Studying at the Royal College of Art, London under the tutelage of Peter Kardia, I experimented with film and video and making drawings as big as a room. This has given my work a dynamic quality, a need to tell stories through a variety of media – prints, woolcrafts, sculpture, painting, sketching – examining worlds in a series of moments.
Through exploring archaic techniques in printmaking – with photo-etching and then a few years ago, cyanotype – I make repeating series of images, each unique, engaging an audience in a filmic experience. I have exhibited in London, Germany, Wales and the North of England.
“The basket I made in 1994 used to contain some shaker toys I made with my daughter, when she was around five. We lived in a Peabody Flat in London and I was a single mother.
I see in it a connection with the strange imagery of the Kinder- und Hausmärchen, Grimm’s tales. Now this basket becomes a sculpture, Cauldron of Story. I see how it will be – spiky inside, wire and withy woven in…”
Below, you can hear my interview with Chris Kouzaris on ZoneOneRadio, all about the history and my cyanotype practice. I was still living in London at the time, and had not yet reverted to my Northern accent. The interview starts at the timestamp 3:50.
You can find more at my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/confinementexhibition
and about me on https://maternalart.com/shop
More below…
Contact:
frances.earnshaw.artist@gmail.com
+44 7913 995565
or DM me on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/frances.earnshaw/
Other things I do
I work with young children in a school setting. I have taught all kinds of people, from refugees to adults with special needs as well as teaching knitting to children and yarn dyeing to adults.
I offer workshops
In printmaking, other media on paper, with paint, drawing, or with any practice where you want a critique, encouragement and a widening of technique.
At times I offer Talking and Drawing; a sharing of ideas through the unconscious outlet of spontaneous drawing, allowing you as an artist to find your next direction. Please contact me if you would like to be invited to a session.
Selected Exhibitions:
Her confinement used to mean a pregnancy. We all began in water, not drowning but confined in a mother’s body. Three women artists connecting through motherhood, mental health and making in confining times. This exhibition was to be shown at Artsmill gallery, Hebden Bridge. “For some months we have had a conversation exploring the points of contact between our work, noticing the dissonance and convergence of ideas, playing alongside each other without necessarily finding a central point. The common and disparate themes of our work include bodily history, biological change, visceral communication, the tensions of what is allowed to be shown, pregnancy, emptiness, and female power.”
the egg, the womb, the head and the moon A nine month online project and group show, 2014 – 2015
East London Printmakers at the Freud Museum – Why War?, a group show, 2014
Standing Blue, A solo show at Gallery 286, London 2012
From Floor to Sky An exhibition of works by artists taught by Peter Kardia, showing work from those days and a contemporary piece.
Frances Earnshaw 