Cambridge Critique: Voices in Drawing Review
By Anne Garvey for the Cambridge Critique, 14th September 2021
What a sensational show this is, youthful and stimulating: it’s what this Gallery is all about – a range of original and new artists with fresh ideas all expertly crowded into the elegant home setting that makes it so special.
The sensational Cafe Sully by Felix Higham
Three recent graduates from the Drawing Year at the Royal Drawing School, Otis Blease, Felix Higham and Agnes Traherne magically meld into a thrilling exhibition through the alchemy of a skilled curation by the Gallerists, mother and daughter team Hannah and Lottie.. Very different but somehow linked by a vitality - enough to light up the early autumn evening. There is nothing predictable about these paintings. In fact after decades of fashionably abstract work it is a bit of a shock to view intricately wrought scenes of real life figures. And it’s hard not to imagine how much they would revolutionize the average interior – in a totally dynamic kind of way. Are the years of oblique abstract over? Is this the era of a new yet still familiar style of painting?
Felix Higham with dynamic drawing
Certainly the work of Felix Higham is wonderfully relaxed -straight from the life- enhancing school of art He graduated from Central Saint Martin’s only five years ago and developed his practice in London and then Paris. Paris is clearly a favourite. I gazed at his brilliant oil painting, Café Scully with the kind of deep nostalgia we all have for Paris these days. “ It’s a scene from the rougher side of the city” he remarked and it evokes what Paris means now and for decades in the past. And it’s in the Parisian traditional of observational drawing where his subjects are caught in the act of simply being themselves. Originally a local lad, this artist’s work is studded with delightful scenes from Lammas Land. Which to choose urban exotic or calm fen flatness?
Park Shady by Otis Blease
Warm and Bright by Otis Blease
Otis Blease came to London from Bristol and the West Country to study at The Royal Drawing School in 2019. The energy of a newly discovered vibrant city is evident in his work mixed media materials, the mix of childhood memories along with a very grown up participation in the extraordinary life of the city. The great urban conglomerate around them gives his figures a restless ambiguity – Shady and Warm and Bright capture the duality of city life. The drawings are so full of life they practically leap off the wall – breezily brilliant you might say.
Agnes’ mother on the beach
Agnes Treherne grew up in Sussex and draws from its coastline and landscape. A huge hit at the vernissage from this wonderful paint, was the picture of her mother on the beach – It combines the Edwardian containment of lady artist in decorous lovely hat - against the wilderness of sea before her. The celebrated 1920s painter, Laura Knight came to mind. Unsurprisingly Agnes keeps a small sketchbook with her to record the weather (and her companions) and her Art takes its delicious animation from American and Norwegian landscapes painting - as well as inspiration from the early Italian quattrocento. It all combines into a tight yet expansive style and deeply satisfying colour and image. All these paintings are room-ready , temptations to pick up and walk off with pictures to change your life. Stuffy they are not.
Faun by Agnes Treherne
Thank you Anne Garvey and Cambridge Critique for reviewing the exhibition.
To view the exhibition visit fendittongallery.com/voices-in-drawing
To find out more about Cambridge Critique, visit thecambridgecritique.com