Lot 15 - Frances Hatch Arws - Lively Breeze Over The Portland Coast Guard Look Out Station. Portland Dorset

ARTIST INFO

About 

FRANCES HATCH ARWS (elected as a member of The Royal Watercolour Society in 2022) Frances Hatch maintains a spacious, reflective landscape practice. She grew up in the Fenland at the edge of The Wash in Cambridgeshire and describes herself as ‘of' that place. Its black earth formed her as a plein air painter. Frances makes site-responsive work whilst on location. She integrates site materials with water-based media. She has travelled widely over the years to work in environments such as Antarctica, Norway, Finland, Guernsey and Scotland as well as in her own locality. Her artworks witness to a reciprocity between artist and place. The works become containers of shared experience. Her current studio is in Weymouth, Dorset. Along the Jurassic Coast, close to home, the geology offers generous earth palettes with a wide tonal and colour range. Indeed, each site suggests and offers a unique palette. She integrates commercial pigments (gouache, acrylic or watercolour) with locally available pigment. ‘Sun, moon, tide, season animate reveal and conceal matter on the move particulate provisional a permanent impermanence.’ It is pertinent that the two pieces hung in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2016) were placed in Gallery 1V described by its curator, Jock McFayden RA, as ‘radical landscape’. At the invitation of Professor Simon Olding, Frances conceived and curated The Common Ground for The Crafts Study Centre at University College for the Arts Farnham in 2020. This integrated her curatorial skills with an interest in the written word. 

Education 

TRAINING: C.C.A.T. (Cambridge) Foundation Course 1973-74  

Aberystwyth University College of Wales – Hons degree in French and Visual Art 1974-78  

Auditrice Libre, Ecole des Beaux Arts, Nantes 1976  

Goldsmiths’ College, A.T.C. 1978-79  

Wimbledon College of Art: Postgraduate- MA Printmaking 1986-89  
 

Select Exhibitions/Awards 

Selected Recent Exhibitions: 
The Royal Institute Of Painters In Watercolours. The Mall Galleries, 2016 – 2022 
ROYAL SOCIETY OF BRITISH ARTISTS OPEN. The Mall Galleries, London 2022 
ROYAL WATERCOLOUR SOCIETY OPEN, Bankside, London. 2020, 2022 
ROYAL WATERCOLOUR SOCIETY Regular Members Shows 2022- 
ROYAL ACADEMY SUMMER EXHIBITION. 2016 + 2019 
RWA: 159th & 161st ANNUAL OPEN EXHIBITION, Bristol. 2011 + 2013 + 2015 
KEVIS HOUSE GALLERY, Petworth. Solo And Group Shows 2014- 2022. 
THE RUSSELL GALLERY, London. 2020-2022 
SLADERS YARD, West Bay, Dorset. 2015- 2022 
The Common Ground. Crafts Study Centre, U.C.A. Farnham. 2020 
Bermondsey Project Space, London. 2019+ 2021 

Gallery Representation 

Bankside Gallery, London. The Russell Gallery, Putney. Sladers Yard, West Bay, Dorset. Kevis House Gallery, Petworth, West Sussex. 

Statement about AOAP Submitted Artwork 

Small works made on site using watercolour and earth. I’m on the island of Portland not far from Portland Bill. Kneeling in the long wind-combed grass I notice the way the wind is describing the undulations on the distant shaping of thorn bushes and bramble- the texture on the sea too. The only relatively still element is the weight of the stone face of the cliffs. 

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