About this work

My painting has developed in the direction of a kind of figurative minimalism, from a practice which looked like, but was not intended to be, illustration. An illustrator's convention of leaving unpainted spaces around realistically painted objects has always appealed to me, because images that are painted in isolation rather than as part of a scene present their abstract visual qualities more clearly. Looking back, I can see the consistent theme of space, figure and ground. My intuitive choices have led to an increasing focus on the essentials of this theme.

I choose objects for their abstract visual qualities, and tend to compose with rational formality. The painted images can be read individually, isolated within ambiguous space, but in total they are intended to contribute to emergent aesthetic properties that arise from particular schemes of repetition and spacing.



About the artist

Daphne Gradidge studied at Winchester School of Art 1972-73, followed by theatre design at Nottingham 1973-76 and post-graduate at the Slade 1979-81. She worked initially in theatre, then on the painting and restoration of murals in public and private buildings, with two years as artist-in-residence at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester. Since the 1990s she has focused on her personal interests, in studio-based painting.

Solo exhibitions:
Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath - 2013
Some Things Symmetrical, Turner Sims, Southampton University - 2009
Jonathan Cooper, Watercolours and Drawings Fair, Piccadilly - 2003
Park Walk Gallery, Chelsea - 2002
Jonathan Cooper, Watercolours and Drawings Fair, Piccadilly - 2001
Anthony Hepworth, at Gallery 27, Cork Street - 2000

Joint exhibitions:
Vibrancy: A Celebration of Colour in Contemporary British Art, Brownsword Hepworth Gallery - 2019
Art Workers' Guild members at Tower 42 - 2009
The Corn Exchange, London EC3 - 2006
The Oakham Gallery, St. James's, London - 2005

Mixed exhibitions:
Abundance - Seeds, Pods and Autumn Fruits at Kew Gardens - 2017/18
Nature's Bounty, at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery, Kew Gardens - 2015/16
Anthony Hepworth Fine Art at the London Art Fair - 2009 and 2011
A Passion for Plants, The Sherwood Collection
at the Seiji Togo Memorial Museum of Art, Tokyo - 2006
Anthony Hepworth at the 20th Century British Art Fair - 1998 and 1999

Open exhibitions:
Discerning Eye 2023
RWA Annual Open Exhibition 2023 - awarded The Other Art Prize
Wells Art Contemporary 2023
Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2007, 2010, 2015, 2017
Quay Arts Open 2017
Southampton City Art Gallery Open 2016
Mottisfont Abbey Open 2014, 2016, 2018
Discerning Eye 2014 - Helen Sumpter's selection
Salisbury Open Drawing Exhibition - 2013
Discerning Eye 2012 - Albert Irvin's selection
Discerning Eye 2001- Sir Roy Strong's selection

Collections:
Dr. Shirley Sherwood's collection of botanical painting
The Royal Horticultural Society, Lindley Library
Private Collections in the UK and abroad

Membership:
The Art Workers' Guild


November 2023