PIERS FEETHAM GALLERY VARIATIONS – THREE ARTISTS Chloe Fremantle Janet Patterson Ruth Stage 7 – 30 NOVEMBER 2019
VARIATIONS – THREE PAINTERS Chloe Fremantle | Janet Patterson | Ruth Stage
Ruth Stage
The word variations in this context refers not to a single theme or subject as in the phrase 'variations on a theme' but to the various ways in which these three artists select from the various sources that feed their imagination, choose the form of language with which to express themselves and then in their different ways enable the metamorphosis from idea to the painted object to occur. Janet Patterson
However despite their different---or various---approaches, all three artists appear to have one thing in common and that is the value of reflection, such that the viewer is invited to share in a mutual moment of contemplation.
Chloe Fremantle
There is nothing violent or crude here; nor is there anything facile or shallow. All three create works that are finely balanced between their experience of reality and a more universal sense of the mystery of the intangible.
I am delighted that all three artists have agreed to take part in this exhibition. The catalogue highlights only a selection from the exhibition as a whole but I hope enough to illustrate this introduction.
Caroline McAdam Clark November 2019
Chloe Fremantle RWS 'In this show I am exhibiting works from three recent series: Memento Mori, Contemplation and Nostalgia. The paintings in the 'Memento Mori' series are based on observations of French cemeteries and are in part concerned with the fragility and loss of life; but also seek to celebrate any given life and the joy and love once associated with it. Division is the theme of my Contemplation series, offering a moment of quiet reflection on the divisions that currently beset our society. The paintings aim to create an opportunity for quiet reflection on divisions in general and on how they might be bridged.
Nostalgia is a series in which the confusions, corruptions and uncertainties of the present are in visual conversation with the past as represented here by the comforting fragments of vintage wallpapers suggestive of what is in effect an illusion of past stability and innocence. Whether grouped together or seen individually these works are intended to convey a sense of conversations interrupted, of half-remembered people and places and their ever increasing distance from the cacophony of today's reality.'
Nostalgia – on soft lemon – with Roses acrylic on canvas 61 x 60 cm
Contemplations and Divisions gouache 65 x 45 cm
Memento Mori 8 – Blues and Greys acrylic on canvas 20 x 20 cm
Memento Mori 10 – Black Handle acrylic on canvas 20 x 20 cm
Nostalgia – Pale Circles gouache and collage 35 x 35 cm
Nostalgia – Pale Houses gouache and collage 35 x 35 cm
Nostalgia – Grey and Blue gouache and collage 35 x 55 cm
Janet Patterson Janet is a member of the London Group, has exhibited widely and is represented in private and public collections in the UK and internationally. She has lectured at a number of art colleges and in 1987 won a Churchill Fellowship enabling her to travel widely and lecture in Australia. The result of her travels culminated in a major solo exhibition at the Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh.
In this present exhibition 'Variations' she shows her continuing involvement with painting and the intense use of colour. Much of her work hovers between abstraction and definition, and is influenced by the natural environment, a recurring theme in her work.
Last Leaves
oil on canvas 91 x 120 cm
Rose Trellis at Night oil on canvas 60 x 75 cm
Untidy Garden
mixed media 15 x 21 cm
Fan Dance
mixed media 37 x 28 cm
Green Sea
mixed media 16 x 17 cm
Backyard
mixed media 15 x 19cm
Hayfield
mixed media 14 x 19 cm
Ruth Stage NEAC Ruth’s compositions are sourced in parks and coastal areas and initially captured in her sketchbook and with a camera. She works in the ancient medium of egg tempera on a gesso base; technically this is a laborious process which together with her essentially harmonious and subtle use of colour contributes to the focus and timelessness of her work. There is a 'slow burn' quality to her work which compels the viewer to enter into the subject almost as an act of contemplation. She works with a fluidity of touch that while capable of depicting dramatic skies, mountain ranges, turbulent shallows is really about the minutiae of the grand vista; these are landscapes of illumination, pattern, reflection and sometimes of great distance. Superimposed onto this is the 'story of the day'---figures on the beach fleetingly trapped in time, the first moment of spring, the remnants of a crop on a frosty morning. From these complex elements the artist creates coherence, harmony and balance. Ruth is an alumnus of the Royal Academy Schools.
South Bay
Egg tempera on gessoed board 80 x 102 cm
Riverbank with Reflections
egg tempera on gessoed board 52 x 61 cm
Fisherman’s Fire
egg tempera on gessoed board 35 x 43 cm
Late Summer Border
egg tempera on gessoed board 35 x 44 cm
Autumn Boughs
egg tempera on gessoed board 32 x 35 cm
London Sunset
egg tempera on gessoed board 32 x 35 cm
Lookout
egg tempera on gessoed board 35 x 44 cm