The “winter has never looked so inviting”
Agnes Treherne: Winter is the new exhibition at Oxmarket Contemporary (the new name for the Oxmarket Gallery) in Chichester until February 13 in the venue’s John Rank Gallery.
Agnes is a painter based in Mayfield. She studied fine art and history of art at the University of Edinburgh, followed by the drawing year at the Royal Drawing School.
For Oxmarket Contemporary, she presents an exhibition of oil paintings, lime-wash paintings, drawings and prints.
It is her first solo exhibition. Andrew Churchill, gallery director, said “Treherne is a painter of place.
“Be it her view from a window or her feet in the sea.
“The paintings, charcoal drawings and prints emanate a sense of place that comes from immersion and looking. She is not just seeing but feeling her surroundings when she works.”
“Treherne comes from a line of artists from her grandfather who both restored paintings and made his own, to her mother and two of her siblings.
“Her studio is in the family home, making use of small attic rooms, often painting on the floor.
“Whilst on the face of it a far from ideal studio environment, I am convinced that being in that space, surrounded by the market garden managed by her father, instils the work with a sense of place. These don’t feel like paintings that could have been made far away from their subject.
“Treherne’s influences include the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch and you can see this in her use of single figures, often in the landscape or at home. She has painted her mother frequently and acknowledges the influence of Paul Cézanne, on these portraits. In fact, a series of prints made by etching lines into ice-cream tub lids bears witness to these influences.
“As well as interpreting Cézanne’s stoic portrait of his wife (Woman with Coffee Pot) she has made prints after the work of Pierre Bonnard, Masaccio and Sassetta.
This unusual technique of printmaking was born out of necessity during the lockdowns as she could not access her normal materials or press.
“Very few impressions can be pulled before the plate disintegrates making these prints a very small edition, more like mono prints in their unique nature and often hand coloured.”
Andrew added: “Having studied in Edinburgh, lived in London and travelled to California and Norway, her sense of the uniqueness of a location’s environment is sharply tuned.
“You can feel the cold winter wind blowing across the hillside as the path opens up before her.
“A collection of paintings, drawings and prints depicting winter could seem to risk lacking warmth and yet it is the spirit of the sitters, the drama of the skies, the thrill of a winter trip to the sea that makes the art live when all around, nature is largely dormant.
“Winter has never looked so inviting.”
The exhibition is accompanied by a 16-page catalogue with an essay written by Andrew.