Jackie Fretten: Painter
I spent my childhood between the stark beauty of the Yorkshire Moors, the wildness of the North East coastland and the industry of British Steel and ICI, I then chose to seek my fortune in London.
I have always wished to progress as an artist, either through my interest in contemporary design or as a painter but ended up working in the media industry and for the most part as a TV producer at Saatchi and Saatchi. Afterwards I also spent a couple of years studying garden design at Capel Manor College.
Relocating to Lewes, East Sussex, 18 years ago, became my opportunity to focus on developing my art practice; most recently I moved down the road to Seaford where my studio is now based.
My Practice: Painter and Printmaker
Casting a curious and playful eye around my home and surroundings, my practice is rooted in the place I live, drawing on the objects, spaces and rituals that resonate in my daily life; exploring both the observed and the re-imagined through colour, composition and surface.
Painting primarily in oil, I have a repertoire of other materials I draw from, including oil stick, house paint, graphite, intaglio inks and papers saved from my print work, as collage.
Playing with scale and perspective, interrogating composition and mixing my own colour are all elements that have become an integral part in the development of new work.
My print work is a process that informs my painting, and vice versa; a cyclical relationship that I use to explore new ideas.
Selected Exhibitions
2025 Artwave Lewes
2024 Artwave Lewes
2020 Glyndeboune Gallery 94 'Fairground' exhibition curated by Nerissa Taysom
2020 '@128 elsewhere' virtual group show on Instagram (as part of MAFA)
2020 'Fragmented' Group show, room 128, Brighton University (as part of MAFA)
2018 Selected for the Towner Sussex Open
2018 Selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition curated by Grayson Perry RA
2018 Mixed Exhibition at Keizer Gallery for Lewes Artwave
2016 Affordable Art Fair, Stockholm with Four Square Fine Arts
2015 Affordable Art Fair Hampstead, London with Four Square Fine Arts
2014 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (Small Weston Room curated by Gus Cummins RA)
