VIRGINIA BOUNDS Tremenheere
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Cover: Stage for the Exotic 2015 Oil on canvas 79.5 x 100 cm
VIRGINIA BOUNDS Tremenheere
8 – 29 June 2015 Mon – Sat · 10 – 6
22 Fore Street, St Ives, TR26 1HE · 01736 794888 info@belgravestives.co.uk · www.belgravestives.co.uk
Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens. Photograph by the artist
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VIRGINIA BOUNDS: TREMENHEERE Within Newlyn’s historic artist meadow, Virginia Bounds’ listed studio hides
external envelope – and the surrounding negative space – becomes blurred; in
amidst a gently sloping terrace of willowy flowers and trees. Plant life spills in
this state of flux, forms become ever more elusive.
and out of her workspace in vases and pots, and the walls are canvassed in
Compositional shapes and spaces become rethought and reworked as flowers
paintings of nature’s vibrant and seasonal colours. In recent years Bounds has
and shrubs are themselves rearranged in nature. As petals and fronds unfurl,
found inspiration in the study of cyclical patterns and floral shapes close to home,
extend, and spread, Bounds accounts for this transformation in her working
and her work reveals a fascination with the ephemeral quality of her subjects.
method. Urgent studies in mark-making give way to a joyful process of layering
This series of artworks, which depicts the sub-tropical flora in wooded vales at
up and taking away as she seeks to capture the transitory nature of her subject
Tremenheere Gardens in Penzance, makes an exploration of the evolving
in oil. Colours are added using a palette knife before being brushed through to
character of vegetation in space and time. Pleasures found in the painting of
remove and rebuild layers. By paring into the image in this way, bloomed leaf-like
stems in bended movement, the appearance of sibling buds, and the drooping of
forms repeatedly emerge and re-emerge, shifting in paint as they do in life.
autumnal leaves convey Bounds’ appreciation for the seasonal processes of
Through this reworking, Bounds’ cyclical mode of making and remaking – where
growth and decay that regulate natural forms.
forms are brought to life, lost, and revived – echo the natural cycles of birth,
Bounds’ pictorial response to nature is a world of bright pinky blooms set
growth, and decay.
against shades of green and grey. In paintings like Exotica, and Pilgrims, close-up
This engagement with flowering and growth is a departure point from which
flowers in the open air are seen in contrast to darker vistas of vegetation beneath
Bounds’ paintings develop as an evolving response to the inconstancies of
low-hanging tree fern canopies. In the tradition of many of Newlyn’s plein-air
nature. Her finished paintings reimagine those fleeting moments experienced
artists, being able to capture the freshness and impact of natural daylight on
outside; colour and oil fix the flower and halt its swaying motion, whilst
colour and form is important for Bounds. Repeated compositions, like those
preserving its immediacy and vibrancy. In this collection of works Bounds traces
apparent in the Wind Defying Forms and Against Metallic Sky series, introduce
the impermanence of her environment, delighting in the colours of her subject
subtle variations in the effect of changing light and wind on the same subject;
and their relationship to time, space, and light. In her search for the temporal,
the space between plant forms, and the colour and feeling of ‘airiness‘ that
Bounds has made paintings that reference the transience of today but also the
delineates their leafy boundaries, is redefined over time. Painting the effect of
comforting surety and timelessness of our seasonal patterns.
wind on the changing shape of plant forms in movement is also a critical theme. As stems and leaves yield defiantly to atmospheric forces, their visual
Dr Roo Gunzi
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Pilgrims, St Michael’s Way 2015 Oil on linen 59 x 49.5 cm
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From the Banks, Tremenheere 2014 Oil on gesso panel 107 x 90 cm
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Sat Down by a Willow Tree I 2015 Oil on linen 30.5 x 36.5 cm
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Along the Path to Tremenheere 2015 Oil on linen 30.5 x 36.5 cm
Sat Down by a Willow Tree II 2015 Oil on linen 30.5 x 36.5 cm
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Woodland Way 2013 Oil on gesso panel 50 x 60 cm
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Sunny Border 2014 Oil on gesso panel 61 x 72.5 cm
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Woodland Sky II 2014 Acrylic gouache and ink on paper 34.5 x 41 cm
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Hill Horizon 2014 Oil on gesso panel 61 x 72.5 cm
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Study: In the Company of Squirrels 2013 Oil pastel on paper 28 x 32 cm
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In the Company of Squirrels 2014 Oil on gesso panel 90 x 107 cm
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Dappled Canopy 2014 Ink on paper 35.5 x 41 cm
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A Tale of Winter 2013 Acrylic gouache on paper 28 x 36 cm
Tree Ferns, Distant Hill 2014 Oil stick on card 35 x 41 cm
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Woodland Pond 2015 Oil on linen 140 x 167 cm
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Day Before Solar Eclipse – Equinox Sun I 2015 Oil on canvas 54 x 65 cm
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Day Before Solar Eclipse – Equinox Sun II 2015 Oil on canvas 54 x 65 cm
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Exotica 2015 Oil on canvas 65 x 54 cm
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Stage for the Exotic 2015 Oil on canvas 79.5 x 100 cm
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Against Metallic Sky I 2015 Oil on linen 36.5 x 30.5 cm
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Against Metallic Sky II 2015 Oil on linen 30.5 x 36.5 cm
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Summer Blue, Agapanthus 2013 Oil on gesso panel 50 x 60 cm
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Blue Haze, Agapanthus 2013 Oil on gesso panel 50 x 60 cm
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Wind Defying Form III 2015 Oil on linen 36.5 x 30.5 cm
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Wind Defying Form II 2015 Oil on linen 36.5 x 30.5 cm
Wind Defying Form I 2015 Oil on linen 36.5 x 30.5 cm
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Autumn Mist 2013 Acrylic gouache on paper 27 x 30 cm
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Untitled (Tree Fern Canopy II) 2015 Oil on panel 25 x 35 cm
Untitled (Tree Fern Canopy I) 2015 Oil on panel 25 x 35 cm
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Woodland Sky I 2014 Acrylic gouache and ink on paper 34 x 41.5 cm
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Misty Light 2015 Oil on panel 25 x 30 cm
Sky Through Tree Fern Canopy 2015 Oil on linen 30.5 x 36.5 cm
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VIRGINIA BOUNDS
2009
Born Australia 1965
2008
The Rainyday Gallery, Penzance London Art Fair, Belgrave Gallery, St Ives ‘December Show’, Belgrave Gallery, St Ives
Studied: Falmouth College of Art 1993-1997, Bangor Technical College 1992-1993
Caxton Contemporary, Kent
Moved to Cornwall: 1998
London Art Fair, Belgrave Gallery, St Ives
Arts Council England Grant Award 2013
2007
Residency, The Booth, Shetland 2006
‘2nd X-posure – Revolver’, ex-car showroom, Penzance, Cornwall '’St Ives – Selected Artists’, to coincide with book launch of St Ives 1975-2005, Art Colony in Transition, Belgrave Gallery, St Ives
One-person exhibitions 2015
‘Tremenheere’, Belgrave St Ives
2012
‘Virginia Bounds: Recent Paintings from the Studio’, Belgrave St Ives
2006
‘Betwixt the Whiles’, Belgrave Gallery, St Ives
‘A Postcard From St Ives’, Belgrave Gallery, St Ives London Art Fair, Belgrave Gallery, St Ives 2006
London Art Fair, Belgrave Gallery, St Ives ‘The Cornish Connection’, Belgrave Gallery, London
2005
‘December Show’, Belgrave Gallery, St Ives
Selected mixed exhibitions
‘St Ives – Past and Present’, Sherborne House, Dorset
2014
Summer Exhibition, Belgrave St Ives
‘First Performance’, Strand Gallery, Aldeburgh
Winter Exhibition, Belgrave St Ives
‘Painting the Landscape’, Belgrave Gallery, St Ives
‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’, Brian Sinfield Gallery, Burford
‘On the Edge’, Arndean Gallery, London
2013
Yuletide Exhibition, Belgrave St Ives ‘Newlyn’s Choice’, Newlyn Art Gallery
‘The Little Picture Show’, Rainyday Gallery, Penzance 2004
Summer Exhibition, Belgrave St Ives 2012
Christmas Exhibition, Porthmeor Studios, St Ives
South West Open Studios 2003
‘Cornish Painters’, Edgar Modern Gallery, Bath
Print Portfolio Launch/Exhibition, Porthmeor Studios, St Ives
2002
South West Open Studios
Summer Exhibition, Belgrave St Ives
2001
The Hunting Art Prizes, RCA
Winter Season 'Bonanza', Belgrave St Ives
2011
2010
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Summer Exhibition, Belgrave Gallery, St Ives
Two-person show, Pydar Gallery, Truro
‘Summer Waves’, Belgrave St Ives ‘Life! For Helen and Douglas House’, Delfina, London
Publications
20/21 International Art Fair, Belgrave St Ives, Royal College of Art,
BBC/Public Catalogue Foundation 2008 (paintings purchased by St George’s Hospital, London)
‘MMXMAS’, Belgrave St Ives
Revolver: Art Cornwall, Cornwall 2008
‘Salmagundi’, Belgrave St Ives
St Ives 1975-2005: Art Colony in Transition, Peter Davies 2007
‘The Exquisite Trove’, House of Fairy Tales, Millennium Gallery, St Ives
Art About St Ives, Henry Gilbert, 2nd edition, 2006
Virginia Bounds painting in Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens Photograph by Dr Neil Armstrong
With thanks to Neil Armstrong and Jane Martin of Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, and Susan Daniel-McElroy for their support of this project