VICTORIA FLETCHER
MAKING GROUND
18–23 September 2023, 10.00–17.00
WEBSITE: www.victoriafletcher.co.uk
INSTAGRAM: @vcfletcher
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The paintings in this exhibition represent Victoria Fletcher’s intuitive, heartfelt response to the wild places she has been and the garden she has made. They portray a reverence for the mystery of nature’s cycles – the stark contrast of winter/ the abundance of a British summer – and a profound connection to the art of cultivating. “I love the rush of freedom in travelling somewhere new, but also that sense of discovery when returning home, to the garden.” Between these two things - the wild and the tended – Victoria is shaping her practice: silent pathways through leafless trees; the vivid hue of iris in early morning light; the warmth of rich brown soil.
Victoria’s paintings celebrate the joy in seeing something beautiful, today. Whilst working in the garden, or painting en plain air, the artist “feels grounded, with a sense of purpose”. Absorbed in the task, her imagination is free to wander. She becomes attuned to the subtle, daily changes; her experience of each plant species becomes more vivid - colours brighter, shapes stranger. Looking becomes wildly exciting. Through this close, dedicated observation of place she has cultivated a sense of wonder that translates into her work. “I have learnt that everything has its season, including the time to paint.”
Her paintings are tethered to the moment in the same way that a meal can be made from what we have grown this season, and yet so rarely do we consider the earth and how much it gives us. “As winter shifts to spring, summer to autumn, the light changes. Whilst I hope something will emerge, I only have a sense of what it might be, a planting order found through mistake and error in my greenhouse or garden.” In this cycle of planting, waiting and sowing we find a correlation to her painting process. Victoria does not always make preliminary sketches that prefigure the final piece. Instead, she takes notes: the way a sunlit tree made her feel – its specific and singular blooming; the rich, peaty scent of earth after a storm; the way the daffodils return. “I want the work to capture this state of growing and forming. Whilst I know what an iris or a tulip looks like, these are alive, fresh and unique - you know there is a brief and finite seasonal amount of time to capture them.”
There is an urgency in her paintings, one that stems from an awareness that the artist must make good ground. With every mark, every colour, the work is invested with the potential for a final image to form. “I have to work really hard to retain that initial feeling – keep the spark alive. That is what allows the image to grow. Without it, the painting fails.” One might say that the energy it takes to make a painting is like sunlight, and the miracle of a successful painting is that it expands time.
As Frances Hodges said, “If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”
– Nico Kos Earle, 2023
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Victoria Fletcher is a British artist who lives in South Northamptonshire. She works from a studio framed by the borders she has planted, a vegetable garden she has sown, and fields all around. Working predominantly in oil on canvas, she paints both en plein air and from memory. Her landscapes are expansive and dynamic; spontaneous brushstrokes alive to the moment. Frequently, they feature disappearing paths, the play of light, or capture the note of the season - like the cool chiaroscuro of winter. Her still lifes seem to grow out of the canvas, filled with the energy of someone who lives closely with her subject. Like a gardener, she tends to each painting and composition in its own time, planting the seed of an idea until it is ready to unfold. As the work comes to life in the energetic rush of painting, Victoria expresses the wondrous interconnectivity of life.
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