Daphne Gradidge
Paintings
The body of work that is represented by these examples was
begun when the artist gave priority to smaller scale, personal work during 1994. Using water colour materials, what she sought to exploit in them was
not the well known water colourists' effects of large, loose areas of
wash. Rather, she recognised in water colour a potential for precision,
of colour as well as line, that suited the kind of work she was drawn
toward.
The appearance of the
paintings has similarity to that of natural history illustration, and
although examples of this artist's work have been bought by notable
collectors in that field, the virtue that the work displays as natural
history illustration is incidental to the artist's preoccupations. The
objects she paints are recorded as phenomena, without regard to
scientific, or even practical, knowledge; but the work is intense in
its exploration of visual knowledge, of how the eyes seek visual order
and also seek to create it. She has, more recently, used larger panels painted in oil colour to explore these interests.
Daphne Gradidge studied at the Winchester, Nottingham and
Slade schools of art. She worked initially in theatre, making costumes and scenery and designing productions, then later applied that experience to mural painting.
Murals were the main part of her work for some years, including commissions for private homes as well as for a number of hospitals, including several ceilings for the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. She was artist-in-residence at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester. Subsequently, priority was given to smaller scale work of the kind that is shown here.
Solo exhibitions of her paintings have been held with Anthony Hepworth, in Cork Street; with Jonathan Cooper at the Watercolours and Drawings Fair, Piccadilly and at his gallery in Chelsea; and she showed work in a joint exhibition at the Oakham Gallery, St. James'. A solo exhibition, Some Things Symmetrical was at Turner Sims, University of Southampton, late in 2009.
Paintings have been bought by Dr. Shirley Sherwood for her collection of botanical painting, and one was commissioned by the Royal Horticultural Society for the Lindley Library. Work was selected for Sir Roy Strong's section of the Discerning Eye in 2001 and A Passion for Plants, an exhibition of paintings from the Shirley Sherwood Collection at Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Museum of Art, Tokyo in 2006. Paintings were selected for the Sunday Times, Singer and Friedlander exhibition in 2007, and for the Sunday Times Watercolour Competiton in 2010. She is a member of the Art Workers' Guild.
