Sheila Jessop — a wonderful artist and my grandmother — died in 2012 after a long and productive career, leaving a house and studio full of paintings, sculptures and all kinds of other works. After her memorial exhibition in February 2013, these were sold or shared among family and friends.
To see a life’s work disperse is an exciting and unnerving thing. I confess to being more often unnerved than excited. I was a teenager when all this was happening; and my desire at the time was that all her work should be gathered together and locked away somewhere safe from history and foul weather. Of course, this would have been impossible — and no way to treat the work or the artist’s memory.
So instead, we are compiling as complete a catalogue as we can and building up her web-presence. This way, when someone finds a painting signed ‘S. Jessop’ or a sculpture with an SJ monogram on the bottom…
…they will know what they are looking at. And if you do have a work by Sheila Jessop, please do get in touch and send us a picture!
My mother and I took advantage of a free life-room with plenty of light to take some photos this morning. Expect posts shortly featuring these, as well as a similar blog featuring the work of Sheila’s husband and fellow artist, Richard Jackman.
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