Approved: 29.08.2012

Freya Purdue

Artist

Archived
Approved: 29.08.2012

My paintings inhabit the border between abstraction and figuration and have their basis in exploration through seeing, experience, research and engagement with the tactility of the process of painting. I draw on a wide range of sources from the most obvious classical themes in painting to the subtlety of philosophical and mystical thought. In making paintings I am absorbed in the discovery of an energized sense of connection and consciousness both between people, historical traditions and boarders of perception from whence things emerge out of creative potentiality into a new expression of existence. 

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    Artist Statement

    My paintings inhabit the border between abstraction and figuration and have their basis in exploration through seeing, experience, research and engagement with the tactility of the process of painting. I draw on a wide range of sources from the most obvious classical themes in painting to the subtlety of philosophical and mystical thought. In making paintings I am absorbed in the discovery of an energized sense of connection and consciousness both between people, historical traditions and boarders of perception from whence things emerge out of creative potentiality into a new expression of existence. 

    The use of colour in the painting for me, is vital to the sense of presence and energy that is discovered or revealed through the process of creating each painting. It provides a source of atmosphere and links each work with my current ideas which are sometimes visual, sometimes historical, philosophical, poetic, musical, intuitive, perceptual or experimental or combinations of these. 

    I work on paintings in groups and find this an energizing and dynamic process whereby there is a constant discovery of new visual aspects in the relationships between them. Each group of work is a new journey and each painting a new kind of sensitivity and living energy to be realised. Through the process of constant reviewing and reflection the paintings are worked towards the realisation of a sense of connectedness that links them with contemporary life, cultural histories, art practices and symbologies.

    CV & Education

    STUDIED

    1978-81  BA Hons Painting, St Martins School of Art

    1981-82  MA Painting Chelsea School of Art 

    1982-83 Junior Fellowship Cardiff School of Art S.G.I.H.E.

    AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

    1989-93  Digswell Arts Fellow

    1988  Villers David Foundation Award - Italy

    1988  Hertfordshire Artist in Schools Project

    1987  ‘In the Making’ Herts Open (Prize-winner)

    1986  Hertfordshire Artist in Schools Mural Project

    1984              “           “           “       Project

    1985  Eastern Arts Grant

    1983  Young Artists Grant, Welsh Arts Council

    1983  Boise Travelling Scholarship -  USA

    LECTURING 

    1983-2007  Senior Lecturer at Chelsea College of Art & Design

    1996-97  Visiting lecturer Nottingham Trent Fine Art

    1986-96Visiting Lecturer at University of Hertfordshire/St Albans School of Art & Design

    1984-86 Visiting Lecturer at Leicester School of Art

    1983 - 2000 Lecture/teaching visits to many UK art schools

    1982-83 Junior Fellowship Cardiff 

    WORK IN COLLECTIONS

    Komechak Art Gallery Chicargo USA

    Priseman Seabrook Collection UK

    Falmouth Art Gallery UK

    Swindon Museum & Art Gallery UK

    East Contemporary Art, University Campus Suffolk UK

    Rugby Art Gallery & Museum UK

    Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, Cumbria UK

    FUTURE EXHIBITIONS

    2020  - Murmurs from the Wide River - travelling Solo exhibition :-

                Quay Arts Centre, Newport, Isle of Wight

                The New Cut, Halesworth, Suffolk

    2019  Nov - Quay Arts Open, Newport, Isle of Wight

    Oct -Nov - 'Mountan Size', Black Pineapple Contemporary Art Space, Middlesborough

    RECENT EXHIBITIONS           

    2019 - October -     Freya Purdue Solo Show, Yellow Edge Gallery, Gosport

    AEB Cambridge Open

    New Painting, Norwich Cathedral Hostry

    'Point of View' Randan Stables Gallery, Hay on Wye

     'Made in Britain', Priseman Seabrook Collection, National Gallery of Poland, Gdansk

    ‘Ennui’ Paintings by Freya Purdue & Marius von Brasch, APT Gallery, London

    Contemporaty British Painting, an exhibition of 34 painters, Hostry Norwich Cathedral 

    2018 - New Painting, St Marylebone Crypt Gallery, London

    50 Under 50 Unit 6, Gallery, Richmond, Nort Yorkshire

    2017  - China:  Priseman Seabrook Collection touring exhibition  Sept - Dec

    Jiangsu Arts and Crafts Museum, Nanjing

    Artall, Nanjing, Jinagsu Province

    Tianjing Academy Fine Arts Museum

    Female Abstraction: A Celebration of Female British Contemporary Painters, Sticks Gallery, Gosport

    Testcard P: Contemporary British Painting: St Marylebone Crypt Gallery, London Sept - Jan

    July - China:  Priseman Seabrook Collection touring exhibition, Yantai Art Museum, China

    July - Open Studios, Isle of Wight 

    July - Anything Goes? Bermondsey Project Space, London

    June - Paintings in Hospitals, CBP show, Menier Gallery, London

    May - June - Contemporary Masters from the East of England, The Cut, Halesworth

    April - Colour a Kind of Bliss, Curated by Freya Purdue and Lucy Cox, Marylebone Church Crypt Gallery, London

    2016

    Dec - Jan 17 - 30 x 30 x 34, Marylebone Crypt Gallery, London

    August - October Contemporary British Painting  Summer Exhibition, 40 Painters, Quay Arts, Newport, Isle of Wight (Curator)

    2015

    Nov - Jan 2016 - Contemporary British Painters, 34 leading British painters, St Marylebone Church Crypt, London

    Sept - Oct - SE9 Container Gallery London

    April - Stations of the Cross, Brentwood Cathedral

    2014

    Dec - Contemporary British Painters Group Exhibition, St Marylebone Church Crypt, London

    Nov - @paintbritain 45 Contemporary Painters, Ipswich Art School Gallery, Ipswich

    Nov - Contemporary British Painting, Priseman-Seabrook Collection, Huddersfield Art Gallerly

    Nov - Freya Purdue ‘Shrine Paintings’, (solo show) St Marylebone Church Crypt Gallery, London

    May - Freya Purdue Paintings 2 (solo show) - Letchworth Arts Centre

    Feb - Swindon Museum & Art Gallery - Abstract Painting

    2013

    Dec - Scope, Miami Beach, International Contemporary Art Show

    Nov/Dec - Contemporary British Painters(group show)

    Sep/Oct - East Contemporary Art (collection 21st Centurary Practice) University Campus Suffolk

    2012

    Studio Exhibition 

    2011

    'One Year' (solo exhibition), Letchworth Arts Centre

    2010

    Harmony, Ratio and the Cosmos, Yarrow Gallery, Oundle International Festival

    2009

    UWE Gallery ‘Time and Being’ (curated research exhibition)

    2005

    Rural/Central, London College 2005of Fashion Gallery

    2002

    Through the Surface, Galeria Stara Bwa, Lublin, Poland

    1999

    Heffers Gallery Cambridge

    1998

    Charles Barker ArtNet London

    1997

    Business Link ArtNet London

    1996

    Open Studios Letchworth Garden City

    1994

    Open Studios Letchworth Garden City

    Coventry Gallery, London

    ‘Contemporary Women Artists’ in Collaboration with W.A.S.L.Coventry Gallery. London

    ‘Reclaiming the MADONNA’ (Arts Council Travelling Exhibition - The Economist Tower, Ucheldre Centre Anglesey, St David’s Hall Cardiff

    1993

    ‘Reclaiming the MADONNA’ Usher Gallery Lincoln

    Installation of Paintings, New Barnfield Public Library

    Group Show Chelsea

    Digswell Arts Exhibition

    1992

    New Work, Crypt Gallery London

    Recent Works on Paper, Margaret Harvey Gallery

    Digswell Arts Exhibition

    1991

    ‘Empyrean’ (Travelling exhibition in India) Vimonisha Gallery

    Madras, Sir J.J. School of Art 

    Bombay Artists Centre

    L.T.G. Gallery New Delhi

    Drawing Exhibition Margaret Harvey Gallery

    1990

    Digswell Arts Exhibition

    Pyramid Gallery London

    ‘New Directions’ Maltings Gallery St Albans

    Digswell Arts Exhibition

    1989

    Digswell Arts Exhibition

    1988

    Death: A Contemporary Vision, Kettles Yard Cambridge

    Creaser Gallery London Summer Exhibition

    1987

    Ways of Seeing’ travelling exhibition Wales

    Young staff exhibition Chelsea S.O.A.

    1986

    ‘In the Making’ Herts Open (Prize-winner)

    Leicestershire Exhibition

    Visual Arts Collective Luton

    1985

    'Pacesetters V' Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery

    Young Artists II Newcastle Polytechnic Gallery

    ‘Artmarket’ Contemporary Arts Society

    ’10 Artists’ St Martins School of Art

    1984

    ‘Underwater’ Plymouth Arts Centre

    ‘Drawings for All’ Gainsborough’s House Sudbury

    Industrial Sponsors Warwick Arts Trust

    New Work  Chelsea School of Art

    Artists at Work Milton Keynes Exhibition Gallery

    1983

    'Stroke, Line & Figure' Gimple Fils London

    'Voices of Awen', Fellowship exhibition, Cardiff School of Art

    Painting 83 Warwick Arts Trust

    1982

    'Christies Inaugural' 1982 London

    'East Anglian Artists' Kettles Yard Cambridge

    'MA Drawings' Chapter 2 Gallery London

    'The Art of Giving' Oriel Gallery Cardiff

    1981

    ‘5 Young Artists Margaret Harvey Gallery

     

    BIBLOGRABPHY

    2017     Contemporary Masters from the East of England, ISBN 9781541144057

    2017     Contemporary Masters from Britain, ISBN 9781543281620

    2016    Contemporary British Painting Summer Exhibition (Author) ISBN 9781534870123

    2015     Priseman Seabrook Collection of 21st Century British Painting, catalogue, 

           ISBN 9781505537239

    2014     @PaintBritain catalogue, ISBN 9781503342156

    2014 - Newpaintings 2, catalogue

    2011 - ‘One Year’ catalogue

    2002 10th Nov - Through the Surface Catalogue – ISBN83-88711-31-38 Lublin, Poland

     

    1991 29th March - Bhoosha, Evening News (New Delhi) ‘Lyrical Forms’ 

    1991 5th April - The Economic Times New Delhi ‘Abstract Shailija Nair, Creations of Harmony’ 

    1991 27th February - Independent Bombay ‘Mystic Abstracts’

    1984 29th August - John Olney, Guardian 

    1984 24th July - Waldermer Januszczak, Guardian ‘Underwater’ 

    1983 Issue No.44 - Robert Ayers Artscibe ‘Painting 83’ 

    1983 October - Clare Rowe, Aspects ‘Voices of Awen’ 

    1983/84 Winter - Steve Nelson, Link Magazine  ‘Voices of Awen’

    1982 September - Eastword ‘East Anglian Artists’