Frances Hatch
Site responsive plein air painter
FRANCES HATCH ARWS Frances grew up in the Fens near Ely at the edge of The Wash. Its flat black earth formed her as a plein air painter. She describes herself as ‘of’ that place. Her practice is site-responsive and is shaped by relationship with wherever she is working. Her current studio is on Portland which extends like a punctuation mark out from the undulations of The Jurassic Coast spanning the Mesozoic Era. Every cliff and beach along its 95-mile of coast describes a story and offers a unique palette. Frances integrates colour (gouache, acrylic or watercolour) with what is available in the landscape: this might be earth pigments foraged on site or a fragment of human-generated debris. Her paintings are containers of experience and speak of specific encounters and accumulations of times both recent and ancient. Frances maintains a spacious, reflective practice and one that seeks conversation with the community that makes up a landscape. Her pieces are team-works- with input from those who reside and those who pass through like breeze. Frances was awarded The Shenzhen International Watercolour Biennial Prize at The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours exhibition (2016) -an award for innovation and experimentation in contemporary water media. In 2020, Frances conceived and curated The Common Ground for The Crafts Study Centre at University College for the Arts Farnham. She was elected to The Royal Watercolour Society in 2022. Awarded Abbotsbury Landscape Artist of the Year 2023. Her work is available to view in her studio, The Royal Watercolour Society website and shows, The Bankside Gallery, London. Sladers Yard, West Bay. Kevis House Gallery, Petworth. The Russell Gallery, Putney. 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
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: franceshatch.co.uk