As part of my DYCP project (Developing Your Creative Practice- ACE funded 1 year grant) I have been exploring ways to place my drawings in the public realm. Working with Dutch artist Jose Den Hartog I have learnt about painting with glazes on ceramic tiles. I am using these new skills to create a small tile mural which I will temporarily install in a public space in Kent.

Samuel Palmer : Visionary Landscapes

Lovers resting under a tree, 2023.

The exhibition launch event at Kaleidoscope Gallery Sevenoaks on the 12th of January was a very busy event. The curator Sarah Newman gave a introductory talk, as did Nick Johannsen from Kent Downs National Landscape who helped fund the project.

Just as John Constable is closely associated with the landscape of the Stour Valley, so the name of Samuel Palmer is indelibly linked to the Darent Valley, and in particular the village of Shoreham. For a period of ten years, from about 1824 onwards, he found inspiration in this remarkably un-spoilt corner of the English countryside, where he made his most intensely visionary work. In the intervening years, the valley has obviously changed; but it is still recognisably Palmer’s. To preserve it and to share it with a wider public was the main impetus for the Darent Landscape Partnership Scheme, with which I have been involved from the outset. Making the Samuel Palmer Trail, it was heartening to rediscover the sites he knew, from the great trees in Lullingstone Park to the surviving barns in the fields round Shoreham. It was also enormously encouraging that so many contemporary artists responded to the call to produce work in the Darent Valley which showed, however loosely, affinities with Palmer. They have responded magnificently to the challenge of looking afresh at the landscapes immortalised almost 200 years ago by Samuel Palmer.

Colin Harrison, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

For more info about the project go to https://darent-valley.org.uk/projects/inspiring/samuel-palmers-return/

Samuel Palmer: Visionary Landscapes Exhibition

Samuel Palmer: Visionary Landscapes Exhibition

From January to May, discover the life and works of renowned Victorian artist, Samuel Palmer, through a series of local events and exhibitions.

Samuel Palmer created many of his finest works while living in Shoreham in the Kent Downs 200 years ago. The landscape painter and printmaker was inspired by the beauty of the rural Darent Valley region creating visionary pastoral scenes during his time here.

At the exhibitions, you’ll be able to view prints of Samuel Palmer’s most significant artworks alongside creations from artists inspired by Palmer from the 1920s to the present day, demonstrating his enduring influence. I will be showing two new works alongside several Kent-based contemporary artists.

12th January -12th March, Kaleidoscope gallery, Sevenoaks
16th March – 16th May, Sir Peter Blake gallery, Dartford

I pleased to share that my work ‘Waterflea Ballet’ was selected as one of ten highly commended works by this year’s Annual Open 2023 artist judges Florence Peake and Tim Spooner at Southwark Park Gallery.

Image: Nicole Mollett, Waterflea Ballet (2022)

Northumberland Heath: Now & Then
Saturday 14 Oct 2023 – Northumberland Heath High Street, Bexley Road.
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Gallery No.32 in collaboration with social artist Chloe Rochefort are excited to announce Northumberland Heath: Now & Then, a celebration of North’ Heath’s history and the people who have shaped it. Immerse yourself in a community-generated exhibition, public art trail, and free creative workshops.

Now & Then explores themes of collective history, contemporary society, intergenerational connection and community resilience.

Featured Artists:
Chloe Louise Lawrence, Illustre Fecia, Jacob Talkowski, Jill Laudet, Katie Surridge, Mirham, Nicole Mollett

Commissioned by Gallery No.32, Chloe Rochefort and Three Rivers as part of Now & Then Art Trail, Northumberland Heath 2023. Funded by Arts Council England. 

I am pleased to invite you to the upcoming open studio at Royal Museums Greenwich.

On Sunday 2nd July, from 10am – 4pm I will be opening my studio for visitors to come and view the drawings and collaborative projects I have created during my Season Of Drawing Artist Residency. I will be offering light refreshments from 2 – 4pm, please come and see my work, join me for a glass of something refreshing and a chat whilst you visit.

We hope you are able to attend and look forward to seeing you there.

Venue Address:

The Studio

East Wing, First Floor, (next to Sea Things Gallery)

National Maritime Museum

Romney Road, London

SE10 9NF

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Season Of Drawing

Practitioner in Residence : Royal Museums Greenwich

Nicole Mollett is a socially engaged artist whose primary medium is drawing. As part of her Season of Drawing residency she has been making drawings in response to The Van De Veldes: Greenwich, Art and The Sea exhibition at the Queen House. Over the course of three months Nicole has delivered ten drawing workshops with public visitors and special groups including a Refugee and Migrant women’s group.

Nicole is working in collaboration with RGM staff to create a new drawing creative resource book inspired by the Queen’s House. The limited edition publication will be freely offered to museum visitors to encourage both adults and young people to explore the architecture and art through a series of creative drawing prompts created by RGM staff members.

Nicole’s Drawing Residency statement:

I will investigate our complex relationship with water and the sea, looking at the importance water has in shaping our lives and society, and how access to water and our ability to navigate the oceans has played a key role in civilisations globally. 

I will run a series of free public workshops testing out different methods of drawings. I will draw from the Van de Velde collection, looking at how the artists use ink to describe the waves, and observing how they describe human behaviour at sea. 

Using research gathered from the collection, I plan to make a long scroll-like drawing which embodies the monumental forces of nature, and reconnects the viewer to a sense of awe and wonder for the sea.”

https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/practitioner-residence-nicole-mollett

I gave a talk about the life and work of Gillingham-born artist Tirzah Garwood, who was a talented artist, and her work was often presented in an unconventional, humorous manner. She occasionally worked with her husband Eric Ravilious. This talk is part of an Arts-council funded project, celebrating the lives and work of six extraordinary women with a close and personal connection to Gillingham in Kent.

The talk recorded Tuesday 9 August 2022 at Gillingham Library. The artworks featured within are shared with kind permission of the Towner Art Gallery, Bridgeman Images UK, the artists family, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the artist Nicole Mollett.