Work is a moveable feast these days.

Working as artist in residence can be an amazing opportunity to really see somewhere from the inside - and getting another perspective on how it works. So I was really pleased to have the chance to work at Blackwell's main store in Oxford Blackwell as their Artist In Residence and chose the theme The Way We Work Now as this beautiful bookshop is the workplace of choice for an amazing, electric bunch of writers, students, academics and people just looking for inspiration. About half of the exhibited works featured the regular weekday clients of the Blackwell Caffè Nero — writers of novels, screenplays, sermons, academic articles and poetry who enjoy sharing the just-lively-enough ambience of the coffeehouse while perhaps hoping for some extra inspiration from the books surrounding them. Other paintings in the show looked at different working environments, including the artificial glow surrounding a trading desk in the City and the ability to stay in touch with work (or the inability to escape from it) even when you are walking through a Parisian park.

Click here for a review in The Oxford Times.

All of the paintings can be seen in the Gallery and one or two are still available for purchase. Please contact Placeworks if you would like more information.

Regular readers will know that earlier in the year Placeworks got the green light to work with London Bridge Station Redevelopment Project as site artist. At last the train is leaving the platform (you'll have to get used to these). Here's a quick update.

Just before the holiday I went along to the Kingston test centre to sit the exam to get my CSCS card (Construction Skills Certificate Scheme, keep up), along with lots of people doing their driving theory test.

Since getting back I have attended a site induction at London Bridge and passed a drug and alcohol test (my mother will be pleased to hear).

It might seem a bit strange given that I am going to be drawing and painting rather than building or demolishing anything but of course it's essential - and not only am I now much more aware of the many potential dangers on site, but I also feel a bit more like everyone else who works there. Even more so now I've had my first canteen breakfast, delicious, and got my PPE (boots and reflective gear).

Yesterday I had my first site visit and got to see the whole thing from the inside. It's fascinating to see the activity amongst rubble and soaring, damp arches that can seem to be so piecemeal and specific, and yet which over the next weeks and months will create a whole new modern, smooth, functioning station. The old station is still there, of course, and this is something that I plan to explore further through the work.

Lots to think about - more updates to follow.

Are you mad for small museums, managing projects and making things happen? The Kirkaldy Testing Museum – a hotbed of Victorian engineering innovation on Southwark Street – is looking for a volunteer project manager to help take the revitalization of this important small museum to the next level.

“Facts not Opinions” it proclaims above the door at 99 Southwark Street. David Kirkaldy was one of Britain's most innovative engineers and chose this as the home for his pioneering machine testing the breaking strength of metals. His work helped solve some of the major structural engineering problems of his day on bridges from the Mississippi to Hammersmith. Remarkably the machine is still in full working order, thanks to a small group of dedicated volunteers who open the museum once a month, and recently the testing machine has been brought to new audiences through Open House and arts projects such as Bankside’s Merge festival.

Find out more about the museum at: www.testingmuseum.org.uk

The opportunity

The museum is being revitalised, with a project underway to build support among professionals and the wider public. A team of passionate supporters is developing a new business plan and sponsorhip, but they now need an enthusiastic and well-organised volunteer project manager who can help keep this momentum going.

Intern / volunteer job description:

1. To assist the Director and the team to prepare promotional and marketing material to build greater awareness
2. To assist the Director and the team operate the museum and manage monthly openings
3. To assist in the preparation of information and documents for Board meetings
4. To develop a database of key contacts
5. To assist in managing the content of the website
6. To help plan and execute events at the museum to build greater awareness and help develop revenue streams

Ideal skills and experience to include:

1. Project management and organisational skills
2. IT, publishing and social media skills
3. Good eye for detail and problem solving
4. Enthusiasm for working in small museums /heritage sector

You might be recently graduated and looking to build some vital hands-on work experience, a professional looking for a change of direction or an all-round heritage hero. This is a substantial opportunity and requires a similar level of commitment – and it starts now: one or two day a week (Monday to Friday) starting immediately, with occasional weekend work possible. The role is based in Bankside but some home working is also possible so ideally you will have your own laptop, Mac or PC.

If you are interested in applying for this role, please send a copy of your CV and a covering letter stating how you could help to Caroline Jones by email to: caroline@illuminateproductions.co.uk by 5 March 2014.

Well here's a dilemma. The first story after the decision to split writing and painting and I'm not sure which category it comes under. Singing. Not doing another website (however Twitter is now available though @urbanism101, but I'm more of a sonnet than a haiku girl and fitting all that unrelenting enthusiasm into 140 characters isn't always what I feel like doing).

As the lady in the flat upstairs has known for a couple of weeks, the singing in question is Bach's St John Passion - or "rocketfuel for writing" as it was recently described on a bonsai social media site. The reason I can't give you a date yet is that the concert's at Cadogan Hall (sorry, that's London SW3 to everyone who doesn't shop in the Belgravia branch of Waitrose) and as our choir is so nombreuses we have to take it in turn. So either the 6th or the 7th April, I haven't heard yet. It's a rollicking good sing though, I hope the lady upstairs will agree.

More information at www.barts-choir.com

Already fed up with those "New Year, New You!" A-boards flying around in the gale force winds outside every chain cafe of the office-lunch persuasion? (Note to restaurants located at the ground floor of tall buildings - it's hard enough walking around the corner of these places in regular wind speeds, at the moment you are only really making business for A&E and car repair workshops.) Well, here'a another. New year, new website!

This is the year that Placeworks finally stops pretending that its split personality can be happily embraced within one website and gets two separate ones. www.placeworks.co.uk will continue to be the home for writing, consultancy and urbanism news, and www.sarahjarvis.co.uk will be the new home for my painting and drawing. There will also be enhanced features such as opportunities to sign up for news and to comment on stories. I know you're dying to.

And hopefully now that's been made public the hugely talented, busy but occasionally distracted web designer will get on with it. (So grateful)

Although I haven't been in the studio much recently, I have been thinking about why I want to paint.

Much of my painting is inspired by my responses to different places, both over periods of time that allow a deeper engagement with that place but also - deliberately - fleeting impressions from just passing through. From my work as a travel writer I am intrigued by the pictures and perceptions we build of places over time, how we get our bearings and take views on places we visit for the first time.

Working as an artist in residence is a privileged way of getting know places - and usually the people working there - over a longer time. I have worked as artist in residence at Blackwell, the historic bookshop in Oxford, to produce a series of paintings called ‘The Way We Work Now’; I have also painted images of people at work at their desks in the City, and worked with Oxford Operatic Society during rehearsals for their stage production of 42nd Street. I am always happy to discuss new opportunities to work alongside other people in their day-to-day settings.

The depiction of specific times and places in film is another starting point for exploration. The paintings inspired by ‘The End of the Affair’, based on the novel by Graham Greene, explore the presence and absence of the central female character. Taking a still image out of the rolling narrative strips away its (social) context, and stepping off the moving walkway to linger over one image can become uncomfortably voyeuristic.

Many of my drawings and paintings explore urban, suburban and coastal environments, but in future I hope to bring my art and urban communication practices together more directly. Through my work in Bankside and London Bridge I have built up some knowledge of an historic city centre quarter in transition. Communicating that change through words and photographs, online or in print, is a quick and effective way to reach hundreds, even thousands of people. But it is often a means to an end, to convey information that can be seen and then, because it is ubiquitous, forgotten.

Exploring this process through oil painting invites a more deliberative engagement with the city - inviting, I hope, deeper thought on what is happening around us, bringing a new perspective to the way our surroundings evolve as this new topography emerges. And just like oil painting it is not just building up but also scraping back - the process of creating new structures brings the chance to explore beneath the surface being replaced and the archaeologist's trowel digs into the hidden city bringing a rediscovered past to the surface.

The new painting year began on Thursday with a convivial session by the river. Indoors, luckily, as it's smelling cold again. In December I had been suffering from a cold and found the idea of ink drawing more appealing than painting. I liked the results, quite noir-ish, put me in mind of a graphic novel, or perhaps an illustrated novel, which I am now mulling over at the back of my mind, and I decided to continue with ink this month.

Much as I hate those drawing exercises that involve charcoal tied to a long stick and accepting a lack of control, and despite finding a new drawing pen and two nibs at the bottom of my Christmas stocking, I perversely decided to try out a technique of drawing with a match dipped in ink. It worked well - an acceptable degree of randomness, with a nice straight edge. Just need to work on that narrative now...

In the spirit of the exhibition 'The Way We Work Now', Sarah is collaborating with oil painter Nicky Basford to explore a new way of working for painters who usually work alone in their studio. Painting is by nature a solitary process but we have long believed that occasionally it would be valuable also to work together in a larger space - to have the chance to discuss practice and ideas, but essentially to get on with work in a collective environment.

The inaugural session was a great success - everyone got work done and there was less chance of slipping off for a cup of tea every five minutes as you might in the studio. Indeed, the very sight of other people working can be a great stimulus to getting on with it yourself!

Placeworks has been sailing.

Now that the one-way traffic 'Round The Island' has cleared it's safe to cross the again to the Isle of Wight and the good ship Agatha spent a very enjoyable weekend in Yarmouth. After waking to fog horns on Sunday, and feeding a family of seven swans, we went for a walk into the village for a catch up. The deli has changed hands, as expected, though the stock seems much the same, the County Press yielded some fascinating stories, as ever, and we even saw the lady with her three dogs near Loveshore Lane.

The trip back to Poole Harbour was fantrastic - three hours from Hurst in an obliging Force 3 at Agatha's favourite wind direction. She bounded off happily across the bay and we enjoyed egg and tomato sandwiches, still in blissful ignorance of the footballing horrors to come.

Click here for a review in The Oxford Times.

Working as artist in residence can be an amazing opportunity to really see somewhere from the inside - and getting another perspective on how it works. So I was really pleased to have the chance to work at Blackwell's main store in Oxford Blackwell as their Artist In Residence and chose the theme The Way We Work Now as this beautiful bookshop is the workplace of choice for an amazing, electric bunch of writers, students, academics and people just looking for inspiration. About half of the exhibited works featured the regular weekday clients of the Blackwell Caffè Nero — writers of novels, screenplays, sermons, academic articles and poetry who enjoy sharing the just-lively-enough ambience of the coffeehouse while perhaps hoping for some extra inspiration from the books surrounding them. Other paintings in the show looked at different working environments, including the artificial glow surrounding a trading desk in the City and the ability to stay in touch with work (or the inability to escape from it) even when you are walking through a Parisian park.

All of the paintings can be seen in the Gallery and one or two are still available for purchase. Please contact Placeworks if you would like more information.