Tag: artist

Designer Desire: Marina Strocchi

Montage of Marina Strocchi artworks

This week’s featured Designer Desire artist hails from Down Under. Marina Strocchi (b. 1961) is a fine artist and printmaker working primarily with acrylic on linen.

Born in Melbourne to an Australian mother and Italian father, she has lived in Central Australia for many years – an environment that heavily informs her artistic practice.

She has exhibited internationally and her work is included in the collections of Art Gallery of Western Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria.

In her artist statement, she explains:

The surface of the painting is my main concern, along with the structure of the drawing. I try to suggest the qualities of nature in my lines and colours. The landscapes of the central and western deserts are currently my primary inspiration. I am also inspired by road trips to places elsewhere. I sometimes take a point of perspective that could be described as a sweeping bird’s eye view. I use the patterns of nature and a desert palette to recreate fragments of memory. I have memories that seem to slowly become part of the present in my work. The openness of nature is what most inspires me.

Her work sometimes comes up for auction and is also available to purchase from Art Images Gallery, Jan Murphy Gallery, Studio 5 and Australian Galleries.

Portrait of Marina Strocchicredit

Here’s Strocchi, showing some of her most recent works which were inspired by a 2019 residency she undertook in New York.

Designer Desire: Mary Pym

Montage of Mary Pym artworks | H is for Home

Justin was having one of his browsing sessions on Pinterest when he came across a painting by Mary Pym. She’s a visual artist that specialises in painting in oils. He was very taken by it, so looked into the artist and her work a little further.

She was born in Holland in 1935. She studied at Winchester College of Art from 1954 – 1958. She also completed a four year post-graduate course in experimental painting at Southampton College of Art in 1978. Her first solo exhibition took place in Southampton in 1965. She’s exhibited in numerous galleries since including the Royal Academy, Mall Galleries and Wykeham Gallery.

We love her painting style; it hovers between abstract and representative – with skilful use of texture, colour and tone. Her landscapes are spare and uncluttered.

We think that much of her work would find a very good home in our (new) old cottage, which we’re trying to furnish in a pared back, simple way.

Portrait of Mary Pymcredit

Additional image credits:

Invaluable  | Marine House at Beer |  Wykeham Gallery

Designer Desire: Wilf Roberts

Montage of Wilf Roberts paintings | H is for Homecredit

England has St Ives, Scotland has Kirkcudbright and Wales has Anglesey. It must be something in the air… or light that draws artists there or inspires their artistic sensibilities. Today, we’re featuring yet another Anglesey-based artist, Wilf Roberts (1941-2016).

His landscapes and cottages feel so Welsh – we really want to visit Anglesey some day soon.

Wilf, himself, explains his inspiration, subject matter and methods best of all:

I’m mainly inspired by Wales as it used to be. I don’t like modernism that much, so I tend to go back to my childhood and remember things as they were. The old cottages and farmhouses are quickly disappearing, but I make use of some of my old sketches to try to capture things as they used to be. I don’t really put anything in paintings that’s in any way modern except telegraph poles.
My painting is about the love and affinity I have with the island and in particular my own square mile at Mynydd Bodafon – for this is where I live and work, its paths are familiar to me and it’s where I’m most comfortable.
I make fairly quick sketches just to get the main outline of what I’m trying to do. All the painting is done back in the studio. I apply the paint with anything that comes to hand – mostly painting knives but also credit cards, my fingers, brushes, a pizza cutter, sticks – really anything I can think of that will get the desired effect.
I’ve often gone to a painting the morning after and scraped it all off simply because I’m not sure about it or don’t like it. It happens to about a third of what I do. You never achieve perfection, but you want to think you can get close to it. If a painting’s going well, somewhere towards the end, the whole thing comes together and makes some kind of sense. That’s when I feel, ‘Yes, I’ve achieved something’. WalesOnline

Portrait of Wilf Roberts

We brought a nice collection of art with us from Yorkshire, few of which seem to sit right in our new cottage. Hopefully, one day, we’ll own a Wilf Roberts piece (or two!) where it will be perfectly at home.

Additional image credits:

Attic Gallery | Martin Tinney Gallery | Invaluable

Designer Desire: Charles Beck

Montage of Charles Beck artworks | H is for Home

Charles Beck (1923-2017) was a prolific woodcut artist who was based for most of his life in his home-town of Fergus Falls, Minnesota.

I first came across his work when I was researching Axel Salto; an image of one of his prints popped up and I was immediately smitten. Even though the Minnesota landscape and wildlife are unknown to me, it somehow resonated with me. Perhaps the rolling South Downs or the flatness of Norfolk – I’m not sure.

I found a wonderful short film of an interview with Beck (and his wife, Joyce) where he speaks about his methods and inspiration… and gives a little demonstration.

Portrait of Charles Beckcredit

Additional image credits:
MN Artists | The Grand Hand Gallery