Elaine Pamphilon and Christopher Marvell

About

Elaine Pamphilon is a painter and harpist, which she studied at the Royal Academy of Music.

She started to paint in the mid 1980's at Homerton College, Cambridge after encouragement from her husband, sculptor, Christopher Marvell.

Elaine Pamphilon's paintings are recognisable as hers with their bright, vibrant colours and confident, free, naive, almost folk art style. Although she does relate to painters of the 1940's and 50's - Ben Nicholson, Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious.

Subjects for her paintings come from music, literature, still life and the landscape - particularly that around her studio in St Ives or her home in Cambridge.

Her paintings are exhibited thoughout the UK in galleries in London (Medici), Bath (Adam Gallery), Holt (Bircham Gallery) and Dartmouth (Ainscough Gallery).

Christopher Marvell is passionate about sculpture, and makes both large and small bronzes in editions of 5-7. He enjoys the physical work and atmosphere of the foundry, the process of working from drawings and macquettes means that he is never quite sure how the finished piece will look.

His subjects include figures, heads and various animals and birds. The sculptures present themselves as seemingly blunt facts, but on deeper reflection they initiate a subtle dialogue that encourages the viewer to consider not only the relationship between human and animal, but also between the human/animal archetype and the human/animal condition itself.

Somehow, his animals do not contain individual character, but rather they suggest the character of their species as distilled through human convention and consciousness. 

Christopher studied at University of Newcastle Upon Tyne and currently lives in Cambridge and St Ives.

His sculptures are in public and private collections in the UK, USA, France Spain and Germany. He exhibits widely, mostly in St Ives and London, and sometimes with his wife, painter, Elaine Pamphilon.