Daphne Gradidge b. 1953

Overview

Daphne Gradidge studied at Winchester School of Art 1972-73, followed by theatre design at Nottingham 1973-76 and post-graduate at the Slade 1979-81. She worked initially in theatre, then on the painting and restoration of murals in public and private buildings, with two years as artist-in-residence at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester. Since the 1990s she has focused on her personal interests, in studio-based painting.

Works
Biography

Education

1979-1981 Slade School of Fine Art. Postgraduate Theatre Design
1973-1976 Nottingham Art School, Theatre Design. Won a travel bursary from the Royal Society of Arts and visited Florence
1972-1973 Winchester School of Art, Foundation Course

 

Solo Exhibitions

2013 Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath
2009 Turners Sims, University of Southampton
2003 Jonathan Cooper, Park Walk Gallery at The Watercolours Fair, Park Lane Hotel, London
2002 Jonathan Cooper, Park Walk Gallery, Chelsea, London
2001 Jonathan Cooper, Park Walk Gallery at The Watercolours Fair, Park Lane Hotel, London
2000 Anthony Hepworth Fine Art at Gallery 27, Cork Street, London W1

 

Mixed Exhibitions

2018 Selected for Mottisfont Abbey Open
2017 Selected for Quay Arts Open, and the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition
2016 Selected for exhibitions at Southampton Art Gallery and Mottisfont Abbey
2015 Selected for the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, Mall Galleries
2014 Selected for The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London
        Selected for The Mottisfont Open Exhibition at Mottisfont Abbey
2013 Selected for the Salisbury Open Drawing Exhibition
2012 Selected for The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London
2011 Anthony Hepworth Fine Art at the London Art Fair, Islington
2010 Selected for the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, Mall Galleries
2009 Anthony Hepworth Fine Art at the London Art Fair, Islington
        Exhibited with fellow Art Workers Guild members at Tower 42, London
2007 Selected for the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, Mall Galleries, London
2006 Exhibited with other Art Workers Guild members at ‘The Corn Exchange’, London EC3
2005 Joint exhibition at the Oakham Gallery, St. James’s, London
        Bell Fine Art, Winchester.
        Contributed to ‘Whistler For All’ at Mottisfont Abbey
2004 Bell Fine Art, Winchester
2002 Jonathan Cooper at the Watercolours Fair, Park Lane Hotel, Piccadilly
2001 Selected for The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London
1998-2000 Anthony Hepworth Fine Art at: 20th Century British Art Fairs, Royal College of Art; Fine Art & Antiques Fairs, London; The London Contemporary Art Fair, Art98
1996-2003 Frequently showed at The Gallery, Dorchester and Beatrice Royal Gallery, Eastleigh.
Artist Statement
My painting has developed in the direction of a kind of figurative minimalism, from a practice which looked like, but was not intended to be, illustration. An illustrator's convention of leaving unpainted spaces around realistically painted objects has always appealed to me, because images that are painted in isolation rather than as part of a scene present their abstract visual qualities more clearly. Looking back, I can see the consistent theme of space, figure and ground. My intuitive choices have led to an increasing focus on the essentials of this theme.

I choose objects for their abstract visual qualities, and tend to compose with rational formality. The painted images can be read individually, isolated within ambiguous space, but in total they are intended to contribute to emergent aesthetic properties that arise from particular schemes of repetition and spacing.
Exhibitions