VALERIE PITCHFORD has an exhibition of abstract pictures at Gallery 27, Cork Street, London, from 29th November to 4th December. She shares the show with Graham Fairley.
Some people know Father John Pitchford who wrote Discovering Faith and An ABC for the PCC, but may not know that Valerie is a full-time artist with work shown in several galleries. She trained as a designer and maker of jewellery and later studied at the Lydegate Art Research Centre.
In the London exhibition Valerie is showing about forty pictures. They fall into groups, in some cases governed by subject matter, the medium being used, or the size.
Six paintings with Biblical connotations will be shown together. These range from a quiet reflective Good Friday Meditation, to a painting entitled The Waters of Babylon, (Psalm 137) with long sweeps of blues and greens heightened with magenta – a reflection on the tragic situation of the Church today. Touch the Mountains, Wreathe them with Smoke (Psalm 143) has a broader more expansive feeling.
Oil is Valerie’s favoured medium, but she also paints in pastels and acrylics. The pastels have a strong sense of landscape with a dark palette, brilliantly illuminated with glowing colours. A group of quite small oil paintings in bold white frames have a jewel-like quality.
One of her larger paintings, entitled Hand in Hand, is painted in acrylic. Here she exploits the wonderful fluid watery look acrylics can give. A blue-green sweep of colours dominates the canvas, with interlocking shapes of rusty pink. Valerie uses a very large brush giving the actual paint surface an energy of its own.
In another oil painting, Stepping Stones, she uses a warm orange-red as a background with the main motif in grey. Mixing these has allowed her to use a range of tertiary colours creating subtle harmonies. This painting is mostly done with the energetic use of a palette knife.
Valerie and Graham’s work reflects the influence of European and American artists of the later 19th and 20th centuries.
For further details, invitations to the Private View on Monday the 29th November and a Brochure please contact Valerie Pitchford, 01684 575893
– or e-mail revjpitchford@woodlandc45.freeserve.co.uk