About Jenny Hann MA

COMMISSIONS;

​

Commissioned by The Artist magazine to write a series of eight in depth monthly articles relating to the Visual Language

 

Commissioned by the CSD Magazine to review the David Hockney book, ‘Secret Knowledge’.

 

QUALIFICATIONS;

​

Various Certificates and Diplomas in;

 

Art Foundation

Computer Studies

Internet & Web Design

Film and Video, (North Riding Teacher Training College)

Teacher Training Certificate

 

Post Graduate in Art & Design 1992 - 1995

 

Master Classes;

 

Photographic Print, with Fay Godwin

Silkscreen Printing with Mel Noble

Papermaking with Elizabeth Stuart-Smith

Encaustic Painting with William Dick

Silicone Intaglio with Dale Bradley

 

MASTERS DEGREE in ART & DESIGN

 

​

New perspectives brought new directions, and the two and a half year journey helped me see with fresh eyes. It also re-affirmed my commitment to figurative painting; with a social and humanistic narrative.

 

CRESCENT ARTS

 

I held a studio at Crescent Arts, and also served on the management committee.

During my time there I was the curator of all the exhibitions for the Gallery, and created a strong educational programme, which linked the showing artists, (through workshops in darkroom practice and silk screen printing; as well as organising lectures concerning artists initial ideas and practice). The education programme covered schools and students from the Scarborough and District area. The exhibitions covered the whole range of media, from painting, photography, textile design, ceramics, and printing, and included international artists, such as photographer Fay Godwin the London based painter Amal Ghosh, and the German sculptor Christine Merton. Each passionate and dedicated artist exhibited work devolved directly from experience; whether it was from environmental and changing landscape; conflicting religious teachings, or memories of childhood and The Holocaust.

All generously gave insightful lectures on personal experience and how it formed their ideas.

 

WORKS shown on This website;

 

Installation; Detail.

 

The life sized wax baby figure was shown in 1995, and was part of an installation in my final Masters Degree Show. Entitled ‘Punch and Judy’, the work centred on hidden domestic violence within families. The large Punch and Judy booth was draped in black voile and contained a life sized mother and child within.

Punch, watched dispassionately from a row of theatre seats, whilst statistics, and mortuary slips, (confirming the number of women and children killed within the previous 10 years by family members), escaped from the confines of the booth and spilled out on to the floor.

All figures were life size, dressed in contemporary clothing, and made from wood, wax, and textiles. The almost 3 meter high booth was constructed in steel and dressed in black voile.

 

 

The World’s Largest Comic Strip

 

The Guinness Book of Records World’s Largest Comic Strip in June 1988 measuring 39,950 sq ft, (170 ft x 235 ft).

 

At the time my husband David was a month long Arts Festival Organiser and Administrator; producing large scale Public Art Events, that he financed directly through sponsorship alone. They were all successful, but one very special

Project was The Beano and Guinness Book of Records.

 

My involvement was to reproduce, and dramatically scale up original front page drawings; which had been specially commissioned by the then Beano editor Euan Kerr.

The full colour front page story line, (see www.painterjennyhann.net ) had everyone looking for Dennis; eventually finding him on Scarborough’s South Bay Beach. A print run of half a million copies of The Beano were also printed on the same day as the successful Guinness Book World Record.

 

Press and television coverage was extensive; with television crews fro London, Norway and regional. Families, (with the Beano comic), came from all over the United Kingdom.

 

I reproduced over 300 hundred squared up drawings, and helped to organise engineers in squaring off the beach area, while David persuaded the only firm who used eco friendly vegetable dyes to sponsor the whole event; and organised cement mixers to produce the various colours in large quantities!

 

 

A hundred school children from in and around the Scarborough District, faithfully re-created The World’s Largest Comic Strip, in less than four hours;  using the three hundred scaled drawings, and the eco friendly vegetable dyes. The public, (and the participating school children), were finally able to view the Art work from the Spa Bridge which overlooked the scene; before all signs of the comic slowly vanished with the incoming tide.

 

Youth Cult Series;

Consisting of thirty pastel drawings and oils, I explored two different youth cults; the Mod Revivalists, and the Punk Movement.

A small selection of these, can be found on this website

 

Early Doors

Dressed in jeans a group of youths, barred from the bar, drink in the entrance.

In exile they too display similar acts of censorship by distancing themselves from the three drunken figures on the left.

​

Points of View

Does a change in scenery always alter a persons’ behaviour?

 

 

Looking For Clues

This work asks what happens when a daily city routine is briefly changed for a totally different environment.   It examines the relative freedom of a vacation, (from youths perspective), and shows how some hours are simply filled.

 

 

Teaching

 

I am passionate about the whole creative studio process; however, teaching art has also been very rewarding.

As a part-time lecturer in Fine Art, Art History, and Colour Psychology, I found students never failed to surprise me with their wonderful, imaginative ideas.

Primary school children had boundless energy, and were full of natural inquisitiveness and endless enthusiasm.

Mature, articulate students on the other hand, were guaranteed to liven up any debate; questioning theories, (often with strong opinions), and drawing on personal, lifelong experiences to make their point!

 

However, what of other ways of teaching?

 

Whether helping a worried art student with one to one tutoring; making myself heard in a crowded lecture hall, or working in a full classroom with lively school children, for me, the teaching side of my Art Practice; its’ Theory, or History, has been highly diverse and immensely enjoyable.

 

To this end through-out my early career I was involved in a number of Artist Residencies from 1988 – 1992. The projects covered a wide range of ideas and involved all levels of creative ability.

Some were short bursts of fun, involving highly enthusiastic eight year olds; Wheatley Middle School Artists in Schools Project. Whilst others, like the St Mary’s Psychiatric Hospital Residency was altogether much more serious in their aims and objectives.

 

St Mary’s Psychiatric Residency, (I made a full report of the project  on it's completion).

 

Helping patients to visually express their internal anxieties or darkest fears, (without the intrusion of staff members), was for them a genuinely liberating experience. For me, it demanded a completely different teaching approach; lots of quiet, reflective discussion – with no time restrictions or inflexible work schedules.

Patients had good and bad days, and that meant I had to be prepared for unproductive days and unresolved situations.

Following the residency I stayed on for almost a year to produce a series of paintings and pastels, and before they were exhibited I returned to St Mary’s Pop–in Centre to show all the work, for their approval.

 

 Their response…was positive, but why did I see their situation as so sad? I believe the works intrinsically showed why, and answered their questioning.

 

PUBLICATIONS;

 

Before The Unicorn

 

The painting was one of many used in a series of articles commissioned by The Artist Magazine.

The eight articles, month by month, dealt with the basic elements in painting; and the visual language of line, colour, shape, form, harmony, balance, rhythm, pattern, decoration and texture.

 

Before The Unicorn, illustrated complimentary pairings; example, oil glazing with scumbling techniques; and the complimentary use of colours red and green, blue and orange, etc.

 

The work itself shows three figures within a seemingly indestructible landscape of granite. Isolated, yet fixed in time and space, three pathways lay open to them. But where do they lead, and what is there ultimate destination?

 

The painting portrays the fragility, and transient nature of the human condition.

 

SUMMARY;

From the very beginning of my career my paintings have focused on the overlooked, or neglected; from old age to youth cults; and from mental ill health to hidden domestic violence.
i've also explored notions of family, with the multiple, often complex interpretations the word evokes.

Now my attention, (and creative ideas),  are centered on the  Pandemic , and it's effects...

Whatever the subject In all my work I seek the inner humanity of the individual, and often express isolation within the crowd. conveying common bonds of experience, i am drawn to slight, almost imperceptible gestures of vulnerability, and go beneath the surface, in order to discover the uniqueness of being.

jenny hann June 2021

I