VIVIENNE WILLIAMS RCA ECHOES & SOUNDINGS
Echoes & Soundings Echoes & Soundings is about looking back, looking forward... taking stock. After a recent move to the Brecon Beacons and almost thirty years as a full-time painter, it feels like the right moment to do so. Here are the familiar still life utensils - pots and bowls, jugs, flowers and fruit which I return to again and again, but also a fresh look at earlier, more abstract lines of inquiry. Each piece of paper ‘ripens up’ over a long period of time, as more layers of paint are added. I paint everything from my mind, my imagination and memory, preferring a flattened perspective with simplified forms. Like working a seam, one painting leads on to the next. It is a balancing act - deciding what to leave in and what to leave out. The empty spaces are as important as the objects themselves. The surface is energetically worked and reworked, scratched, sanded and stained until the painting finally comes together. In all this, especially with colour, I am searching for an expression of joy and a feeling of calm.
frontispiece: Echoes & Soundings - acrylic on paper - 51 x 51cm
ALCHEMY acrylic on paper - 51 x 52cm
APPLE BOWL acrylic on paper - 31 x 31cm
BLACKBOARD JUG & PEARS acrylic on paper - 51 x 41cm
BLUE BOWL WITH APPLES acrylic on paper - 31 x 26cm
BLUE PLATE, APPLES & BEANS acrylic on paper - 51 x 41cm
BOWL WITH PEARS, EGG & CHILLIES acrylic on paper - 41 x 51cm
BOWL, LEMONS, CHILLIES & OAK LEAVES acrylic on paper - 31 x 41cm
CORNISH KITCHEN WITH LEMONS acrylic on paper - 41 x 51cm
CORNISH KITCHEN acrylic on paper - 46 x 61cm
CROCUS BOWL WITH DARK JAR acrylic on paper - 41 x 51cm
CROCUS BOWL acrylic on paper - 31 x 23cm
DARK OAK LEAF TABLE acrylic on paper - 51 x 41cm
ECHOES & SOUNDINGS acrylic on paper - 51 x 51cm
FOUR TULIPS acrylic on paper - 41 x 51cm
JUG & EGG acrylic on paper - 31 x 31cm
JUG WITH APPLES acrylic on paper - 41 x 42cm
PALE VESSELS acrylic on paper - 41 x 51cm
PEAR BOWL acrylic on paper - 31 x 25cm
PEARS & APPLES acrylic on paper - 51 x 41cm
PEARS, APPLES & CHILLIES acrylic on paper - 51 x 41cm
PINK TABLE WITH APPLE & PEARS acrylic on paper - 51 x 41cm
SPRING TULIPS acrylic on paper - 51 x 41cm
STILL LIFE WITH OAK LEAVES, ORANGE & PLUMS acrylic on paper - 41 x 51cm
STILL LIFE WITH ORANGE JUG acrylic on paper - 41 x 42cm
STILL LIFE WITH POMEGRANATE acrylic on paper - 41 x 42cm
STILL LIFE WITH RED PEAR acrylic on paper - 42 x 41cm
STILL LIFE WITH THREE PLUMS acrylic on paper - 41 x 51cm
TABLE WITH SMALL BOWL acrylic on paper - 51 x 41cm
TRIBAL acrylic on paper - 52 x 52cm
VENETIAN FACADE FRAGMENTS I acrylic on paper - 38 x 26cm
WAYFARER acrylic on paper - 37 x 56cm
WINTER SONG acrylic on paper - 51 x 51cm
SOLO EXHIBITIONS 1992 1993 1995 1997 1999 2000 2001
Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff Arts Workshop, Swansea; Attic Gallery, Swansea Attic Gallery, Swansea Attic Gallery, Swansea Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff Attic Gallery, Swansea
2004 2005 2009 2010 2012 2014 2016
Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff Attic Gallery, Swansea Attic Gallery, Swansea Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff Attic Gallery, Swansea Attic Gallery, Swansea Thackeray Gallery, London
PRIZES & COMMISSIONS 1991 1992 1993 1995 1997 1999 2000 2001 2003 2008 2017
National Eisteddfod of Wales, Mold, third prize Artist in Residence, Ceri Richards Festival, Dunvant, Swansea Three paintings chosen for World Trade Centre, Cardiff Invited to provide programme cover for BBC National Orchestra of Wales season Painting chosen for CD cover, Swansea Bach Choir Book cover, Buddhist Publishing, Diamant Verlag, Munich, Germany Commission for three paintings, Swansea University Library Short-listed for University of Glamorgan Purchase Art Prize, Oriel y Bont, Pontypridd Painting in Carmarthen County Hall: BBC Your Paintings Highly recommended prize winner in inaugural Welsh Artist of the Year, Cardiff Short-listed for University of Glamorgan Purchase art Prize, Oriel y Bont, Pontypridd Painting purchased by Contemporary Art Society of Wales Invited to be on panel of judges for Welsh Artist of the Year competition, Cardiff Elected to the Royal Cambrian Academy
TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS 1989 1992 1995 2008 2012
Attic Gallery, Swansea Attic Gallery, Swansea Attic Gallery, Swansea Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff The Mind’s Eye, The Jerram Gallery, Sherborne; Oriel Tegfryn, Menai Bridge
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 1981/82 1983 - 2014 1990 - 2014 1991/94 1991 1992 1994 1995/00 1997/01 1999 2000/03 2002/05 2004 2006 2008/14 2008/14 2009 2010 2011 2012/14 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Sydney Watercolour Exhibition, Sydney, Australia Attic Gallery, Swansea, Summer & Christmas Exhibitions Martin Tinney, Cardiff, Summer & Winter Exhibitions Wales Art Fair: Attic Gallery, Swansea Coach House Gallery, Caerphilly Connecting Lines, Life Drawing; Arts Workshop, Swansea A Roomful of Flowers; Oriel Myrddin, Carmarthen, touring Wales, England & Ireland The 20th Century British Art Fair, Royal College of Art, London: Martin Tinney Gallery Fine Art & Antiques Fair, London; Martin Tinney Gallery Martin Tinney Cork Street Christmas Exhibition; Glasgow Art Fair: Martin Tinney Gallery; Selfridges (4-Person), Manchester; The Gallery, Manchester’s Art House Selected for Welsh Artist of the Year, Cardiff Affordable Art Fair, London, Martin Tinney Gallery Essence of Wales II, St. David’s Hall, Cardiff The Painted Pot, Newport Museum and Art Gallery Lime Tree Gallery, Bristol & Long Melford; Winter and Summer Exhibitions The Jerram Gallery, Winter and Summer Exhibitions Lime Tree Gallery, Bristol; The Principality, Artists from Wales; Lime Tree Gallery, Long Melford Oriel Tegfryn (4-Person) Menai Bridge; Lime Tree Gallery, Bristol; The Jerram Gallery Lime Tree Gallery, Long Melford; The Jerram Gallery; ‘East meets West’, Lime Tree Gallery,Bristol; The Principality, Artists from Wales; Lime Tree Gallery, Bristol 20/21 International Art Fair, Royal College of Art, London (Lime Tree Gallery) The Great Welsh Journey; Lime Tree Gallery, Bristol; Battersea Affordable Art Fair, London: Lime Tree Gallery; ‘One Hundred Years of Painting in Wales’, Bodelwyddan Castle, Denbighshire Lime Tree Gallery, Bristol; Art & Antiques Fair, Olympia, London: The Jerram Gallery; ‘Fifty Years’, Oriel Tegfryn; 20/21 British Art Fair, Royal College of Art, London: Martin Tinney Gallery Martin Tinney Gallery, (3-Person); LAF, Islington, London: with MTG since 1992; Celtic Connections, Lime Tree Gallery, Bristol; Still Life and Interiors, The Jerram Gallery, Sherborne; Hampstead Affordable Art Fair: Lime Tree Gallery 3 New Artists, Thackeray Gallery, London; THe Jerram Gallery, Sherborne; Oriel Trgfryn, Menai Bridge; Lime Tree Gallery, Bristol; Lime Tree Gallery, Long Melford; Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff; Edinburgh Art Fair; Lime Tree Gallery; Lime Tree Gallery, Bristol, Christmas Exhibition; The Jerram Gallery, Sherborne, Winter Exhibition
Published by Thackeray Gallery, 2018 Photography by Vivienne Williams RCA, 2018 Text by Vivienne Williams RCA, 2018
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