Elaine Pamphilon Paintings
Christopher Marvell Bronze Sculpture

23 July – 13 August 2011

On Saturday 23rd July and to coincide with the Holt Festival (24th-30th), Bircham Gallery will present a stunning exhibition of bronze sculpture and paintings by the incredibly creative couple Christopher Marvell and Elaine Pamphilon.

Despite living and working primarily in East Anglia, Elaine and Christopher spend a good deal of time at their home in St Ives, Cornwall.

Elaine Pamphilon paints in watercolour, collage, acrylic, and mixed media, employing bright, vibrant colour, in a confidently free, painterly style. She takes inspiration from the rich visual environment of her home in St Ives where she has her studio and also the things she loves - everyday objects, flowers, souvenirs from travels and patterns. Elaine loves nothing more than sitting on the slate step and taking in the view looking over the bay. Living high on the hill, her paintings have a 'house by the sea' feeling with distant views of boats, sea and shorelines and close up detail of flowers on a table, pebbles and shells integrated with favourite cups, mugs and bowls. Walking the romantic, wild countryside, along cliffs and sea paths, observing the changing light of sea and sky also has a strong influence on how she paints.

Christopher Marvell's broadly representational sculpture achieves an irresistible balance between humour and pathos, ugliness and beauty, strength and weakness, past and present and art and craft. Some elements in Christopher's work bring to mind the works of Marini, Giacometti, Miro, Frink and Moore. Again, the love of his home in St Ives is a huge inspiration from both Cornish history and the Cornish environment. This is clearly seen in his fishermen, seabirds and iconic Penwith birds which have distinct Celtic mythological overtones.

'I am passionate about sculpture. I enjoy the hard physical work and atmosphere of the foundry and the spirit of making things work. When starting, I am never quite sure how it will end up and always do lots of drawings and maquettes, working through to the final big sculpture which I model in plaster then cast into bronze. Seeing two goats crated up for California or a fishermen's head bound for Australia gives me a thrill, as does a small fountain carefully sited in an exquite courtyard'.

Share Your Thoughts

I loved the exhibition, the large landscape paintings captured the coastline perfectly, I look forward to seeing more of Elaine's work in the future.Ian Kerton

I first bought some of both Elaine's & Christopher's work over 20 years ago. I am really looking forward to seeing how their styles have changed over the years. See you there.John Betham

Have been looking forward to seeing Elaines paintings since coming across her on a search for Dorset artists in Jan, hopefully she sells prints of her work, see you next weekend!Sam Kerton