Photo © Colin Davison

25 November – 13 January, 2006/7

Virginia Bodman’s paintings were based on a rich mixture of interests that include her family, the landscape of her childhood and the great houses of the past. Her paintings created dialogues between the natural world and the domestic interior; memory and presence, and desire and reality. The paintings, which often took several years to complete, made reference to an eclectic range of visual sources that include heraldry, elaborate and arcane furnishings and carry-home objects from the natural world. In Virginia Bodman’s paintings ideas and images from different times and spaces elide, form alliances and come powerfully to fruition.Virginia Bodman was excited by the act and means of painting – the rhythm of the brushstrokes, the colour and physicality of the paint. She loved to work large, making work that surrounds the viewer with colour and stuff – sharing with them her world of sensation and delight.

Photo © Colin Davison