiseptic nature creating the feeling of an optimistic toxicity. We wanted to reflect the luminous idealism of the 1960s utopian plan for the site, but create an unnervingly flat immersive experience.

It was on show for only 1 day before the bulldozers arrived and the entire site was demolished.

[photos by Tom Willcocks]

[kindly supported by HMG paints]

Fluorescent Yellow Room

This work was made in collaboration with Joe Morris. We were invited to participate in The Market Estate Project in 2010.

The Market Estate Project invited 75 artists and designers to work alongside residents of soon to be demolished housing estate, in Islington London, transforming the flats left behind, corridors, staircases and building facades and transform the building into a creative celebration, a colourful and rich last memory of the estate.

This work 'Fluorescent Yellow Room' looked to the history of the estate, built in 1967 as a utopian vision of hope, but now being demolished 40 years later after years of neglect and disrepair.

We recreated a 1960s living room using period furniture and details, and painted everything in it fluorescent yellow, to create an unnerving immersive experience.

The colour was chosen for its many associations: excessively bright, chemically toxic, a colour of both hope and danger. The intimate domesticity of the space transformed into something flat and overwhelming.

More than 2500 people attended the event on 6 March 2010 which invited the public to explore the art works created on site, just before the demolition bulldozers move in.

market estate interiors pre demolition 074.jpg

market estate interiors pre demolition 085.jpg

Managed Retreat (2009)

Managed Retreat (2009) is a split screen film exploring the landscape and inhabitants of Eastern Bavants, a small stretch of coastline in Suffolk which has extreme coastal erosion. It is a meditation on the shifting boundaries of land and water; the vulnerability of a particular house which was at the time on the very edge; and the obsession of one man to find a way to prevent it being taken by the sea. It was shown inside a full size recreation of a beach hut.

Still from film (32min) split screen projection

Managed Retreat

Installation view at Degree Show, Camberwell College of Art, BA Hons Painting. 2009

Coral (2012)

Untitled, 2012
Digital prints on tracing paper (29.5 x 21cm). Multiple layers.

These prints combine 18th century engravings of coral with text from a similar period that warns women of the activities they should avoid in pregnancy, to ensure that they don't birth a monstrous child. This includes:

"The Pleasure of Looking at and Contemplating, even for a long time, a picture, or Whatsoever is delightful to the Fancy".

and

"A strong Longing for something in particular, in which Desire the mother is either gratified or disappointed".

The images of coral were chosen as coral was a matter with indeterminate properties. For many centuries there was dispute as to whether it was a plant, stone or animal. These mysterious objects with their shifting boundaries of state and uncertain structures are documented with a scientific precision. But in multiple layers they make combinations that evoke uncanny female body parts, exaggerating a sense of uncertainty and the unknown.

This work was shown at the Printmaking Interim Show at the RCA in May 2012 (when I was 8 month pregnant).

Paper Houses (2008)

This series of houses made from paper (or balsa wood and paper) were made while I was a student at Camberwell College of Art (2006-2009).

They were recreations of homes I have lived in and were 'demolished' in a performance using domestic implements (washing up bowl, bread knife, iron).

Leftovers (2016)

Acrylic on Canvas
12.5 x 12.5cm

Contagion (2012)

This site-specific installation was made for the exhibition 'I took the lift to the 6th floor' of printmaking students at the RCA. It was shown in March 2012 at Southwark Park Lake Gallery. i was 6 months pregnant at the time.

Cultural Fatigue (2015)

A series of paintings made while living in New York in response to navigating an unfamiliar culture with a newborn baby and a toddler.

Acrylic on board (7.5cm x 10.5cm)

They were shown at the Goldsmith's Women's Art Library as part of the Procreate Project's photozine exhibition.

Dolls House Collages (2018)

A series of collages using dolls house wallpapers.

Mixed media on paper, 2018
Framed 32 x 42cm

Brown paper drawings (2013)

Pen and ink, charcoal and gouache on brown paper

2013

14.8 x 21cm

Installation view at Dulwich Festival Artist's Open House 2013

Excerpts from Sketch Book 2012

Mixed media collage & prints (2010-12)

A series of prints and paint on photocopies working with utopian post-war architecture.

Space to Perform

Screenprint on paper (29.7 x 42cm)

Untitled (2011)

Etching and aquatint

Stuffed (2007)

Still life paintings.

Acrylic on canvas pantings and ink on paper drawings of domestic objects stuffed into tights.

2006-7

Productivity Failure (2010)

These prints were drawn on top of with sketches of failed drawings (drawings of the scrunched up paper). The sleek promise of productivity and style in the 1960s advertisements for office furniture juxtaposed with my own failures rendered in childlike scribbles with yellow crayon and paint. They were shown at the APT Gallery in Deptford as part of the Q-Art presents show.