Elspeth Hamilton, Rough and Smooth

About

Interdisciplinary artist Elspeth Hamilton, who has also worked as an architect, glass artist, teacher, writer and environmental educator, presents an exhibition which spans over 40 years of work and focuses thematically on seascapes, riverscapes and portraits.

Her expressive paintings explore the language between figuration and abstraction, and are preoccupied with the tension Hamilton sees between ‘rough and smooth’, both in terms of the forces of nature, and our experience of life.  It was a preoccupation she first realised on the Pembrokeshire coast where she was fascinated by the stillness of a rock pool juxtaposed with the wild sea. On the coastline in Dominica, she depicts the effects of erosion on the dramatic cliffs. In Spain, she captures an approaching storm and in Cornwall the elemental drama where sea meets rugged cliffs.

In another series she portrays the great rivers of the Thames and the Moselle.  Her trip up and down the Moselle at Trier provided 28 compositional sketches with colour notes that led to some of her favourite paintings.

Hamilton first showed paintings in London 1994.  Twenty two environmentally themed solo shows have followed, at Highgate Gallery, Edinburgh, Salisbury Playhouse Theatre and Liverpool, and her work is held in private collections in UK and overseas.  She has been interviewed and reviewed in the national media including The Spectator, Architectural Design and Radio 4.