Tag: painting

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: Oluwole Omofemi

Montage of Oluwole Omofemi paintings | H is for Home

Godwin Oluwole Omofemi (b. 1988) is a fine artist hailing from Edo State, Nigeria. He specialises in oil and acrylic painting.

The thing that attracted me to his art are the wonderful portraits celebrating black women; their beauty and their hair.

His original works are pricey – over 10,000€ a pop. However, if you’re in and around London, he has a solo show entitled, “The Way We Were” at the Signature African Art, Mayfair (currently closed due to Corvid-19).

Portrait of Oluwole Omofemicredit

Additional image credits:

Artsy | Momaa

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: Gwilym Prichard

Montage of Gwilym Prichard paintings | H is for Home

Our own humble art collection was built up mainly during our time living in Todmorden. We erred towards Northern Industrial artists during those years, the subject matter suiting the house and Pennine setting perfectly.

We’ve recently moved to Wales and are slowly unpacking belongings – including our paintings. Whilst we still love them, and will try to accommodate them in our little cottage, we also feel that we’ll have to introduce some Welsh art into the mix.

The work of Gwilym Prichard, in particular his buildings and landscapes, is of great interest to us… so we thought that we’d feature him for today’s Designer Desire post.

Alongside his friend Sir Kyffin Williams, Prichard (1931-2015) is considered one of the giants of 20th century Welsh art. He studied art at Normal College, Bangor followed by a diploma at Birmingham College of Art. From 1954, for 11 years, he taught crafts at a school in Llangefni, Anglesey. In his spare time, he painted his local surroundings.

He and his wife, Claudia Williams – also an accomplished artist – also lived & painted in Brittany, Greece before returning to Wales in 1999, settling in Tenby.

Portrat of Gwilym Prichardcredit

Additional image credits:

Blondes Fine Art | Bonhams | Wahoo Art