Artist Spotlight: Jacqui Bassett
Jacqui Bassett is an oil & cold wax medium artist based in the South Lakes area of Cumbria. She creates semi-abstract landscapes that draw the viewer back into the wild’s that inspired them. Her work is usually created alla prima without any visual cues, instead drawing her inspiration from memory and working intuitively with what is emerging before her.
The following interview text is from the Rheged 25 exhibition which Jacqui took part in. It showcased 25 Cumbrian artists and celebrated Rheged’s 25 years in existence.
Describe yourself in 3 words.
Playful, loyal, airhead!
What advice would you give your younger self on your artistic journey?
Ignore your head and go with your heart. Never stop painting and playing and exploring the edges of yourself.
If you could collaborate with any artist dead or alive who would that be?
I’m a bit of a lone painter. Often even I don’t get involved with my painting - the more I let it happen the more it happens. But if I could learn light from anyone it’d have to be Turner.
What is your favourite colour, how does it make you feel?
Impossible! It’s never about a single colour for me. It’s always about how it relates to the colour next to it or within the whole. If it sparks joy in me then it’s just the right colour.
Do you listen to music when you work and if you do what do you listen to?
I listen to lightweight fantasy stories when I’m painting - It keeps my mind out of the way of what is going on intuitively on the paper. If I need a moment to concentrate or consider I press pause.
Is there an artwork that you have seen in an exhibition that stayed with you and why?
So many but I have ADHD so my memory for names & titles is extraordinarily rubbish. What matters to me is that they are all moments in time. I like to think that those pieces of art live on in the cupboards of my mind.
What do you hope people don’t miss when they see your work?
I hope they don’t miss the normality of reality and seeing my pieces too much with their minds. Although essentially semi-abstract landscapes they’re created to connect with on an emotional level.
Where in Cumbria gives you the most inspiration?
Outside anywhere where the light is touching the land & lifting the colour up & out of its normal. Anywhere where the play of drama in the clouds makes me pull the car over to really look and feel.
Follow Jacqui on instagram @jacqui.bassett or visit her LAS artist profile
