Southport Contemporary Arts ‘I’m not a one trick pony!’ – solo exhibition of artwork by Angela Birchall

Angela painting Adios Armada

‘A one-trick pony!’ is certainly not an epithet that can be applied to Southport professional artist and mentor, Angela Birchall, who has more strings to her bow – or brushes to her palette – to exhaust the most fervent practitioner.

Ipaint in acrylics, watercolours, oils, tinted charcoal paint, metallic watercolours and Brusho, while I draw in pencil, charcoal, soft pastel and oil pastel and even burn my designs on wood with pyrography. Each of these media has its own qualities and will create effects that you can’t get in another medium.

Not content with her regular commissioned artwork, she also offers face-to-face classes in painting and drawing as well as currently providing two online teaching programmes, ‘Landscape painting in acrylics’ and ‘The Art of Stress-busting’.

The success of Angela’s broad portfolio is the result of carefully pre-selecting the best media to best benefit the finished artwork: “Because the subjects I create vary from landscapes, portraits, birds, animals, flowers and still life, I need to be able to use whichever medium best suits the subject. I usually draw pet portraits in pastel but prefer to paint people portraits in acrylics. With watercolours you can get a wonderful translucent quality while oils have a jewel-like richness of colour as well as the thick, impasto texture that is so tactile. Acrylics is the most versatile, it can be used to mimic both watercolours and oils and is my most ‘go-to’ medium for landscapes”.

Although currently living only four roads away from where she was born in Southport, from the ages of 3-18 she grew up in Africa: “Growing up in southern and central Africa was absolutely amazing and gave me my love of landscape painting - the vast open landscapes, the incredible African sunsets, the amazing wildlife and the opportunities that you had. I played with more big cats than I did little domesticated cats!”

Angela has lasting memories of her formative years of art training

Swan family 2022

ArtHouse, 65 Eastbank Street, S outhport, Merseyside, PR8 1EJ 2nd – 13th August 2022

in Rhodesia: “I was so lucky as a teenager to get a place at art school. I went to Salisbury School of Art, which was run by Peter Birch who was Royal Academy trained and THE most inspirational teacher one could ever ask for. He gave us all the confidence to know that we could draw or paint anything and we loved it. Fortysix years later, I’m still drawing and painting, and still loving it. I still use his techniques today both in my own work and in my own teaching methods to help my students to realise that they, too, really CAN draw and paint”.

Another important influence on Angels’s own work has been the work of the French Impressionists, in particular, Claude Monet, who’s last home in Giverny was only a few hours drive away when she lived in the Normandy region of France from 2014-19: “I always say that I understood more about what Monet was seeking to achieve from 40 minutes sat in front of his water lily ponds than I did from 40 years study of history of art books”.

Although art has always been a lifelong passion, Angela’s career path has taken her on a roundabout route, not only across continents but through a portfolio of jobs that put her own practice on the back burner: “I did teach art in secondary schools for a while after graduating with my first degree but then became a journalist and editor, then went on to teach journalism, during which time art was my passion, my hobby and my relaxation. When we went to France I went back to art full-time and we ran a holiday business where artists could come out on tutored painting holidays. I also taught weekly art lessons to local artists plus started doing my own work and commissions”.

Gregarious by nature, it seems that there is nothing that intimidates Angela’s talent: “I will happily do commissions on any subject - my most unusual to date was creating one image that summed up all the aspects of Peruvian Shamanism”.

For her exhibition at The ArtHouse, Angela has divided the work into five thematic stories: (1) Landscapes & Seascapes build around the large canvas, ‘Adios Armada’: (2) Birds & Flowers linked to the ArtHouse window painting of swans; (3) Nightime and Sunset scenes; (4) Panoramic canvases and (5) Portraits, usually commissions, ranging from pets to people.

This latest showing by Angela Birchall is certainly not one to be missed. Catch it while you can. ‘I’m not a one-trick pony!’ will be on display at the ArtHouse, Eastbank Street, Southport from 2nd – 13th August 2022.

The gallery is open Tuesday – Friday 10.00-15.00. Saturday 11.00-16.00.