The Whittox Gallery at Rise has announced their next exhibition will be the ‘Land of the Summer People’- a solo show by Somerset fine artist Jenny Graham, who will be showcasing her latest landscapes celebrating and inspired by the beautiful Somerset countryside from 1st July until 4th September.
Jenny’s work is informed by both American and British painters and considers her practice to be part of the continuing tradition of British landscape painting. Initially working on site, she makes quick sketches, photographs and notations.
In her studio, she combines this information with her emotional and visual recollection of the place. Her latest paintings employ oil and cold wax to achieve textural variety, building up layer upon layer of colour, adding and subtracting paint until the final image emerges from repeated exploration of her subject. This slow and contemplative process results in paintings of subtlety and variation. In this exhibition she has also returned to her roots as a watercolourist and is showing a series of highly representational paintings of Somerset.
Jenny said, “I work towards an image which goes beyond the obvious and into the realm of memory and transformation. The oil and cold wax process allows for constant development of the picture surface which is both challenging and exciting. I want the viewer to experience my work as I experience the landscape, constantly changing with the effects of light and wind, not static but in flux. The paint itself hovers between the abstract and the figurative, first becoming one and then the other.”
Jenny’s work has been exhibited widely in both the UK and abroad. She has had solo and group shows in both England and France, and has shown work in The Discerning Eye, the National Open Art Exhibition, National Original Print Exhibition, the Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibition, the Royal Watercolour Society, Wells Art Contemporary and the RWA. Her large landscapes been commissioned and purchased by several Somerset hospitals as well as organisations and private collectors.
She is also a member of the RWA Artists Network, Fingerprint and Somerset Printmakers and a founding member of Somerset Open Studios.
The Whittox Gallery showcases contemporary art and located in the heights of Rise, a former church built in the early 1800s that has now been lovingly transformed into a cultural, lifestyle and community venue in the centre of Frome. Within the beautifully restored building, you will also find Rye Bakery Café and The Whittox Gallery’s new gallery shop.
For any queries, please contact Sarah Robson (gallery curator) on 07712523734 or email info@thewhittoxgallery.com
The Whittox Gallery, Rise, Whittox Lane, Frome, BA11 3BY
