Lynne Strover Gallery
A twenty-fifth anniversary
Living with art that is loved
L
ynne Strover Gallery in Fen Ditton – on the outskirts of Cambridge – is regarded by many as the best commercial art gallery for contemporary art associated with the city. The gallery is housed in a mid-nineteenth century school, built in plain classical style in the distinctive chalky, pale yellow brick of the district. With an orderly and artistic garden, it has slightly the feeling of a building glimpsed to one side in a painting by Stanley Spencer: dignified, simple and very, very English. This building serves Lynne Strover as both home and gallery and this dual purpose defines the experience of those who visit. The art is shown in a large white-walled room furnished simply with antique oak tables and chairs, which is immediately reminiscent of Kettle’s Yard, the house museum in Cambridge put together by art curator Jim Ede. Ede’s vision was to
show modern art in an attractive and comfortable domestic setting and allow young people to experience art and talk about it without the separation created by a formal art gallery presentation. There is something of the spirit of Kettle’s Yard at the Lynne Strover Gallery. One regular visitor to the gallery observes:
“An opening at Lynne’s is like a party at an art lover’s house” Lynne, a direct, no-nonsense person, with an infectious laugh, will only curate shows for artists who appeal to her personally, whose work she might, or already has, absorbed into her own collection. Lynne’s “eye” is hugely respected by a wide circle of collectors and regular clients from
Cambridge and all over England; it is demonstrated in the paintings, sculpture and ceramics which occupy well-chosen spaces throughout the light and memorable interiors of her home. Antique and 1960s modernist furniture all play a role in her own domestic interiors. Each space calm and composed, filled with light, as if being depicted in a still life painting. Lynne grew up in Lancashire and came south to train as a nurse at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, little expecting she would one day be one of Cambridge’s best-loved contemporary art dealers (“mind you”, she says, “training to be a nurse prepares you for anything.”). She married and set up in Fen Ditton with her former husband; together they restored the old school (“it was a labour of love, it had been used as a warehouse for years”) and they dealt in antique furniture. When her marriage ended, Lynne took on the house, and began to let the main space
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
for contemporary art shows. She soon found this worked best if she herself was the guiding force and curator – and she has never looked back. Twenty-five years on Lynne has shown an extraordinary number of interesting artists, painters, and sculptors; Arthur Neal, Judy Buxton, Rachel Budd, Christopher Marvell, Kurt Jackson, Peter Joyce, Ann Armitage and Henrietta Dubrey to name but a few. She says: “I have had to be very realistic about being an art dealer, and have always tried to relish the moment. I enjoy looking for artists, getting to know them, handling beautiful things, showing the work and meeting people who have a genuine interest in art. What I look for in pictures is a convincing quality of colour and texture, and I look for a little bit of the magic of the paint.” “I get on best with those people who
are interested in living with art and not collecting for investment’s sake and like to think of people buying a work of art that they are going to live with and to love. People should be able to choose something beautiful and original and then to live with it in their own home. Many of my clients also like to get to know something about the artists and their lives. I am interested in how the artists I represent live, how they talk, and what that tells me about their integrity as artists.” Lynne admits to being directly inspired by Kettle’s Yard, and regarded the late Michael Harrison, director of Kettle’s Yard for many years, as a good friend and mentor. She was also inspired by the “eye” of Henry Rothschild, who founded the Cambridge contemporary crafts gallery, Primavera, on King’s Parade, and has herself a notable collection of contemporary ceramics.
When she can, Lynne retreats to her small flat in St Ives, Cornwall, a famous artists’ colony that was established a century ago. Here she meets artists, sees their work and enjoys walking by the sea. Lynne adds: “I love the coastal landscape and quality of light in St Ives, but I also love the landscape and skies of the fens. It has a clarity which appeals to me.” It is a sense of clarity about what she likes and what inspires her, that underlines Lynne Strover’s success as a gallery owner, dealer and curator for over a quarter of a century and will continue to guide her for many years to come. Jeremy Musson Author, critic and broadcaster
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
Ann Armitage born 1959
Ann Armitage moved from London to the remote West Penwith peninsula nine years ago. She settled in Lamorna Cove, a fishing village made famous in the late eighteenth/ early nineteenth century by artists from the Newlyn School – notably Dame Laura Knight and Alfred Munnings. Light touches and bold strokes range across Armitage’s powerful textured visions of memories made on her daily walks around the coastline. Her paintings can develop quickly or may take months as she continually assesses the work until finally satisfied it can stand-alone. Image right: Ann Armitage, Light After Rain, oil on board, 19 x 25cm
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
Stella Benjamin born 1933
Stella Benjamin moved to Cornwall in 1956 and became an assistant to the sculptor Dennis Mitchell and later a decorator at the Troika Pottery in St Ives. She was taught to weave by Breon O’Casey whilst working in his Porthmeor studio. In1979 a Navajotype loom, built for her by artist Bryan Illsley, was installed at her home where she continues to dye and weave magnificent rugs using hand spun Turkish sheep wool and goat hair yarns. Her rugs have been referred to as the “Woven Rothko and worthy of contemplation” blurring the divide between craft and art. Image right: Yellow Rug, hand spun Turkish yarn, 50 x 88cm
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
Susan Bower born 1953
Susan Bower paints celebratory figurative pieces that capture the essence of life’s pleasures. A member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters for the past two decades, she is a well-established British Contemporary Artist. Susan Bower has developed a unique painterly interpretation of witty observations of family life, both hers and others. Bringing up four children has, of course, impacted her work and the rest she attributes to fantasy. Spontaneous and unconventional, her use of oils creates an intrinsic development of colour. Image right: Susan Bower, Party Animals, oil on board, 47 x 47cm
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
Rachel Budd born 1960
Rachel Budd has been painting since childhood. This was the start for her, walking in nature, beaches and landscapes with big Norfolk skies, unaware that colours and textures were forming a language that she would use in her paintings at a later date. Rachel Budd began formal training at Newcastle University and the Royal College of Art in London. Becoming recognised as an exceptional talent, she was invested in by the RCA and the UK Government Art Collection. In 2007 Rachel Budd made a permanent move to the Padstow area – the realisation of a dream. She draws inspiration from local scenery, whilst seasonal changes provide endless changing colours and patterns. Image right: Rachel Budd, Break in the Clouds, oil on canvas, 89 x 94cm
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
Judy Buxton born 1961
Judy Buxton’s work clearly speaks for itself. A representational painter of still life and landscapes who excels in her painterly skills – applying a sense of poetry in the form, surface and relationship of the objects she depicts. Like many artists, Judy Buxton felt lured by the sea, moving to Cornwall and taking inspiration from the light and reflections of her surroundings. Renowned for her generous use of paint, each individual stroke is applied with such passion that it alone offers something to the painting. Image right: Judy Buxton, Caernvallen Roses II, oil on canvas, 112 x 112cm
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
Mark Cazelet born 1964
Mark Cazelet trained at Chelsea and Falmouth Schools of Art. His work is in national and private collections such as Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, British Council, Mumbai and the Museum of London. Mark has worked on large-scale commissions for projects in English Cathedrals in a variety of media including glass, mural and tapestry. The image of a single tree or the architecture of a wood has been a reoccurring theme for Cazelet’s work, influenced by Larkin, Thomas and Frost’s poetry, and the Romantic English landscape tradition. Capturing a sense of place requires attending to not only the empirical aspects of its topography but also the subtler emotional essence, often located in associations, memories and one’s own mood.
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
Henrietta Dubrey born 1966
Henrietta Dubrey trained at the Wimbledon School of Art and the Royal Academy. She now lives in Cornwall, just west of Penzance, attributing her environment as a ‘continued source of vital inspiration’. Dubrey’s gestural marks are not as random and chaotic as they may first appear and though often described as abstract Dubrey describes her paintings as autobiographical deconstructions and reconstructions of life. These ideas appear on the canvas surface often as an abstract gestural web, occasionally tangled, occasionally bold and resolved recalling heads or nautical objects subliminally suggested by everyday experience of Cornish quaysides or boat yards. Image right: Henrietta Dubrey, Rite, oil on canvas, 126 x 140 cm
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
Emma Dunbar born 1961
Emma Dunbar’s attraction to vivid colours and decorative qualities in everyday objects provides the foundation for her art. What excites her about making pictures is trying to capture the essence of a place, a feeling, a thing. Dunbar enjoys rearranging her ingredients, for instance moving all the red boats on the beach next to the pink tractor for a stronger effect and ends up with ‘gathered ingredients’ – glimpses of journeys, patterns from familiar settings and objects collected along the way – converging to create an image that communicates the richness of the original source of inspiration. Image right: Emma Dunbar, green dish, greengages and my new yellow mug, acrylic on board, 54 x 53 cm
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
Laurence Edwards born 1967
Laurence Edwards’ familiarity with the process of bronze has not lead him to pursue conventional finish for its’ own sake; the sort of finely polished surface associated with much sculpture. Instead he has chosen another path, one which relishes experimentation and technical innovation. Edwards utilises many different materials; wood, clay, plaster, wax, flints, glass and many other seemingly fragile materials are given permanence by means of a crucible. With brutal masculinity his imposing figures ‘Giants’ adorned a field at Butley Creek in 2008. His more delicate work creates interest in a domestic setting, their harsh bronze form juxtaposing with their gentle subject. Image right: Laurence Edwards, Inbalance, bronze, 106 x 99 cm
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
Sam Hall born 1967
Sam Hall was born in Yorkshire and now lives and works in St Ives, Cornwall. Creating cylindrical vessels using traditional throwing techniques, he then cautiously manipulates the clay creating flattened cylindrical forms which he embellishes as a painter would a canvas. There can be several firing processes, scratching gouging and splashing glazes, firing and re-firing until Hall is truly satisfied that he has created a beautiful three-dimensional work of art. Image right: Sam Hall, Large Flat Form, ceramic, 42 x 50cm
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
Maggi Hambling born 1945
Maggi Hambling is one of Britain’s most famous portrait artists who has more recently developed a love affair with the North Sea, applying her extravagant technique to landscapes. Her bold way of working and economy of colour perfectly state the incessant thrust of the North Sea which Hambling believes to be a metaphor for life. Her portraits can be found at The National Portrait Gallery, and during her long career has painted the likes of Stephen Fry and sculpted Oscar Wilde. The gallery has a selection of North Sea paintings in stock. Image right: Maggi Hambling, Large Waves at Slaughden, oil an canvas, 61 x 86cm
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
Peter Joyce born 1964
Peter Joyce’s paintings have the common thread of land meets sea. This artists’ imagination has been captured by an astonishing landscape of marshland in western France and the influence of the tides on this area and its community. Seascapes, landscapes, saltpans, creek inlets and small fishing ports are characteristics of this marshland that Joyce now calls home. Beautiful colours and fresh imagery adorn these paintings and one cannot mistake his works for anyone but Peter Joyce. Some work is literal, others abstract, either way one can firmly appreciate the watery vistas that are set out in front of you. Image right: Peter Joyce, Cross the GR8 (Le Parracaud), oil on canvas, 104 x 125cm
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
Jim Malone born 1946
Jim Malone’s inspiration came at Camberwell from tutors including Ian Godfrey, Ewan Henderson and Colin Pearson in addition to gaining invaluable experience with Ray Finch at the Winchcombe pottery in the holidays. Wood stacking, packing the kiln and with time to produce his own pots in the evenings, provided the inspiration that has lasted several decades. The simple understated beauty of each piece and his commitment to pottery and for that way of life was clear from the begining and continues to this day. Image right: Jim Malone, Flared Bowl, stoneware dish, bamboo decoration, 15 x 30cm
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
Christopher Marvell born 1964
Christopher Marvell is based near Cambridge, and spends part of the year in St Ives in Cornwall. He draws constant inspiration and a quiet, almost spiritual excitement from his walks in the different landscapes around his studios in each place. The relationship of man and nature underlines all his works in three dimensions. There is an inescapable simplicity in his work, a desire to express the elemental in the figure of a bird, a fish, a hare, or of a man and a woman. Image right: Christopher Marvell, Proud bird, bronze, 37 x 34cm, edition V
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
Arthur Neal born 1951
Arthur Neal lives and works in Kent drawing inspiration from studio objects, people and the familiar Sussex coast. He works largely impasto defined by a rich, sometimes lugubrious, colour palette, coupled with a heavily textural treatment of oil paint these paintings take months, sometimes years to create. Viewing an Arthur Neal demands a period of contemplation to appreciate fully their depth and complexity. There is a process of discovery, a sense of evolution reflecting the laborious artistic process that Neal takes on creating a work of art where the initial abstraction gives way to a figurative composition. Image right: Arthur Neal, Evening Bathers, oil on board, 113 x 102 cm
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
Breon O’Casey
Breon O’Casey was one of the last survivors of two great traditions. As an artist, he was an important figure in the St Ives school, whose leading lights included Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Bernard Leach. O’Casey’s versatility as a jeweller, weaver, etcher, printmaker, engraver, painter and sculptor owed much to working among such talents. He was highly productive and much respected amongst the Cornwall artists for four decades.
1928 -2011
“To paint,” he said, “is to wait and watch, to try to listen to the picture, to chance a stroke, to hope for the best.” Image right: Breon O’Casey, Fish, Bronze, 15 x 41cm
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
Jim Partridge & Liz Walmsley born 1953
Jim Partridge studied at John Makepeace’s Parnham House School in the 1970s. Since 1986 he has worked with assistant Liz Walmsley who helped with the larger outdoor pieces. Since then the partnership developed and the couple now work collaboratively under the title JPLW – designing and making furniture and other functional woodwork from the domestic to the monumental, with the exception of the vessels which remain solely Jim’s domain. JPLW aim to create work with a ‘strong but quiet presence in the landscape’; their most recent work can be seen in Cambridge’s CB1 development – a 7-metre timber bench carved from blocks of scorched and polished green oak. Image right: 3 piece Seat, Quayside, scorched oak
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
Rosemary Vanns born 1960
Rosemary Vanns has recently committed herself full time to art, and especially to printmaking. With experience in textile design, mark-making remains fundamental to her work – colour and composition the predominating elements. Vanns is instinctively a printmaker, her sense of urgency is reflected in her techniques which she continually strives to master. Winner of the Printmakers’ Printmaker Award in 2013 at Printfest in Ulverston Image right: Rosemary Vanns, Pansies in a White Bowl, screenprint, 51 x 61cm
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery
The gallery started on less than a shoestring as a means to support myself and my sons. These twenty five years making the transition from a complete layperson from Lancashire to a Cambridge gallery owner, curator and art dealer have been more eventful and surprising than I could ever have imagined. I began with no formal training or qualifications in art and no experience of galleries. Over time, through building relationships with artists and clients, I have acquired a knowledge of art and developed an eye for colour and skill. The learning curve was steep and I’ve loved it – it’s become a way of life. As I celebrate the gallery’s twenty five years, I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to all those artists and clients who have shared my journey – it’s been all-consuming, impossible and exhilarating.
Portrait, Lynne Strover, 1989, by John Whittall
Lynne Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, CB5 8ST Tel. 01223 295264 Web. wwwstrovergallery.co.uk Twitter. @strovergallery