Not just a postcard

Florence Arts Centre
Florence Mine
Egremont

‘Not just a postcard’ Florence Arts Centre, Egremont CA22 2NR

28th September – 2nd November 2019 Wednesday – Sunday 11.00-4.00

Artists in conversation: Saturday 28th September 12.30

Irene Godfrey and Maggie Learmonth present an exhibition of paintings and drawings arising from their personal response to differing experiences of West Cumbria. ‘Not just a postcard’ explores how we see a landscape and how we record the experience of seeing it whether it’s a direct visual representation of the topography, whether it’s an abstraction of that or whether it’s recording in some way the memory of experiencing the landscape.

Godfrey’s response is threefold: improvisation and recent memory using the materials at hand; social engagement with past and present; a perceived resonance between West Cumbria and the North Pennines (where she spent her childhood) in particular the fells and evidence of mining extraction. Here landmarks are similar but different: Cumbria’s lush sphagnum carpets contrast with the Pennines’ dry grouse moor patchwork; chimneys for ventilation compare with flues for condensation.

Learmonth’s response explores the feeling of being in a landscape and questioning what is a landmark. Her paintings start from a moment, a glimpse of something, a feeling or an experience. From that initial encounter they evolve sometimes into a simplified form, sometimes into something more romantic in style. Either way they remain landmarks, not just acting as way-markers but simultaneously pointing to the future and provoking memories of the past.

Maggie Learmonth is a Cumbrian artist living and working in London and has exhibited throughout the UK and Europe since graduating in Fine Art from the Cass School of Art, London Metropolitan University in 2011. She has work in private collections nationally and internationally.

Irene Godfrey was born in the North Pennines and lives and works near Gravesend in Kent. She graduated from the Cass School of Art in 2012 and also holds a Graduate Certificate in Ecology and Environment from Birkbeck College. Her work is in the London Metropolitan University collection and in private collections across the UK.

www.florenceartscentre.com www. irene-godfrey.moonfruit.com www.maggielearmonth.net

@irenegodfrey @maggielearmonth

‘Gillerthwaite’ oil on canvas on board 16x20cm

Maggie Learmonth

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Maggie Learm o nth