F L AT E A R T H Paintings of the Fens by Fred Ingrams 14h Feb - 5th March 2016
Lynne Strover Gallery Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, Cambridge, CB5 8ST www.strovergallery.co.uk
F L AT E A R T H In his book “Portrait of the Fen Country� Edward Storey describes how as a small boy growing up in the fens it was almost impossible to believe that the world was round when the world around him was so blatantly flat. It is this flatness that is so overpowering when you stand in the middle of any Fenland landscape - not the sky or the black soil or the lack of trees or the rows of vegetables or the pylons but the overpowering flatness. This flatness is why most people avoid the Fens and, even if they have never been, they tell you it is bleak and not worth a visit. As a result it is left alone and ignored by the outside world, left instead to the "flat-earthers" - people who are happy to live in a horizontal world where everything is on the horizon with nothing between you and it. Over the last six years I have come to love this flat landscape with a deep passion. I hope that my paintings will make people look again and see that despite being heavily and industrially farmed it is in many ways an empty wilderness. Thanks to the flatness the Fens have been left alone to become a very special and totally unique area of England.
Fred Ingrams Jan 2016 Fred Ingrams was born 1964. He studied at Camberwell and St. Martins Schools of Art. For ten years he painted above the Coach & Horses pub in Soho, whilst exhibiting in various central London galleries. He has worked as a graphic designer and art director on many magazines including: Sunday Times, The Field, Tatler, Vogue and House & Garden. In 1998 he moved to Norfolk where he has become obsessed by The Fens. 4
Photograph by Christopher Drake
These paintings where painted over the autumn and winter of 2015/2016. Winter in the Fens is when this landscape is at its most bewitching, strange and beautiful. This is especially true on late winter evenings just as the sun goes down and the last rays of the sun skim across the fields creating deep shadows and turning the reeds gold. It is at this moment when I am on my own painting in the middle of the flatness that I have felt most inspired.
Burnt Chimney Drove looking back to Hundred Foot Drain Acrylic on board, 123 x 123cms ÂŁ4,200 6
Leeks on Methwold Fen Acrylic on board, 123 x 120cms ÂŁ4,200 7
Freshly cut ditch, Corkway Drove, Feltwell, Norfolk. Nov 2015 Acrylic on board, 123 x 123cms ÂŁ4,200
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Winter Ditch, Corkway Drove, Feltwell, Norfolk, Dec 2015 Acrylic on board, 61 x 61cms ÂŁ1,100
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Winter’s evening on Anchor Drove Acrylic on board, 61 x 61 cms £1,100
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Leeks Acrylic on board, 31 x 31cms ÂŁ480
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Fodderfen Drove on grey, foggy January morning Acrylic on panel. 61cm x 61cm ÂŁ2850
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Winter’s evening on Anchor Drove Acrylic on board, 61 x 61 cms £1,100 14
Poppylot Farm, Black Drove, Autumn evening Acrylic on board. 61 x 61cms ÂŁ1,100 15
Poppytree Farm, Rustons Road, Middle Level, Dec 2015 Acrylic on panel, 61 x 61cms ÂŁ1,100 16
Poppylot Farm, Black Drove, Autumn evening Acrylic on board. 61 x 61cms ÂŁ1,100 17
Grey ditch on a grey day, Nov 2015 Acrylic on board, 61 x 61cms ÂŁ1,100 18
Burnt Chimney Drove looking back to Hundred Foot Drain Acrylic on board, 61 x 61cms ÂŁ1,100 19
Tramlines and game cover strip, Little Ouse, Cambridgeshire, Jan 2016 Acrylic on board. 91cm x 91cm ÂŁ3,200 20
Swans on Methwold Fen, Jan 2016 Acrylic on board. 91cm x 91cm ÂŁ3,200
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Autumn ditch, looking back to Wiggenhall St Peter, Oct 2015 Acrylic on panel. 61cm x 61cm ÂŁ1,100
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Winter ditch, Corkway Drove, Feltwell, Norfolk Acrylic on panel. 61cm x 61cm ÂŁ1,100
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Leeks on Methwold Fen Acrylic on board, 61 x 61cms ÂŁ1,100
Lynne Strover Gallery Strover Gallery, 23 High Street, Fen Ditton, Cambridge, CB5 8ST www.strovergallery.co.uk