elaine pamphilon paintings christopher marvell sculptures
1953 coronation mug and beanpod (front cover)
mixed media on wooden panel 30 x 40 cm
songbird (facing page) bronze edition VII 37 x 34 x 17 cm
elaine pamphilon paintings christopher marvell sculptures 11 APRIL - 3 MAY 2019
PORTLAND GALLERY 3 BENNET STREET · LONDON SW1A 1RP TELEPHONE 020 7493 1888 · EMAIL art@portlandgallery.com www.portlandgallery.com
holkham, norfolk
mixed media on wooden panel 70 x 100 cm
2
provenรงal dog
bronze edition V 57 x 95 x 26 cm
3
salthouse
mixed media on wooden panel 40 x 50 cm
4
white sea china
mixed media on canvas 50 x 60 cm
5
1950’s festival bird
bronze edition V 72 x 58 cm
6
dungeness
mixed media on wooden panel 70 x 100 cm
7
8
patrick heron’s walk from his studio to clodgy point, st ives
mixed media on canvas 50 x 100 cm
9
small flowers from the cliff
mixed media on wooden panel 30 x 40 cm
10
orla’s mug, penzance
mixed media on wooden panel 30 x 30 cm
11
12
bryher bird
bronze edition V 45 x 62 x 26 cm
13
sea garden, bass point
mixed media on canvas 100 x 120 cm
14
man’s head
bronze edition V 29 x 43 x 34 cm
15
crab
bronze edition V 36 x 36 x 30 cm
16
sandbank, hayle mixed media on wooden panel 60 x 80 cm 17
18
ginger jar on black table
mixed media on wooden panel 60 x 60 cm
tall chinese jar with green hellebore
mixed media on wooden panel 50 x 60 cm
19
20
audley end, essex
mixed media on linen 80 x 100 cm
21
delicate railings, uppark petersfield sussex mixed media on canvas 80 x 100 cm
22
uppark surrounded by trees, petersfield sussex
mixed media on canvas 80 x 100 cm
23
24
suffolk hare
bronze edition VII 140 x 125 x 35 cm
25
virginia woolf’s orchard at monk’s house mixed media on wooden panel 70 x 100 cm
26
27
28
long eared goat
bronze edition V 77 x 107 x 36 cm
29
small meadow flowers in white bone china mixed media on wooden panel 30 x 40 cm
30
willowherb in etched jar
mixed media on wooden panel 30 x 30 cm
31
32
penwith woman
bronze edition III 90 x 25 x 28 cm
ravilious garden mug
mixed media on wooden panel 30 x 30 cm
33
woman’s head
bronze edition VII 30 x 30 x 19 cm
34
35
36
standing man detail
standing man
bronze edition III 182 x 59 x 45 cm
37
bodmin
mixed media on wooden panel 70 x 100 cm
38
small dog bronze edition VII 38 x 18 cm 39
40
rider
bronze edition III 90 x 90 x 36 cm
41
white trees, ancient forest cornwall mixed media on canvas 100 x 120 cm
42
bear and tree
bronze edition VII 66 x 39 x 25 cm
43
44
big starry owl
bronze edition V 74 x 60 x 25 cm
goldfinches at lamorna cove
mixed media on canvas 100 x 120 cm
45
46
porthmeor
mixed media on canvas 100 x 120 cm
reading by the sea
mixed media on wooden panel 30 x 40 cm
47
meadow flowers in vintage blue jug
mixed media on wooden panel 50 x 60 cm
48
cliff flowers in delicate hand blown glass vase
mixed media on canvas 50 x 60 cm
49
barcelona bird
bronze edition V 62 x 85 x 17 cm
50
51
dark primulas from the farmers’ market, st ives mixed media on wooden panel 30 x 40 cm
52
flowers from kate’s allotment
mixed media on wooden panel 40 x 50 cm
53
plant, perugia
mixed media on linen 30 x 40 cm
54
vintage china, st ives
mixed media on wooden panel 50 x 60 cm
55
seedlings
mixed media on linen 30 x 40 cm
56
the nearness of you
mixed media on canvas 50 x 60 cm
57
eggs from edward and the 1937 coronation mug mixed media on linen 50 x 60 cm
58
rooster
bronze edition V 63 x 47 x 52 cm
59
elaine pamphilon I was born into a musical family. My father was a violinist with the London Symphony Orchestra and my mother taught violin and piano, ran a nursery school, the church choir, directed plays and village pantomimes! My brother was a chorister at Westminster Abbey and as a small child it was such fun to meet the Queen and the Queen Mother at various events. At age 10, I got a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music to study the harp and piano. Leaving school early I went to Paris to study the harp and was au pair to the family of André Hambourg, painter. I must confess to losing André’s only precious small son in the Luxembourg Gardens on my first day! But little Arthur found me with the help of the gendarmes. André had a huge airy Montparnasse studio with big canvases stacked up, smelling of oil paint. In fact I adored Paris - the food, museums, the formal gardens and the language. Back in London, director Ken Russell asked me to play the harp in his documentary about the life of Isadora Duncan. I was to play the harp in a big gold box with a huge gold bow that, when pulled by Isadora, would release a side and there I was, playing for her to dance the night away - a present from her lover Paris Singer (Singer sewing machines), it’s a true story! After a year on a full time scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, I went on to study music and art at Homerton College, Cambridge. My art tutor Kay Melzi, former pupil of Michael Rothenstein, was an inspiring, wonderful woman. She is definitely the reason I’m a painter now. Playing so much music in Cambridge with fantastic soloists and conductors in operas, chamber music, recitals, recording and filming with the BBC with Clare College Choir and Kings College Choir was incredibly special. Now, as a painter, Christopher comes into my studio and gives me his critical opinions, and I do the same for him. We trust each other to say exactly what we think and know that advice will be honest and valuable. Walking from our house around the nature reserve and Millhouse meadow in the village is part of the daily rhythm of our day, that we don’t miss, whatever the time or weather. The natural environment calmly cements a good frame of mind, and of course as we walk, we talk about life and art! Mostly art!
christopher marvell A vicar’s son and proof that one can live in Clacton .. and leave it. As an art student in Newcastle I can only tell you that I managed to survive the sub zero winter temperatures by wearing two duffle coats and gloves in bed, under the blankets. The art school still had the glamour and buzz left over from the British Bauhaus of Victor Pasmore and Richard Hamilton. I loved Newcastle and the romantic Northumberland coast especially in the early misty gold autumnal mornings. Moving south to Cambridge, I was lucky Elaine took me in. I made a wonderful studio at Fulbourn Manor with Marjorie Townley, she had met Bordell and Augustus John. I learnt how to be handy quite quickly as The Old Rising Sun (400 years old) needed extreme measures to stay standing. Practical skills learnt from old village builders helped enormously when making gardens to show my sculptures at Chelsea Flower Show for 10 years . Making bronze sculpture is a ridiculous, long winded and expensive process, but the end result is worth all the effort. The National Trust invited me to have a sculpture exhibition in the Capability Brown landscape of Wimpole Hall. A vast landscape demanded a seriously large body of work on a grand scale. Initially I thought I would ask friends, then I thought why not heroes ? Lynn Chadwick and Kenneth Armitage said yes. Mike Gillespie who had cast for Frink and Epstein, helped build my studio foundry. It was very low-tech, mainly using half an old oil drum and a little 30 kg pot. The first time I lifted out the crucible of 1100 degrees molten bronze, it was so dangerously exciting. For the last 15 years I’ve worked with the Paul Joyce Foundry. I make the waxes - Paul invests - then we chase and work on the bronze together. In tea breaks we discuss veg patches and how cold the foundry sheds are, and then Paul patinates ( he does it so much better than I do). Elaine and I were very passionate about Jim Ede’s collection at Kettles Yard in Cambridge, and that was the catalyst for buying a house in St Ives Cornwall. We have had the house for almost twenty years, behind Barbara Hepworth’s garden. We were lucky to meet the last and the great of the St Ives painters like Sandra Blow and Wilhelmina Barns- Graham. In Cambridge our friends are world class scientists - but St Ives is still a place you can be passionate and argue about art.
60
the hello owl (back cover) bronze edition VII 55 x 38 x 20 cm
PORTLAND GALLERY